Sorry about the delayed posts. Uganda's internet infrastructure is about as reliable as the Port Adelaide Football Club.
The team was awoken again to the early rising resident rooster next door and the persistent rain. Muscles were sore and it was a fairly quiet breakfast, all contemplating the day ahead. Luckily by the time we got to the building site the rain had eased and the gloves went on. The ‘Technical Build Twosome’, Shannon ‘Shaggz’ Kruschel and Neil ‘Oaktree’ Oakes were up to the challenge to reclaim their status as the most efficient brickies from Sarah ‘Mini’ Chia and Michael ‘Richo’ Richardson. The team’s Lugandan (the local language) is coming along nicely with quite a few ‘misenyu’ and ‘muchungas’ (mud) being thrown around the building site. Bathroom facilities are quite a walk away but a local builder, Yosiah, mentioned that the bushes are fine for a ‘short stay’ but we need to go up the hill for a ‘long stay’! The dormitory is coming along fairly quickly and the foreman is constantly praising our efforts. We’ve made some great friends on the site and they love learning and having a joke with us even if we can’t understand them. We did learn ‘polide’ which translates to ‘I heard that’, in case they are having a laugh at our expense. Later in the evening, after an hour traffic jam, our host, Angel, took us to Caffe Roma in a fairly upmarket area across town. The meal was fantastic and a great way to round off a hard day on the tools.
The next morning the rain had set in again but off we went anyway. After two hours of power in the rain and Kate 'Green' Kain showing off her one and only poncho, we broke for smoko but never returned. It was just too wet. After saying our farewells to the locals we headed off to the city for lunch and the local markets. Into the markets we went with our chief negotiator, Richo, often using his skills to barter down USh2,000 (a whole A$0.80). The team has become quite fond of the local pub up the road, The Lugandan Bar and Restaurant, where there is technically no bar or restaurant and they walk out the front gate and up the road to fetch our medium cold beers! Tomorrow it’s off to don the helmets and ravage the villages around Jinja on four wheels! Richo claims he’s also dunking his head in the Nile on the end of a bungee cord, but we’ll believe it when we hear the scream. We will be cruising the Nile at sunset so unfortunately no blog tonight but we’ll check back in the day after.
Shannon 'Shaggz' Kruschel
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