Continued....

The rooms were spread out half in the surrounding jungle then opening out to a big clearing which was filled with monkeys at all times of day, who were more than happy to entertain the guests. As we settled into the sofas over looking the Nile we decided we could be quite happy here for a week or two... That is until we started talking to other travellers who told us tales of the beautiful Sesse Islands in Lake Victoria.
Over 70,000sq km Lake Victoria is big, very big, and in the middle of it all there are a group of islands known as the Sesse Islands. The travellers we were talking to had just got back from one of the biggest islands and had stayed in the port of Kalangala. A cute little village with lots of hotels and restaurants on the beach. A few minutes after they started telling us about this place we were sold, it was simply a matter of figuring out how to get there.
We had one day until we were scheduled to go white water rafting on the Nile, realizing we might need a bit more time we decided to push back rafting a day (more about this later) and head off to the islands for the night. Having just endured a very long bus journey the boys we were travelling with had decided to stay in Jinga and 'pass on this adventure' claiming they thought we were crazy to travel 5 or so hours to get somewhere only to leave the next day. Well as far as i am concerned the journey is half the fun! So myself and fours other girls set out the next morning at 6am.
We took a motor bike to the bus station, a Dalla Dalla to the city then another bus to Entebbe, missed our stop, so a taxi back to where we needed to be to catch our next bus, then motorbikes again down to the port where the boats left from. 3 hours in and it was just a case of catching a boat to the islands (which we were told was a 3 hour sail) and we were feeling pretty pleased with our progress so far.
The word 'port' is used very loosely in Africa. We were at the end of a dirt road and where it met the lakes edge there were about 15 wooden Dhow style boats with engines attached to them. Bobbing up and down in the filthy water as they were loading them with everything you can imagine, people, livestock, beer, bananas, televisions, you name it. Now it was just a case of hiring a boat to take the 5 of us to Kalangala, easier said then done. It turned out no-one was willing to hire their boat out to us as they could make a lot more money filling the boat to the point of sinking and going to other closer islands. However they assured us we were in luck as there was a boat going to Kalangala, but not for another three hours!. After the three hour sail this would leave us arriving at night time (a big no anywhere in Africa) and only having the following morning before having to head back. Not good. We asked if there were any other options and they said there was another island called Banda and if we went there we could get a boat from there to Kalangala. The boat to Banda left in 20 mins and it meant that we would get to kalangala before dark. We had a group meeting (away from the touts) and tried to figure out what to do. Having had experience in the past with being given the wrong information i was worried that we wouldn't be able to get from banda to Kalangala. It is very hard out here as most people are genuinely trying to help you ( while making some money for their friend who owns the boat) but they are so keen to tell you what you want to hear sometimes that you get the wrong information. We were half and half on what to do, cut our loses and go to Kalangala late or risk that there would be a way to the island from Banda. I went to ask one of the guys a question about the boats and he heard the word Kalangala and the next thing i know i have been picked up thrown over his shoulder and he is wading out into the water with me, naturally i tried to get down claiming i can walk by myself thankyou ,but he muttered something about how i will get diseases if i go in the water (bilharzia is very common here)and i gave up my fight. 'what about you' i ask him 'it's ok, i am paid to carry people to the boats' before i have time to digest the fact that people (like me) pay him to put his body in disease filled water so they don't have to i was thrown into a boat and he collected his 15 cents for the trouble!
I turned around expecting the girls to be thrown in behind me, then realized i was alone. I could see them on the beach arguing with the men as to why someone had just kidnapped me. Afraid to go back in the water for the diseases and not wanting to be alone i yelled at them to come join me in the boat.
20 minutes later we were on our way, but to where...... I motioned to the captain while pointing at the boat 'kalangala?' he simply nodded his head, not quite satisfied i asked the two guys sitting next to me if this boat went to kalangala, simultaneously one said yes the other said no. Hummmmm, don't panic we still had 3 hours to go, so i put my worries to the back of my mind and decided to enjoy the lake (it was beautiful) and the boat ride.
The islands finally came into view and the boats engine slowed. I thought i should try this again 'Kalangala?' i said this time actually having an island to point to as opposed to the boat itself. Apparently i had said something funny as everyone in the boat started to laugh, not a good sign.
The girls and i exchanged worried looks as the boat slowed right down and started to head directly to one of the islands. We could see there wasn't much on the island it just looked like jungle with a few mud huts poking out the top and defiantly no other boats. Many things crossed my mind at this point, maybe we are just dropping someone off? maybe we are just getting more fuel? Maybe this is all a bad dream.
The boat ran itself up onto the beach, the girls and i sat there waiting for someone to get off, no one moved, then the captain told us to 'hurry up', realizing we were blocking the way and that no one else could get off until we moved we clamoured our way to the front and jumped onto the sand (trying to avoid the water at all costs). At this point a small group of people had come from the village to see what was going on, not a friendly bunch and my attempts at Swahili were returned with glares. Turning back to the boat i tried once again 'what island is this' i heard someone mutter Banda. Oh well, i thought at least we can go back with the boat tomorrow. Then it dawned on me that we were the only ones who had gotten out of the boat and they had started the engine back up. Panic started to set in and the girls and i started yelling at the boat all at once 'where are you going' 'why is no one else getting off' 'where are we?' 'can we come with you?' 'when will there be another boat to take us back?'. As it pulled away someone on the boat said 'there is a muzungu (white person) on this island ask for Dominic'. And just like that it was gone.
While staring at the empty spot that until 30 seconds ago was occupied by what seemed to be the only means of transport on or off this island i did a mental assessment of our situation.
