hello hello...little update from uganda.
first of all, concerning the last post, of course i wasn't sad to see the back of the other guys =). It was seriously the illness, I was heavily under the weather for a good few days.
The last few days have had a strange vibe to em...it seems like people and uganda have opened up a bit more since the guys have left. I think that if you're in a group here u stay in a semi-closed environment, but when you're alone things open up more. Now people around here are more like 'where are your friends? in Belgium? cool, what you drinking?' My guess is that they disliked Gert-jans face...but who can blame them =). It also seems like some of the less positive aspects have shown themselves since the guys have left - once or twice we've encountered racial slurs from people passing by shouting something like 'WHITES OUT'..these people probably think that we're just touristsm not realizing that we're actually here to help out their communities. I also stood on an infant cobra yesterday...people who know me know that I'm not a fan of snakes. I moved pretty fast.
This week we've been going on location for the day with overland volunteers which is basic but fun work. You're still around all the children, still refurbishing schools but also meet people from all over the place. I also have to organize sponsors for a cycle marathon that soft power organizes. Thios is basically a charity event which is primarily aimed at receiving donations and offering prizes to local participants whom are sponsored.
Unfortunately I don't have that much time for an extended update, so here a quick lists of things NOT to do whilst in Uganda;
- don't eat roadside food ; done that
- don't drive in matatu's (suicide taxi's) ; done that
- don't take boda's (suicide mopeds) at night ; done that...a lot
- don't go with two on a boda; done that...a lot
- don't go with two on a boda at night; done that...a lot
- don't walk home 5 kilometers at 2 in the morning; done that
- don't go up to an armed gang and curse at them; i'm not that stupid.
will make sure that pictures follow soon, internet just sooo slow here.(and sorry for the lack of softpower-related information. will make sure that more follows this week with relevant photo material).
So till next time I suppose!!
dinsdag 16 oktober 2007
zaterdag 13 oktober 2007
The Back-home-syndrome.
For 3 of the 4 expedition members the trip ended early this morning when the plane re-entered belgian airspace and we finally set foot on belgian soil at 6h30 this morning after an 8hour flight back from entebbe.
two days before leaving we met up with shawn one last time and wished him the best of luck for the following two remaining months he was left in the pearl of africa. shawn looked a bit sad but it can also be his sickness.( shawn felt a little sick the last few days. thank god it was nottin bad)
As for Lio, Gert-jan and Benj, the trip was almost over. after we left murchinson falls national park on wednesday, we had to spend most of thursday in the kampalan taxi-park cuz benj forgot his painting in the murchinson. after four long hours of waitin and refusing tons of local fake gucci or armani wallets the painting finally made it to kampala.(thank u yebo & richi)
now that we have mentioned murchinson, that trip was really nice. we finally got to see some real african wildlife such as the lion and the elephant. it's hard to put in words, just believe us when we say it was really worth it.
after all of this we had just one last trip before returning to the european pearl wich we all call home=> Belgium.(still no gov ey?). just one more day to fill and we agreed we'd spend it in entebbe.
entebbe. what to say about entebbe, after walking around the taxi park in the mornin we decided to try out the zoo. much to our surprise we had to pay five times the price of a local's entry fee becauze we were white!!! bye bye zoo hello botanical gardens. no entry fee here cuz we snuk in trough victoria lake. the gardens are pretty nice. lots of old trees to see and there are a monkeys runnin around wich gives it a little safari touch. much to our regret we ad about enough of the gardens after an hour wich left us with nothin more then pay the stupid admission price to the zoo. but thank to Gert-jan's trading skillz we reduced our entry fees to only three times the local fee.
we should also mention that friday was i think th end of the muslim fasting periode. they celebrated this with a huge get together in the zoo. lots of people in the zoo that friday and when we left at around 5-ish there was still a huge cue waitin to get in.
after that we just packed all our stuff and left for the airport.
little factbook:
We saw our first traffic accident today. some lady left a junction made a u turn and crashed her car into a wall. strange , very strange.
gert-jan got hit by a car just a few hours before we left uganda. he got hit by a car while we were walkin back home from the zoo. the lady that hit him apoligized. we had her arrested and she is now waiting for her sentence.
