Kisoro trip

Well I have had a weekend and a half
I wish I could just like take you all to the places I have seen and do the things I have and just let you go wow because even though I took 500 photos it still dose not do justice to how beautiful or immense the things I have seen are.
Well I got up at 6am on Thursday morning as the plan was I would be picked up at 7am at the bottom of my road and of course in Ugandan and Fermanagh style well back wards sort of places time and I got picked up at about 8:30am. So I bundle into the back of the Hilux which is a pickup white with large microcare logo’s on it all a little UN style. The trip from Kampala to Kisiizi isnt that interesting, I got some goat meat on a stick which took me about 2hours to chew my way through and we stopped in Masaka to get lunch where I watched the Queen on Tv doing well whatever the Queen does. We arrived at Kisiizi at about 2pm which was quite impressive as it took us two days to do it the last time. We had phoned ahead and ordered ourselves some lunch at Datu’s which is the local pub/restaurant where Roddy and Callum hang out with the locals. Callum, Wilbrod(our driver) and I headed to Datu’s as Roddy had to teach a class and Anwer cant eat pork so he went to the Guest house to get some chicken. We arrived in Datu’s and headed through to the “VIP” lounge which is just the smelly back room of datu’s that has some some chairs and a sofa, soon a bucket full of 4kg of pork arrived for the 3 of us and about 20 matoke arrive, which is a ridiculous amount of food trust me! We slowly munched our way through all the food with plenty of salt to be able to stomach the Matoke. We were pretty full after all the food and poor Roddy was very jealous as all he got to eat was some chapatis. We headed back to the office as Callum had to teach a class and so me and Roddy headed to check out Pickens the pig and the chickens. I have some very nice photos of Pickens. We then spent some time at the office checking email and sorting any problems there might be and also I made myself a nice computer from all the bits and pieces the boys had about the office. We then headed to the Guest house for dinner, we sat down with two of the medical staff staying at the guest house who the boys call Commys due to their lack of humour and strict no fun policy. I also got to meet this old man David who is from the Uk,Northern Ireland, Fermanagh, Enniskillen, just so happened to attend Portora and of course asked me the question I so didn’t want to hear “did you row?” ahh the rowing club. He is an engineer here which is rather strange as the only engineering is done by another guy but ahh well rather strange to meet an Old Portoran in a small village in Uganda.
After lunch we headed back to the Round house which is a lovely little house with 2bedrooms which you can book for 30,000shs so about £8.50, it’s the same place we stayed before. Had a nice cold nights sleep as it is always freezing down here. We headed off nice and early so were up at 5.30 to leave at 7. I had a lovely breakfast of pancakes and pineapple and banana, very filling. Callum and Roddy decided to come with us to Kisoro as we were possible going to pop into one of the national parks. The journey from Kisiizi to Kabale was actually quite nice and the road is mostly tar which made for an enjoyable 1hour trip. Kabale was a lot smaller than I expected but was nice non the less and we called into a local supermarket run by Indian’s of course to buy some snacks for the journey to Kisoro. We set off and from the go we knew it was going to be a killer of a journey. The mountains looked so beautiful as you can see in the photos but the camera can not capture the true feeling of awe. After some amazing views and scary moments we made out way through the bamboo forest and into the Kisoro valley. We decended in and as we got closer Wilbrod tells us that on our left there is a UN Congolese refugee camp, all we saw was two big white tents with UN on the side and we thought “sure” then as we got past the UN tents we look past and see an endless wall of white as far as we can see and it was so sad to see all the people standing around in what seems like the middle of nowhere. We arrived in Kisoro which is a big enough village, it has a large green in the middle and on the day we arrived it just so happened to be the grasshopper day which of course is a Ugandan delicisey so there were about 200 kids running around the green chasing after these poor grasshoppers. We stayed there for a while as Anwer had to fix some problems with the computers and as he didn’t need me we went for a walk around Kisoro. Off we headed back to Kabale for the night, the journey was terrible as it rained and we had to bring in our bags, a broken computer and a printer so they didn’t get soaked. We stopped at the top of the hill and I took the photo of the refugee camp so beautiful and so sad.
We stayed in the London image hotel which was a bit of a tip but it was cheap and about the best in Kabale. We went to a place called the ritz as you can see in the photo, it had some ok food cheap as usual and only had one power cut the whole time we were there.
Due to financial issues regarding Callum and Roddy I had to share a double bed with Roddy( it was done on the flip of a coin not choice).
We got up nice and early hoping that we could go to one of the national parks but the Queen Victoria park where we had intended on going to was a bit busy with the queens arrival so we decided against it and instead headed back to Kampala with Roddy and Callum. On the way home we stopped at one of the many small stalls at the side of the road, our driver Wilbrod bought about 7 bunches of matoke I also bought some produce in the form of 4 bunches of banana’s and a Jack fruit as you can see in the photos, I even cut it all up by myself and soon realized I had way to much so I gave some to my cleaner.
We headed to Garden City on that Saturday night to get some proper food and to go to the cinema. We headed to the food court and I got some lovely pork noodles and Roddy got something very exotic in Lasange. We then went to see beowolf or something along those lines just to relax. We had a gewd night and had a gewd rest untill the boys were up at 8.30 to go and sort things before leaving on the bus back to Kisiizi.
I had a nice relaxing Sunday.
I managed to miss CHOGM which was great but I would have enjoyed protesting. I shall try and post a large number of photos but as I took 576 itl be hard to choose. I am also currently growing a mustache which mum will be glad to hear :D
Love to all
X



