We were in the middle of one of the biggest lakes in the world, on the wrong island so no one knew where we were, there were no boats on or off this island, the inhabitants were down right scary, we had no food water or shelter and it was getting dark. Hummmmm, not good, however always the optimist, i reminded myself and the girls that apparently there was a white man on this island, maybe he could tell us how we could get back to civilization, all we had to do was find him.
The humor of our situation was not entirely lost on us and after some comments about the pickle we had gotten ourselves into we set off into the village. The island wasn't very big about 1/2km across and 2km long. The locals that had met us off the boat had obviously informed the whole island of our arrival. As we were walking through the village everyone had come outside to watch what must have been a very strange site. 5 white girls walking in a line being followed by a trail of all the village children and dogs.. If i wasn't fearing for our lives at that point i would have liked to have taken a picture. To say we had a frosty reception was an understatement, through clenched teeth i told the girls to just keep smiling and walking. Every few minutes i would ask 'Dominic?' and they would just point down to the far end of the village. I considered it a very good sign that they seemed to know who i was talking about. My hopes were dashed as soon as we got to the end of the village and were met by a thick wall of jungle. Thinking we must have missed him we went back and asked somebody again, they just pointed in the jungle. Seeing our confused faces two local guys, one of whom spoke a little English said he could show us the way. We couldn't thank him enough as he led us into the jungle. It wasn't long before my relief turned to worry, what if him and his friend were psycho's just trying to lead us away from the village? I got my Swiss army knife out of my bag and decided that the 5 of us could handle the 2 of them and that we were better off away from the village. Now when i say jungle, i mean jungle. It was soo thick and overgrown you couldn't see what was behind the next leaf until you moved it and the ground was covered with logs and rocks that we were stumbling our way through. Those of you that know me well can imagine the first thing that came into my head when we went into the jungle, snakes. I asked our new friend if there were any snakes and he replied 'no, we don't have any snakes' Thank god i thought to myself, maybe things are looking up! However there were many insects that were making our trek that bit harder, we discovered that the jungle had meat eating ants, every few minutes you would feel one take a bite out of you and you would have to pull it's head out of your legs, also the air was teaming with flying insects and more then one went in my mouth and up my nose. The jungle seemed like it was never ending and we kept asking how much further, to the reply of not long now. We had been in the jungle for over half an hour when our two guides informed us that they had to turn back as it was getting dark now and it isn't safe to be in the jungle at night!!!! Now they tell us! They pointed us in the general direction that we were to head in and told us we should carry on for another 10 minutes then we should hit a beach.
And just like that they were gone. We kept walking while discussing our options. At least we knew there was a beach that we could spend the night on away from the village, we just had to get there before it was too dark otherwise we would be spending the night in the jungle, then in the morning maybe we could flag down a fishing boat or something and pay them to take us back. I'm not saying it was a good plan but it was all we could think of at that point!
It was at about this point that we spotted an old shack in the jungle, it was bizarre, so out of place and all overgrown. I didn't know if this was a good thing or not, so we just kept on walking wondering what the hell we had gotten ourselves into. After a few more minutes the jungle started to thin out and we came across a cobblestone house. So relieved to see signs of civilization we started yelling out hello, hello. Then this guy came out of the jungle "yes how may i help you?". "well i was wondering if you had any rooms available for this evening?" i said realizing how utterly ridiculous i sounded considering the circumstances. "Yes we have dormitory's, with full board for 30, 000 shillings"( very reasonable). It was like we were in the twilight zone ,a very normal conversation in the furthest from normal circumstances i can imagine. He lead us into the building and on closer inspection we could see that it completely run down but at this point we felt so lucky to have a roof over our heads that no one said a word. After a few high fives at making it through the last few hours we took ourselves down to the beach and finally met our muzungu Dominic.
I don't know what i was expecting but it wasn't the drunk old man that greeted us with a "where the hell did you girls just come from". After explaining the whole story he looked at us in awe and declared that he had "mad respect" for anyone who made it not only past the hostile locals but then through the deadly jungle. 'Excuse me but what do you mean by deadly?' i asked. He then proceeded to list off all the deadly snakes and creatures that lived in the jungle, black mambas, cobras, just to name a few!!!!!!!! Oh my god i was torn between tears and relief, if i had any idea of what was in there i still would have been hanging out in the village wondering how the girls were getting on. Ignorance truly is bliss. After breaking the ice with some moonshine that Dominic was kindly sharing, i asked the question that i knew all of us were trying to avoid. "so how do we get off the island", he answered with no hint of sarcasm that quite simply we don't. "But you will love it here in July" he told us!!!!. He then told us " The first few weeks are the hardest but after that you really get used to the island". Hummmm, not for the first time that day i was a bit lost for words.
Eventually we did get off the island. A supply boat came by (it comes every few months) and we managed to make it back to Jinja in time for white water rafting. The things that i saw and experience on that island would take me hours to write and i have already gone on far too long, but needless to say it was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. To give you some idea, The next day Dominic showed us a castle that he was building, complete with tower and secret rooms, walking through the jungle to the beach i came into a clearing and there was a giant ship in the jungle!!! the thing was huge, it could have held hundreds of people. He told us he built it in Tanzania and sailed it here many years ago and that a tornado had put it in the jungle. He showed us his old house (where he lived before the castle) that was now occupied by a 24 ft python, he walked in one day saw it and never went back in, instead deciding just to build a new house. Believe me when i say that that was just a few of the things we saw on that island, let alone the stories that he would tell us from a lifetime in Africa. I left the Sesse islands feeling very previlaged to have see them and in such a unique way, but next time i think we will try and be a bit more organized with our travel plans.

