Today's Special: Ugandan Stomach Surprise

On June 20 we landed in Entebbe, Uganda. Early impressions: 1) Much more lush than neighbouring Kenya and Tanzania - lots of vivid green giant plants 2) Somehow even more of that classic East Africa red dirt and dust that makes everything look even dirtier than it actually is (though in truth, it is still very dirty) 3) Every foreigner in the country is volunteering somewhere. A few days after arriving we were in a "mall" and were stopped by a group of girls from some volunteer organisation who were on a volunteer scavenger hunt that involved being photographed with other aid workers . When you have so many volunteers that the volunteers are spending their time playing hide-and-seek style games with other volunteers, you may have reached the saturation point. Also probably worth noting that this many people working unskilled jobs for free can't be good for the economy (note the sweet hypocrisy of me writing this with paint still caked on my fingernails from last week's pre-school refurbishment volunteer job. Savour it).

While in Entebbe, we sat on the shores of Lake Victoria, sampled some of the local cuisine and contracted a debilitating stomach virus. I don't blame the shores of Lake Victoria....I'm looking at you, local cuisine. This prompted a hasty trip to the country's capital Kampala (only 40 mins away) and an immediate visit to an almost-famous physician from the UK who writes for Lonely Planet, Bradt's Guide and a local tourist magazine. A quick couple of tests and in under an hour we were armed with some antibiotics that brought us back to 100% Smelly Backpacker within two days. Dr. Stockely mentioned that if we had gone to one of the local clinics (as opposed to his "International Clinic"), I would have been immediately put on a drip and diagnosed with malaria. The local people seem to think in these terms as well. A few days ago I asked a Ugandan guy named Peter how his weekend was. He said it was okay, but he got malaria on Friday night and wasn't better until Sunday. Still not sure if I was more surprised by his 48 hour malaria or his assessment of this as an "okay" weekend. I'm also not sure how he and other locals reconcile this belief with the widely held (and false) notion that they're immune to malaria and therefore don't need to sleep under mosquito nets.

Kampala wasn't the best city we've visited. It may even be a front-runner at this year's Elgar Adventure Blog: Capital City Raspberry Awards. Very red-dirty. Not much to see. And a serious quantity (you've been reading this blog for a while, can we safely use "pantload" as a quantity yet?) of cars, scooters and matatus (shared van-taxis) that all run on the absolute minimum amount of fuel. When you're in a taxi, this means your chances of getting in an accident, running out of fuel or safely arriving at your preferred destination are roughly equal. Kampala (as well as much of Uganda) has another city quirk - a daily shortage of electricity! Power outages are scheduled daily and of course, they sneak in a few random ones to keep everyone on their toes. When you go a little up-market and check into a mid-range hotel to recover from the lizards in your stomach, it's somewhat frustrating when the TV and lights go out and you can't remember where you packed that candle you found somewhere in Lamu. We did manage a trip to the cinema to see Ocean's 13 though. Points for that Kampala, but you're not forgiven.

We also managed to book two tickets to visit with the gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. This was very lucky as the passes are usually booked three months in advance. Only eight people visit each family of gorillas per day. More on this in another post.

On a whim, we joined up with a delightful (they may be reading this) UK/US couple heading to Murchison Falls, further North in Uganda. We talked it over one night in Kampala and were off the next morning.