Sunday, 6 October 2013
Thursday 29th August- Mosque and going home.
I woke up early along with Dec, Samir, Sarah and Zeddy as we were going to go visit the mosque and try and visit Zeddy's family's old factory.
The 4 of us walked out of the hostel and waved over some Boda-Boda riders. Boda-Bodas are basically the Ugandan cab service. It's a motorbike where you just sit on the back and cling on for dear life as the driver drives like a mad man through the city. We all hopped onto the back of our bodas and asked to be taken to the mosque. Thankfully the journey to the mosque was pretty much just a straight line, so we weren't whizzing around corners everywhere. Although my Boda did speed across a road narrowly missing oncoming traffic before pinging between a couple of vans.
The Mosque which had started being built during Idi Amin's reign is huge, dominating the centre of Kampala. At the mosque we were given a private tour and Sarah and Zeddy had to cover their heads. The inside of the mosque was huge and incredibly intricate and we were able to go up one of the huge towers on each corner of the mosque. At the top of the tower we had an incredible view of the whole city. On the way back down the tower Dec was allowed to drop a shoe down the staircase to see how long it took to reach the bottom, . As we were going back downstairs I felt my hand brush against something on the banister, I turned to look at what I had touched and saw the biggest bug I have ever seen, it must of been some kind of cricket.
From the Mosque we got Bodas to where Zeddy's old factory was. The journey was longer than the last one, and a lot scarier as it was going through unbuilt roads and through some of the less developed parts of the city. Sadly at the factory they wouldn't let us in to have a tour and seemed to be extremely worried when Zeddy mentioned that her family had used to own the factory.
After our rejection from the factory we got Bodas again back to the hostel. On this Boda, I shared with Samir and I had to sit on the back and cling on to barely any seat until we got to the hostel. We were back at the hostel by 9:30am where I quickly went to finish packing and say goodbye to the volunteers as I would be heading to the airport with some others.
After dropping the earlier bunch off at the airport, the rest of us went to a nearby restaurant for a pizza as we didn't have to be there for another couple of hours. At the restaurant the other volunteers who we had left at the hostel turned up and had a 'last supper' with us before we headed back to the airport.
There really isn't much to do at Kampala airport so after much sitting around and waiting, the small group of us boarded our first flight to Dubai. I had booked my seats home with Kit and so we spent the journey watching 'The Internship' and 'Monster's University'. At Dubai airport, myself and Kit had 4-5 hour stopover while the girls had 10 hours or more. We all first went to a restaurant for a free buffet, because if you are stopping at Dubai for more than 4 hours you get food vouchers and other discounts. After the meal and some wandering around the airport, Kit and I said goodbye to the last few volunteers and headed back to our flight home to Gatwick.
Spending 6 weeks in Uganda has been by far the best summer I've ever had, and the best thing that I have ever done, made a lot of friends that I hope I will keep in touch with. And I hope that one day I will return and hopefully see my P4 class again.
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| View from the Mosque |
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| WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? |
After our rejection from the factory we got Bodas again back to the hostel. On this Boda, I shared with Samir and I had to sit on the back and cling on to barely any seat until we got to the hostel. We were back at the hostel by 9:30am where I quickly went to finish packing and say goodbye to the volunteers as I would be heading to the airport with some others.
After dropping the earlier bunch off at the airport, the rest of us went to a nearby restaurant for a pizza as we didn't have to be there for another couple of hours. At the restaurant the other volunteers who we had left at the hostel turned up and had a 'last supper' with us before we headed back to the airport.
There really isn't much to do at Kampala airport so after much sitting around and waiting, the small group of us boarded our first flight to Dubai. I had booked my seats home with Kit and so we spent the journey watching 'The Internship' and 'Monster's University'. At Dubai airport, myself and Kit had 4-5 hour stopover while the girls had 10 hours or more. We all first went to a restaurant for a free buffet, because if you are stopping at Dubai for more than 4 hours you get food vouchers and other discounts. After the meal and some wandering around the airport, Kit and I said goodbye to the last few volunteers and headed back to our flight home to Gatwick.
Spending 6 weeks in Uganda has been by far the best summer I've ever had, and the best thing that I have ever done, made a lot of friends that I hope I will keep in touch with. And I hope that one day I will return and hopefully see my P4 class again.
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