Back from internet hiatus

Hello All!
Well, it’s been a while… where to begin? The safari was amazing, we couldn’t have asked for a better experience! We saw the big 5 (lion, leopard, water buffalo, elephant and giraffe), along with hyenas, hippos, flamingos, rhinos, and a bunch of awesome birds like Nubian Vultues, Kori Bustards, and one species which our guide didn’t know the name of but that we all agreed looked decidedly like Dan Rathers…. As well as baboons, gazelles and zebras and cheetas and warthogs (which are amazingly adorable and look exactly like Pumba... in fact, the Lion King was bang on about pretty much everything!) It was awesome to be close enough to a family of elephants that we could have actually touched them, had there not been a giant, cranky grandpa elephant protecting the babies. We also had a similar experience with a huge rhino, who was stationed at the side of the road to protect his two-week old baby while nursing. Trouble was, that was the only road leading to where we were headed, and so we had to do a bit of offroading, and let me tell you that being charged by an angy rhino is quite an adrenaline rush! Also, we saw lions mating a few times - a much less exciting event.... we were lucky enough to come upon a pack of female lions on the prowl, as well as one female with her cubs playing in the branches of a tree.
I was all prepared to rough it while on safari, but the showers and beds were actually the most luxuious that I've expeienced in Kenya! There was one kind of scary night though where a lion was heard eating something, and an elephant (apparently much more liable to kill us according to the Masai warrior watchman) outside our tent area.

After the four day safari, our last few days were spent in Nairobi, and within the fist 24 hours we had made up for a month of no shopping. Also, we treated ourselves to a delicious meal at Trattoria - deep fried cheese-coated artichoke in the yummiest spicy tomato sauce eve (wayyyy better than mozza sticks), followed by the best pasta of my life... home made shells with garlic, mushooms, zucchini, asperigus, feta, etc etc.... and then fo dessert, a cake that I will never forget. It was called chocolate meringue cake and it was a cross between a chocolate moose and a really rich dark chocolate cheesecake with the bottom crust made of flaked dark chocolate, and the top cust made of chunks of chocolate meringue cookies with a hot chocolate cocoa sauce in a jug to pour all over it (Karlyn, I think I know what you're getting for your birthday this year!). It may well have been the best dessert I've ever had - I'll have to visit the Olive Branch and have a piece of the raspbery amaretto cheesecake with brandy sauce drizzled on top before I can confirm that.

Anyway, we just got to Uganda and so far I love it! There's this big CHOGM razzmatazz happening here soon where all the commonwealth heads of govenenment (52 of them to be exact, with ove 5000 delegates and her the Queen of England herelf) will descent upon Uganda for their bi-annual meeting... why they chose this country I can't be sure, but it's worked out well for us so far as it is the eason why many of the roads we drove on were so well paved and the aiport we landed in was barely two weeks old. I thoroughly enjoyed Kenya, but I am happy to escape the random election-related riots and from what I've seen so far, the people are somehow even nice, the sceney more breathtaking, and the food more delicious! Apparently it is also much safer here. Magz and I wouldn't (/would) be caught dead out and about after dark in Kenya, but apparently here the threat is nowhere near as high - we've been told that this has always been the case as the tribes from which most Kenyans come were notoriously violent in comparison to the more merchant-driven histories of those here in Kenya. Also, I've noticed the sense of humour is much more compatible with our Canadian one. Today we were taken to the school where we'll be volunteering and it just happened to be the big annual shindig where the kids sing and dance for all the teachers and parents, and it was so much fun - those kids can move!

We lucked out as far as accomodations go - we've got the only placement with a western toilet, internet, and (gasp!) a fridge! It makes the bathroom cockroaches easier to overlook...Our host parents are a newly wed couple and they are amazing., Valence is the director of the local organization we're working with and Dorine is the best cook ever. We had pumpkin for dinner last night and it was delicous!! ...Although it looked and tasted suspiciously like squash. One of the other girls living here is in the Peace Corps and they gave her an awesome cookbook that shows you things like how to bake a cake on a propane stove - it should prove priceless. The dialect here is Lugandan, and is a mixture of Swahili and Arabic, so I know just enough to feel totally confused. We're not exactly sure what our day to day volunteer activities will be here but I'll keep you posted!

~Julia

P.S. For the downsides of Uganda, it is way hotter here, and there are so many more mosquitos, who apparently find me a very tasty treat, but so far no malaria
=:0)