Bumalanga
Sapnin’ folks, We settling back in nicely to our little village of Bumalanga after we all had a fantastic mid-placement break. The weekend started with a bang as our bus picking us up was two and a half hours late, so we made the decision to get on the next bus going to Mbale as we believed that our bus wasn’t going to show, especially after we unleashed an angry Muhid down the phone to them. But typical to Ugandan time keeping, the bus we had hired showed up, but not before we had started to get on a random bus. Mid-boarding of the random bus, our hired bus appeared, pulling up so that it was spread across the road, blocking the bus we were currently on and all other traffic on the road. This is where things then started to get heated, drivers and conductors of both buses shouting in each others’ faces whilst the conductor of the bus we were trapped on was trying to force the door shut so that we could not escape. At this point, Cameron was first to free himself from the bus and immediately proceed to get in the conductor’s face, forcing the door out of his hands and fully open to allow others to escape, all whilst shouting in his angriest and loudest Scottish accent! Grace was next to get off the bus, followed by Dagmar and Daniel. Once the latter got off the bus, Cameron then made his way to the back of the bus, flung open the boot and took all the bags out and chucked them onto the correct bus. Not long after doing this, Muhid and Lilah also made it off the bus. So after nearly getting in a fist fight at 8:30 in the morning, we were on the bus to Mbale for the weekend away, adrenaline flowing, rearing to go. What a way to start our weekend! Everyone was so happy to see all the other faces from the other uni groups and share our tales of village life. The Friday evening we went to Nurali’s for dinner – all 35 of us. Cameron and Dagmar had a pre-arranged plan that they would order lots of different food then split it all so they could have many different things and not limit themselves, as they do love their food! In fact they both ate so much that they both made themselves sick, but boy was it worth it! The Friday night ended at five in the morning after much beers, dancing and hilarity, when we finally all returned home and to bed. The Saturday began at 8 o’clock as our natural body clocks decided that this would be a suitable time to awake – it wasn’t! We were all up, washed and out before 11 to go get breakfast before heading to Sipi Falls, yet again over-eating but the food was just too good! Yet again we found ourselves on another eventful bus journey: this time our conductor jumped out of the bus whilst it was moving to go and fight a man. Then our bus broke down, the gear box went after the driver drove through a ditch! So now that the bus could not accelerate past 20mph, a journey that would normally take just under and hour took us just under three. But this wasn’t the best part, the best part came when we stopped at the foot of a hill as the driver couldn’t take the bus up it in the state it was in. So the driver got out to find us alternative transport and he succeeded. He got us a food transportation truck, which couldn’t get past 10mph going up hill – which was the rest of the journey. But as Muhid would say, “look on the bright side” as the scenery and views were breathtaking on the trip up! The Saturday night was also very eventful as many people were ill. The first notable victim being Jordan of the American group, who couldn’t even get out of bed in time and vomited all over Lilah and Dagmar’s stuff – unlucky girls! The next two victims were both of SID – Cameron and Daniel. Cameron was considerate enough to get out of bed and be sick outside, twice too I may add, whilst Daniel did a Jordan and threw up whilst in bed, getting sick everywhere! Jordan was kind enough to help Daniel clean up his mess, then they both slept outside that night! What was really funny was that in the morning, Cameron and Muhid were talking through the night’s events, and Marcus from Glasgow Uni, SVA, had been in the same room as the three SID boys and had slept right through all the commotion! The Sunday was yet another great day. On this day we did a five hour hike about Sipi Falls, seeing all the waterfalls and even getting to swim in a river, but my word it was cold! Cameron even managed to fall during the walk, but it was not the worst of the falls - that award would go to Graham from Roehampton Uni, for three, yes three, comedy value tumbles! After our walk, swim and tumbles, we stopped off for yet more delicious food! That night was also great: roast hog for dinner, although it was actually barbecued, still delicious though. Then it was another late one with Cameron sitting up the latest of the SID group, sitting up with some other folk from different unis until half four that morning. The Monday morning came and mid-placement was nearly at an end. We headed back to Mbale, got yet more food and did a food shop for back home, which mainly consisted of sweets and biscuits. Then we headed back to our little village, completely exhausted from the weekend’s venture. We are now just about settled back in . The first day back was tough but we all survived. Also our group morale seems greater after the weekend too. Our teaching has been going well this week, working as a six to teach the kids about SODIS. Furthermore, it also looks like we might finally be getting committees together for the water tank and finally getting a general community meeting too. Also, today we built a tree swing in the garden for the kids, which Muhid snapped going too high, but all is well as it is repaired and us bazungu will stay off it so it works! That’s all from us here in Bumalanga guys, everything is going great. We are still working hard and having a great time doing so. We can’t wait to see all your faces when we get home, don’t miss us too much. Love your favourite University group, SID (Strathclyde International Development), Cameron, Lilah, Muhid, Dagmar, Daniel and Grace
