Merry Christmas!

Its about 5:30 am on Christmas morning, and I seem to be the first person in my family to wake up! So I'm posting to stave off the boredom. Come on kids, wakey wakey, me wanna see if Santa came!

Finalized plans! finally!

Well, I finally managed to book the flight to PEI, so I'll be getting home at 6:40pm. Thanks to everyone who looked for rides for me! And I found out why the booking didn't work, it wasn't aircanada, it turn out my card had been suspended because I made a charge at a business that has been skimming cards! The Visa security people reinstated it temporarily to help me get home, and because it doesn't look like any weird charges had been put through. So all is well.

New Study: Get into Heaven

A new study from Hrvardi Posh School of Thought suggests that by giving rides to people stranded at the airport can increase your karma by up to 75% AND give you a 95% chance of going to heaven. This is good news for hindus, buddists, christians, and people who just like to have a good chance at stuff!*




*Heaven may not be the actual Kingdom of God, but Laurie’s Pants.**
**Getting into Laurie’s Pants does not necessarily imply sexual contact. You may simply be invited to try on Ms. Boswall’s pants.

Fill Up My Dance Card!

Hi my beautiful friends who I miss so, so much! So, here is the deal so far. It is likely, though not confirmed that my dad will pick me up in Halifax Tuesday night, but not till late cause he has to work. So I won't be in Ch-town till about midnight, and at that point I'll be desperately wanting a shower! (Mmmm... hot shower with no bugs in it, followed by being wrapped up in a big fluffy towel... you have no idea how nice that sounds!) So I won't be available for drink till 1ish Tuesday night. Which I'm up for, but you lovely people work, so I get that it won't work out. (If anyone does want to meet up, and/or doesn't have to work the next day, please leave me a message!)

So, it looks like we'll be getting together Wednesday night instead. Which as I recall is open-mic night, always fun! But maybe it would be good to get together before that? Somewhere quietish that we can talk? Suggestions welcome! As my email access is sketchy, I suggest you leave messages as to plans and social itineraries here.

I love and miss ya'll like crazy, I can't get home soon enough!

PS - if anyone has the time to drive to Halifax and get me home a bit earlier, I'll pay bridge and gas!

ps - Will's party is Wednesday Night, so that is where I will be! But I'm still accepting invites to balls, fetes, square dance and hootinanies for other dates.

I got my passport back!

Ok, so I was totally freaking out last night, because I talked to Robert (the guy who's been talking to immigration for me) and I thought he would have the passport yesterday, but they told him again to come back "tomorrow." So I insisted on going with him today, and it was so frustrating. First of all the woman who we were dealing with at immigration started yelling when we arrived, in Luganda, so I had no idea what was being said. The whole time we were there she and Robert would speak very fast in Luganda, while I stood there not understanding. Then I would have to ask what was going on, I mean, it is my passport, and they do speak English, so I think she did it to be deliberately rude.

Finally they told me again, come back tomorrow. I said no, I need the passport now, what can we do to speed it up? (This was me trying to give them an opening to ask for a bribe.) They kept saying no. Nothing can be done. Finally, exasperated I said that I needed it today because otherwise I would have to speak to my embassy about what was to be done, and I needed to give the embassy a few days notice to help me before I left. Then all of a sudden it was possible for me to have the passport! Thank god I went myself, because I am sure that Robert wouldn’t have argued with them, would just have been satisfied with endless tomorrows that never come!

So, my work visa is still not processed, but I have the passport, and nothing stands in the way of me being at home on Tuesday! (So let's meet for some drinks Tuesday evening - maybe Baba's? Or 42nd Street? Vote for your choice in the comments section!)

Perhaps this fifty thousand shilling note would help to speed up the process?

What is it with me and my passport? I think that this relationship has become quite unhealthy! Some of you will remember my frantic search for my passport before leaving for Uganda, it was eventually found in a place I had checked numerous times and I suspected I had a Pooca (one of the wee folk which hides things and moves them around.)

