Fort Portal

Friday

Started with Fellowship with the girls at 7am: dancing, singing and teaching they do every M,W,F. Normally I’m stoked to go with them, but for the past few days I hadn’t been feeling well and I also had been averaging about  3 hours of sleep a night. Afterwards, I talked to Sarah about still not feeling well and so she decided I should go to the doctor. (I don’t normally go, but I knew I was fighting some kind of infection so I decided not to argue). I also had been invited by my Texan friends to go to Fort Portal for the weekend and after talking with Sarah, she encouraged me to go as the girls were going to be studying all weekend long for their final exams. Sarah got the school driver to take me to Kampala to the clinic she knew was trustworthy, I packed my weekend bag and headed out.

The African clinic experience was actually pretty great. They worked with me (as I was on a very short time limit to catch the 2pm bus) and had me in and out with antibiotics in an hour.  (Definitely a different experience being there, specifically where the surgeries occurred was behind a sheet in the waiting area where you would hear babies cry when getting shots or treatments etc. … not the most relaxing environment). The price was similar to a US doctor visit, so I was willing to pay whatever it took. While at the doctors, my friend Sarah from Rwanda (my sweet teacher friend) was in Kampala so we decided to meet up. She arrived a few minutes after I got out of the clinic and we headed to downtown to wait for Scott and Sam (and friends) to head on our journey. While Sarah and I were waiting, she was motioning with her left hand when I saw a RING on her finger. I literally freeked out and she started laughing. She had wanted to tell me in person and had waited till I got here to tell me. I am so excited for my sweet friend!!!

The guys arrived at 2pm to the crazy bus park area and we pushed our way until an extremely full bus and headed to Fort Portal. The drive was hilarious as the shocks were non existent, so every pot hole or bump in the road sent us sailing into the air. We were completely soaked with sweat  from the intense heat, and also because the seats were covered in non breathing plastic covers. The 4 hour drive turned into a 5 hour, but went fast as we talked and laughed the whole way there.

We arrived late and headed to our hostel (my boda driver ran out of gas, so I called Sam quickly to send me his driver as it was dark and in the middle of nowhere.  We arrived at our hostel to find a ping pong table and delicious home made curry dinner. The rest of the night was filled with playing ping pong and relaxing on the couches. The following morning began with a long run with Scott through the gorgeous tropical mountains and a delicious mango for breakfast. We packed up and headed into town where we found the coolest garden restaurant and waited while our 2 other friends arrived on the lunch bus. We all enjoyed lunch together (even as the rain poured…it’s rainy season here again in Uganda and this time it’s actually raining). Then, we hired a driver to take us to our B&B for the night, located on a lake about an hour outside of town. Our spot Saturday night was awesome as each of our rooms overlooked the lake, was covered in flowers and had monkeys jumping from tree to tree. We unpacked, road the bodas (we rented 2 for the day) and headed to dinner by the campfire. After dinner, we started a game of spades while we watched the Mississippi State vs. Arkansas game on the internet. The night was SO fun and I really bonded with another girl Courtney who came.

Sunday we woke up to our breakfast laid out for us on a table that over looked the lake. 2 large sticks were placed beside the table to war off the monkey s that were coming to steel our food…and boy did they try. ( I do have a pic of me actually feeding a wild monkey, which I’m super proud of). After breakfast and a photo shoot with monkeys, we headed out on a hike to the Top of the World. We didn’t exactly know where to go so using our African directions, we headed out. The hike ended up being a fabulous time, with me really being able to bond with Courtney. She is a gem from MS and brings out my southern ghetto and I LOVE it! The two of us talked (and set the pace) the entire time. Village kids would come out, sing to us, hold our hands, want a piggy back etc. as we tracked up the mountain. The top was gorgeous and on the way down, we got stuck in a tropical rainforest downpour (bc we were in a tropical rainforest). We showered, packed up our stuff and headed back into town. Had a quick lunch and boda’d to the bus park. This arrival was easy and seamless. We got 6 seats next to each other and headed out on the road. The ride went fast with great conversations, my own personal MC who introduced me to some fabulous singer songwriters and of course you can’t forget the stop that included a hand off of a LIVE chicken through the window and sat next to Brent for the remainder (2hrs) of the trip. Oh Africa.

I headed to the guys how for the night as Emily let me stay in her extra bunk. The night was a late one as we stayed up till around 3…talkin’ it up.