Another week? Wow how time flies... So here's a quick catch up - Wed was teaching then we set off to Jenny and Jessy all ready to say our goodbye to the kids only to find they're on holiday and no one told us! So that was a bit annoying, and quite sad we couldn't say goodbye. The headmaster was there so hopefully he'll say goodbye from us. Went to Cantori in the evening -was meant to go to the salsa club but realise far too late that it started at 6.30 (Cantori starts at 7.30) so that didn't happen which is abit of a shame coz that would have been fun!
Thurs I taught in the morning then had our test at beauty school in the afternoon! This was basically setting up and finding a client and doing the whole pedicure procedure without our instructions. I think we both did ok though I know I missed out a couple of steps of the leg massage but our teacher says she'll send our certificates in the post! After that it was the informal concert which actually went really well. I had both Charlotte playing the Elephant and Michael playing Hungarian Stomp in it which both went great - I'm so proud of them! Michael and I also played 2 Mozart duets which went ok. Carys played with one of her Oboe students too. Very successful concert!
Fri both students morning students rearranged for the afternoon so hung around til the Meeting at 12 which was long and boring. Then did my teaching. In the evening we made a last minute plan to ge as many teachers and staff from KMS to go out for an evening of Pork which was great fun, and very delicious! The evening ended with lots of dancing and lots of fun was had by all! Even Mr Yiga (the director of the school) turned up for the meal! Lots of laughs and smiles.
Sat Junior Orch didn't happen again. But I did teach Francisca for the last time! She's doing ok and she gave me a necklace which is lovely! In the afternoon/evening me, Francis, Julie, Ben , Carys and Monikah set off to the beach at Entebbe where there was swimming (well it's Lake Victoria really so not a proper beach...) , food (though not enough choice so we ended up getting more food once we were back to Kampala!) and dancing. Again good fun, and most importantly I think Carys had a good last night here! It's weird to think she's already in London.
Sunday got up and Julie had invited me round for Carys' final breakfast. She made scrambled eggs, and fruit salad and it was all very yummy and with some very good coffee too! Had to leave before Carys was on her way as it was the final monthly lunch, though this one was even bigger than normal because one of the main ladies and her family are moving to Egypt so it was a bit of a going away party too. Sunday was a day of lots of eating! And it was even nicer coz the whole family came, including Siya, Fatu and Mohammed who don't normally go to these things so I got some nice snaps. It was once we got back from that that I finally took my hair out! Took such a long time (like 2hrs, though I was doing it on my own..) and I must admit my hair looked pretty cool once it was all out. Mega wavy and fun. Felt so nice to wash it though. Clean silky smooth hair! Lovely.
Yesterday (Monday) was a weird day coz I didn't actually have to go to school as I wasn't teaching. Went round to Julie's to copy some of her cool Ugandan music cd's then off to buy a few last minute things, incuding a few things to give the family. Mainly along the music theme to remind them of me! It's going to be so hard to say goodbye, which will probably happen later this evening coz I leave mega early tomorrow. Yesterday was also Francis's birthday (who was very sad that Carys missed it by one day!) so we went to this place that did delicious coffee and cake for a little celebration. They don't celebrate birthdays as much as we do... He probably wouldn't have done anything had we not persuaded him too!
And today. My last day. I'm surprised I haven't cried yet! Was feeling all emotional this morning when I was talking about leaving and getting to the airport with Manding (my adopted Mummy). They've been so nice to me. But Ben has volunteered to drive me to the airport (despite the ridiculously early hour of the morning) which will be nice to have a friendly face to say goodbye to instead of a taxi driver... So I've done quite a lot of teaching today - Disan, then Michael, then Soloman, then Charlotte. They're all doing well and I've been handing out my email address for people to keep in touch! I'm really very bad at goodbyes. Literally took me about 2hrs to leave school today coz I was saying goodbye to people! Now I must get busy with packing then saying my sad farewells to this fabulous family.
Just to say I'm going to continue using this blog address to document my adventures in Australia (leaving 24th May) so keep watching this space!
Bye from Uganda! I'm going to miss the place and the people so much!
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
21/4/09
So last update was Friday...Saturday was final rehearsals with Sam and Julie and coming home to practice afterwards. Also was a day of settling back into my own 'house' now the guests have left. Though I've barely unpacked - it seems a bit pointless as I have so little time left but I'm going to have a big empty of the suitcase and decide what to throw away day, maybe at the weekend.