Thank u for supporting us and helping raise money for the softpower mission. we cashed in a total of just over 3million ug-$ or somethin like 1400 euros.
the gertjan story is true, but we didn't have her arrested. we just gave her the mean look and walked away after cursing some dutch swear words.
two days before leaving we met up with shawn one last time and wished him the best of luck for the following two remaining months he was left in the pearl of africa. shawn looked a bit sad but it can also be his sickness.( shawn felt a little sick the last few days. thank god it was nottin bad)
As for Lio, Gert-jan and Benj, the trip was almost over. after we left murchinson falls national park on wednesday, we had to spend most of thursday in the kampalan taxi-park cuz benj forgot his painting in the murchinson. after four long hours of waitin and refusing tons of local fake gucci or armani wallets the painting finally made it to kampala.(thank u yebo & richi)
now that we have mentioned murchinson, that trip was really nice. we finally got to see some real african wildlife such as the lion and the elephant. it's hard to put in words, just believe us when we say it was really worth it.
after all of this we had just one last trip before returning to the european pearl wich we all call home=> Belgium.(still no gov ey?). just one more day to fill and we agreed we'd spend it in entebbe.
entebbe. what to say about entebbe, after walking around the taxi park in the mornin we decided to try out the zoo. much to our surprise we had to pay five times the price of a local's entry fee becauze we were white!!! bye bye zoo hello botanical gardens. no entry fee here cuz we snuk in trough victoria lake. the gardens are pretty nice. lots of old trees to see and there are a monkeys runnin around wich gives it a little safari touch. much to our regret we ad about enough of the gardens after an hour wich left us with nothin more then pay the stupid admission price to the zoo. but thank to Gert-jan's trading skillz we reduced our entry fees to only three times the local fee.
we should also mention that friday was i think th end of the muslim fasting periode. they celebrated this with a huge get together in the zoo. lots of people in the zoo that friday and when we left at around 5-ish there was still a huge cue waitin to get in.
after that we just packed all our stuff and left for the airport.
little factbook:
We saw our first traffic accident today. some lady left a junction made a u turn and crashed her car into a wall. strange , very strange.
gert-jan got hit by a car just a few hours before we left uganda. he got hit by a car while we were walkin back home from the zoo. the lady that hit him apoligized. we had her arrested and she is now waiting for her sentence.
Thank u for supporting us and helping raise money for the softpower mission. we cashed in a total of just over 3million ug-$ or somethin like 1400 euros.
the gertjan story is true, but we didn't have her arrested. we just gave her the mean look and walked away after cursing some dutch swear words.
maandag 8 oktober 2007
Kampala by Night
Jambo mzungus.
So we left shawny behind in search for some big pussy-cats. Before we actuall said our goodbyes to our fellow compadre who is staying for two more months we went to a belgian party in kampala. The party was a little posh and very closed to outsiders but we didn't mind cuz they served leffe and hoegaarden and best off all buffet with real MAYO!!!
As for Kampala, it will never be a city benjamin will enjoy. First afternoon off todlin around searchin for the belgian party benjamin got hit by a car. The policeman standin 2metres away from him didn't really mind and so the driver of the green toyota corona did a little britney or paris.(hit 'n run).
After the belgian Party the threesome bein ben, g-j and lio decidd it was time for a little kampala nightlife. Hooray for prostitutes in kampala. they are everywhere in every decent pub and they only cost 2500ugandan shillings wich is like 1 euro. god we love this country.
Our place to stay in kampala is the lovely fiance hotel, wich is actually somekind of whore-house i think but we didnt mind cuz beside the leaking shower and the noise of the fan( wich is about to fall off )and street the beds are a welcome cange from the tent.
But i search of the pussycats we had to leave Kampala and head north-west to masindi. The means of transportation was the bus or as one might call it "the madmann from hell drivin way to fast in a overcrowded bus and i was happy i slept most of the time"-vehicle.
