Honestly this weekend was the best weekend of our trip!
On Friday there was a ‘Fun Rugby’ tournament at Jinja Rugby Club so along with our local Nile team, there was the Ugandan National team, the Rwandan National Team and the Kenyan National team… So our Nile boys did pretty well to get to the semi-finals (although apparently, because Nile Special was sponsoring the tournament the most, there was some blatant fixing of the groups competing!). Some were even invited to play for the Rwandan team for some reason! About six companies were sponsoring the tournament, putting in about 25 million shillings, around £8000, so there were loads of freebies and in the evening there were some big names of Ugandan music like Chameleon performing in the evening! We took the ASCO kids along with us for the day which they really enjoyed too which was really nice.
Getting in the spirit with the freebies! :
The ASCO kids joined us for the party afterwards in their new clothes donated by Livy and Liberty’s parents! :
9:30 the next morning we were packed and ready for our Easter break in the Ssese Islands! Because we had to get to Entebbe to catch our 3 hour ferry, we hired a matatu for the ten of us to bypass Kampala and avoid the horrible taxi park and go straight to Entebbe – BEST IDEA EVER. We rocked up to the ‘port’…
…and bought our £3 tickets for the ferry ride. That ferry ride was one of the best parts of the trip! Even though we were following what everyone said about being there an half an hour before, there were still no seats anywhere so we were on the top deck in the blistering sunshine for the whole trip…
…but luckily we had the Factor 50 to hand so none of us got sunburnt. The views on that boat were stunning, the clouds, the islands, the still lake, it was all AWESOME…
We arrived on Buggala Island around 5ish to see these views…
…it looked like tropical English countryside! Until of course sunset when our views were more like this…
…and then came the night sky – I’ve never seen more stars in my life, it was absolutely stunning. We spent most of the night like this…
…on our campsite beach – bliss.
On the Sunday we woke up to torrential rain, so naturally we decided to go for a walk! It was really good fun actually, I was totally sodden in my very un-waterproof waterproof. We walked up the hill to the other side of the island to the ‘town’ by following our noses through Ugandan forest/jungle, only to remember when we got there that it was Easter Sunday and it was DEAD apart from singing coming from the church. I’d have loved to have joined in but considering there were kids playing outside in their Sunday dress, we could barely rock up soaked to the skin and half the boys had no shoes on, we honestly looked like street kids! But after a cup of tea in an ‘cafe’ we braved it back through the jungle to the campsite just as the sun was coming out.
Sunshine obviously led to the first ever Busogie Ssese Island Games involving Midget Sumo…
…Agressive Wheelbarrow Races (one armed slapping was allowed)…
…and finally, the Bridge Competition which was a team effort so unfortunately no pictures were taken of this game. Obviously Team Nelson won (Nelson was a dog that followed us for the whole trip)…
…and we’re eagerly awaiting next Easter where we’ve all vowed to hold Busogie Easter Games wherever we are, so parents, WATCH THIS SPACE!
The journey home however was probably one of the most unpleasant I’ve ever had – we were up and packed by 6:45am, ready to leave at 7am for our ferry which was supposed to leave at 8am. 7am SHARP, the torrential rain starts on our walk to the ferry so we all got soaked. Dom, who was a few minutes walk ahead of us, rang us to say the ferry was leaving within the next few minutes and that we had to run! We hopped on just in time at 7:10am and off we sailed at 7:15am – EARLY!!! Stuff happening early in Uganda is pretty much unheard of!!! Turns out that the boat was so full that the captain had no choice but to leave otherwise people would’ve climbed onto the boat etc. At first we were shoved back to our spot on the top deck but this time in the torrential rain for the first hour of the trip, although eventually we found shelter in the corridor of the toilets – classy, eh?!
As a result, half the group (somehow not including me even though my bag was a puddle) have lost their phones, cameras, iPods and chargers to water damage but overall, the weekend was one of the best ever :)
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