So last week was the week of the Presidential Elections and Results. Because of this, we had Thursday and Friday off school. Instead of staying at out project, we went to visit Molly and Justine at their project in Kitega, Lugazi. They only live 25 minutes down the road but we'd never visited before (we did feel quite bad about this!). Having never visited before, meant we'd never experienced their rat problem before. We'd heard how 'bad' their rats were, but after having to persuade the next door neighbour to chase out a rat, who was having a party in the kitchen at 2 in the afternoon, we decided never to think they were exaggerating again! This also goes for the 'school' they were teaching at. We had known it wasn't the best, but they were the only teachers and they didn't even have a building to teach in. It was much worse than we'd imagined so we're counting ourselves lucky now! (Fortunately, they've now been able to teach at another school with an actual building and everything!)

The voting took place on Friday 18th February. We went into Lugazi to use the internet and we also went for lunch (it even RAINED that day!). We saw a couple of polling stations, a group of tables cordoned off with white tape and numerous washing up basins where you cast your vote! It was funny to see how simply it was done in comparison to the UK. Luckily there was no trouble at our place in Lukojjo, or in Kitega/Lugazi where we were staying. After a nice few days with Molly and Justine, we left for our project on Sunday. When we got to Mukono, it was eerily quiet. Strange, as it's usually really busy! On Sunday evening, the results were released. As predicted Museveni, or M7 as he's referred to in the newspapers, won again with sixty-eight percent of the vote. Besigye was the main opposition but only managed twenty-six percent. There were eight other candidates running for president too, however, third place got only two percent! There have been allegations of ballot stuffing in Kampala and Besigye has also claimed to have found ballots pre-ticked with Museveni, we'll see how that pans out this week! There has been some unrest in some of the towns, however, there hasn't been anything too serious so far. So the Elections have been generally peaceful with has been a relief for us all!

This week has just been a usual week at school, with it raining again on Monday! We also haven't had electricity for the past month, something to do with a broken transformer? So we're finding out how some of the other volunteers have been living, and we're very grateful for the time we did have it! This weekend we're just at Kampala backpackers, getting our fix of normal life! We also went out for dinner on Saturday night, partly in celebration of Richard's birthday and mine too (which are on the same day!).We went to a Korean restaurant, the first Korean meal for most of us, which was really nice. We sat on the floor to eat, however there was a pit under the table where you could put your legs. This week, my partner Roxanne is back in the UK for a university interview, so I'm going to visit Keziah and Rosie at their project in Myanzi which will be good as I haven't visited theirs yet. It also means I won't be spending my birthday alone at project!

Think that's everything so will write again soon!

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