Welcome to the next exciting instalment of Louise’s adventures in Mbale! Since my last entry, I have lost a housemate, gained my own bathroom, semi-planned a trip to Rwanda and tried unsuccessfully to find a pair of ankle-length plain black leggings. Oh and opened one of my UHT soy milk cartons. It’s an exciting life I lead here.
Okay, so when I say I lost a housemate, I don’t mean that anyone has died, just to put your mind at ease. If you remember in a past entry I said that Tiffany fractured her elbow and had a plaster cast? Well she finally got the cast off but found she couldn’t straighten her arm. They did another x-ray and discovered that there was another fracture or something not quite in place when they put the cast on, which they didn’t realise, and so her arm set for four weeks in the wrong position. Short story is, she had to go back to UK to have surgery to fix it properly, and then will spend another 4 weeks in a plaster cast while her arm heals the right way! Poor girl. She was scheduled to return home in 3 weeks time anyway in preparation for a wedding she’s in, but had to change her ticket and move things up much sooner which she wasn’t quite prepared for. At least her travel insurance stepped in to take care of the financial side of things. Hopefully her second cast will come off before the day of her bridesmaid duties arrive!
So now there’s 3 of us in the house, but Jo is leaving in about 5 weeks time. And then Penny leaves in August I think but Tiff will be back by then. We have another volunteer arriving from the UK today. Her name is Zoe and she’s been here before a couple of years back. It will be nice to have another female volunteer around! Last week I received my first letter in the mail, courtesy of the ever-wonderful Simone La Posta! If anyone else feels like sending some love my way, please do! I love getting snail mail :)
A new supermarket has recently opened up in Mbale which is very cool. They don’t sell soy milk (yet) but they do have diet coke! I cracked open a can today. The small joys in life. I know it’s full of crap but every now and then I feel like something other than water and it’s the only non sugar-laden drink you can get here! I am planning to visit Rwanda in just over 3 weeks time, which I’m very excited about! I have a Swedish friend living and working in Kigali at the moment and so I’m going to stay with her for a weekend and visit the genocide museum and what not. I think Phil is going to join me for the long coach haul over there! I am also going back to Kampala in two weekends time so I can both apply for a UK working visa as well as escort Duncan onwards to Entebbe to fly back home to Scotland! I can’t believe he’s leaving already. Time is passing very quickly here.
I ate grasshoppers yesterday. Yes, you read that right. They’re small yellowish bugs that they deep fry into crunchy salty/sweet snacks. Felt a bit weird putting the first one in my mouth, but once you get used to the idea, they’re kinda nice! On Friday night I am having dinner at the house of a local girl I have made friends with. Her name is Natasha and she works for MTN (the largest mobile phone company in Uganda) where I buy my “air time” or credit as we would say back home. She’s about 24 I think. I’ve met her younger brother who is staying with her during the school holidays and he’s very cute. His name is Victor and he’s 8 years old.
I went into the hospital just before we left for Safari to see David for probably the last time, but walked in to find he had already left! I was so disappointed, but also glad that he was obviously well enough to go back home again where he belongs. I gave the photos I had printed out for his mum to one of the doctors there who is a friend of a friend and he said he would pass them along to David’s mum when they returned for a scheduled check up a few days later. I hope he didn’t forget.
I haven’t been back for a couple of weeks due to travel and other things going on, but I will be back there this Thursday. Other than that, I think I sufficiently updated you all on the goings on here! Thanks for reading and until next time...
Lou :)
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