Uganda

It's quite strange to be in Africa as a tourist now as opposed to a volunteer. I really really miss the kids. There are a few in particular that i find myself thinking about everyday. I wish there was some way that i could check up on them from time to time to see how they are doing, but all i have is a name. I only have one week left, i can't believe how quickly it has flown by. In the last few weeks i have done so many things and been to so many places, where to begin...
After Zanzibar, which was amazing, i got on a 36 hour bus ride to Uganda. Even saying it "36 hours" sounds wrong. It is unnatural to be in a bus that long, oh and did i mention that it had no toilet or air-con! One time i was so desperate for the toilet i had to ask the driver to stop, he obliged and pulled the bus to the side of the road. Not wanting to put on a show for the other passengers i tried to walk a few minutes into this field for some privacy. However the mud was so thick and goopy that after a few steps i was stuck, i had lost one flip flop, broken the other and was knee deep in what turned out to be fresh manure. People were trying to help by yelling help full suggestions such as "just try to walk" well i did and that resulted in me falling into the mud/manure and becoming stuck. Great entertainment that this was one lovely man came to my aid, he even found my other flip flop! He took my into his garden and cleaned me up, fixed and washed my shoes and sent me on my way. Thank god for people like him otherwise i would have spent the next 25 hours caked in poo sitting on a bus. When we finally arrived in Uganda it was such a breath of fresh air, literally. It was so clean compared to Kenya, the people were so nice we didn't get called "muzungu" every few seconds and no-one was trying to rip us off. It was quite a shock actually. I don't know what i was expecting but i wasn't the green lush oasis that we stumbled upon. The town Jinja was gorgeous, after a short boda boda (motorbike taxi) ride we were dropped off at our hostel which was in the jungle perched over the nile!!! the views were stunning it really was one of the nicest places i've ever been, oh my time is going to run out again, i will update this asap,

