Saturday, July 5th

Hi again! Today was one of our more relaxing days on the 24 day trip around Uganda. We took a large bus from Jim’s house all the way to Kazinga Channel View Resort.

The ride was long and about 4 hours including our stops along the way. The morning was spent at Jim’s house relaxing and watching movies in the boy’s part of Jim’s house, which they like to call the “mave” which stands for “man cave”. We all snuggled up and watched a few classic movies like Sherlock Holmes and Hunger Games. The time to all hangout after being separated for a while at our homestays was awesome, and seeing our friends at Jim’s house, Alice (basically our fill in mom), and JB (our master chef) was great. We had our last breakfast at Jim’s house ever, and we got a few special treats from JB including some sweet yellow bread, and mandazi fresh out of the oven (donut like bread). At around 12:30 we took off to the Rukungiri Inn to have lunch. This was our second time eating here and we got either fish and chips or chicken and chips and everyone seemed satisfied. After a quick lunch, we were off to Kazinga Channel View Resort at Queen Elizabeth’s National Park. The ride was pretty smooth, minus the first 30 minutes or so where we had to pass through a construction area, where people (sometimes even kids) were holding up green and red flags for the cars to come and go. Unlike America, where the cars take priority, in Uganda we had to wait 20 minutes just to move up ten feet to the next stop. The construction took priority. It was smooth sailing from then on, and we even were given a chance to stop and have a soda of our choice courtesy of Mr. Reed. The rooms here at the resort are very nice compared to our home stays. The bathroom has an actual flushing toilet, not a hole in the ground! And even though the shower is cold, it is better than a small bucket of cold water. Dinner was at 7 at the resort, and they had a buffet of fish, chicken, potato fries, and some bean like item that I was not so interested in taking for myself.

 Overall, the ride was beautiful and filled with great scenery.

The road trips have actually become my favorite parts of the trip so far. Just getting to sit and listen to music and look out at all the banana plantations, and gorgeous hills that go on forever is all I could ask for. We passed by an enormous tea field, and also the Rift Valley that leads all the way to Kenya. It was beautiful to see. Dinner was followed by a campfire courtesy of the resort, and we are enjoying some Nutella that we bought at the local supermarket. It reminds me off home, minus the part that there are cacti everywhere and hippo warnings. Tomorrow we have to wake up bright and early for breakfast, then we are off to chimp tracking!

Thanks for reading!

Caitlyn DiSarcina