Mon 6th July

5am. Woke with a start and was absoloutely terrified for some reason. That shortly subsided to annoyance at an incessant rooster. Finally got up at 7a.m no thanks to my alarm clock that didn't go off. Packed my day bag and went down to breakfast that was fried egg, 'sausage'(not sure what meat it was) and toast.

We then all crammed into an ambulance that drove us to S.t Francis. No seatbelts and bumpy road made for an interesting ride, who needs Alton towers?, and when we arrived at St. Francis Vikcy fell out the ambulance, leaving her shoe behind. Mixed emotions walking around St. Francis.



All the people there were really nice and friendly and the centre was an excellent place, really helping people with HIV/AIDs. however, we were invited into wards where there were sick patients and that felt really awkward and also a bit emotional. We were then given a tour of where we were gonna build our garden and saw some school children walk past who were so cute and greeted everyone of us. Then we had lunch and for the first time had Matoke, which was really nice! Also had maize, which was a bit tasteless so not sure if i'll eat that again. When the woman was telling us what all the different foods were she introduced the normal boiled potatoes as 'Irish'! Lol.

We then had a mini-cirlce time then went to a school. The building looked quite run down (we later found out that it was only a two year old building) and there were signs in the school yard that were really disturbing: 'Avoid sugar daddies', 'Don't accept gifts for sex', 'Virginity is safe', 'avoid bas touches', 'defilement is bad'.



The children in this school were about 5 so it's terrifying to think that these things are so common but children wouldn't know better if peadophilia wasnt so blatantly discouraged in education.

When we walked into a class the children would stand up and sing a welcome song to you, they were all so cute and friendly. You feel like such a celebrity when you are welcomed in such a way.

Just outside the school and health centre are some huge arse cows and goats just wondering around.



We came back home on the ambulance with a bit less drama this time and after being back for about 10mins we discover Vicky is locked in the toilet(she was that happy that they flushed =p), though none of the teachers seemed to care so all us students were there to give her moral support by passing her books toblerone and singing to her. When Sufian finally decided to show some compassion there were dodgey renditions of Hero, Wheels on the bus, Cupid Shuffle and in the Jungle. Vicky tried to film how she got stuck in the toilet (the handle has come off and wasnt turning the mechanism) though while she was explaining what was wrong with the handle she was filming the toilet wall. The hotel staff were eventually able to take a handle from another room and relase Vicky from the toilet, she must have been in there for about 40 minutes altogether. After another circle time we had dinner (the food is unbelievably good!), where a whole load of bats flew over, collected sports equipment to give to Sally and are now everyone is gathered in my room playing cheat.

5th July

So here is the first entry in my Uganda diary. It has been changed slightly because reading it back you could tell from my terrible english that it had been a long journey. Enjoy =]

I think it is fair to say that at the end of today most of us are tired, stressed and freaked-out. Or maybe that's just me and Sas after having that horrid bug in our room that we eventually had to kill, but back to the start: Heathrow.



After taking the scenic route to terminal 3 because me, mum and dad got lost we had to stand around a while until check in. Many people were breaking down as leaving your parents to go to uganda is a big thing and in the check-in queue i had to avoid the tears of others to avoid being set-off (again). Luckily, there were also some hot guys, code named 'hot dogs', to distracts us. After various intervals of walking and waiting we finally got on our first flight to Dubai.

The in-flight entertainment was unbelievably amazing! You could listen to music, watch films and tv shows. The music was friggin' amazing: Queen, Led Zepplin, Supertramp, David Bowie. I also watched hercules (well, skipped to the songs) and live at the apollo and i even found an episode of Blackadder!! <3 I didnt sleep on the flight although nearly everyone else did. I was sitting next to sas who fell asleep during the aristocats and woke every so often. The airplane was freezing and being tired makes it worse so i gave Sas my blanket.

Got off at Dubai to change over so found a toilet to change my top because i had split mango juice down my white vest =[ Got on to go to Addiss ababu (or something like that) where we would re-fuel and go onto entebbe. Slept through most of this flight but was rudely awoken for food and my malaria tablet. Met Erin and Melissa at Entebbe where we were told that our coach ride would be an hour and a half. Most people slept more on the coach but i couldn't. It was amazing driving through Uganda, such a pretty place (unbeleivably green) but you could see the poverty just from the road side. Lots of coke shops/ads, not sure if they were a good or bad thing. Our 1hr30min trip turned into 3 hours and we got to our hotel really late, but good news: there were flushing toilets!



Me and Sas were right on the top floor so i had to heave my 28kg suitcase up 6 flights of stairs while Sufian carried saskia's up. Went back down for a really nice dinner and told that lights out was at 10pm (it's now 10.20). The people living on our floor are listening to the most terrifying horror film, it's really creepy.

There was also a crazy bug in our room and me and sas hid in her bed under the mosquito net for about 10mins whilst deciding how to get rid of it. It was buzzing about by my suitcase and i was terrified. In the end i took on a superviser role and persuaded saskia to go out and spray it before squishing it with my sandal and scooping it up. Had a 'shower' a.k.a a drip of water that couldnt decide whethter to be hot or cold. After a bit more of a dilemma trying to figure out how Saskia's mossy net covered her bed saskia has discoverd that her shampoo has exploded in her bag, "God, it's everywhere", and she still hasnt had a shower. Things can only get better =]