Entebbe, Entebbe, Entebbe!

Road outside our guesthouse

So, my last post was over 2 weeks ago now I am ashamed to say, but those two weeks have brought a lot of good times where I have fallen in love with Entebbe and finally discovered it's not so hidden nightlife!

Onto slightly more important things first, Cally, Ibby and myself have been working hard trying to get the study ready for recruitment in early July. In simplest terms, we are looking at newborns born with brain injury at Mulago hospital, the major hospital in Kampala and trying to identify risk factors for this among the population. It is a fairly prevalent problem at the hospital and in Africa in general so the research means that hopefully in the future, treatment might be targeted to prevent it occurring in such high numbers. We have still been visiting the ward every so often to commence staff training etc but I am really looking forward to getting stuck into it on a daily basis once recruitment starts. They have also asked me to come in and help out with actual work on the ward and in clinic with non-study babies which I am looking forward to as it will be a great experience for me and quite the eye-opener I am sure. On an added note, they actually have a set of conjoined twins on the ward which I have seen and are in all the papers here, such a rarity to see and they are absolutely gorgeous!

Walk back from the institute - look carefully, there is a little
monkey hiding behind me!

I have also started running which is about 3 weeks later than I hoped to but better late than never. To be honest, I have been trying to walk everywhere I can and just take boda bodas when I have shopping etc but it was still nice to start exercising properly. Still a little amazed at how much the weather seems to take it out of me though. Would love to continue blaming it on the altitude but after living in Uganda a month now, I feel I can't really use it as an excuse any longer. I think it is probably a combo of the heat, humidity and my lack of fitness, but after one jog of about 30 mins I felt like I had run a half marathon and the next day my legs barely lifted high enough off the ground to avoid tripping over. How pathetic!
I was hoping to find a really nice chilled route to run on but after an unfortunate experience a couple of weeks ago, I am sticking to my familiar route close to home which is fairly free of traffic and more importantly, too many people!
To briefly explain, it was suggested I take a nice long walk down towards the lake off the back of the guesthouse and circle back round towards the supermarket we go to. Unfortunately, Dave who recommended it didn't realise how populated the route had become in the years since he had walked it. Armed with my ipod, sunglasses and bright blue trainers (none of which you commonly see in Entebbe), I set off at probably the busiest time of the afternoon, when every school child is walking home, every worker is driving home and everyone else seems to be outside either washing, cooking or chatting. Picture an alien from another planet strolling around the street and this was approaching that level of curiosity for the entire hour of my walk! The young children, who always seem so excited to see foreigners around and constantly wave and call out to you are one thing but having hundreds of eyes watching as I went on my 'relaxing' stroll sort of pushed the boundaries of my comfort levels. All would have been fine and manageable had the young boda boda drivers not got a little too over-enthusiastic and grabbed my arm when I wouldn't stop and get a ride with them.  This sounds a lot worse than it was and I never actually felt threatened or in danger at any time but I soon quickened my pace, got out of there and learnt that walking as a lone, white female through heavily populated residential areas is not the cleverest of things to be doing! It was a shame really, as the walk itself was really cool and a great chance to get a glimpse of where and how the locals lived.

Julia's birthday with our new friends Jim, Patric and Crystal

Now onto the nightlife. After the weekend before which was a bit of a fizzle to be honest as none of us actually knew where anyone went for a night out, we were determined to find a good bar and dance-floor. Ibby and I had been asking various people around town, including our DVD guy Cliff and his friends, where the happening spots were, and after much discussion it was decided that there was a definite sequence of places to visit on a saturday night in Entebbe. This became our mission.

