Day 5 - New York City

First of all, many apologies for the late posting - it's been quite a rush of late and it's been very difficult to find the time to post any blogs (and I was without internet access for the laptop during our stay immediately following New York). I've decided that rather than posting "all over the place", I should still post chronologically, so here's the next in line... again, sorry for the delays :(

In hindsight, this past week has been the most fitting way to end 2009 and to start 2010 – when we count the days we’ve spent in New York City since Sunday, we’ve had it all! Fittingly, quite a lot of it happened on 31 December 2009.

I woke up around about 8:30am after a much needed and much desired snooze in our new hotel, The Tudor. Actually, that’s not entirely true – I didn’t wake up so much as I was woken up (seems to be a pattern on this trip). I perhaps need to provide a bit of context before I continue: Kat and I had agreed to keep the window open during the night because we didn’t want to run the thermostat / air-con while we slept. Instead, we opted for the icy cold (but relatively “fresh”) Manhattan air over the recycled and dry air from the ventilation system. We were in room 1105 so we were high up enough to not have all the street noise.

So now that I’ve provided you with the context, let me continue. A nice comfortable snooze in a King-sized bed was abruptly interrupted by my wife exclaiming through an abrupt inhalation of air “huh! Bryan! Look!” … naturally, a husband’s (in fact, ANY man’s) first reaction to an abrupt inhalation of air followed by an exclamation is to enter fight mode, and as I was scrambling to commence my ninja defence maneuvers I muttered “What? What?” and she gleefully chimed “it’s snowing!” … and when I comprehended that it was all a false alarm, I rolled over, murmured “that’s cool”, checked out the window and admired the beautiful scene. Manhattan coated in a blanket of snow, and frosty flakes gently drifting over the landscape.

Our last full day here, and despite the beautiful snowfall, I was feeling very sad that it was almost all over so soon. We took a little time getting ready and waking up, enjoyed some instant oats (my cheap solution I brought across from Queens) and got on our way. Originally, this was to be our "free day" to fill in anything we want to lazily do, but owing to our unfortunate and unexpected illness in the party, Monday was lost, and Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday became the NEW YORK PASS days!

Day 4 - New York City

Late night, early start today, and for me, a little emotional too. Emotional, because it marks the first phase our US trip coming to an end and from now on, memories will be slowly overtaken by more checkouts, more moves, and a slowly increasing pace of closure to our holiday. To mark the bittersweet moment, the morning sunrise was beautifully captured by Kat's handy photography skills and gives a great indication of why I love Manhattan so much!

Day 3 - New York City

Tuesday 29 December 2009. Day 3 in New York City.

Today was a much more adventurous day than day 2, but probably not as much excitement as day 1's novelty and adrenaline-filled exploration of the financial capital of the world. Besides, day 1 lasted effectively 40 hours or so for us (if you factor in that we woke up Saturday 9am SA time, flew to NYC 8am Sunday NYC time (that's 26 hours + 7 hours time difference + we stayed up until 10pm which is another 14 hours... that makes the entire day 47 hours for us).

Here's what our day consisted of:

1. 
   
   Kat woke me up this morning with a very cheery "good morning!" and I had to beg her to let me sleep in a little more. She had already opened up the curtains to display our wonderful Manhattan view.
   
   
   
2. 
   
   Experiencing truly frigid New York City weather.
   
   
   
3. 
   
   Did some walkabout in Central Manhattan.
   
   
   
4. 
   
   Shopped at World of Disney's 75% off EVERYTHING.
   
   
   
5. 
   
   Broke a bauble at World of Disney
   
   
   
6. 
   
   Visited St. Thomas Cathedral.
   
   
   
7. 
   
   Visited MOMA
   
   
   
8. 
   
   Trekked to USS Intrepid Museum
   
   
   
9. Visited Hershey's
   
10. 
    
    Visited M&M's World
    
    
    
11. 
    