But this time a much more insidious force then the wee folk is at work. My passport is at the immigration office, going through the hoops for a work permit. A man from the finance office at the university has been working on it, and he keeps telling me that he’s going “tomorrow” to immigration, but then he comes back and tells me that they told him to come back “tomorrow”. But there aren’t that many “tomorrows” left before my plane takes off from Entebbe. I’m leaving early on Monday morning, so I MUST have the passport in my hand by Friday at the latest. Sooner would be better for my blood pressure.
I guess like before I should just keep faith that it will all work out. But it’s much harder to do so when the whole thing is out of my hands, and in the hands of the bureaucracy of an inefficient and often corrupt third world state!

Lots of animals and the kindness of strangers

This weekend’s adventure is brought to you by Queen Elizabeth National Park! I took Friday off and spent most of it traveling to the park. (Three matatus, all crowded and hot!) I got dropped off in Katunguru where the Locals told me it was a 20 km walk to the park gate, and I would have to hire an expensive car to drive me or I would meet animals on the walk! Well, I didn’t want that, but I decided to try Lonely Planet’s suggestion of hitching a ride with passing safari vehicles instead of paying for a private car. A local woman runs a craft shop by the turn off to the park, she helped me flag down a park vehicle and we chatted while I waited. Her 4 year old daughter doesn’t speak English yet, but we had good non-verbal communication and when I stopped there on my way out she recognized me and ran to me for a hug!

Once in the park I was confronted with the super high costs for everything. A game drive costs $115US! So instead I set out to make friends with other travelers to share costs. I met a tour group who was planning a game drive and nature walk for the next day and was able to go with them for MUCH cheaper. Of course it’s hardly necessary to go on the drive, wildlife is everywhere, warthogs graze around the canteen and the lodge, and a hippo walked by the canteen my first night there!

The game drive was great, we saw a hyena, baboons, waterbucks, kobs, warthogs, forest hog, monitor lizard, and an elephant. And tons of birds. And the kobs were mating; we saw a male trying to mount a female, and also some females mounting each other! Take that you right-wing bastards who say homosexuality isn’t natural! Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of the lesbian kobs in action, every time I got my camera up they got shy and stopped (and who can blame them, I wouldn’t want tourists in my bedroom either.)

We had a tasty lunch at Jacana Safari Lodge (the best pasta I’ve had in Uganda!) where there were black and white columbus monkeys playing in the trees near the bar, and even running through the lodge. Then we went on a walk through the forest to the bat cave, where we saw thousands, if not a million (in the words of our guide) Egyptian fruit bats. And a python.

Then back to the Mweya where I stopped at the lodge for a drink and saw a huge herd of 40 or 50 elephants across the gorge.

I still hadn’t seen a lion though, and I was quite disappointed by that. I decided to do a nature walk on Sunday morning even though I knew I wouldn’t see much that I hadn’t seen on the game drive, but I fancied a walk and another drive would have been way too expensive. So at 7am (these things start early) I met my guide and a Finnish guy who is biking around Uganda for the walk. Before we even started the guide showed us a lion hanging out across the gorge, but of course it was too far away for pics. However, within a few minutes into the walk we saw two female lions. Not too close, but close enough to see with the naked eye and to get some good pics! (Don’t worry, I didn’t stick my head in their mouths Heather!)

Then after a great breakfast at the lodge I headed out of the park with the tour group I had met earlier. The best elephant sighting of the trip came when our vehicle had to stop and let several elephants cross the road, right in front of the van!

I then got into the worst matatu I’ve seen yet. It started stalling all over the place and was filling up with noxious fumes, plus making sounds that convinced me that it was about to blow up! I decided that it just wasn’t safe and got off and walked down the road to a tiny village to try and flag down another (hopefully safer) matatu. There was almost no traffic on the road, and I was the most exciting thing to hit the village in ages, a group of men sat across the road from me and were hoping and hollering, and generally laughing there asses off at the stranded mzungu. I was getting quite self-conscious about the whole thing when an aid vehicle stopped to offer me a lift.