A mytatu, local taxi's with 14-24 people crammed inside







































These are the kinda things i pass as we travel along the roads.



















Callum pretending to work at Datu's


















What was left of out mighty 4kg of pork and matoke



Ishmale and christine(She is their boss and he is her husband)

Wilbrod and Anwer


The glorious view from Datu's pub,Main road in Kisiizi


Me and Pickens


Roddy with chicken


Crane's in the Kisiizi football pitch


The three amigo's in Kabale










Various scenery on the way to Kisoro

In the middle of the picture you can see a large mass of white, that is the refugee camp

Me and roddy sleepy

Standing on top of the Hilux we must be cool

The microcare centre in Kisoro and roddy beside the microcare Hilux


Kids chasing after grasshopers in the green


Back in Kabale with a dirty Microcare Hilux and Wilbrod

The Little Ritz where we ate in Kabale


Kabale during day light

Kabale during the day


No clues for where we stopped


Jackie my jack fruit



Anybody have a clue what this is about? Saw it in Kampala

Callums Birthday Weekend

Well this weekend the boys decided to come up for Callums birthday, but word spread and suddenly now there was about seven of the project trust people coming up for the weekend. As I waited on the Friday lunch time the medical nurse Lindsay came in and asked me if I wanted to go food tasting at the Sheraton Hotel for the Caladonial(something sottish) St.Andrews celebration, it was a free lunch so of course I wasn’t going to be rude and say no so off we pottered to the the Sheraton Hotel which is one of Kampala’s better hotels. We arrived and Lindsays friend Eric who I have mentioned in earlier blogs and another member of the board where already there so we soon got organized and sat down to “taste” some food thinking we might get a few small nibbles of various possible meals. For starters smoked nile perch was produced with salad and a cucumber hollowed out with chives and onion mayonnaise style sauce which was delicious. We thought that may be it but as bread was produced we realised we were being served the full meal. Next beef wellington individually wrapped with patte and mushrooms surrounded in a port sauce with roast potatoes and vegtables, my mouth is actually watering thinking about it now…mmmm…so gewd! After we discussed the pro’s and con’s regarding the beef wellington and I pretended to give some usefull feedback. Next we had some chocolate cake with a strawberry and white chocolate sauce, of course chocolate cake isnt really a gewd enough dessert so we asked for a different option and so Vanilla cheesecake with passion fruit was brought down which tasted amazing but when chatting to the chef afterwards we questioned about her using a sponge for cheesecake but she said she wasn’t able to make a hard base, aint to sure why but even I can do that. The meal tasted great but the fact it was free and I was helping some scots seemed to make it taste even better.
As I had been away for so long Callum and Roddy had arrived and so had headed to my local takeaway Chillies with Anwer for some chips and chicken not quite the same as my meal but I didn’t rub that in. Well our big plan for the weekend was to buy Callum a suit in Owino market as he had been talking about getting one for a while and also Roddy and I fancied suits and also gave me a chance to show them the spectical that is Owino. Unfortunetly a theme for the weekend began which was rain and lots of it! We instead headed home and watched a film.
We soon were hungry and decided to keep with tradition and head to ranchers. We got a mytatu into town, we got dropped off and were about to get bodabodas to gardencity when the dazzling lights of some small strange popcorn smelling market caught our eyes and so did some fetching sunglasses which you can see in the photo below. We headed on with our quest for steak after having a look around the market and after I stood in about 4 puddle’s and had a rather wet foot. I managed to get the below photos of Callum and Roddy in front of me on BodaBoda’s, do not worry mum I was wearing a helmet…
We arrived and had our steaks….more of a tradition than a necessary and then met up with the rest of the Project trust which has come. We headed to alleygators where we had had the Microcare company party a few weeks back, there are pool tables and arcade machines here so we spent a while here. We went to Bubbles O’learys which is the local Irish pub, legend has it that it previously was in Ireland and was terrible and not doing well so they took everything out and opened it up in Kampala. We finally got home on some more boda boda’s which was great fun as we got one so all three of us and the driver squished on so was a male bonding experience and saved us a lot of Shs.
