Sorry for the wait.

Hi all, sorry for not updating for the past couple of weeks, but I'm afraid that's just Kampala for you. (That and the volunteer work is 9-5 on weekdays so I can only update on Saturdays). I suppose I'd better fill you in on whats been happening.

Most days I'm working in the hospice in the education department under a women called Mwazi. The job largely consists of typing up reports and letting everyone else get on with more important stuff, so I won't bore you with the details.

Far more interesting has been the traveling I have been doing. Last Saturday me, Emily(see last blog). Caroline (a nurse) and Dr. Ita (one of the doctors at Hospice) went up to Lake Bunyoni, a volcanic lake on the Rwandan border. This lake is possibly the most beautiful place I have ever been. Surrounded by mountains and with an assortment of islands sporting different habitats, it has to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately being me I left my camera in Kampala, but I should be getting some photos emailed to me by the others.

We stayed on two islands which I'm not even going to attempt to spell and will instead call 1 and 2. Island 1 which we stayed on for two nights was largely owned by farmers, with an American run resort on one end. Whilst we were there we met about 20 people from VSO, nearly all medical, but still really nice people, some of whom turned out to be heading to island 2 with us. This meant that we had a couple of good nights of eating and drinking with various NGO workers, and learning fascinating stories which I had forgotten by the morning.

The weekend bore last we headed out to visit Catherine Nwangi, a nurse at Hospice whom my parents are helping to pay for her relatives' school fees. In particular we are helping her niece Bridget through nursing school. Bridget is doing really well with her course, and the nursing college is surprisingly up to date, so Dad will be pleased to hear that the money is well spent. We also visited Catherine's mother and older sister at their home in a nearby village. The mother is a pretty amazing women of an age between 70 and 90, who nonetheless is running a small subsistence farm with only her eldest daughter, who is probably around 60 and what help the family can send them.

Back in Kampala, my aunt and uncle have left for Australia, but where soon replaced by Dr. Anne's cousin, Micheal, his daughter Margret and her husband Karl and their little boy, also called Daniel. This has meant the house has had 5 Liverpudlians, (Anne and family) and 1 Manchurian (Emily) leaving me the only Southerner. However they where all really lovely but the relatives left this morning, leaving me, Emily and Anne. There is also Mary, the 6 year old daughter of Little Anne, the head house girl. Who, once she overcame her initial shyness has turned into a real nuisance.

As final note please don't panic about the protests in Kampala http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6548107.stm as things have calmed down pretty quickly round here, and never came near Hospice or Dr. Anne's house. However it was weird going into central Kampala this morning and walking through places which I'd seen on the T.V. the night before covered in tear gas, with people running and shouting, but like I say things seem to have calmed down. This might be my last post before I get back to England, as Emily and I are planning to go to Jinja to go white water rafting on the nile next Saturday and I leave on the Monday.