Uganda

After a night in Rwanda we made a short journey to the Ugandan border, then nearby to Kisoro in the southwest of the country. After waiting 45 minutes after the bus stopped for the driver to open the luggage compartment, we got our bags and headed to our new home by Chahafi lake.  A further 45 minutes of crawling down a horrendous road and we entered into rural, secluded Chahafi.

We were volunteering in this new place in exchange for food and accommodation, so spent the first day doing a swamp walk and canoe trip with the owner, photographing the area for him to use for advertising. Around the picturesque lake we saw a birth ceremony taking place, where the new mum parades her child alongside the rest of the women in the village, playing instruments, singing and clapping. During our time we were also invited to a wedding, where English and Ugandan traditions were mixed into a colourful occasion.

The village life was really a big reason why we came to Africa, before Uganda on the trip we had managed to see only fringes of tourist areas and city life, but Chahafi was totally different. Every time we left our accommodation we had kids either running to touch us or running off crying. Adults and toddlers alike would wave as we passed, with everyone shouting 'Mzungu how are you?' Mzungu meaning white person in every country we've visited so far. A really surreal experience to be noticed by everyone.

We started volunteering in Sunrise Primary school the week we arrived and continued to do so for the next four weeks. The staff and students were enjoying their Christmas holidays, but the headmaster happily reopened the school for two classes during their time off and 50 or so kids turned up voluntarily every day. Being the holidays there was no curriculum to upkeep so we were given the freedom to plan and deliver our own classes. Sammie took up English reading and writing, whilst I had a go at maths and English speaking as the kids weren't too confident in talking aloud.

The next 4 weeks were spent having an amazing time with the kids, at the start they were too scared to talk to us but by the end we were having daily debates and genuinely loving getting up every morning to go to 'work'. Sammie did a lesson about New Years resolutions, resulting in more than one of the girls in her class writing their ambition for 2015 as being 'to get fat like Sammie.' This was combined with Sammie having to run out of a class laughing because a kid farted.

The last day at the school was an emotional goodbye, with the kids and staff performing traditional songs and dances for us and giving us goodbye presents. We then spent the afternoon talking with the teachers about homosexuality (illegal in Uganda), cross dressing and gender operations, an interesting finish. The school was the best thing we've done on the trip so far, we were the first people to volunteer there so it gave us a real feel for what life is actually like in a rural village. We're hoping to continue supporting the school and advertising and organising volunteers to go out there in the future.

For the four weeks in Chahafi out of school hours we kept ourselves busy. Christmas was spent giving speeches in church to hundreds of locals which was a lot more enjoyable than New Years Eve being kept up until 7am listening to DJ Gash. We hiked a nearby volcano which took us on a 10 hour journey through swamps and up 3 peaks, until a 3669m peak which acts as a triple border between Uganda, Rwanda and DRC. The locals played football every night which I tended to join in with and we were lucky enough to be invited into 4 homes for meals with teacher's or student's families.

The final moments in Chahafi summed up our whole experience. Our motorbike taxi got a puncture on the way out just as church was finishing. 10 minutes later by the time it was fixed we were surrounded by nearly 200 kids who waved us off. We've never felt as safe or welcomed as we did in that little village.

Once we had left Chahafi it was back to travelling and we got on an overnight bus to Kampala followed by a morning minibus to Entebbe. We spent the next week or so with a friend we originally met in Malawi. During that time we visited Sipi falls, a series of 3 waterfalls which we were escorted around by our guide who was still attending secondary school. Sammie's birthday was spent laying down 5000USh chips on the blackjack table (4368USh=£1) and a romantic sunset cruise down the Nile went severely downhill once me and Sammie found out there was a free bar.

The final stop for our 2 months in Uganda was Kampala, where we spent most of our days sunbathing next to a pool. Besides that we looked around the hectic centre's museums, mosques and palaces, including Idi Amin's torture chambers where his enemies were killed by the thousands. The equator line was also nearby, so we spent a day taking pictures under the equator sign (we've since found out the actual equator line is about 30m away from the sign).

We left the country in fitting fashion, getting a motorbike taxi to the airport with the driver, me, Sammie, 2 big backpacks and 2 small backpacks all crammed onto one motorbike. We had a great time.