Tommorow we head in to Murchinson national park in search for Real african animals cuz all we have seen so far are bats, heeps of insects and monkeys.
gotta go now... hope to update soon again.
ps: no prostitutes were hurt during our stay in kampala and nobody cracked for their charmes.
still no sign of the driver that crashed into benjamim, a nation wide search was started yesterday.
the bus was really scary
benjamin is fine, he is just no very keen on the ugandan traffic.
So we left shawny behind in search for some big pussy-cats. Before we actuall said our goodbyes to our fellow compadre who is staying for two more months we went to a belgian party in kampala. The party was a little posh and very closed to outsiders but we didn't mind cuz they served leffe and hoegaarden and best off all buffet with real MAYO!!!
As for Kampala, it will never be a city benjamin will enjoy. First afternoon off todlin around searchin for the belgian party benjamin got hit by a car. The policeman standin 2metres away from him didn't really mind and so the driver of the green toyota corona did a little britney or paris.(hit 'n run).
After the belgian Party the threesome bein ben, g-j and lio decidd it was time for a little kampala nightlife. Hooray for prostitutes in kampala. they are everywhere in every decent pub and they only cost 2500ugandan shillings wich is like 1 euro. god we love this country.
Our place to stay in kampala is the lovely fiance hotel, wich is actually somekind of whore-house i think but we didnt mind cuz beside the leaking shower and the noise of the fan( wich is about to fall off )and street the beds are a welcome cange from the tent.
But i search of the pussycats we had to leave Kampala and head north-west to masindi. The means of transportation was the bus or as one might call it "the madmann from hell drivin way to fast in a overcrowded bus and i was happy i slept most of the time"-vehicle.
Tommorow we head in to Murchinson national park in search for Real african animals cuz all we have seen so far are bats, heeps of insects and monkeys.
gotta go now... hope to update soon again.
ps: no prostitutes were hurt during our stay in kampala and nobody cracked for their charmes.
still no sign of the driver that crashed into benjamim, a nation wide search was started yesterday.
the bus was really scary
benjamin is fine, he is just no very keen on the ugandan traffic.
zaterdag 6 oktober 2007
alrighty, quick recap of what happened last week as we have to head to kampala to sample some belgian beer at some belgian event;
- went on location again where we continued painting the school. shitloaaaaaaads of bats at night, basically ur lying there in the pitchdark with the squeaking of bats and the batting sounds of their wings all over the place. also, when u switch on a light chances are they whoosh straight over ur head. quite interesting.
- we painted little kids. literally; drove them into a corner and painted them when they were being a pain in the ass =)
- we took a late night stroll into a local village. quite the sight, everything is lit with lanterns and the whole place comes alive. people selling their agricultural produce etc as they have to work during the day. shitty part tho, as soon as they see the mzungus there a company of 50 follows you back home asking for everything ranging from your socks to your mothers.
- a canadian couple joined us for 2 days on location, nice people, fun to have new ppl there as well etc.
- one of the teachers was trying to hook up his sister with lio. obviously to get passage to europe. lio successfully got rid of him by saying that he was engaged.
shawn went to the teacher however and told him that lio was very interested in his sister. lio was screwed the remaining days.
th9is computer is f-ing up, will update later
- went on location again where we continued painting the school. shitloaaaaaaads of bats at night, basically ur lying there in the pitchdark with the squeaking of bats and the batting sounds of their wings all over the place. also, when u switch on a light chances are they whoosh straight over ur head. quite interesting.
- we painted little kids. literally; drove them into a corner and painted them when they were being a pain in the ass =)
- we took a late night stroll into a local village. quite the sight, everything is lit with lanterns and the whole place comes alive. people selling their agricultural produce etc as they have to work during the day. shitty part tho, as soon as they see the mzungus there a company of 50 follows you back home asking for everything ranging from your socks to your mothers.
- a canadian couple joined us for 2 days on location, nice people, fun to have new ppl there as well etc.
- one of the teachers was trying to hook up his sister with lio. obviously to get passage to europe. lio successfully got rid of him by saying that he was engaged.
shawn went to the teacher however and told him that lio was very interested in his sister. lio was screwed the remaining days.
th9is computer is f-ing up, will update later
Abonneren op:
Posts (Atom)