Quick intermezzo before we go on location again tomorrow;
- the cows we mentioned in our previous post. lio showed off his amazing footballing skills by running cross field with the ball and then hitting a cow's ass with his first kick of the game. the loud 'MOOOOOO' was obviously cheered on by tonnes of children.
- Turns out its best we didnt go to volunteer at lake albert. Cuz of the oil that's been discovered 6 Europeans/Americans have been involved in violence related issues, amongst which gunfights and deaths.
- power works like 50% of the time
- there was a near fight in one of the bars the other day. seemed to be a bit of racial tension.
- we had dinner in a local scouts place yesterday, there was also a dayparty for teenagers as a 'last party' before headin to exams. it ended at dusk to prevent the teenagers playing naughty little games with each other in the dark. so no nookie for them!
- floods everywhere in uganda, here the water level rises a bit makin extra cool white water rafting
we're goin on location tomorrow, so update friday or saturday!! check you later!
zondag 30 september 2007
donderdag 27 september 2007
second week update
Long Drop also known as LD: Small hole size of brick in a small confined space in Uganda they call this a toilet.
We left on monday to a school called Buzoona (or something like that) for our first 'location' trip. A locatipon trip is where one goes to one of the schools which needs refurbishment and stays on site. On site in Uganda is an empty classroom, a few mattrasses on the ground and pretty much nothing else.
We heard that the group before us encountered a black mamba on location in their sleeping bag, an occurrence which obviously put us all at incredible ease. I mean, black mambas, thats only paralysis and pretty certain death. As you all know we're die hard adventurers this didn't bother us at all...*ahum*
But yeah, no encounters with black mambas, no encounters with man-sized spiders, only shitloads of bats which swirled around our room all night. That's where u hope that their 'radar-function' is still operative.
The school itself; about 800 children in what one could call dire poverty. The strange thing is; as everyone lives in the same conditions it doesn't affect us too much. When we arrived all the children surrounded us and shouted the same ol' 'MZUNGU MZUNGU' and then we started painting. During breaks we played football with the children with two balls that we brought along. This put the kids in a form of ecstacy as their previous ball was a rag plastic and newspaper. They kept asking us for money but a few words in local language (DJA! - go away \ KOMALELO - stop today!) kept them at bay. Not to mention a few well placed smashes on the ground with a long stick by Benjamin.
During painting one of the children came to Shawn and asked him to come with to one of the classrooms. Benjamin and Lio joined and there we taught the children to count to 10 in various languages...whilst the children revelled at hearing us screw up their local language. Coming to think of it, these children are sadistic little bastards. Every time one of us fell on the football field (which is weed infested and as even as the mont blanc with three cows grazing it) our fall was greeted with lkoud cheers of just about 200-300 children watching....little bastards. We'll teach em when we get back...*ahum*
Furthermore, theyre not too used to seeing whities. Local children brought a 1-2 year old girl whom had never seen a white person to Shawn...imagine the look of a pig in a slaughterhouse when a man walks up with a huge axe.
We got back to basecamp today where we are hugging the western toilets and staring blankly at fridges filled up with cold drinks - read- beer.
Monday we're going back on site where we are sure that we'll be greeted again by children dressed in rags, living in dire conditions, having absolutely nothing - yet strangely enough; very happy to see and hang with mzungus.
Pictures are still on its way, once we find a solution to Benjamin's stupidity in forgetting the transfer cable.
We'll blog again this weekend!
ps; gert-jan has sun problems- his head was heavily burnt after a few days. His forehead resembles a mix between an 104 year old man and frankenstein. pictures to follow.
We left on monday to a school called Buzoona (or something like that) for our first 'location' trip. A locatipon trip is where one goes to one of the schools which needs refurbishment and stays on site. On site in Uganda is an empty classroom, a few mattrasses on the ground and pretty much nothing else.
We heard that the group before us encountered a black mamba on location in their sleeping bag, an occurrence which obviously put us all at incredible ease. I mean, black mambas, thats only paralysis and pretty certain death. As you all know we're die hard adventurers this didn't bother us at all...*ahum*
But yeah, no encounters with black mambas, no encounters with man-sized spiders, only shitloads of bats which swirled around our room all night. That's where u hope that their 'radar-function' is still operative.
The school itself; about 800 children in what one could call dire poverty. The strange thing is; as everyone lives in the same conditions it doesn't affect us too much. When we arrived all the children surrounded us and shouted the same ol' 'MZUNGU MZUNGU' and then we started painting. During breaks we played football with the children with two balls that we brought along. This put the kids in a form of ecstacy as their previous ball was a rag plastic and newspaper. They kept asking us for money but a few words in local language (DJA! - go away \ KOMALELO - stop today!) kept them at bay. Not to mention a few well placed smashes on the ground with a long stick by Benjamin.
During painting one of the children came to Shawn and asked him to come with to one of the classrooms. Benjamin and Lio joined and there we taught the children to count to 10 in various languages...whilst the children revelled at hearing us screw up their local language. Coming to think of it, these children are sadistic little bastards. Every time one of us fell on the football field (which is weed infested and as even as the mont blanc with three cows grazing it) our fall was greeted with lkoud cheers of just about 200-300 children watching....little bastards. We'll teach em when we get back...*ahum*
Furthermore, theyre not too used to seeing whities. Local children brought a 1-2 year old girl whom had never seen a white person to Shawn...imagine the look of a pig in a slaughterhouse when a man walks up with a huge axe.
