Arriving in Entebbe

On Wednesday afternoon I set off for Heathrow with my mahoosive rucksack! I had an overnight flight to Entebbe with a 2 hour layover in Dubai at 3 in the morning. I met with Marina at Dubai and we then had a 5 hour flight to Entebbe. The flights were not as bad as I was expecting even though I didn’t get any sleep on the first one! My favourite part about flying with Emirates was the boarding music playlist. It ranged from ‘Come fly with me’ to ‘Flying without wings’- Westlife to ‘I’m Like a Bird’- Nelly Furtado. Someone clearly had fun making that playlist.

Marina and I have just arrived in Kampala after a few days in Entebbe. One of the things that we found most peculiar was how quiet it was in Entebbe. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and were picked up by a taxi that took us to our hotel which was down a small road. The driver also offered to take us to Kampala on Saturday so at least within 30 minutes of arriving in Uganda we had sorted out how we will get to Kampala! At the hotel, we were greeted by the lovely staff, Grace and Michael, who showed us round and took us to our room. After settling into our room and recovering from the 24hours of travelling we headed out to the shops. There is a newly built mall about 30 minute’s walk from our hotel where we went to withdraw cash and sort out our local sim cards. I must say it is very weird being able to access 3G internet in the middle of Uganda, but also very useful.Our first full day in Entebbe welcomed us firstly, with a power cut that lasted the whole day and second it rained all day. Although we did have banana pancakes for breakfast which were amazing! Our hotel is nice and very peaceful as it is right next to a river.

Before the power cut, we were able to get a bit of work done in the hotel lounge. After that, we then went out to explore and visit the Botanical Gardens, which were beautiful and right on the edge of Lake Victoria. We did actually walk past the entrance and had to ask 2 people how to actually get into the place but found it eventually!

As soon as we entered we were immediately kindly shown around by two university students who were doing research there. I am still trying to work out if they were actually employed by the gardens or just being extra friendly. They took us round the whole gardens for about two hours, showing us every small detail, pointing out every avocado, mango and banana tree. Wycliff, the one student, even explained to me how in Uganda, eating grasshoppers is a delicacy and that they are seasonal. He explained that they are caught using a metal drum and a lighter to attract the bugs.

On our last full day in Entebbe before coming to Kampala we spent the day at the nearby beach, did some final readings and tried to join an online training about feedback but the wifi connection would not allow us!