Yego na oya.
Whenever I sit down to write it always takes me a few minutes to remember what's been happening since the last time I wrote - time feels like it is moving in strange ways. When I'm back at the house time can really crawl because you have to hunt for things to keep you occupied (getting hypnotised by the world map on the wall for example, or waiting for dinner to arrive). Time can go slowly. Usually you think it's about 2 or 3 hours later than it actually is so it's always amusing watching the others guess what time it is because no one has a clue. On the other hand, I can't believe that I was only coming home from Spain about 2 weeks ago, but that's also a terrifying thought because the hours spent with all the children seem to have flown by & I can't believe I have just over two weeks left with them. I think I need Bernard's watch to slow things down a bit.
Aaaaanyway, enough of that! The weekend went by pleasantly enough: On friday we went to the one place in town that makes chocolate crepes. Waiting an hour or more didn't matter at all because eating something that's not a potato is just amazing! Then yesterday Steve & I jumped on moto-taxis & after a lot of bartering over the price we went about 30kms up the road to Lake Burera... just to explore a little bit. As the crow flies it's only about 20km away from Lake Bunyonyi which was one of my favourite places in Uganda on the last trip, so the familiarity was good. We got to the shore of the lake & then climbed up a (very steep!) hill to get a better view. For a while it was really peaceful, but then we were discovered & people decided to sit with us for a bit... not that it spoilt anything. I think it would have taken a lot to have ruined that view for me! And the whole trip was just gorgeous... I was flying along on the back of a motorbike (sorry Mum, I mean "cruising serenely") amongst the greenest scenery, past volcanoes to the lake. B E A U T I F U L.
Today the truck was out of action as it was being serviced or something or other... mind you, the horn being broken would probably constitute a serious problem, given how much you need to use it on these roads. So, once more, we got on moto-taxis to go up to the property to spend the morning with the kids. For some reason the drivers chose the road with the most pot-holes & at one point they left the road all together to drive through a field of banana tress. Bit bizarre. The children were also in a bit of a weird, over-excited mood & not much could be done to calm them down. After teaching for a bit I found myself at the bottom of a pile-on, with about 20 kids jumping on top of me & when I finally made it back onto my feet they were still trying to climb up onto my shoulders or something so in the end I gave up saying "OYA!!!" to get them to stop & just went along with it. A dislocated shoulder probably wouldn't take much to fix, would it?
One thing I have so far neglected to mention is the fact that my camera broke on the second day. I wanted to talk about it, I really did, but the pain in my heart was just too intense. You don't really get many people in this country who can fix these things, and finding a disposable camera would probably have meant crossing into Uganda to find one in Kampala. Not going to happen. So, we ripped it apart with no luck, until saturday when Steve found some inspiration from somewhere, & then yesterday he located a soldering iron from somewhere... & lo and behold I woke up this morning to find it fixed! Words cannot express my joy, although I will shut up now because I realise I may have just jinxed myself. Ooops.
xXx
Aaaaanyway, enough of that! The weekend went by pleasantly enough: On friday we went to the one place in town that makes chocolate crepes. Waiting an hour or more didn't matter at all because eating something that's not a potato is just amazing! Then yesterday Steve & I jumped on moto-taxis & after a lot of bartering over the price we went about 30kms up the road to Lake Burera... just to explore a little bit. As the crow flies it's only about 20km away from Lake Bunyonyi which was one of my favourite places in Uganda on the last trip, so the familiarity was good. We got to the shore of the lake & then climbed up a (very steep!) hill to get a better view. For a while it was really peaceful, but then we were discovered & people decided to sit with us for a bit... not that it spoilt anything. I think it would have taken a lot to have ruined that view for me! And the whole trip was just gorgeous... I was flying along on the back of a motorbike (sorry Mum, I mean "cruising serenely") amongst the greenest scenery, past volcanoes to the lake. B E A U T I F U L.
Today the truck was out of action as it was being serviced or something or other... mind you, the horn being broken would probably constitute a serious problem, given how much you need to use it on these roads. So, once more, we got on moto-taxis to go up to the property to spend the morning with the kids. For some reason the drivers chose the road with the most pot-holes & at one point they left the road all together to drive through a field of banana tress. Bit bizarre. The children were also in a bit of a weird, over-excited mood & not much could be done to calm them down. After teaching for a bit I found myself at the bottom of a pile-on, with about 20 kids jumping on top of me & when I finally made it back onto my feet they were still trying to climb up onto my shoulders or something so in the end I gave up saying "OYA!!!" to get them to stop & just went along with it. A dislocated shoulder probably wouldn't take much to fix, would it?
One thing I have so far neglected to mention is the fact that my camera broke on the second day. I wanted to talk about it, I really did, but the pain in my heart was just too intense. You don't really get many people in this country who can fix these things, and finding a disposable camera would probably have meant crossing into Uganda to find one in Kampala. Not going to happen. So, we ripped it apart with no luck, until saturday when Steve found some inspiration from somewhere, & then yesterday he located a soldering iron from somewhere... & lo and behold I woke up this morning to find it fixed! Words cannot express my joy, although I will shut up now because I realise I may have just jinxed myself. Ooops.
xXx