But down to the exciting stuff - it was our Visiting Teachers Concert on Sunday, us 4 shared with Marcel Worms who has been doing masterclasses at KMS the past week. He did the first half and we did the 2nd. He's an awesome pianist. Basically he's got a project called 'New Blues' where he's got composers from all round the world to compose his a piece expressing their version of the blues from that country. So there was some awesome harmonics stuff, one where he had a shaker attached to his ankle and a drum between his knees and played all three (inc the piano) simutaneously! Amazing stuff! Our half was after a drinks break and it went pretty well. Only one little slip up in my solo which is a bit annoying but sort of to be expected I guess. And the duets went well. And we ended up playing 2 jazz encore pieces which is a very good sign! So all good fun. At the end Mr Yiga gave his usual speech except this time it was more interesting because he thanked each of us personally and Julie, Carys and I (the ones that are leaving) all got given presents! I got a gorgeous pair of earrings and a really soft lovely shawl, Carys got flip flops (people always make fun of her shoes!) and Julie, a bag. It's so nice that they got us individual things. Afterwards we all went out for pork which was yummmy! So it was a good day and fun evening.
Monday morning I was up quite early to go to the salon where I got my hair braided! Was quite painful and took a long time, but I'm finally getting used to it... It would surprise me the whole day yesterday when I saw my reflection. But toda someone said I look like Alicia Keys which makes me feel better! Not sure it will stay in until I get home as there are a couple that the knots have already started to come undone but we'll see. In the evening Marcel was doing a full cncert at the French Ambassadors again, basically played the same as Sunda but with some more. He's so fantastic! I'm definitely going to try to get some of his cds off the internet. One of those cncerts that you leave with a real buzz. Had to pinch myself that I was still in Uganda - could had been at Wigmore again! And today - just teaching this morning and relaxing/sorting out photos etc for the rest of the day. Also beginning to start thinking about my packing. Wow it's getting so close! Lots of fun to be had before then!
But down to the exciting stuff - it was our Visiting Teachers Concert on Sunday, us 4 shared with Marcel Worms who has been doing masterclasses at KMS the past week. He did the first half and we did the 2nd. He's an awesome pianist. Basically he's got a project called 'New Blues' where he's got composers from all round the world to compose his a piece expressing their version of the blues from that country. So there was some awesome harmonics stuff, one where he had a shaker attached to his ankle and a drum between his knees and played all three (inc the piano) simutaneously! Amazing stuff! Our half was after a drinks break and it went pretty well. Only one little slip up in my solo which is a bit annoying but sort of to be expected I guess. And the duets went well. And we ended up playing 2 jazz encore pieces which is a very good sign! So all good fun. At the end Mr Yiga gave his usual speech except this time it was more interesting because he thanked each of us personally and Julie, Carys and I (the ones that are leaving) all got given presents! I got a gorgeous pair of earrings and a really soft lovely shawl, Carys got flip flops (people always make fun of her shoes!) and Julie, a bag. It's so nice that they got us individual things. Afterwards we all went out for pork which was yummmy! So it was a good day and fun evening.
Monday morning I was up quite early to go to the salon where I got my hair braided! Was quite painful and took a long time, but I'm finally getting used to it... It would surprise me the whole day yesterday when I saw my reflection. But toda someone said I look like Alicia Keys which makes me feel better! Not sure it will stay in until I get home as there are a couple that the knots have already started to come undone but we'll see. In the evening Marcel was doing a full cncert at the French Ambassadors again, basically played the same as Sunda but with some more. He's so fantastic! I'm definitely going to try to get some of his cds off the internet. One of those cncerts that you leave with a real buzz. Had to pinch myself that I was still in Uganda - could had been at Wigmore again! And today - just teaching this morning and relaxing/sorting out photos etc for the rest of the day. Also beginning to start thinking about my packing. Wow it's getting so close! Lots of fun to be had before then!
Friday, 17 April 2009
17/4/09
Ok so another week has nearly passed with no updates. What have I been doing? Well there was Easter. That was fun. In the morning I went with Manding and Sukai (the guest mum) to a craft market which was closing that day so everything was very cheap. As a result bought far too much! Wow how my suitcase is going to suffer! Had the chocolate bunny hunt in the afternoon which everyone enjoyed, including the adults as it's a tradition they'd never seen before. In the evening we all went to the Ndere Centre which has a traditional cultural evening every Sunday with traiditonal dance and food. Was a great evening. The dancing and drumming are amazing! Ended with these women dancing with up to 8 clay pots on their head!! Wow.