    Played with Winnie (the Pooh)
    
    
    
12. 
    
    Visited Nintendo World
    
    
    
13. 
    
    Looked at the Rockefeller Centre Christmas Tree, Ice Rink, and ...
    
    
    
14. 
    
    Went to the Top of the Rock
    
    
    
15. 
    
    Experienced jazz sax. music in the subway
    

Day 2 - New York City

Two days have passed since our arrival in New York City, and Monday was our first proper glimpse of a thriving city "that never sleeps". The weather was colder today, but surprisingly, the sun was still up despite the forecasts predicting snow and clouds.

Sadly, I woke up at 7:30am to the distant cry for help from the bathroom, where Kat had just been sick. This marked the pattern for the day, with Kat having to purge whatever remnants of yesterday's food was in her system. She was bundled into bed, where I made her rest for the entire day.

While Kat slept (she's still sleeping now), I decided to do my best to plan our remaining days and venture out on my own briefly...

Day One - New York City

Here you have it, ladies and gentlemen - a report back of our Day one in New York City. This is a long report, since our "Day One" began on December 26 3pm in South Africa and ended December 27 11pm in New York City! Plus, of course, there's always more to report on your first day out :)

New York City... we're heeeeeeere

We have landed! We have arrived! We're now a part of it... New York, New York!

Hooray - what an exciting time this is! It's an adventure and a half and we haven't even started. The hotel is great (see picture from our bedroom attached), and we're a block away from the subway. We're on our way now to Time Square for some Starbucks coffee and a Big Mac from McDonalds, and then it's off to Planet Hollywood to collect our city passes, and maybe - hopefully - we'll spend the evening at Tim Keller's church.

More to follow!

(photo's of me are not at all flattering, but that's how it goes after 20+ hours of flying)

Goodbye South Africa!

See you guys on the flipside!

News - Science: Huge US storm curtails Christmas celebrations

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=nw20091225134940241C170933

We are leaving for USA tomorrow afternoon and look at what we're in for!

Stare at the centre of this image for 20 seconds...

...And then look up! What do you see?
(HINT: you may require some faith)

Sunrise Chip 'n' Ranch

The time is correct!

From boardgames with friends, and rounding off with Johnny's (in)famous Chip & Triple Cheese "with mutton gravy" Roti's*.

Good times become great times! In this photo, Allen's "ruptured his roti".

* our wives are asleep, and three of us actually had beans + chips + cheese, only Chris ventured out into the dark realm of "mutton"

South Africa - the land of braaivleis and bil...

...Gates!

Yes, you heard me - Bill Gates!

A brief update from Kat

Bryan is once again nagging me to post something on our blog and although I love reading blogs and especially Bryan's Blah Blah Blah, I find it tough sharing news without some big event having happened. Anyway here is a brief update on what we have been doing from my perspective:

busy busy busy sums up the past few weeks/months/year!!!

Bryan and I have, for some unknown reason (possibly it's end of year madness) been super busy; late to bed and early to rise (unless like yesterday I forget the alarm clock!). I believe this is dubbed burning the candle at both ends...I think we're at the point where there is just wick curling up into cinders :P

I don't know why but every year Novemeber and December became this stressful rush to get everything done. Along with the pressures at work and totally insane work loads (I love my job but it's about 3 jobs in one); Bryan starts freaking that we still haven't got Christmas presents sorted because gone are the days when a few painted pegs, homemade truffles and Christmas cards are sufficient. We end up planning and thinking up gifts (which of course HAVE to be recorded on pages and pages of Google docs) before we leave the house because the alternative is a glaze eyed stagger around a horrible mall bumping into equally zombified shoppers and resulting in lots of money spent and not the equivalent value in spectacular gifts for everyone. All the work parties and church ministry events are happening at the same time so we have tons of events and parties to attend - all of which require you to dress up (which is a pain seeing as my clothes seem to have all shrunk!) and bring something ...food; R50 gift and energy...all in all I feel exhausted at the thought of the weeks ahead and the festivities have barely begun.
Our additional and distracting busyness is exacerbated by the excitement of planing our trip to the US (we leave on Boxing Day) which is a great opportunity afforded by my work, it is however super stressful for too very cautious decision-makers to book flights; hotels and plan the itinerary without breaking the bank and throttling each other.