We had a quick nap and then got up nice and early to go and meet the project trust people at their place, Backpackers. Its nice enough and I got myself some pancakes with pineapple and banana which was really gewd. We then headed to DiDi’s world as to let everyone experience it, unfortunately there was a load of people there and it was really busy which sort of spoiled the strange eerie atmosphere from last time but we enjoyed it non the less until it started to rain…heavily and of course it had to wait till we were had all just got strapped into the pirate ship just as it started to move off for its 30minute ride of terror. After getting ridiculously wet we headed to the arcade area where we played some classic games. Callum and I then had a best of 3 air hockey game which became really intense well not really intense, but pretty intense and we even got a crowd of about 12 kids which actually distracted me and also we managed to hit one of them with the puck! Well after I pulled a muscle in my finger it was an easy win for Callum as I had to go easy and a 2-1 victory was enjoyed by the geordie lass. Callum and I then decided to head to Owino to do some fun shopping as the rest of the project trust decided to head back to backpackers for lunch. We headed to the general area of smell and rubbish that is nicknamed Owino Market and headed for the clothes as retro T shirts was what we were aiming for…if not….SUITS!! Roddy had told us to get him a thsirt as he had no clean ones left so we had a long look through the tightest and strangest tshirts and finally pulled out a classic, Boston World War Museum with a large Panzer tank on the front with its make and number, Roddy would just love it! We both then got other tshirts that were a little less strange and slightly offensive and headed out, on our way however we noticed a hat stand and decided to delve into the deep wooden boxes of endless hats and I manged to pull out with my left hand a strange green trucker hat as you can see in the photo and a nice soviet union hat for Roddy to go with his panzer t shirt. We paid about £1.20 for the two hats, Callum also got himself a trendy hat as you can see in the photo below. We then headed back to my place to relax and look at our spoils from our day of shopping and to show Matt my house mate. We then headed into garden city to meet up with the project trust ones and we went to the food court to get ourselves something tasty from one of the many restaurants, the food court really is something to behold as you walk in and sit down and then about 20 waiters run towards you with menus and try and convince you to buy from them all at the same time and this is quite an experience.
Sunday morning and we didn’t make it to church…we stayed at mine until late on in the day, I made some nice pasta with melted cheese and pesto mum you would be so very proud, we sat and watched films as it was doing the usual Ugandan thing of raining very heavily. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed the food court last night so we headed back there again to eat before going to see a film, the film wasn’t on till another 45minutes so we headed on down to Aroma and we had some coffee, it ain't great but it makes us feel European :D. We went to see Stardust which a rather strange fairytale kids story with humor thrown in for fun. Robert De Niro is a gay pirate which we all found hilarious but the Ugandans didn’t get it at all due to homosexuality being illegal and all that sort of stuff leaving them culturally unaware and I am sure quite confused. We then parted ways and off we headed home.
Monday morning and it is the start of CHOGM hell, the Ugandan police now see it as their right to stick on their sirens whenever they like to do whatever they like and have decided to just instead of making places secure just stop anybody entering them instead. As the weekend gets closer the less roads that will be open but I am happy to announce I will not be in Kampala this weekend. Anwer, Wilbrod and I are heading to Kisoro way down on the Rwandan boarder. We are going there to sort out some computer networking problem and he needs my help but also it’s a nice excuse for a trip and also to get away for CHOGM as it seems mostly everybody else is currently doing it as well. I will also be heading through Kisiizi as we are delivering some things to the Boys down there, I look forward to meeting their pig Pickens who I might add is likely not to be slaughter and spit roasted as wished as somebody has grown way to attached to her L ahh well maybe some other time. I also will get to meet the chicken which they have called guy in honor of me :D oh how proud I am, also on a lesser note I will get to meet Roddy and Callum as I havent seen them in over two days L.
Well on Monday I headed to rugby as per usual and due to the fact that all schools in Kampala are off for CHOGM the few boys who are younger than me that I play rugby with had some time to themselves and headed to Owino to purchase some distractingly bright short shorts and dark purple knee high socks Dungannon would be proud of. They definitely brought some class to the match as handling errors made for a rather disappointing game where I didn’t even score once.
Well I feel I should rap this up as I have know written a lot and photos have to be put in as well.
I hope all is well at home and you are getting excited for Christmas and are nice and cold as I sun bath through the Christmas holidays.
Love to all
Guy
X