All done

I am now in Zanzibar wondering where the last two months have gone! My time volunteering went by so fast. I haven't really had time to stop and think about all the things i have done as i have been so busy trying to arrange travel plans for the next few weeks. The painting went really well, it really is amazing what aesthetic changes can do to an environment. What was a depressing dark space is now so bright and cheerful. It was hard work and i am still covered in oil paint, but it was well worth it to see the children's faces, they were so shocked at first then they were just really happy. I had painted this little mural of flowers and stuff in the girls dorm on top of the green we had already done as a base and a group of them just sat on the bed staring at it and smiling telling me how happy i had made them it was soo cute. Oh my time is about to run out and i want to post this, i will write soon

Schools out

So i got a bit of a surprise last week when i found out that we only had one week left of school as there was a holiday coming up that we weren't told about. Kristen told us with only a few days notice that this would be our last week with the kids. I was so disappointed, you get attached so quickly and you really feel like you are making a difference in their day, then all of a sudden you have to leave. It was an amazing but sad last day. We threw a big party for the kids and brought in loads of food for them and we played games and sang songs with them. It was a really good day. Normally there are children in the neighbourhood who stand at the windows and watch us play each day. It is the saddest thing as they can't afford the $1 Canadian a month to come to school so they just watch through the bars but on Friday they came in with us and we fed them and they were playing games and doing the limbo it was soo cute. At the end of the day when we were taking class photos, we took one of all our students, then our teacher lined them all up and they had a class photo too. Yacini (the teacher) is such a nice guy he made them all feel like part of the school that day and they were so happy. I wish i could post pictures then i could put them both up but i don't think i will be able to till England so you will have to look back then! The last week went by so quickly as Krystina and i had so much we wanted to do with the kids, we managed to cram in lots of crafts, new games and tooth brushing! We also took one of our students to the hospital as she has these painful sores all over her body inparticular her hands and they were all open and weeping. The hospital was a little scary, definatly not somewhere i want to go while i am here, i was shocked at the conditions. After a lot of confusion and only 50 cents to see a doctor! she was seen and got the treatment she desperately needed but no one could afford to give her. It amazes me still how much can be done over here with so little money. For only $25 Canadian we had a class of 50 students see a doctor and get a medical, including blood tests for HIV, its nothing and yet all i hear are stories of people donating money and it falling in the wrong hands and by the time it reaches the people it needs to there is a fraction left of what was originally donated. Anyway i won't get started on that now, otherwise i will be here all day.
Since we no longer have to teach we have taken on a new project for our last week. Dollah, the little boy i wrote about before is doing great and he has settled into his new school really well. It is just the most amazing group of people that run that place and we wanted to do something there to help out. 60 kids live at the school and they sleep in very dark horrible dorms and we have decided to paint them this week home improvement style. So we will be very busy this next week giving it a facelift, i'm quite looking forward to getting creative with all that space to work with, right now i am thinking an ocean theme..... we will see