I'm the only one left at work on Friday afternoon and it's 4:54pm and although I was really looking forward to a peaceful weekend, I had forgotten that I'm helping set up a stall at our church ministry fair (this involves preparing a fake snake..I'm stuffing a pink stocking; baking and icing 50 cupcakes without eating a whole bunch and finding a tree in a pot --- our stall's carnival game is bite the apple with a Garden of Eden theme); there is a YA picnic at Michell Park; I am going to a image consultant event in the morning and along with manning the stall on Sunday morning, I'm watching my adorable 3 year old niece/goddaughter (Gracie) being a moo cow in her first ever play early Sunday.

It is pretty much mayhem and although Bryan and I keep muttering to each other that we need to bring balance back into our lives as we rush past, more like speedboats than slow ocean liners in the night, we can't seem to gear down to park!

Here's hoping that somehow we get the balance back and I get a chance to sleep in and stay in pyjamas for a day!

To all you merry, slow moving people, I hope you rub off on Bryan and I :)

Waffles! A fine way to end a retreat down the coast...

Mmmm... Tasty!

Retreat time!

We've arrived!

Supper time :)

Thanks Layle & Emz!

Kids... We can wait :)

I think this picture says it all...

Welcome back Ryan

Ryan Reeves is back from the USA for ONE WEEK ONLY.

After having had to fly back to the US for his father's funeral, Ryan's made it back to RSA for a few days to meet up with his friends that he made while he was in RSA for the past year.

Friday night was a dinner & boardgames evening with some friends (Nick, Megan, Blake, Ryan, and us).

Fun, fun, fun.

For the record, Megan finally won a game of COLOSSEUM :)

Alastair Lomas-Walker

I've just received some very shocking news. Our attorney is dead!

He passed away last night after having suffered a stroke a week ago. He was married, but I'm not so sure whether he had kids or not.

Sadly, I really liked the guy - he was quirky, even though he was a no-nonsense kind of guy. I guess that's why I liked him - he'd call my Blackberry a dingleberry and he was always ready to throw away a case if he felt people were second-guessing him.

Christmas in New York!!

As many of you have probably picked up from our GOOGLE TALK statuses, we are going to New York for Christmas!

You see, Katherine's work is flying her to San Francisco for some meeting for two days, and the main guy there says he's fully booked until 21-23 December, and wanted to know if that would work for us. HECK YES! A free flight for Kat to the USA over Christmas, and free accommodation for the both of us while we're in SF? Essentially half-price to USA for Christmas? Who wouldn't want that!

News justin...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. JONES!

Our very dear and old (in more than one sense of the word) friend, Justin, has just hit another milestone! Our GOOGLE SMS service isn't working at the moment (stupid VODACOM) so we aren't getting our IMPORTANT DATES SMS reminders so we are a bit behind on important events, but we'll get around to having you guys over for a nice dinner and maybe a boardgame or something, to celebrate the coming of another year, and the going of more of your life :)

God bless old friend!

Senseless tragedy

Today a good friend of ours sent out an sms around midday that told us his sister-in-law had passed away.

The shock of this sudden loss, and the painful reality that it was a close friend's family, was made so much more unbearable owing to the nature of her passing - an attempted hijacking.

Usually we'd feel horrible and sad simply because it's a friend's tragedy, but for some reason we feel even more gutted than we would normally be - not sure if we've grown more compassionate over life, or because we know the bereaved personally. Whatever the circumstances for our pain, I felt the need to share.