Roddy and Callum on Boda's through Kampala














Arrrr there be the pirate ship




















Looking stylish...me Aviators of course


Kids watching the pirate ship


Trying on Hats in Owino

Looking gewd

I wouldn't buy anything of those two Callum and Abe

Peter Crouch and Damon Albarn

Well hello
Callum Costello decided to grace me with his presence this weekend, on a sader note he has a blog now which you dont want to read and i bet you expected me to tell you where to find it.
Well he arrived and we did the usual Ranchers but this time Eric joined us(for those of you who dont get the opertunity to read my blog all the time Eric is white but Eric is Ugandan and he runs Kampala Funeral's and he is just generally really cool and anybody who is from Fermanagh who is interested it turns out Eric when he was in the army stayed in Belcoo for a few years, yea exactly thats Uganda for you)
Well night time came and we decided to head to the irish pub in Kampala. While there we meet some intersting people and had a gewd chat to alot of random people, one in particular was a man called greg who looked like this...
Well dont worry Callum chated to him as i was quite scared...well it turns out he is Canadian which is funny enough left at that but he just so happens to know Damon Albarn,yea who exactly but he sang for some band called blurry or blur and if you remember correctly during live aid/8 etc instead of going to the big concerts in London or wherever he instead came out to Africa and played here and well we believe that Gregg is telling the truth and that Damin Albarn is coming out to Uganda next weekend with the lead singer of Massive Attack and the Gorrilas who are supoedly playing a concert in Uganda some time next year. So indeed it was very intersting for Callum as he loves Damon Albarn where as i was just happy that we werent alone with him, only joking he was a very nice and friendly chap but he may have told us a few porkys but if not we may get to meet these people which would be fun.
Well the next day arose and we were off to Kampala city for another looksey...it started to rain like proper Uganda/Africa rain which is just soaks you through. We got into a mytatu and Callum started to get some of the usual stares but then one guy asks "hey myzungu are you peter crouch's brother?" the obvious answer would be no but Callum decides to have abit of an arguement and you can see why
Callum(and two russians)

Peter Crouch

I see that this Ugandan is well miss informed and decide to Inform him regarding who Callum actually looks like

louis Saha,i know thats who you were thinking

The Ugandan is rather fustrated as he dosent think Callum looks like Louis Saha at all and i realise humor let along irony is something Ugandans grasp alot differently so we continue in a different direction of Callum look alikes and of course the most obvious comes up