The silver lining of the whole story is that the people in the vehicle were quite concerned that I get safely home that they insisted their driver take me into Mbarara and see me onto a bus. So instead of traveling that leg of the trip in a smelly crowded matatu I got a lovely ride in an air-conditioned SUV. Plus, before their driver took me on they had to stop at a silk worm farm (their project is developing the silk industry in Uganda) and they insisted on showing me around. Then they also showed me around the factory where they were stopping for meetings. So I got a nice ride and a neat little bit of site-seeing that I would never have seen but for the health-hazard of a matatu and the kindness of strangers.

I have tons of pictures that I'll be posting later this week, pictures of the rafting still to come as well.

Floating Down the Nile, Sometimes Peacefully, Sometimes Not!

I was still pumped up from the bungee jump when we set out on the rafting, so I immediately jumped in the front of the raft (the wettest, wildest seat on the boat!) I was joined at the front by a Québécois guy. (Later we had the chance to discuss the upcoming federal election; he thought it was cool that I wanted to vote Bloc!) The rest of the raft was filled with an assortment of British, Aussie, and Dutch girls who volunteer at a school in Kampala. With our Guide Shane, there were eight people in the boat. There were two paddle rafts, a couple of kayaks (to paddle out and rescue us when we fell off) and a big oar raft, otherwise known as the safety or suntan raft, which carried our supplies.

We started in a calm pool above the first small (grade II) rapid. Shane showed us how to paddles, back paddle and “get down”. Get down means crouch in the bottom and hold on for dear life! He also took us through flipping the boat and told us that if the boat flipped and we came up underneath, there would be an air pocket there. And he showed us the proper way to pull someone back into the boat.

The first half of the day was a lot of rapids close together without much paddling in between, except to get us in position for the rapid. One of the Dutch girls decided after the first few rapids to go on the suntan raft, so there were now six rafters and our guide. We only went through one grade V, where I got knocked off and pulled in by one of our kayakers. No problem. The grade III and IV rapids were good fun, getting slashed and the boat being knocked around a fair bit.

Then we stopped at an island in the river for lunch. What a great lunch. Dark brown bread, a selection of veggies, cold cuts, and a huge pile of shredded cheese! (Cheese is a big luxury here, and was the cause of great excitement among the rafters.)

Then we set out for the second half of our trip. After lunch the rapids were bigger but more spaced out. In between were long calm pools were we could jump out of the raft and float around for a bit, wearing our life jackets. It was gorgeous; at one point I was floating along and came within about a foot of a cormorant. The water was warm, the sun shining down, and the scenery gorgeous. I couldn’t believe it; I was floating down the Nile!

It was hard work though, when we weren’t swimming, paddling the raft long distances to the next rapid. Definitely a workout!

The first grade V of the afternoon was Retrospect. It was here that I had my terrifying, I’m going to drown moment. The first couple of waves were great, knocking the boat up and coming down on top of us. Then the boat got hit hard, it went way up and I was in the water. It happened fast, and I didn’t get a good gulp of air before going under and when I came up the boat was above me. Ok, I think, look for the air pocket. But there is no air pocket. The boat hadn’t flipped. And I could find my way out from under it with all the crazy currents tossing me and the boat around. I was freaking out, it felt like I was down there for hours (in reality it was about 20 or 30 seconds). I couldn’t find my way out, couldn’t find the damn air pocket, I thought I was drowning. In my panic I screamed for help. But I was under water, no one could hear, and it used the last of my breath. Luckily just then I popped up beside the boat, and Shane pulled me back in. Then he was right back grabbing Ellie, who had also been trapped underneath, and was having a small asthma attack. We later marveled that we hadn’t bumped into each other down there, and commiserated on our search for the air pocket that wasn’t there.

So after that I was pretty freaked. We had to portage around the next grade V, Overtime, as the water was too high, and I can’t say I minded. Then we came to our second to last rapid, a grade III. Shane asked if we wanted to flip the boat in it, as practice for The Bad Place where the boat would almost certainly flip. The rest of the group was up for it, so I went along, even though I wasn’t feeling great about being in the water at that point. So, we flipped the boat, and although I managed to keep a hold of the raft and my paddle (first time of the day I didn’t loose the paddle, I realized I was way too freaked, and too close to panic to go through The Bad Place. I had already been to a bad place that day, a very bad place!