The loss that has occurred wasn't only senseless, but far more tragic because Bianca wasn't a threat to anyone. That two would-be thieves made a decision today to do something this heinous and become murderers just completely shakes my understanding of humanity. The gravity of the events today are even more overwhelming when I consider that these two people loaded a firearm and went out to steal, and to kill. What other reason would someone have for having a loaded weapon?

Reports are disjointed at the moment, but some articles say Bianca was just shot. Plain and simple. How can someone fathom such a thing?

To the family - especially Careen, Cliff, and Bianca's brother and parents - our deepest condolences. We may never fully comprehend your pain but we feel the loss as if she were our sister too. To Hylton, we will always be here for you during this time, and well after the shock and anguish has passed. We know it's hit you hard and we have been praying for you and the rest of the families.

I want to see justice, but I also need to remember vengeance will come under God's authority. Right now we must simply thank God for bringing Bianca into everyone's lives, and pray that the Lord Almighty will be our comfort and our strength. For the Waburtons and Bianca's family, we will keep you in our prayers.

This is completely shocking and I've felt so numb - I don't know of anyone who hasn't been affected by this. This is absolutely senseless and right now is a tragedy beyond compare.

Pizza and boardgames

Thursday night is FUN night at the Johnstons!

We hosted Ryan Reeves Campus Crusader and the Botha's for make-yer-own pizza and boardgame night, and fun was clearly had by all. We didn't end up playing a single boardgame, but instead a boatload of cardgames (admittedly it's a pretty small boat).

Bronwyn McPherson (as in person) arrived with none other than Magnus Pimpus at the latter stages of the evening.

High fives for Bang! victorious sheriff (il sceriffo), Badbreath BrYan and his thar deputies Oldman Botha, and Righteous Reeves McGee.

Mom's blowout fracture

Yes, unfortunately it's official, my mom has to go under the knife again for yet another operation, and this just ten days before her 69th birthday (sorry mom, is that inappropriate?).

That fall she had a week ago has resulted in a blowout fracture to her eye socket / cheek area and she now has to undergo a bone graft and some other surgery to repair the damage and restore feeling to her face.

It's all becoming a bit much for me to handle, because I hate to see my mom in any discomfort, and I really think something needs to change for her lifestyle - she can't keep falling and breaking things - life is better than that! She deserves so much more!

Please keep her in your prayers (if you're the praying type) and I'll keep you posted on the progress and surgery etc.

Greg and Bronwyn - 2 years!

Life seems to pass us by very quickly nowadays. Our best man, Greg Landwehr, and his equally wonderful and lovely wife, Bronwyn, have been living together now for two years, and praise God they've been happily married for every single day of those two years!

Congrats guys and here's wishing you both a whole lot more of happiness and God's blessings, as well as copious amounts of little Landwehrlings clawing at your ankles :)

... speaking of which ... when are the kids coming along? :)

Buy hospital stocks NOW!

Yes, all three of our avid readers, our fourth reader has landed herself up in hospital again. This time, I received an early morning call from one of our tenants (Charles) advising me that my mom had taken a fall and hit her head and there was quite a lot of bleeding.



After getting ourselves together, Kat and I headed over there to take my mom to the doctor.



Long story short, there was a blood-riddled sexagenarian, blood-soaked floors (you should see the photographs), suspected fractured skull, and a lot of driving around.



The latest is, X-rays and CAT scans have warranted the facial reconstruction surgeon to book my mom in for an overnight stay (I'd suspect this is to monitor her and possibly to avoid any Natasha Richardson'esque subdural haemotoma'esque tragedies, although I'd expect a neurosurgeon to make that call).



At any rate, things will need to be changed for my mom, because there's been an awful lot (and I do mean, awful) of injuries recently and this cannot continue. I'd even quip about the gravity of my mom's tumble, but that irony would fall on deaf ears. The key here is that my mom needs to strike balance in her life to avoid similar tumbles in the future.