Didier Drogba
The Ugandan still insists so we leave it and start to talk quickly as to make it seem asthough we are speaking some other language when really if we talk quick enough they dont understand us and so this has become our new language.
We arrive at Garden City or GC as i shall sometimes refer to it as and we got some much needed shopping but we are both very wet and its still raining, we decide to go see a film as its cheap and we dont fancy gettin more wet, we went to see Shoot em up which is rather hilarious as it is a comedy but the Africans thought it was an action film aka James bond esq and so our loud laughing was falling on confused ears. We then bundeld our way out and realised it was raining even more...well i did want to see super bad...another film so we pop in to see it...its rather funny but rather teenish and not quite up to my standard so Callum enjoyed it. We then wondered out and to the food court as hunger had hit us with his stick and spicy chicken and meat seemed like a great idea i think instead we probably went to Ranchers actually but it is 2days ago and at my age you seem to forget rather easily. We then realised the rain was going to be on all night but alas we didnt wish to get wet so we did it we went to see Bourne Ultimatim, for those of you out of the know this is the final film in an action trilogy which i shamefully can say have not seen a second of so i sort of felt as thought i was cheating on the previous two films but this would be my last chance to see it at the Cinema as it was out a few months ago in UK.
We get home all is fine and dandy, Callum is to leave tomorow lunch time.
We head into GC to get some final supplies and i send Callum off to get his Bus home along the 8hour journey i had no jealousy. I purchased my food i shant go into details but i have kept my receipts for you interested parties. I headed on home looking forward to a nice sleep and a shower when i get a call telling me that there were no buses...Great...so it looked like Callum wasnt getting away so quickly and another day/night in kampala was on the cards. He arrived lovely and dirty and we discuss politics and things such as before deciding it was about time we headed back into kampala to do something with ourselves. We arrived at the now infamous GC. We head to a small cafe Arona i think it is called i see hot chocolate i skip past im on the prowl for an experience when you leave rome/Home do something different thats my moto. I scouer(is that a word? I am attempting a more impressive word for look so stick that in there if you have a better one and continue on) for something a little bit different and pick a Confedelo Wisp or something to that affect, turns out it is quite nice and is pretty much just a milky coffee but its sort of my first coffee which is quite a big deal :D Callum had a hot chocolate and it was disgusting and he burned himself. We discuss Africa, Russia, Korea and films before leaving after a bad small continues to linger. We head to the toilets which are just past the Cinema ohh theres a film just about to start...ok then...we go to see the invasion which *warning spoiler alert* is terible. Yes it is still raining ridiculously bad but we decide to head on home. We get so far and we are heading up the hill to the Lukuli road and we see a mytatu sideways on the road and in the ditch and our boda boda men inform us that this is where we get off. Its by foot....wooo as i start to slide down...my awesomly comfy reef's are lacking in the grip department and i am going nowhere but down..its time to take action and off the shoes come. Im now in my bare feet trying to gain some sort of balance with phone in one hand as a light and my shoes in the other this aint a pretty picture im painting, the mud is around my ankles as it sqelshis around as Callum plodes ahead with trainers on, We manage to crawl up a side banking and we are saved...sort of untill it ends and were back on but i am yet to fall..we plod on only about 100m to the top of the hill oh how much fun,there is a slight catch22 situation with stones..with the stones i have grip and can walk but also hurts my feet though having unaturatly hardy feet and apreciating the fact the pain is weakness leaving the body i manage to make it...a slippy bit eeek i step back to counter act the slip and im saved by the fact i fall the other way...eewww my phone is caked in mud..we arrive home and leave our now brown/red shoes outside and climb into bed, well i do after washing my feet...what a night what a weekend and one of the best bits is to get a lift to work/kampala tomorow we have to walk back that road oh the delights of Uganda
On a lighter not related to me note Uganda is most definitly not ready for CHOGM its just gona be a complete joke for instance i shall quote some Ugandan
"Do local CHOGM organisers know that Serengeti is the only African national park that most Americans can ably name? And that the same Americans most times mistakenly place Mt. Kilimanjaro in a wrong country, Kenya. The bad news is that citizens of the developed world know very little about Africa and the little they know actually chases them a way from Africa. They know Africa as a violent place of starving folks. They are not even a ware that for over a year the Government and the LRA have been engaged in peace talks in Juba. Bwindi National Park made news only when some foreigners were killed there!"
They actually are surprised that Americans don't know where Mt.Kilimanjaro is? Come on id be impressed if they knew where africa is!

