So as it turns out I didn't arrive in Uganda early afternoon in time to relax in my nice hotel nor to have a swim in the pool. Instead I got to spend my leap year in Nairobi airport. That's 8 hours I spent in the departures lounge... And you can imagine the level of activity there was to keep me entertained... I was ridiculously bored. And hot. They had a power cut which cause the air conditioning to stop and also meant my sandwhich couldn't be toasted (*primadonna sigh*).

The vibe I got from Kenya was very chilled. There were hundreds of staff everywhere yet everything got done at suuuch a slow pace. Note how I have labelled this "chilled" and not infuriating.... You can tell I had a lot of
time on my hands. I quite happily adopted the apparently Kenyan policy of spending two hours in a cafe eating a sandwich... It worked out to be a fantastically convenient time filler.

My flight over from London was looong. I made very good friends with an adorable little five year old called Armani (although I imagine it's not spelt that way...) until we were landing and approximately 30 seconds before the wheels touched the ground he decided to throw up EVERYWHERE. Then I found out that I had an 8 hour wait rather than one of 3 hours. You can imagine the sort of mood I was in. I called my parents immediately, to rant, of course. Gap year independence here I come....

Anyway, now I am finally in my lovely hotel where I shall be getting a much needed and incredibly comfy night's sleep. However within five minutes of being in my room I saw an enormous lizard run up my wall... I'm going to have to get used to this.

My impressions of uganda thus far is that it seems pretty green and luscious (my judgement however is definitely skewed as i arrived in the dark... And am in the area right beside lake victoria) everyone also seems very friendly, lots of big white smiles. I've also noticed that they all say some variation of "you're welcome" before you've had a chance to say thank you... Another thing I'm going to have to adapt to.

Tomorrow I am being collected by a lovely man called Denis who will be taking me to the capital city of Kampala where I will collect a letter from the prime minister's office allowing me to work in the refugee camp before what I have been warned will be a horrendously long and uncomfortable bus journey first to a town called Kyegegwa (I think that's how it's spelt...) From there I shall be collected by the head of the refugee camp to be driven into Kyaka II.

So on that note, I have now finished my avocado salad which I ate on the terrace (of course they cruelly had to put me beside the pool) and so I'm now off to sleep in the enormous, mosquito net encased double bed that's waiting for me. I better enjoy this while it lasts...!

JH-J x