Humour aside (if you didn't read between the lines quickly go back and read that last paragraph again), please keep my mom in prayer because she's obviously not doing so well at the moment ...

Circus Circus - not just a clever name!

Kat and I indulged in a little lunch at the recently opened Circus Circus in the Pavilion the day before she went off to Uganda. Some may say this story isn't current enough to be relevant, but we both agree the story has to be told. The world has to know. People must be warned.

For our meal, we ordered the Mezze platter (an assortment of Mediterranean goodies and dips) to share. The waitress asked us whether we wanted beef or chicken, but she seemed to forget to ask whether we wanted tasty or disgusting, and defaulted to the latter.

It was a mishmash of calamari, chicken strips, grilled halloumi cheese, mushrooms, and other stuff I can't even recall. The dips were tzasiki (the best of the lot), some pink "thousand islands" and something else just as forgettable. At any rate, the meal was painful to digest, painful to consume, and in fact was so bland that Kat ordered a toasted cheese/tomato sandwich at over R20 (at that sort of price you know it will be good).

Well, you're obviously an uninformed patron if you think a R20+ toasted cheese & tomato sandwich from Circus Circus is going to be anything more than greasy, sloppy, and poorly presented. The picture doesn't do justice (or is that injustice) enough to the oddly slapped together slices of bread with a bit of cheese and traces of tomato. What's most intriguing is that the outside of the "toast" was greased up for God only knows what nefarious purpose.

In the end we spent (sorry, wasted) over R100 on the most miserable assortment of "Mediterranean delightfuls" this side of the equator, and for good measure we threw away a bit more for a toasted sandwich my chronically-drooling dog could have prepared with slightly more skill and less sloppiness.

Circus Circus... It really is!

Johnston Memorial Hospital

This weekend has included me working most of Saturday helping out my mom-in-law with a Masters tutorial, Kat getting a haircut, pedicure, and a nice warm bath. We also spent time online with Simon and Oltman trying out our XBOX LIVE memberships to get some more Left4Dead going on (Simon returned to UK and bought himself an XBOX).
One really significant (and slightly morbidly amusing) period was spent visiting my mom and the equally handicapped Max (see picture). I can't really describe the visit as anything more than a hospital visit. My mom is still suffering from a potentially broken hand, and my puppy Max has broken his hind leg. If I were a stock trader, I'd invest in hospital shares (if you can) because the Johnstons (mostly my mom and I) keep them in business!

Hooray! It's a commentary fiesta!!

No comment.

No comment.

No comment.

That's what some of you have been complaining about with this blog - that you can't comment. Well, to open it up to the masses and to show the world that Brat and Kat aren't just exclusive friends that only care about people with registered friendship memberships (yes, you all do know that you've signed up for the annual friendship membership, don't you?), we've (well, that's me more than Kat) opened up the comment section so you can post a comment just by typing in some little security comment. I think I may have disabled anonymous commenting before because we had some guy called Jimmy (ala the Killer Prawns variety) claiming to want to fix our disastrous meal experience at "his" franchise. Whatever. You can all comment to your hearts' content now (that includes Jennifer Kruger... woohoo - you've got your name on the internet and it's on GOOGLE now).

That's a commendable performance, don't you think?? (get it? commendable... commentable...)

Home!

Yay I'm home, I love being back in the land of plenty where there are endless food options, my lovely bed, transportation, internet and of course, Bryan!

I totally pigged out on dairy loaded food almost as soon as I touched down in Jhb - started with an iced coffee, then cheese and crackers at home, lazagne and salad (with dad's salad dressing..yum!), mugg and bean club sandwich the following day and then ended the reign of dairy with a large American iced coffee...then I felt horribly ill and had to forgo the dairy again :(
It was great though :) !!!!

