#kanungu

.4th July 2012

Felt a little better today, went into our school San Giovanni for the first time today only to find that the director of studies wasn't too impressed with our presence after a period of time off. Our stay was short lived but we did get a tour of Model and Mothercare, two primary schools in Kanungu that we have VU volunteers in. Martin the head teacher of Mothercare is lovely guy, and seeing how enthusiastic he was about VU and the whole operation was a really good insight into how all the schools around the Kanungu district are really benefiting from the presence of the organisation.

.5th July 2012

Been an interesting day at Kirama secondary school realising that we have 4 classes and 300 students between the 3 of us. Teaching physics, chemsitry, biology, English and maths is going to be a huge effort. Lake Bunyoni tomorrow for an alcohol fuelled weekend with the whole group.

.6th July 2012

Journey to Bunyoni was quite good, got in a van with Laura, Ellie, Nikki, Becky, Charlotte, Josh, Sarah, Lollance, Leader Tom and KM. spent most of the journey talking and getting to know them all which was needed but really good too. So glad that the group out here are all as easy to get on with as they are. I think I'll be making some friends for life here. Bunyoni is one of the most incredible places I have ever been. We had an entire island in the middle of the lake pretty much to ourselves. We were all in 3 man tents and although I had no sleeping bag or roll mat, the shit sleep was worth waking up in the middle of the second deepest lake in Africa. We all headed up to the bar and the night started. Drinks, conversations, games, food and I felt like I was really on holiday. I think I forgot to just stand back and remember where I was at that point, like you tend to do in those situations, although I'll still remember it forever.

.7th July 2012

I got this sudden realisation of how much of an unbelievable experience this was when I was in the middle of Lake Bunyoni with 6500ft of water between me and the lake bed. Some of us decided to swim from the island to the mainland, I reckon about 750m of open water. Me and Nikki made it first and found a huge tree jump about 20ft high which I proceeded to jump off and slap my arm so hard on the water it nearly bled. SO worth it though. The others eventually arrived by canoe and some more swimmers appeared too, we headed up to the bar and got tables sorted for lunch. Had a quick game of pool with Laura and then ordered food. You will only understand how excited I was for this meal if you have ever tasted posho and beans.

Bruschetta to start and then crayfish curry, fresh from the lake I swam over in. It was amazing food, but it did take the best part of an hour and a half to arrive I think TIA may be my favourite new phrase. Having eaten enough crayfish to satisfy Museveni we headed back in the canoe, and I ended up with Theo and Audrey in mine. Theo, couldn't have done a better job, the canoe, couldn't have been worse at going in one single direction if it tried to be. And then there's Audrey. There's no words that can describe how absolutely insane, mental, crazy, nuts but yet hilarious that girl is. I'm sure I'll find time another day (I'll wait for a rainy one). So back on the island we had some orphans come singing and dance for us. When people say money cannot buy some things they really aren't joking. This was unbelievable. They sang and danced, got us involved and then we had a huge game of the hokey kokey and Ben sang them a song with his guitar (Brown eyed girl!). The night that ensued after the orphans an only be described as AMAZING. Lucy, Nicky, Deize, Laura, Ellie, KM, Olly and I ended up playing an aptly named drinking game called 'fuck you'. And guess what? Yep, we got quite fucked, quite quickly. I don't feel that writing anything here will do the night any justice at all. By far one of the best nights I've ever had. The drinking game was the most fun I had all day, but what came after was ridiculous. We got roped into playing flip cup against the leaders and my team consisted of Lucy, Laura, Ellie and me. We failed miserably, but Camilla had clearly seen my talent (modest) and asked (begged) me to be part of the 'Dream Team' for the volunteers. So there I was face to face with the director of VU and 3 team leaders ready for the playoff. Our team had Nato (nuts but lovely Aussie girl), Camilla (at the time extremely drunk) me, and Simone (quiet but really nice). Now this counted for a lot here, we had just lost the last game so we really played our best game, and absolutely THRASHED the team leaders. A little bit of sickness came over a couple of members of the team, I remember in particular seeing Nato hunched over a bush outside the bar at some point and Camilla asleep on the grass outside too... I seem to vaguely remember some jokes being told (Lawrence's monk joke was just unreal) and then bed. Last night in Bunyoni was easily the best, and I would happily replay the entire night again any time. I'm sure I'm missing things from here, but TIA after all...

.8th July 2012