Team Uganda become tourists

We have been continuing to enjoy the Christmas break from our work on the Smile projects and have been using this time to explore more of Uganda! 

This week we became tourists and went to see some of the sights around Uganda, making it to the equator and Jinja in the Smile van with Innocent.

It was great to see the equator, reminding me of my geography lessons at school, and I had great fun swinging from the equator circle sign and attempting to climb up it to the amusement and bemusement of the others. I can now say that I’ve stood with my feet either side of the equator. There were also small basins there where you could see the water go round different ways on either side of the equator.  I’m sorry to say that unlike what you might imagine, it wasn’t hot and sunny there at all when we went as you would imagine but rather cool.

Yes I'm crazy...

Girls

Monkeys

After a delicious lunch there where I had my first cheese toastie since being here, we saw a sign for a crocodile farm and decided to have a look round. It was interesting to see a seventy year old crocodile in comparison to the baby three month crocodiles.  Luckily we didn’t get eaten.

The next day we went to visit the source of the Nile at Jinja. I loved the boat trip to the source because we got to see wildlife like kingfishers near the grassy banks and get some good photos. When the boat moored at the small wooden hut from where the river springs from Lake Victoria, Lois and I stepped out into the rocks in the water so we could say we’d stood there. After that, Lois and Kate decided to become adrenaline junkies by doing a bungee jump over the Nile and overcome their fears. I decided to keep my feet firmly on the ground and be photographer this time! Kate was understandably afraid to jump so they took their friendship to the next level by doing a tandem jump tied to each other so that Lois could jump and Kate was forced to fall with her. They enjoyed doing and Kate was particularly proud of overcoming her fears.

Boat trip

Source of the Nile

Youth camp

The week after we set off back to the shores of Lake Victoria for Kampala Baptist Church Youth Camp. We camped at a Scout campsite that is also used as an army base about a twenty minute walk from the lake. It was a fantastic few days spending time with our friends from church. In the mornings we had talks from a guest speaker for example on ‘identity’ and ‘sexuality’ and had a few panel discussions where we could ask questions. We also enjoyed the team games and sports, which mainly involved me embarrassing myself by dropping balls and falling over in the sack race!!

Another highlight was the candlelit dinner where we had to share a candlelit dinner with someone. I enjoyed helping to decorate our dining room, where we laid mats on the floor with a candle and flower and foliage display in the middle of the floor. My ‘date’ was Kate and we had a lovely time chatting.

Performances from the dinner

The decorated room

One of my favourite experiences was the hike we went on the last day. An army trainer took us on a walk through the forest there, through different obstacle activities and up steep muddy slopes with lots of vegetation to clamber through and up. I was very glad to be wearing trousers as poor Lois and Kate struggled in skirts. After we arrived back to our tents, everyone decided to gather around the swimming pool and started pushing people in fully clothed. I didn’t escape and got thrown in by Lois! I didn’t realise how much I had missed swimming until I was in the pool and enjoyed racing and attempting to teach one of my friends how to swim.

The day after was Kate’s birthday and we treated her to a personalised birthday cake and a meal out at our favourite pizza restaurant Dominics with us three, Innocent and Reagan.

Dominics