Back at work and struggling with all the same work issues as before, but thanks to everyone who followed my trip and sent comments and encouragement and prayers!

update on day 6

Okay for all of you stressing away...I'm absolutely fine...we bypassed all the bad stuff by hiring a plane to fly us from Mbarara to Entebbe airport for a vast sum of money! But we were strongly advised to avoid Kampala and seeing as you have to go through there to get to the airport it was a choice of stay in Uganda in the south until the unrest died down but with no guarantee this would happen or fly out today.

So we make the safe option and are in a hotel near the airport and travelling to the airport tomorrow morning at 5am!!! for our normal flights.

So I have seen none of the action apart from the newspaper and the American team that just landed for the week basically did a U-turn and flew out tonight so we are gonna follow their example just to be safe.

But totally fine - thanks everyone for prayers and concerns! xoxo

Uganda - Day 6 and all chaos breaks out!!

So there I was this morning up early, showered and ready for the 5 hour trip back to Kampala with my suitcase packed and ready. Riots broke out yesterday in Kampala so I was watching the news this morning to see what was happening but the news was pretty useless. We stopped at the office to join their study meeting and then got in the car to drive the long 5 hour trip to Kampala. Half way there we heard that the road to Entebbe has been closed, 5 buses have been burned and it was too dangerous to continue. So we literally did a U-turn and have come all the way back to Mbarara.

We have spent the last hour drawing massive amounts of money from our personal banks to charter a flight into Entebbe airport so that we can bypass the closed roads and shooting police and rioters so we can get on that flight home tomorrow morning.

I am assured that riots like this haven't happened in the past 5 years so it's just one of those freaks things. The lady collecting wads of cash for our flight to Kampala seems pretty unreliable so lets hope this isn't an indication of the pilot's skills!!!

I hope you are all praying that we make it home safely cos it has been an adventure so far and who knows what could happen next..Pray for peace in Uganda please, I'm quite keen to get home to my hubby :)

Bryan nobody reads our blog on weekdays :(

So nobody has commented on the great Uganda trip since Sunday - it's very disappointing - if you are reading at least drop me and email or a comment so I know my friends and family are still alive!

Uganda - Day 5

I didn’t sleep well again – think am missing Bryan next to me and it is getting hotter and my stomach has not been handling all the fried food. It was quite cool tho last night cos we got fish and chips and coleslaw last night but the batter on the fish is so greasy and weird…keep asking for grilled fillet but I don’t think anybody understands.

Not much happening today, but a good surprise was that we got picked up from University Inn so we didn’t have to trek up the road. We got dropped off at the hospital to visit the study blood draw clinic and see how they do things there. Was quite impressed by their laptop/printer/label printer setup where they were printing out necessary forms and labels in real-time as patients arrives and they also were updating their database with information. I got some ideas about how I can improve my own scheduling database and it was really great to see how efficient and organized they were.

I brought a jersey with me in case of rain but I suspect today is just gonna be super hot…I was very relieved to have brought a tuna snack pack with me so I had some lunch and I also dug into the chocolate bar I brought with – didn’t think I could handle any more Ugandian food at this point. Poor Huub only managed to get a cake to eat for lunch because we are sitting waiting for cars to take us on home visits. For those of you who have been on mission to Moz, these are not the usual home visits, they are surprise visits to check patients are taking their medication and count the pills they have left J

So right now the Research Assistants are drawing straws for who gets to take me or Huub and then we are going out to the homes.

Okay have just come back from the house visits – it was pretty cool. We went to an old 75 year old lady who could hardly see and she had been taking her meds a bit wrong because she couldn’t see the bottles which was not good. She looked okay though and apparently only doesn’t take her meds when she doesn’t have food because they make her feel sick on an empty stomach. The next lady we visited way out in the bushes (the 4x4s shock absorbers were gone so it was a bumpy ride on dirt roads but fun) had 5 kids they were sooo excited to see the 4x4 and were very cute. This lady is quite young and she and her husband are on treatment and she was taking her meds almost exactly at the same time each day. They have bottles that electronically record each time they are opened so we could see she was opening the bottle of meds same time each day. She ran out to give us a bunch of bananas just as we were leaving. On the way back the 4x4 either got nails in the front tires or stones cos we heard them chinking all the way back. Thankfully you can withdraw Ugandan shillings from ATMs here if you also have a Visa card so I got enough money to pay the hotel. 200 000 shillings = R792.44 today!