Chaos in Dar

On Tuesday we went into Dar Es Salaam, to run some errands. What is normally a few hours excursion there and back turned into a very wet and crazy scramble out of the city that took about 8 hours!!
When it rains here it really rains, you can be outside for less than a minute and you couldn't be any wetter than if you jumped in a swimming pool with all your clothes on. This was the type of rain that we were greeted with when we stepped off the Dalla Dalla (little minivan that they cram as many people as humanly possible into) into the city. In any city rain like this would cause problems, however in Dar there are no drains to speak of and in a matter of minutes the streets started to flood. People were taking shelter under anything they could find, not wanting to waste anytime we decided to brave the wet and just go about our business. Big mistake. Within a matter of minutes we were soaked, now being wet i don't mind but add to that the fact that we were wading through water up to our calves, wearing flip flops and trying to dodge any floating objects of questionable nature that were coming our way, Gross doesn't cut it. The narrow streets were wall to wall water, you couldn't see pavement just a river with shops on either side. Not wanting to have a totally wasted trip we decided to still have some lunch and do some e-mailing until it became painfully obvious that we needed to get out of the city asap. By obvious i mean the fact the the police we now escorting us across the street as the water was so high that cars were now out of control boats. For some reason we decided it would be a good idea to buy umbrellas at this point (i know, a bit late for that) as we had seen some really tacky ones that we thought would be funny. After 20 minutes of deciding if a built in whistle was really necessary we left the store with the ugliest umbrellas we could find to be greeted by what can only be described as chaos. The city seemed to have come to a unanimous decision while we were buying umbrellas that it was time to leave. The streets were filled with people all wading out of the city, they were looking for buses, dalla dallas, basically anything that could get them out of there. As the cars could no longer come down the roads everyone was walking to the outskirts with hopes of finding transportation. Not wanting to be left behind we followed the crowds. Any bus that passed us was so full there were people hanging out of the doors holding on the person in front of them, it was madness. After about 30mins we found a bus that had about one square foot of space left so the three of us piled in counting ourselves very lucky to be getting out of there. However 1 hour later we had only moved about 10 feet, it was traffic as far as we could see, which i would be okay with if we had a seat but there wasn't even room for both of our feet to be on the ground we all had one foot down and were only balanced as we were sandwiched between so many people, i think i could have picked up my other foot and still been upright! Three hours later (it normally takes 20 mins) and in the dark now we arrived at the big station where we change buses . If we thought it would be any calmer here we were very wrong, everyone seemed to be in a state of panic, it was chaos. You would have thought it was the end of the world the way people were behaving. They were jumping in front of cars and buses trying to make them stop, jumping into the back of trucks as they were trying to drive away, some people were even climbing through windows of buses while they were moving. It was madness. I looked at Krystyna and Sarah and we just held hands and ran to the side where the bagamoyo dalla dallas normally are. We knew we were going to have to be aggressive if we wanted on the bus, so the second we heard someone shout 'Bagamoyo' we ran for the bus and elbowed our way on, we couldn't believe we had made it. The bus filled up in seconds and we had made it not only on the bus but we had seats!! feeling rather proud of ourselves and only a little wet, we then made the three hour journey home in relative comfort. We arrived home very tired and many hours later than planned but we made it and that's all that matters. Needless to say i won't be heading into Dar again if i can help it, especially if it is raining.

Doolah Update

Sorry i haven't written in a while but the Internet in Bagamoyo has been down so today i made the big trip into Dar Es Salaam to e-mail and get supplies for the school. First of all Dollah is doing great. After i last wrote he was taken to the police station where his mother signed over custody of him which allowed us to start the ball rolling with finding him care and a school. It was actually very easy considering things like that normally take weeks to do over here because of "Africa Time", but Dollah has already had his first week at his new boarding school and is loving it. Amy and Vicky took him around to schools to see what they were like and they found this amazing school that already has lots of orphans ( even though Doolah technically isn't) so when all the other children go home for holidays there is still a big group of them left to hang out and play for the summer. It is a full time boarding school, he will receive all his schooling, food and care in one place so he won't be going back and forth from place to place and best of all it is a five minute walk from our house. Doolah obviously has a connection with Bagamoyo because every time he would run away from his dad he would walk for several hours to get back there to sleep rough so it is nice he doesn't have to leave. It turned out he has been on the streets a lot longer than we first thought and he is older then he realized as well, he didn't know his birthday. Dollah is 9 years old and he was born in June. We sent him for a full medical and amazingly he got the all clear, which was a big relief. It was shocking to me how easy it was to change someones life. Dollah now has a bed, food, education and people to care for him and all it took was three days of running around and $800 (all inclusive yearly boarding school fees), Thats it, and now he has a future. When i first came to Africa, the whole idea of making a difference seemed impossible as there is so much need out here for everything, money, education, food, care, just to name a few, that it seemed like a mammoth task that no one person could even make a dent in no matter how long you are here. Doolah has taught me that you don't have to do big things over here to make a difference, it can be as small as giving one child a future. Seeing Doolah playing with other children in a playground and just being a child is so rewarding.
The children at my school are happy just to see Krystina and i everyday. When we bring out puzzles and games or colouring pencils or do a craft with them they are so happy to be doing anything other then reciting words on a board you can see it on their faces. I leave each day feeling like i have made a small difference in that childs day and it feels so good. Yacini and Mohammade (the teachers) are great and they have given us free reign of all teaching so we have been coming up with lots of ideas for lessons. Tomorrow we want to discuss the importance of cleaning out your cuts as lots of the children have nasty infections from little scratches, so we decided to do a play for them in Swahili. I have no idea if it will work but i will let you know how it goes!!

