Dancing, singing, drinking, and getting lost in the forest!

It has been a nice week here. Friday night Alexis and I went into Kampala, feasted at Kraal Thai, saw North Country at the cinema, and then hooked up with some UMU students at a club called The Basement and danced till the wee hours. Slept in the next day and had a big breakfast by the pool before doing a spot of shopping and heading back to Nkozi. It was a very nice trip to Kampala; for once I came back refreshed instead of feeling all stressful.

Then on Sunday I went to Mpanga Forest for a walk. It’s a forest reserve gazetted in the 1930s that is known for birds, butterflies, and monkeys. A guide led me to the trailhead, then I was free to explore on my own, stalking butterflies through the woodland. Except I couldn't find my way off of the trail! The trail is a loop; I was literally walking in circles. At one point I thought I had found my way out, then the trail became overgrown, then there was a stream that I forded by balancing precariously on a fallen tree (thanks for the ballet lessons go out to my folks, that stuff is useful, balance and all that) then the trail disappeared and I had to do it again in the opposite direction. All the same I had a pleasant walk, stalking butterflies and exploring the forest with the calls of birds and chatter of monkeys in the canopy above. And I felt quite the competent woodswoman when I found my way out.

Sunday night I was back in Nkozi, and Alexis and I decided to open up a bottle of wine I had purchased a few weeks ago in Kampala. After a minor mishap (we set the mat down in the path of biting red ants which led to a couple of bites) we settled into getting pleasantly drunk and singing. Once the bottle was gone we went to the Eucalyptus and talked politics with Ivan, one of Alexis’s classmates.

Then yesterday was Women’s Day, and a public holiday. They also celebrated “Cultural Day” on campus. Lots of people were dressed up in traditional outfits, at lunch different groups made their traditional foods, and in the evening there was an exhibition of traditional dances and songs. Man, can those African women shake their booties! I’ve got to get someone to teach me, when they dance its like their hips aren’t attached to the rest of their bodies, and shaking like crazy!

So all around it has been a pretty good week. I think I might go to Lake Bunyoni this weekend, I’ll let ya’ll know how it goes.

And I’ve only two weeks left, then Kenya!