We flew in last Monday evening. I've never seen a flight like it. A great Boeing 747 and as the door shut the air hostess announced "we only have 35 passengers flying with us this evening, and so once the pilot has switched off the seatbelts sign, you may sit wherever you wish". Naturally, I intend for my first true experience in any class other than economy to be a genuine one, so I satisfied myself by lying across 3 seats in economy and sleeping the whole way.
The arrival was speedy, unlike anything I had seen in Africa before, and we had our visas and were out of there within 20 minutes. We were transferred (slowly) to our hotel, where we were to stay for just 1 night before moving into the new staff apartment. The roads in Kampala are VERY congested, but unlike my experiences in Accra, everyone is very polite and patiently waits their turn... which as a passenger, is infuriating! But cars do drive on the left here, so at least that's a good start.
We went to the office in the afternoon and for the remainder of the week (not intending to say much about my work here, but looks like we will be VERY busy!).
At the weekend I just rested and unpacked and sorted out...
But on Sunday we went to Ngamba Island. We drove down to Entebbe from Kampala and caught the boat across in the late morning. Before we caught the boat, there was a small zoo close to the dock that we visited while we waited. They had peacocks and crocodiles, but for me, the most exciting/terrifying/beautiful creatures that we saw there were the hundreds of spiders that were hanging round.
Then we got the boat to Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary. I was pretty nervous as my last boat trip in Africa (crossing from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to Stone Town, Zanzibar) has haunted me for the past two years. I had overlooked the fact that this was Lake Victoria (very easy to forget that it's a lake, it's just so vast), and so would be nowhere near as rough as the Indian Ocean!
The Chimpanzee Sanctuary take care of confiscated and seized chimpanzees that have been traumatically taken from the forests of Uganda by poachers. These Chimps are usually destined to become exotic pets, dinner in the Congo or part of witch doctor's potion for fertility. The extraction of a young chimp from the wild is devastating for their family, who often fight to the death to retreave them from poachers. I had wanted to go here ever since I saw the Stephen Fry programme "Last Chance to See" where they re-intergrated a little chimpanzee called "Africa" back into the group.
The Chimpanzees have a free run of the Island here, apart from 5% which is taken up by the feeding platform and docks. We watched them during feeding time, and it was truely spectacular and humbling to see that animals that had been treated so badly by humanity, play and tease and trick one another with a higher level of sensitivity that I am able show to others myself (especially when I'm grumpy with sunburn).
Bit heavy. Guess I'll end on that!
TTFN xxxxx
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