The last month has been some what of a roller coaster ride...

I had a great start to the month - we all went to Kampala as it was 3 volunteers birthdays in one weekend and Uganda was playing at Namboole Stadium in the African Cup.

The football was amazing! A group of about 25 of us got on a bus dressed in yellow, red and white Uganda Crane shirts and were armed with vuvuzelas. It seemed like veryone in the country was going to the game. At every oppourtunity people on the bus blew their vuvuzelas and others were cheering and shouting 'We go, we go, Uganda Cranes we go!', It was all really exciting.

The Ugandan national team, Uganda Cranes, are coached and managed byt Bobby Williamson, a Scot who once managed some teams in the SPL. The team were playing Guinea Bissau in the African Cup. Uganda are the favourites to win in their group which include themselves, Kenya, Angola and Guinea Bissau.

When we arrived to the Mandela National Stadium we were overwhelmed with the amount of people that were there. We made our way to the gates to enter the stadium which was not an easy task. The gate that I had chosen had not yet been opened and total chaos was being unleashed. There were too many people fot the space to hold - I'm not joking, in a 2m radius around me there were at least 15 people all squished together to the point where noone could move an inch. We were all broken up from each other and what made it worse was that the people behind were puching, hard. I found it very difficult not to panic, especially as I was being puched against bars which had barbed wire only inches above my head, in addition to this, all that was going through my head were stories of people being crushed to death in situations exactly like the one i was currently in. Brilliant thoughts Justine!

After 45minutes of heloo all of us were through in one piece. As we we went into the stadium the noice was incredible! I have never seen so many people in one place in my whole life - the stadium is meant for 43,000 but 60,000 attended the game. The stands were a sea of yellow, white and red.

I'm not keen on footbal but i really enjoyed the game. It seemed to be football at it's purest. They were playine because they loved the game and their country.

Uganda won 2-0. The whole stadium went insane! It was brilliant, however we all made a quick exit to avoide the crush. I'm so gald that we all went to the game. It was certainly a highlight of my year.

The following week, Molly and I moved into our new house. We live in the teachers quarters near the shcool. I really like living there because there are always people that we can talk to. Unfortunatley I didn't get to enjoy my new bed for long as I needed to go to Jinja to visit the Immigration Office to extend my visa. That sounds like an easy enough to do yeah? No. It wasn't becasue the day I was due to do it my appendix decided to inflame causing me pain that I didn't know existed. Next thing I know I'm in an ambulance on my way to Kampala International Hospital where I was put into surgery almost straight away to get my appendix out.

I spent 3 days in hospital which was frustrating because I couldn't move at all and do things on my own because every time i moved i thought my stiches woud burst, not to mention any form of movement was painful. The hospital was amazing, at no point did I think that I wasn't being looked after. The staff were so nice to me. A lady called Stella looked after me from the minute I got into the ambulance 'till the second I left the hospital. She understood that I was scared and that all I wanted was a hug from my mum and dad, she told me that she would hope that someone would look after he if she were so young, alone, in a totally different country and going into hospital. I'm so grateful for her and everything she did for me.

The timing of my appendix wanting to come out could not have been worse. June was my last full month in Uganda and it is going to take me 4 full weeks, after my stiches were taken out, to recover properly, apparently maybe even more. I have just finished my third. I had to take a week off after my operation, my insurance paid for me to stay in avery nice hotel in Kampala, but I could hardly walk, let alone use the pool! Again, it was just frustrating. I have been back to school for 2 full weeks but I haven't been able to teach anywhere near as much as I was able to before and I have missed a lot of things on weekends simply because I don't have the energy or I'm too sore.

It's upset me a little because it's affected my last month badly and there is nothing I can do about it. :(

I only have 7 full days remaining in Uganda! I can't quite believe it. I am staying at school unitll Friday, I'm going to be sad when I leave and I think I'll find it difficult to say goodbye to all the people I really care about because there is the chance I'm never going to see them again...Then I am meeting the remaining PT volunteers for one last weekend in Kampala.

Tuesday the 12th of July at 4.15pm (my time) I'll begin my journey back home.