We got back to basecamp today where we are hugging the western toilets and staring blankly at fridges filled up with cold drinks - read- beer.
Monday we're going back on site where we are sure that we'll be greeted again by children dressed in rags, living in dire conditions, having absolutely nothing - yet strangely enough; very happy to see and hang with mzungus.
Pictures are still on its way, once we find a solution to Benjamin's stupidity in forgetting the transfer cable.
We'll blog again this weekend!
ps; gert-jan has sun problems- his head was heavily burnt after a few days. His forehead resembles a mix between an 104 year old man and frankenstein. pictures to follow.
donderdag 20 september 2007
The first days...
Ahalrighty...3 days into our Ugandan adventure and here are some of our main impressions so far. As we only have 9 minutes left on a prehistoric 1k per second internet connection i'll get down to business;
1) Our basecamp is located in Bujangali, right at the start of the river Nile. The nature is absolutely fantastic and amazing and a whole bunch of synonims like it...once we find a computer on which we can upload pics we'll show u what we mean.
2) MZUNGU. MZUNGU. MZUNGU. Everyone calls us mzungu, meaning white man. as soon as children spot us they get into an overexcited frenzy, sprint to their friends and suddenly a chorus of 'MZUNGUS!!!!!' is heard all the way to Kenya. Picture material will also follow.
3) A gang of suicidal guys are outside our basecamp at all times on pre-communist mopeds offering us a ride into jinja town for 2500 shillings ( 1 euro)...it was interesting. shawn almost lost a flipflop. lio seemed to dig it. gert-jan went up hills at 40meters/hour and benjamin has it allon camera.
4) food is cheap...picture material to follow
5) i'm waiting for pics to fully expain our experiences so far with the local children.
Coming to think of itm this is a prertty worthless post. Plus I'm getting stressed with only 3 minutes to go on this damn timer. So this is mostl;y a sign that we have not forgotten about the blog and will update it as often as possible!!
And do excuse the type-o's. This keyboard lives a life of its own.
1) Our basecamp is located in Bujangali, right at the start of the river Nile. The nature is absolutely fantastic and amazing and a whole bunch of synonims like it...once we find a computer on which we can upload pics we'll show u what we mean.
2) MZUNGU. MZUNGU. MZUNGU. Everyone calls us mzungu, meaning white man. as soon as children spot us they get into an overexcited frenzy, sprint to their friends and suddenly a chorus of 'MZUNGUS!!!!!' is heard all the way to Kenya. Picture material will also follow.
3) A gang of suicidal guys are outside our basecamp at all times on pre-communist mopeds offering us a ride into jinja town for 2500 shillings ( 1 euro)...it was interesting. shawn almost lost a flipflop. lio seemed to dig it. gert-jan went up hills at 40meters/hour and benjamin has it allon camera.
4) food is cheap...picture material to follow
5) i'm waiting for pics to fully expain our experiences so far with the local children.
Coming to think of itm this is a prertty worthless post. Plus I'm getting stressed with only 3 minutes to go on this damn timer. So this is mostl;y a sign that we have not forgotten about the blog and will update it as often as possible!!
And do excuse the type-o's. This keyboard lives a life of its own.
zondag 16 september 2007
Early mornin action.
Morgenvroeg is het zover en vertrekken we richting de republiek van Oeganda of zoals ze het zelf zeggen Jamhuri ya Uganda. De koffers zijn gepakt (of dat hoop ik toch) en morgen vertrekken de vier helden richting de oevers van Lake victoria.
Wat gaan we daar doen? Awel, we gaan daar vanalles doen.
We gaan in jinja de organisatie softpower education helpen met een van hun projecten.
Dat kan gaan van restauratie van de huidige infrastructuur tot effectief nieuwe infrastructuur bouwen, maar ook lesgeven en sportactiviteiten organiseren zal een van onze taken zijn.
Op hun website kun je uitgebreid lezen wat ze precies allemaal doen.
soit, de vlucht vertrekt dus om 10h40 en de vier helden van dit epos hebben rond 8h30 afgesproken.
veel valt er verders hieromtrent niet te zeggen dus ga ik gewoon slapen nu.
Slaap wel allemaal en tot de volgende eerste echte uganda update.
Benja,
Wat gaan we daar doen? Awel, we gaan daar vanalles doen.
We gaan in jinja de organisatie softpower education helpen met een van hun projecten.
Dat kan gaan van restauratie van de huidige infrastructuur tot effectief nieuwe infrastructuur bouwen, maar ook lesgeven en sportactiviteiten organiseren zal een van onze taken zijn.
Op hun website kun je uitgebreid lezen wat ze precies allemaal doen.
soit, de vlucht vertrekt dus om 10h40 en de vier helden van dit epos hebben rond 8h30 afgesproken.
veel valt er verders hieromtrent niet te zeggen dus ga ik gewoon slapen nu.
Slaap wel allemaal en tot de volgende eerste echte uganda update.
Benja,
zaterdag 15 september 2007
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