Knight Riderz during the day

It was Julia's birthday on the Saturday so after a lovely afternoon at Lake Vic hotel pool we all headed out to dinner before going to a bar called Red Roosters. We had met a group of Ugandans the weekend before who after finding out we would be out for Julia's birthday the following weekend, proceeded to invite themselves along for a bit of a party. These guys seemed really nice but I'm not sure any of us actually thought they might be there at the bar waiting for us, especially since they all lived in Kampala - the capital, an hour's drive away! But, as we all walked into Red Roosters, we were met by the group of Jim, Patric and a couple of others who had even bought, wrapped and written a card for Julia's birthday! This pretty much sums up the Ugandans we have met so far to a tea; really friendly people who just love meeting new people and embracing them into their culture. So a few drinks and shots later, we headed to the happening night spot or 'discoteque' as they are called here, Knight Riderz! I know, sounds like a dodgy strip club or something but it is just a local Entebbe club which plays cool music and if you can handle the odd prostitute hanging around, then it is actually a pretty fun night out. We were treated to the dancing prowess of Patric for the night who dances better than any guy I have ever met, the hilarity of Crystal who we met that night at Roosters and is able to chat the ear off a donkey and the protective nature of Jim who was there when some locals got a little too excited about having foreign girls there at the bar! For our first proper night out on the town, it was definitely a success and one we were to repeat the following weekend.

Ibby on the main road into town

Our last couple of weeks in Entebbe have utterly flown by but our experiences have made it very hard to leave indeed. Just as we have become really comfortable here, we have had to move to Kampala in preparation for the daily work at the hospital. Ibby and I have certainly racked up the kilometres in walking around town and have tried to sample as much of Entebbe as we can before leaving.
I am now on a first name basis with Cliff, the DVD guy as we call him, who appears to be a university student by day and a DVD store by, well, by day too! Not quite sure how he manages it but he has single handedly kept Ibby and I amused at night by getting us any movie or tv show our heart desires to watch. He was so sad to lose his best customers, we are now friends on facebook!

Market day!

I also finally got to visit the Tuesday night markets one week with Francis and Julia before they headed back to the UK. These markets are actually more for the locals I think and less for the tourists as you can seemingly get anything from fresh vegetables, to toiletries, underwear, cloth, clothing and the biggest array of second hand shoes I have ever seen. I would love to know where all these shoes come from but you can pretty much find anything from second hand suit shoes, to flip-flops with Barrack Obama's face on them. I resisted the temptation to buy Obama shoes but instead bought two really cute table cloths for my new flat in London!

Ibby Crystal and I at Knight Riderz

Other Entebbe favourites are definitely some of the restaurants we have been to during the last week. The Boma, a cute little guesthouse which you almost miss, made really lovely food and the bonus was that it arrived within the hour, somewhat of a rarity in Entebbe as no-one seems to be in too much of a rush (not a bad thing). The only downer to that meal was one of the guys who joined us from the weekend before who invited himself to dinner, ordered a large Pork Chop and then sat there expecting us three girls to pay for him - talk about awkward, the guy plays national rugby and has a full-time job! Rude! Another restaurant that we absolutely loved was called Phase 3 which we wish we hadn't discovered on our last night as it was awesome. Big enough for two restaurants, the food was great and Ibby finally got to have her Goat curry which was amazing! The last little gem was down by the beach called Goretti's, which makes really nice pizzas and you can sit on the sand. What would make it perfect is if you could actually swim in the water after your lunch but unfortunately its not possible due to the risk of picking up one of the water parasites!

Crystal and I living it up!

Our final send-off in Entebbe was really nice actually and proved to us why we love the place and the people there so much. After dinner at Phase 3, we caught our last Boda Boda together and hit up Red Rooster. We met up with our friend Vivienne who we first met the saturday night before as well as Crystal and some American guys who were also out the sat night before and provided a very funny day at the pool the following Sunday. You are probably realising that Entebbe is a pretty small place and you tend to keep bumping into the same people which makes meeting everyone really easy. For our last night we played endless games of pool and hit the dancefloor. I was the Queen of my pool table for 5 straight games until I unceremoniously lost to Nate! Another unexpectedly fun night out and the reason that Entebbe will be sorely missed.

Dave, Celestine, Ibby Me and Vivienne at Red Roosters

Ibby, myself and Edie by the pool

For my final morning on Friday, after packing up my things, I enjoyed my last couple of hours lying by the Lake Vic Hotel pool. Ibby and I bundled our mountain of luggage into the taxi and departed for our hour long journey into Kampala where everything and anything seemingly awaits. It wasn't long before our clean lake air and laid back atmosphere was replaced by the thick smog and rammed traffic in the capital, but that is a whole other post! I have a phonebook full of new friends and many awesome memories of this lovely little place.

See you Entebbe, hope to be back very soon! xx