So when we portaged around The Dead Dutchman (a grade VI rapid) I decided to join the Dutch girl in the suntan raft. We still got knocked around a bit, but we could hold on with both hands, and we skirted the edge of the rapid rather than going through the guts of it. Then we got to watch the other go through. Everyone got knocked off and we pulled a few of them into the safety raft.

Then it was onto the bus where a cooler of cold Nile Specials (beer) and pop was waiting to ease our thirst and up the celebration factor as we drove back to camp. No laws about open liquor in vehicles in Uganda, and hey, so long as the driver sticks to pop a cold beer makes a long bumpy journey rather more pleasant!

Bungee Jumping, or how to jump into nothing and survive!

From the ground the platform doesn’t look that high. But that’s because walking from the bus to the base of the platform you might not realize that the Nile High Club is on the edge of a cliff looking over the White Nile.

At the base I am met by two Kiwi guys who weigh me and write my weight on my hand. Way humiliating, I could really stand to loose a little.

The climbing up they assure me that their safety record is “110%”. But wait, no, tell me the truth! They are joking around, not reassuring at all!

Then I am sitting at the top and Shane is wrapping my ankles up with a large towel and what looks like the same type of strap from my backpack. He assures me that it is a climbing strap, rated for two tons. And I don’t weigh quite that much, so no worries.

Then they connect the bungee and I shuffle out to the edge, my ankles tied together. I’m not feeling very secure just standing there, what with the lack of movement and balance.

And I’m looking over the edge, and its really, really far down, and the cliffs look way to close (although they aren’t) and every atom in my body is screaming that this is a really bad idea, that stepping out into nothing is sure death, cause as far below as the water is, if I step into nothing it will come to me quickly, and hard. My primal self knows that to step of the platform is certain death, even if my intellect knows that I am totally secure. And intellect is a small breathless voice to the roaring “NO!” of my body.

Everyone in the bar is lined up by the railing watching me. The two guys on the platform are counting down. I can’t back out, I’ll be humiliated. So I jump out, arms spread.

Then I am falling, I must be dying, I never really commit to the dive and manage to end up going feet first. The ground is coming up really, really fast!

But then I slow and then I’m flying back up into the air, and down again. By the third or fourth bounce I know I’m ok and its quite fun flying through the air.

Then they lower me onto the waiting raft, paddle me to the landing and I scramble barefoot up the rocky path, my heart pounding. It already seems like it happened to someone else.

The next day I watched a couple of people jump and it occurred to me, I wonder what I screamed as I fell? So I asked one of the girls who’d been watching, and she told me I didn’t scream at all. I guess the screams were just in my head. Because when I looked at the pictures, I appear to be holding my breath. Weird.

Can I really do this? The crazy Kiwi says yes. 

For a moment I was almost graceful! 

a picture of where i got out of the water after my jump, that blue thing is the raft they pulled me in on 

Scary things

So, I left Friday for Kampala, hung out at the Red Chili Hideaway (definitely recommended) and saw the new Harry Potter movie. Then, early Saturday morning I left for the Nile High Campsite for bungee jumping and rafting with Adrift. A fabulous place, defiantly check it out if you're ever in the area.

So, I jumped and went on a full day rafting trip. I'll post more later on both experiences, for now I’m just putting up the pictures I took. Cause every part of my body hurts. Even typing hurts. So stay tuned for the story of my near drowning! (Joking, I only thought I was drowning!)

There will be rafting pictures later, I ordered a DVD and pictures of the trip, but I have to pick it up in Kampala so it may be awhile.

Monkey Bar

At the Nile High Club, monkeys frolic in nearby trees, and even run over the roof of the bar! I took ten pictures, and non of them turned out, but here are the best of the lot.

try the closeup again 

Monkey 

Another Monkey