Go!

I'm here! Hooray!

The journey was all very smooth, at least until I reached Uganda. When I stepped off the plane I was smiling so much I thought I might break my face. We were the only flight to arrive that late at night so there wasn't much of a queue for visas. I had been a little worried about getting a visa on entry in case they turned me away but it turned out that of the 100 or so people who got off the flight in Entebbe only about 3 had already bought visas, and there was no problem at all. After I'd got my bags I headed to the airport pick-up point to look for my car. Having searched the crowds of signs for several minutes I concluded that there was nobody there to pick me up... so I went to the information desk and asked them to phone the hotel, who informed me that someone had come but because the flight was slightly delayed they went home again. Hmph. Anyway, someone gave me a lift for $10. The hotel was lovely and I was very glad to have a double bed to myself so I didn't bash into the mosquito net when I slept. I HATE sleeping under mosquito nets. It's much worse here in the house because I'm on the bottom bunk bed so the net doesn't hang very high. I woke up this morning tangled up in it and very confused. Anyway, the hotel was pretty luxurious by Ugandan standards - flushing toilet and hot shower!

On Friday morning I thought I'd set an alarm on my watch but it turned out I'd just set it to beep once every hour (why would you even want it to do that?!) so I overslept until 11.30, when the receptionist phoned me up to inform me that checkout time is 10am and was I planning to stay another night? So very sheepishly I rushed down to reception with my bags. Adrian was due to pick me up at 2 so I thought I might walk into town quickly to change money, buy a phone etc. When I left the compound the security guard asked where I was going and laughed at me when I said I was walking into town. I couldn't take a boda-boda (motorbike taxi) because I'm not insured if I ride one without a helmet, so he asked his friend with a van to take me there. That turned out to be a good thing because Entebbe is bigger than I thought. Also, the guy helped me out by taking me to his friend's money exchange place and making sure they didn't charge me any commission! He also helped me pick out a phone - it has a torch on the end which has already come in useful as my hand sanitiser leaked all over my head torch (the one bottle I didn't wrap up in a bag, typical). The network isn't exactly reliable or fast. I sent a few texts and I know that my mum replied to them yesterday but the replies STILL haven't come through 24 hours later. So maybe that's not the best way of communicating.

As I said above, Adrian was meant to pick me up at 2. I added on a bit in my head to take into account 'African time' but by the time he turned up at 5.30 I was beginning to lose hope! The drive from Entebbe to here wasn't the most comfortable ever but I did have some company in the form of volunteers from Kampala. I was sitting next to a girl called Rita who's really nice; she thinks it's hilarious that we don't have boda-bodas in the UK, and that we have something that's like maize but much softer and sweeter (sweetcorn). We arrived at the house just after midnight and I moved into the room that will be home for the next 10 weeks. It's bigger than my bedroom at home! Though that's not saying very much. I'm sharing it with another volunteer, David, for the next couple of weeks.

After a cup of tea (very bitter compared to what we drink at home, and with no milk) I fell asleep very quickly. Breakfast this morning was roasted cassava... I'll get used to it, I'm sure! Then I sat outside chatting to some of the other volunteers for a bit until meetings started. This weekend is unusual because volunteers from Kampala have come down for a conference. We had a talk for about an hour and a half about what's going on this weekend, in which they said the same things many many times - firstly, we're meeting students from this school (Hope Academy) to do some mentoring, encouraging them to plan for their future and so on. Often they say "I want to be a doctor" or "I want to be a teacher" but they really have no idea how to make these plans a reality. Then this afternoon they'll split into boys and girls for talks about puberty and sex and other such fun things. Later, we're going to visit some of the nearby villages to do assessments of their needs. The principle of the URF is that they don't help people unless they really can't help themselves - so the assessment of their "needs" will also include an assessment of what resources they have, and what they could do to use those resources better to fulfill their own needs. Then the URF can 'fill the gap' and help them to reach their potential. But they were very emphatic about it not just being 'give, give, give'.

I'm so happy and comfortable in this house - the toilets, despite being outside and just holes in the ground, are cockroach free and very clean. There are sofas and armchairs in the living room, an indoor shower room, a TV and... God answered my prayers and there's a guitar! Another volunteer left it here in the past. It's missing two strings and one of the tuning knobs is broken but still, a guitar! Adrian said they have a problem because nobody knows how to play it so I'm going to see if I can find some strings for it (anyone want to post me some? :-) ) and then I can teach people some basic chords and so on. Happy Amy. Also, some past volunteers left their old laptops here and there's a wireless modem so I can use the internet whenever (so long as the power is working, which seems to be about 50% of the time).

We've just had lunch, including fresh pineapple which is so so so nice. It was self-service from a whole range of things so I could just pass by the posho. I did prod the spoon to test its consistency though and it is pretty rubbery and bouncy, though not as much as that disastrous attempt I made.

Special message for Katie: someone told me "tuula wansi" last night! I thought of you :-)

Lots of love to everyone. Please do comment and let me know how you're all doing. Time to go talk to some African kids about sex now!