Some Facts regarding Ugandan's/Uganda

Our best friends here are the young children and the mentally ill, they are the two groups of people who will wave their hands off at us
If you are white you are American
If you are American you are rich
If you are rich you have enough money for all of us
Why use your car lights at night when it will run down your battery for when you need your lights
If you put your hazzard lights on you can drive up the wrong side of the road
Nothing is more important than Arsenal


I shall add some more of these facts in the next few blogs as they come to me but i forget them
Love to all
and happy halloween and stuff like that
Ive now been here for two months and it has gone so quickly but over a thousand photos taken already so i feel about 3000 in the end, now that shall be a fun slideshow :D
X guy
p.s Callum and Roddy got a pig!! Its called Pickens as roddy mixed up his words regarding them getting a pig and chickens and it came out pickens...yea roddy is like that, hes Northern English or Scutish or sumfin can't really make out his language

CHOGM and general

Check out Jinja Photos below

Well this week i received an airmail from a lovely lady, she knows who she is :D
Well thankyou very much it was lovely to hear from you
Well to answer a few questions that both my lovely lady asked but also i am sure some others are asking to, i dont think Kampala has changed much in the last 40years so you wouldnt notice much of a change the roads...im sure the same potholes are still here they are massive and are everywhere. They speak Lugandan here because Swahili is more spoken up north and alot of soldiers with gewd old Idi were from the north so Swahili is considered a negative language as it is associated with idi etc so most do not speak any swahili. The cars that we have here are all mostly 4X4's toyota prado's and pajero's which are nasty wee japanese 4X4's but its what you need to travel even through kamapala. Kampala is rather westernised...not quite starbucks and McDonalds thankfully but they have alot of interesting resturaunts, its not like the chinese resturant is run but somebody called stan its all genuine resturaunts. I had a lebonese cheese burger the other day which was really gewd. So yea i eat food from all over the world as African food is pretty nasty, the meat and fish is fine and so are greens which indeed are called greens and that the name. But they have this Matoke plant which is like a banana but it has a disgusting smell and taste but the Ugandans love it and they will eat it breakfast lunch and dinner. They also have Irish which is what they call potatos,just Irish.
So yea thats a basic answer to questions and if you do have any pressing issues that you wish to ask me you should know my email address.
Well onto my pressing issure CHOGM. Indeed i hope you have never heard of this otherwise what i say will be lies. CHOGM is the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting and this year it is being held in Kampala,Uganda oh what a wonderful day for the people of Uganda as even the queenie is coming Hora!!
Well so because of this Uganda thinks that the rest of the world cares..awww so innocent and sweet Uganda little does it realise that after they spend the Billions and Billions of Shillings on building substandard hotels and fixing the roads(HA might i add as their idea of fixing a road is laughable! u stick a load of mud on it and thats shud be it sorted or they become the seven dwarfs and get axes out and proceed to hack up the road and the fill it full of mud probably or tarmac either will do) that nobody will care as it will not make Uganda out to be the shinning light of Africa and bring thousands to see it. But alas Uganda hasnt yet grasped this idea and so is spending education and health money on CHOGM to try and impress the common wealth but surely if they impress they wont get the much needed help? hmmm Uganda works on the basis of "jobs for the boys" as they will do a job but will do it in such a way it needs somebody else to do something else which needs somebody else to do something else it is just a never ending line of uselessness that keeps everybody in a job doing useless it is quite strange. Well thats my CHOGM rant done ahh wait i forgot CHOGM starts in about 2weeks and the queenie arrives in about 3 and gosh one of the main hotels dosent have any elctricity, they are yet to start work on the rooms, the road to jinja which i took has large 10m deep holes and endless diversions, oh how charles will love that! Well yep i think thats me done, i am sure i shall come back to this CHOGM topic again for another rant on the waist of money!
Love to all and to all happy CHOGM
Guy
P.s i saw an awesome thing the other day as James and i were heading home a mytatu(a taxi minibus) went by on the roundabout no biggey except at the back was a fella on rollerblades hanging on for dear life it was hilarious but he seemed asthough he was enjoying it and actually seemed like he knew what to do, he wasnt wearing the usual inline skates you see he was wearing those classic 70's rollerdisco style skates that youve gota know what your doing in. I asked James and turns out there is a small "gang" of them who on the gaba road which has a hill go down at high speed and then catch lifts back up on whatever vehcile they can. I hope to see this someday and maybe have a go(mother i am merely hoping and severly doubt i shall or will as it looks ridiculosly dangerous)