Well, I have officially started my Christmas holiday – you can tell because I've spent a month's salary in 2 days! Oops!
At 3 am on Saturday morning I dragged myself out of bed when it was still dark. Edwin gave me a lift to town for 4 am, so I could get the early bus to Kampla. This was pretty scary as it was the first time I had travelled alone! Me an Eilidh are going our separate ways this Christmas – I'm doing Mount Elgon and Mount Kenya, she is doing safari parks and Fort Portal. We are meeting at Christmas and for a last week in Mombassa. So as you may imagine, I was pretty apprehensive! I sat next to a friend of Edwin's and relaxed a little – I could see my bags, so they were fairly safe and it didn't look like I would be spending the journey fighting off unwanted attention! As soon as we started moving I was happy! Me and Frank chatted a little and then I slept for most of the journey.
What a shock Kampla was when I arrived, though! It is so opposite to Kabale. The thing you notice first is the busy people. People look as if they are hurrying to get somewhere – this never happens in Kabale! The pavements are narrow and filled with street salesmen and women with piles of wallets, paper pads, jewellery, phone holders and watches in front of them on the floor. As soon as you get off the bus you are accosted by drivers shouting "muzingu, muzingo where should I take you?" It is advisable to at least pretend you know where you are going! The next thing that makes you stare is the women in tight trousers, strappy tops and skirts above the knees. That would not be acceptable in Kabale. To escape from the throng I sought a café nearby to meet the others, I couldn't find one but a 2 storey shopping centre served the same purpose, so I spent some time absorbing the view and trying to acclimatise to the vastly different scenery. The atmosphere is so different. There is so much more stuff in Kampala! I spent a whole day trying to buy a T-shirt in Kabale but here you can't get away from them! After 20 minutes I was so relieved to see the others getting off a bus!
We spent the rest of the day rushing round getting money changed, visiting the guys' project and getting dinner (we found an amazing Indian!! It was so good) before going to see James Bond!! Oh my God! It was a cinema! You take so many things as normal that you miss here so much! I really don't think you could ever explain to a Ugandan quite the appeal of the over confident slightly chauvinistic James Bond! Ooh, it was good! As was semi-naked Bond scenes! Ooh, I miss the UK! It was really sad to leave the cinema. I just expected to be at home. I have so many memories of leaving Vue at home and messing around for a while in the freezing cold while waiting for a lift off Mum, then having cups of tea with friends, or having James round. In some ways you miss people less when things are really different. When you do things that remind you of England you sort of expect your friends to be here. We left the cinema and headed to an Irish bar – oh how ex-pat! The guys recognised loads of people – living as a foreigner makes you so much more aware of any other people that are similar to you. We had a quick drink before heading to Backpackers – after only 3 hours sleep and a busy day I collapsed into bed! I slept well!
Today we had a relaxing day. We headed to Owino market to get some kit for Elgon. Owino is filled with European cast-offs - mostly clothes that are damaged or second hand. Really cheap though! Many of the clothes are pretty good makes – I got Nike trackers for £2. Some of them have Oxfam labels on – you do wonder where the clothes come from! I also got another fleece because apparently the mountains can be freezing! We then headed to Shopright (or Shop White as Neil likes to call it) to grab lunch and stock up on toiletries. Lunch was pretty amazing – they had a salad counter! It had feta cheese, cucumber, lettuce and mayonnaise! Wow! I had a bread roll, too. Then we headed back to Backpackers.
We had a typical Ugandan dinner at a small restaurant – lots of pots with carbohydrates accompanied by beans. It was filling! We had a slightly heated conversation with some locals about religion (Zoe and May are devout atheists!) and about how, although Ugandans are extremely religious, they still cannot understand commitment to one person. When Zoe said she had a boyfriend they were like "Ah, but he is too far away – he will find someone else!". She tried to explain that when you fall in love with someone you don't want anyone else. This sparked a conversation about polygamy and the drastic change in Ugandan views since colonisation. Although most people are Christians, there are many parts of traditional African culture which are a very normal part of modern African life. This includes infidelity (I am not being judgemental here). These apparent contradictions make for a very interesting debate.
Now I am back at Backpackers and again – feeling in desperate need of sleep! I can't believe we are climbing Mount Elgon in a day's time! Agh! Should be amazing!