Doolah

On my second night here i was invited to a wedding. One of the volunteers, a lady from the US who had been volunteering here for a month, met a local, fell in love and was getting married! So on Friday night i found myself at a wedding reception. It was held outside in the open air theatre of the music college in town. Loads of people were there and lots of the locals did amazing drum and dance performances, everyone had an amazing time. The other volunteers and i we sitting together throughout and we were accompanyed by locals aswell, but one boy in particular caught our attention as he didn't seem to be with an adult, we didn't think too much as it is quite common for children to move about an event like that without a parent as it is a community atmosphere. When it came time to go we were the last ones to leave and we noticed that he was still with us, we asked around everyone that was left but nobody knew who's he was. After we got someone to translate for us it turned out he was a street kid and had been homeless for a month! Now this boy was no older than 8 and he was all by himself for 4 weeks fending for himself and sleeping outside. It broke my heart, he was such a sweet kid aswell he was just standing there blowing bubbles (left over from the wedding) and playing with balloons. He explained to us that he was there as he has learned it is safest to be where there are lots of people and he knew there would be food for him there. Some of the men said they have seen him at a few beach party's as he likes to be around people, but they didn't know he was homeless. We started asking him questions and he said his mum was on Zanzibar and his dad is in Dar Es Salaam but neither of them want him and he was supposed to be living with his uncle but he lost him. He gave a few different stories to people about his mum and dad all slightly different, but it all came down to the fact that he had no where to stay. It was the saddest thing, i knew we couldn't leave him so we tried to figure out what we could do, we needed a place for him to stay then we had to try and locate, his mum, dad or uncle. We tried to bring him back to the house but when we asked we were told we couldn't, so we were going to pay for a room for the night, but in the end one of the local guys said he could stay at his and we would go to the police station in the morning. We all talked that night and decided only 2 people should go with him to the police station and Amy (from PEI) and a lady called Vicky(from the US) went with him. After two days of police stations and visits to his mum and dads, Doolah's story goes like this. His mum kicked him out when she got re-married, he went to his dads, his dad beats him so severely he has permanent scars on his face, so he ran away. Doolah is 8 years old and his own mother put him on the street. His story is so heartbreaking and he is just the sweetest child. Apparently when they located the mother she wouldn't even look at him or acknowledge he was there, when they went to the fathers house he was so scared, when they got back in the car with him to leave(after he thought they would just drop him off and leave)he said "if you left me there he would have killed me". This boy has done nothing to deserve this kind of life and you think he would be lucky as he has a mum and dad, which so many children here don't, but the two people that are supposed to protect him from the world have abandoned him. Thanks to Amy and Vicky the ball is now rolling to get Dollah into a home and into school. The parents have happily given up their rights and now it is a slow process but we are all helping any way we can. You should have seen his face when he got given some clothes by some of the volunteers, it was so heartbreaking as you could tell he is not used to kindness and he doesn't no how to react. He is living in Amy and Vickys room for now and we are feeding him, but we are not allowed to have him there. so it is a strange vibe at the house, as if the program coordinators come we will get in trouble. Amy feels that it is fate and Dollah is the reason she came here so she is happy to leave the program if need be and get a room where thay both can stay till it is sorted so i will keep you posted! Again