Now the volunteers had the clinics nailed down pretty well. We all had our jobs and spent the days doing the best we could. Midweek we gave ourselves a treat headed to paara via Kampala. We stayed at a delightful guest house with toilets and running water. My room looked like a nursery with four beds one on each wall with four posters and mosquito nets on all sides. Looked just like four cribs I also had a balcony that over looked lake Victoria which is where the Nile starts. I did not see them but I could hear monkeys in the background. That night we went for a walk and found a wonderful little bar called the woods. It was all outside with a view of Kampala over the lake if you are ever in Kampala and looking for a night spot I highly recommend it. That night we also got to meet our now good friend Princes girlfriend. Even though I was totally confused by her mission I did find her delightful and say why prince was so in love with her. . Up early the next day and drove to Paaras. This means hippo because there are 2000 hippos in the area. We checked into the lodge I am sure we looked like country bumpkins we were so excited for good food, hot showers , people who dud not want to tell us they have syphilis and as nick excitedly said a swim up pool bar. Some of us jumped right in clothes and all. That night we went out in range rovers sitting on the roofs. I quickly ran inside a borrowed pillows off the chairs as the roof racks were torture on our back sides. We say giraffes everywhere and we learned the older they are the darker they get. It was fun to see a very dark one and try to guess how old it was. Then we say elephants and lots of them. Males, females , babies of all sizes and one of the males started snorting at us and our wonderful prince high tailed it out of there as a car load had been killed earlier in the year by a pissed of male elephant. We were in per suit of the lion and it seemed like we would not be so lucky as it was getting dark and we thought we better get back to the lodge. When suddenly nick who was sitting next to me yelled out lion lion and pointing we slammed on the brakes as I look to my left and their she is not 6 feet away from me and on a berm so we are basically at eye level I stand up and push left in to nick saying too close too close and he is pushing tommy who is trying to get closer. No one had their camera out we were totally unprepared. The lion stood up and nick and I both knew this was the moment of truth is she pouncing or turning. Well she turned away and suddenly the range rover jerked into action. Prince was off road chasing the lion. At one point the lion stopped and turned and growled at us. This is when tommy said I think we have pissed her off and she sounds close on my side. Remember we are off road in grass about 4 feet tall in the dark chasing a lion with head lights and flash lights. What a hoot and a great story to tell our poor friends who where ahead of us and didnt see it. That night Nile Specials tasted just a little bit better than usual. Marie is still sick so we split the cost of a private room and after another dip in the pool a wonderful dinner on the balcony telling safari stories, laughing we went to take well deserved hot showers and went to bed full of anticipation for tomorrows adventure. We stared out at 6AM and headed out to the safari grass lands. This time no butt cushions were available. We saw more giraffes, Cape buffalos, wort hogs, deer, gazelle like animals then we saw a herd of Ugandan Curs and right in the middle of the heard was a lion. We were all confused why would the herd stand there and let the lion walk around. The answer was they dont run until the lion runs. The lion doesnt just walk up to an animal and kill it. She chances it. So they sorta coexists until she makes her move. On the way out two things happened first we saw a male lion who was injured and we notified the local animal control and apparently they come out and try to help them. The lion was walking around on three legs our driver thought a wort hog had gored it. Then we ran into three hyenas on the road. They are actually sorta cute not like in lion king at all. Big round ears that stand up on top of their heads and all furry. But theses guys are sneaky. Two of them stood in the road and one left through the grass I was on top of the back range rover so I could see the grass rustling and I followed its path to find it come out the back of the car and slowly approaching us. Nick was still next to me so I told him hey the hyenas have surrounded us. Prince said to make noises and scare him away as these guys given a chance will get in the card. Then off we went to our lodge for a few hours of down time before our Nile river tour. Funny how we all eventually gravitated to the swim up bar and each other even after all the togetherness that had been forced upon us we still wanted to be together. We were clearly sharing experiences that no one but the 11 of us will ever really understand. The river cruise was a little boring we all set on the boat and looked for animals. Of course we did see hippos, elephants and yes...........crocodiles and we were on the Nile so pretty hard to complain. When we got to the falls many people got off to hike about an hour to the top of the falls. I did not do it. I really wanted to but I had been wearing my Toms and between the filth in the clinics and stepping in pee in the latrines they were so bad I had tried to wash them in the lodge bathroom sink which made them smell worse, they were sticky and smelly and I feared for my safety if I was to wear them. I was sure I would get some horrible foot fungus that could not be treated in the states and I had left my boots back in Luuka so I was sporting a cute little pair of shoes that one of my team mates had lent me so I opted out only to have her say well if your not going trade me shoes. I gave her Merylls right off my feet, well yes they were hers and I put on her flip flops. The report was that the testee flys were not out and biting as expected and the view of the falls was beautiful. Much like the hike in Yosemite called mist trail. We got back to see baboons lounging around everywhere. It was another wonderful day. Monday we were again up early to start out long trek back to Luuka and our clinics. We meet with the districts officials to talk about what we were doing and what we hope to do and what they needed us to do next year. Well the first thing I noticed is both sides were way off on what they wanted. Then to make it worse we were told we were going on a tour of the prison only to arrive and being told we were expected to provide medical care to the prisoners. We had not brought out meds or supplies and had not planned doing any care. The wardon a feisty, officially dressed women in a tan highly starched dress black boots and red beret and socks was officially irritated and told us and the district chiefs as much. I liked that lady she did not hold back. Then we went for yet another tour of the hospital. Sorry not me baby. So as we got off the bus I ask Chris our fearless leader if I can go shopping across the streets he granted permission so I leaned over to Marie and said lets go shopping with my most we are going rouge smile. She quickly caught on and luckily the wonderful Vicky saw what we were up to and fell in line. We crossed the dirt road and walked down the dirt town looking at the various items for sale. They were making Rolexs which are Tortola like bread with eggs and they are rolled up actually pretty good they were making fried bread and had meat hanging on hooks. This was all going on while sitting in the dirt with kids and chickens and goats all around them. We bought some fried bread which was good but was fried bread. They wrapped it in a piece of news paper and handed it to us. This is when we meet Rodger. The town idiot. He started following us at first then Vicky gave him the bread and he layer prone on the ground thanking us over and over again we thought that was the end of Rodger but no he decided to join us. He was smelly and dirty and he had a pair of pants that were torn to shreds with another pair that were fairly intact underneath. Some town people were calling out to Rodger to leave us alone but he thought he had found new best friends we came upon a few boata boata drivers who picked up rocks out of the dirt and threatened to stone him. He went away. We walked all around then we found a bit of a store that had soda pop and we asked do you have cold beer? No they did not but next door did. So us three grown up ladies were sitting behind the blue door well not a door but old plastic blue beads that hung from the room to the ground that were blue.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 20:39:27 +0000
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