It’s pretty hot and I’m all sweaty but yay nearly home, have enjoyed the visit though. Tonight we are going Lord's Bar...sounds like some dodgy dive but luckily we are going with a local!

Msungu = white person

Uganda - Day 4

Restless night because the Mosque kept yodelling all night and then bells were ringing ..was all rather bizarre. Also my bath mat has disappeared and a towel...maybe they only have one and move it to new people's rooms :P

My tummy is grouching because I had hot milk with my breakfast (used my stash of mueseli) but we had quite a nice lunch at a place called City Top (an Indian food restaurant) where I had a toasted chicken sandwich..it only had 3 bones in it.

So we went through all the data management stuff for the day which I have to suss out about whether it is a better system than others...quite a tough task but it was impressive to see how well established they have their processes. I finally got a picture of the ugly bird called a Maribo Storka and we had rain again this afternoon which was nice and has cooled the place down (apparently we have hit the rainy season).

Everyone seems very nice and friendly and I even met someone who is considering a masters in Medical InNformatics at UKZN and people all know Chris Seebreghts, who Bryan studied with, cos he developed a system called OpenMRS which is being used at the HIV clinic.

Otherwise a nice sedate day and I'm not sure what we will be doing this evening ...it's always a challenge to find good food. Will post picture of last night's supper and Huub's (he ordered Irish rice which turned out to be Irish potatoes, rice, two types of pasta and that was it! a all starch white plate meal :P)

Anyway, here's hoping we get something edible - I wonder if it will be safer to crack open a tin of tuna and my carefully preserved slab of chocolate for such a situation!

Am pretty tired but also it's pretty boring here - could do with an x-box!!!! Would love to fight some zombies or play a computer game!

Byyeeee

Uganda - Day 3

Alright so this is still pretty early in the day but I’ll fill you in on the day’s events so far. I had a really good sleep last night after we were taken out to dinner to the best restaurant in Mbarara at the Agip Hotel. It wasn’t too fantastic but I guess it’s good food for here and I didn’t get ill so all in all a good experience. We did talk work till 9pm with Nneke the director which was cool but also after such a long day it was exhausting…entertaining watching the mosquito’s buzzing around like a halo above Huub’s head…think they liked his hair for something…at least it kept them away from me!

I was so happy to see my bed and have a shower that I slept pretty well and after being offered an opportunity to move to a nicer hotel 5 minutes away – I was happy to stay where we are. It’s clean and they had closed my windows and shut my curtains before I got back so no Mozzies and a comfy bed. Only problem was pillows..ended up sleeping without because they were overstuffed.

So I woke up at 7:30, had a shower and washed my hair cos I have a sneaking suspicion that damp hair my attract the mozzies at night and had breakfast. It was pretty decent and I even got a fried egg on toast..have learnt to take bananas to go so that I have food when I need it because there is no telling where you get food next…like now I’m waiting for lunch but without transport it can be a bit of a pain.

We were picked up at 8:30 and taken to the HIV clinic linked to the Mbarara hospital called MUST and given a tour of the clinic and explained their systems…I was quite excited to see their MS Access databases in the pharmacy and reception and then their 15 data capturers upstairs capturing all the data. They have an internal network and internet connection, 2 servers and are capturing in Open MRS for the clinic. It was quite impressive although I wondered about their servers in such a hot room full of people. The hospital was pretty bad in comparison, it seemed somewhat clean and orderly but at the same time was overflowing with people, smelly and obviously almost bereft of any equipment and medication which was really sad.

