SAFARI!

This week we have had an incredible time on safari at Murchsion Falls National Park. It has been an amazing experience seeing all of the beautiful animals and the savannah and woodland scenery. True to its name the park has a brilliant water fall, as their website puts it - "the Nile explodes through a narrow gorge and cascades down to become a placid river whose banks are thronged with hippos and crocodiles, waterbucks and buffaloes." The falls lived up to this description and we saw it from the top as well as from a boat on the Nile.

We set of on Sunday 11th after church, and drove for about 8 hours to reach our hotel just outside of the park. We went with Moses who is a volunteer at Smile and has been to the park a few times before, and Ronnie who was our driver. We had a great time together and really got to know each other, which made the experience even more enjoyable. On Monday morning we entered the park and drove though it to reach our camp site on the other side of the Nile. We had our first sightings of the animals and the scenery which was truly amazing. It was also very very very hot for our entire time in the park, and I have an attractive mixture of tan and sunburn to show for it!

In our luxurious open top safari van

Antelope known as Ugandan Kobs, by the river bank

A herd of Buffalo

Some Hippos cooling down in the river

A Water Buck

An Elephant metres away from our van!

The Elephants were amazing an we saw some right up close to our car. They were eating the trees and were very chilled even posing for some photos! I found the Buffaloes pretty funny, our guide told us they have very bad eyesight and so when we stopped to see them they all squinted at us looking very angry. Our tour guide also made us laugh when he got out of the car by the Hippos you can see in the picture, he walked towards them shouting "Hello Mr Hippo, how are you?!", until they got up and huffed around for a bit and then swam away!

We reached our camp site in the afternoon and put up the tents. Although, I wasn't very helpful as I fell asleep while this was happening, and I was told later that while I was napping there were some Warthogs napping just below me and sure enough Kathryn took a photo to prove it!

I think Warthogs are very cute and very ugly at the same time.

As well as Warthogs we also had Baboons and a huge Hippo in the camp in the evening! At night, when it is cooler, Hippos come out of the river to eat and one came for a wander around our tents which was really cool and a bit terrifying!

The next day we got up at 6 to go on  an early morning game drive. This is usually the best time to see the animals as it is cooler but we found that we saw the most animals the previous day. Unfortunately we didn't see any lions but these are quite a challenge to find. The best part of the early game drive for me was the scenery, the sunrise was amazing and we drove to a secluded place by the Nile and got out for a while which was beautiful. We also saw a herd of Giraffes up close which was great too.

Sunrise

On the bank of the river Nile, thankfully no crocodiles were around

A Fish Eagle in a tree by the river

The herd of Giraffes

During our game drive we drove past some Baboons with bananas on full view on the dashboard. We also had the roof open and as we were driving a huge Baboon jumped onto our car and came down into it to take our bananas! It was hilarious and scary, especially when our guide started screaming. She also told us not to try and stop it or it would scratch our faces which was reassuring. When we got back from the drive we parked by the river to eat our lunch and we think the baboons must have recognised our van because one jumped in again and took a big tub of biscuits! Luckily a man nearby saw and chased the baboon and somehow got the biscuits back! From then on whenever we saw a baboon we would shut the roof.

On Wednesday we had a busy day. In the morning we took a 2 hour drive to the "top of the falls" where the river Nile falls down a narrow gorge in the rocks. It is a very beautiful sight and the amount of water flowing is crazy. There was loads of spray as well which creates rainbows in the light.

View from the top of the falls

In the afternoon we took a boat safari up the river Nile to see Murchsion falls from the river. The views from the river were beautiful, and the day was so bright and hot which was perfect for seeing the scenery and animals. We saw loads of wildlife on the bank and in the river; Elephants drinking and cooling down, Antelope, Warthogs, Crocodiles, Hippos and some beautiful birds. We also saw a couple of baby Hippos and they are definitely the cutest things I have ever seen (except Patch of course but that is favouritism).

We left the park on Thursday morning after a fantastic few days.

On Sunday morning we are going to a village to do a Bible study camp for the children in the area. We will be working with a church called Goshen and doing games, sports, teaching and watching films with the kids. I am looking forward to it, apart from the camping and bucket showers, and I am sure it will be a great week.

