2015
Gosh, this is going back some!
Ten years now and a partially distant memory but one that can’t be forgotten for two reasons really; 1: Uganda! What a gorgeous country, so green and beautiful and 2: I have now experienced a properly rural African hospital in Bwindi impenetrable forest after contract giardiasis.
Ok, so let’s start at the beginning. In 2015, myself and a colleague were lucky enough to have the opportunity to go to Uganda for three weeks to teach in a school and then explore courtesy in part to an exchange programme and the British Council.
I’m not a newbie to Africa as a continent to visit, having been to South Africa, Kenya and some of North Africa, but nothing quite prepared me for landing in Kampala on a hot evening and then being taken by car (and a lot of prayer) safely to our hostel for our first night. I think of all the places I have been to in the world, Kampala hits you most with noise, dust, heat, more dust and volume of cars who are prepared to drive over each other and pedestrians to get to their destination. The smell is quite cloying too, cooking, diesel, dust and drains, but it is actually what I love about this part of the world. A full on sensory overload. But, in the case of Uganda, you so close to green quiet nature or forest or the rift valley floor, where you may not see another person for miles upon miles. It’s quite a contradiction.
We spent the first week at the school and working, staying with the headmistress and then the proceeding ten days or so we had planned to go and do a safari in the Queen Elizabeth National Park and then go and see the gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Most of this went according to plan, we enjoyed a river safari, seeing a variety of birds and lots of elephants, monkeys, antelope and water buffalo. The highlight of this was (and this is a picture warning) seeing a HUGE constrictor working its way through an impala in the water.
We even managed a cheeky wander as close as we could to the DRC border over a little bridge until we got a bit scared thinking we might end up in trouble.
However, sadly fate was not on the same page as we were and I contracted giardiasis at some point meaning that by the time we arrived on the eve of our gorilla trek, I was diverted to Bwindi hospital in the back of a taxi. I won’t bore you with the gory details albeit there is a funny (ish) story attached to it which you can ask me if you’re that interested, but it did result in both a doctor in the UK (an old school friend who has worked at the hospital) on the phone to the doctor in Bwindi and my husband…quite the threesome whilst the sky and room around me was just yellow…that’s all I recall. Suffice to say, I didn’t get to see the gorillas which I am, to this day, sad about, but the staff at Bwindi were incredible, I got better really quickly and was back on schedule before we needed to fly out (albeit a dicky tum and African roads and potholes are not really a great combination when you need to travel for 8 hours!).
I will go back, or go to Rwanda, I will see those beautiful beasts one day!