All over the place are these hideous birds with huge beaks called Mbora (or something like that) that eat garbage and bones…think they are basically scavenging vultures..must take a pic and post it although I can’t seem to get the pics online at present.

This afternoon Huub is presenting about the study that will be started at Prince Myisheni hospital (which I have to get an internet connection set up for and a database program in place). Then hopefully a quiet evening where we get a decent meal and I can go to bed early and read my book J

Okay so day has ended at 6pm – had a really late lunch of chicken (non-discernable pieces) and meeting ended now.

Battery ran out and because Bryan and mom organized me a charger, I’m able to finish up by describing supper…not the greatest..I asked for potatoes and fish and veg. Got fried twirls of fish (at least no bones), ”Irish potatoes” (normal boiled potatoes) and cabbage and carrots. Yet to find a great meal in Uganda! At least there was some entertainment at supper: a group of people (young internationals) travelling through Africa met with a big speed hump driving their truck/bus too fast and the driver sustained bad neck and back injuries…the result was the British Embassy sending a helicopter to airlift him out to Nairobi and a whole pack of students staying at the University Inn…they’re noisy right now ..have taken up all the rest of the rooms and some are camping in the grounds in front of my room. Can’t find my three pieces of papar that I wrote all about today on so am hoping I can find them tomorrow!

Image for the day: A boda-boda (motorbike taxi) driving past with a guy on the back holding up both hands with a giant long fish in them! Couldn’t get a pic in time because I nearly got run over…no rules on the roads!

Uganda - Day 2

Okay so Day 2 of the Uganda trip…equally exhausting…I had to get up earlyish for the next stage which was a drive from Kampala to Mbarara in the South West of Uganda. I tried to save money by having a piece of toast with peanut butter and jam and a juice and banana but it cost $5 (R40 for that!!!!). During the day Bryan is racing around trying to figure out whether to put a purchase in on a house back home so we have rather haphazd sms’s going back and forth between us…which I notice are disturbing our driver who must be wondering who in Uganda I already have a connection with.

Our driver Herbert (I discovered that’s how you spell it even though he pronounces it Hubbard) must have stoked up well on breakfast because it took over 6 hours to get here and all he did was buy a bunch of bananas for sustinance. We crossed the equator earlier in the day which was exciting but I suppose we must have crossed it when we flew in anyway…but we stopped at a café there on the equator and had black tea “with spices” (which meant ginger…good for the stomach) and fried ciabatta chips (like pasta chips) and guacamole. I bought a pretty scarf but was disappointed that an American before me bought the best one L

The roads were pretty horrendous and under construction most of the way, a terrible accident ahead held us up (4 children killed in a bakkie which went off the road due to a truck carrying sweet potatoes…the awful thing was seeing it being towed away and what looked like a child’s body still in the squashed bakkie). L uckily we had a 4x4 because the potholes got worse and worse, we saw zebra, buck and cows which huge horns on the way and finally arrived in Mbarara where I then paid $220 for the trip!!!! Eeek!

I was at the point where I couldn’t keep my eyes open and we had just been shown to our rooms in the University Inn when we were told we were due for a meeting at the site and had to jump back in the 4x4 to get there. I’m currently typing this up while at the site because I probably won’t have internet later tonight and anyway I’m preparing for an early night and a battle with the mosquitos in the very basic accommodation in comparison to the Protea Hotel. Photo’s may have to be posted at a later stage!

So we are waiting for a meeting with the clinic team and I’m wondering where my next meal will be coming from…I may have to crack open a can of tuna and crackers. The good news is that we get breakfast and we can recover from the road trip for the next 3 days. I’m dreading the return trip…I’ll be bagging the back seat for a snooze back I think.

Here are some Ugandan words I learnt:

Agandi - hello

Nyahoo – I’m fine

Omigati - bread

Webare – thank you