Rwanda

After Christmas we went on a trip to Rwanda because we needed to renew our visas. It also gave us an excuse to have a short holiday and explore the country. Rwanda is a small country which borders Uganda, Tanzania, Congo and Burundi. The main thing we were told before we went was that it is very hilly... which is true! But we also discovered that it is very clean, quite western, and the people are very friendly although speak mainly Rwandese and French. In terms of it being western, the roads were actual roads (no dirt tracks or potholes), there were pavements, street lights, buses rather than crazy taxis, western shops and western food, like burgers, pizza, sandwiches, chips... the list goes on. Unsurprisingly then, we really enjoyed our time in Rwanda! We stayed in a 'youth hostel' but it was more like a hotel, and it was very international with travellers from many different countries staying there. We had a relaxing time, chilling and also exploring a bit of Kigali. We ate out at some delicious restaurants, and it felt like a proper holiday which really helped us to unwind after a busy term.

Chilling in the hostel

Mexican burrito bar!

Eating out at Simba's

On a more serious note, one of the most interesting and important (though very sad) things we saw in Rwanda was a genocide memorial site. As I'm sure most of you know in 1994 there was a genocide in Rwanda which is estimated to have caused the deaths of about 1 million people. The memorial site was very well done and provided a lot of information about the history of the country, before and after the genocide. It described how the colonial takeover, first by the Germans and then the Belgians, caused serious ethnic divisions between the two tribes - the Tutsis and the Hutus. The colonial masters introduced identity cards and thought that Tutsis were superior to Hutus. These tribal divisions intensified as the century progressed for various other reasons, until the death of the Rwandan President in a plane crash sparked the horrific genocide in April 1994. The genocide was mostly carried out by the majority Hutus against the minority Tutsis. It is estimated that about 70% of the entire Tutsi population of Rwanda were killed. This event is so shocking that I couldn't believe I had barely any idea about it until now. Even at the time of the genocide there was no intervention by the western powers. The only force fighting for peace was the Tutsi RPF. In July 1994 the RPF captured Kigali and the government which had implemented the genocide, fell. This brave resistance ended the slaughter of innocent people and amazingly advocated for peace and reconciliation rather than revenge.

Our visit to the memorial site was very worthwhile and thought-provoking. I was really impressed with the whole site and how they promoted peace as well as awareness to stop such an atrocity from happening again.

Baby it's cold outside! (not)

Firstly I apologise for the terrible pun, I think I am turning into Dad already which is scary.

This year was my first Christmas away from home and my first Christmas in Africa! It wasn't scorching heat but certainly a lot hotter than in the UK! On the days running up to Christmas we had a good rest and got into the festive spirit by watching Christmas films and decorating the house, we were also able to collect some of our post which was really nice. We still haven't received all of our post yet (I think the Kampala post office is just being extra slow due to all the Christmas post) but it should filter through over the next month! Thank you very much to everyone who has sent cards and parcels it was so lovely to receive some on Christmas and I am looking forward to the arrival of the rest.

Pretty Pinnies!

Kathryn, Birinda and me - Kitchen Selfie!

On Christmas day we had a busy but really fun day. In the morning Kathryn, Ken and I went to church and which was a nice service, I especially enjoyed singing the Christmas carols. We then met Alex in town and went food shopping buying loads of treats like cheese, chocolate, cake and even bacon! We came back to the Smile House and started cooking with the help on some friends who had come round. By about 6 we were ready to eat the mountain of food that had been prepared by various people both in our house and Alex's house. There were so many different foods; roast chicken, goat, pigs in blankets, rice, pasta, roast potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli cheese (which tasted pretty good and was made by me I am proud to say!), pasta salad, fruit salad, ice cream, delicious cake, and probably some more I've forgotten. We had a great meal with about 10-15 friends arriving throughout the evening, sometimes completely unexpected(!), from church and Smile who had all come round to share Christmas with us. The food was brilliant and we were all stuffed by the end of it, the company was so lovely and hilarious as well! The celebrating went on into the evening and by the end of it we were all exhausted but very happy, and full!

And there was lots of laughing!