Monday was a less exciting day full of practice and swimming and general relaxingness before going back to school the next day. This week has been very full of rehearsals what with the concert coming up on Sunday! Tuesday was my second rehearsal with Paul the pianist and it didn't go great. But he's practised since then so i'm feeling a lot more confident! Also have had rehearsals with Sam and Julie which are going fine and should be a success in the concert. It was Kampala Cantori on Tues night (not Wed) because George who is an organ teacher - only came out for about 2 weeks (he left today actually) was doing a recital at Nariembe Cathedral on Wed. We sung an arrangement of 'In the Jungle the mighty Jungle...' which was fun. Jenny and Jessy was cancelled on Wed becuase they had exams which was fine because it gave us more time for reheasing. The organ recital was great. I don't think I've ever actually been to an organ recital and this one was definitely one to remember because there was a power cut in the middle of one of the pieces! It was quite fun though - the lights went out one by one from each end of the cathedral, ending with the light on the organ. A bit like it might happen in a horror film or something! The rest of the week has been more rehearsing and teaching. And beauty school where we're just perfecting manicures and pedicures really. Today Carys gave Julie a manicure while I gave her a pedicure - talk about being pampered! Our teacher also announced that next week (our last full week here) we will be having an exam and then will post us our certificates! How exciting. Better get revising I guess! Last night we (me, Carys, Sam and Julie) were invited to dinner by George at the house of the people he's staying with which was lovely. Had mint choc chip ice cream and cookies and cream! What luxury! So that was nice. That's basically my week in brief...not that exciting and just lots of preparations for the concert. Oh - Marcel Worms (the guy from Holland who we're sharing half our concert with) has arrived and has been giving masterclasses to the piano students. They are very interesting and I'm sure will be a great help to those who are taking exams - there are a few grade 8 piano students going in for exams this year I think so it's great he's here now becuase they have a good length of time to work on the pieces...
My departure date is getting closer and closer. I'll probably only have time for 1 or 2 more entries - I'll definitely update it with how the concert goes! It is going to be very sad to leave. I'd like to come back in the future and see how the school has developed. It will be nice to get home and see people though. What a fantastic experience it has been! Bye for now, hope you all had a lovely long easter weekend! We had English bank holiday weather here - rained most of the weekend but has been very hot this week! Typical!
Monday was a less exciting day full of practice and swimming and general relaxingness before going back to school the next day. This week has been very full of rehearsals what with the concert coming up on Sunday! Tuesday was my second rehearsal with Paul the pianist and it didn't go great. But he's practised since then so i'm feeling a lot more confident! Also have had rehearsals with Sam and Julie which are going fine and should be a success in the concert. It was Kampala Cantori on Tues night (not Wed) because George who is an organ teacher - only came out for about 2 weeks (he left today actually) was doing a recital at Nariembe Cathedral on Wed. We sung an arrangement of 'In the Jungle the mighty Jungle...' which was fun. Jenny and Jessy was cancelled on Wed becuase they had exams which was fine because it gave us more time for reheasing. The organ recital was great. I don't think I've ever actually been to an organ recital and this one was definitely one to remember because there was a power cut in the middle of one of the pieces! It was quite fun though - the lights went out one by one from each end of the cathedral, ending with the light on the organ. A bit like it might happen in a horror film or something! The rest of the week has been more rehearsing and teaching. And beauty school where we're just perfecting manicures and pedicures really. Today Carys gave Julie a manicure while I gave her a pedicure - talk about being pampered! Our teacher also announced that next week (our last full week here) we will be having an exam and then will post us our certificates! How exciting. Better get revising I guess! Last night we (me, Carys, Sam and Julie) were invited to dinner by George at the house of the people he's staying with which was lovely. Had mint choc chip ice cream and cookies and cream! What luxury! So that was nice. That's basically my week in brief...not that exciting and just lots of preparations for the concert. Oh - Marcel Worms (the guy from Holland who we're sharing half our concert with) has arrived and has been giving masterclasses to the piano students. They are very interesting and I'm sure will be a great help to those who are taking exams - there are a few grade 8 piano students going in for exams this year I think so it's great he's here now becuase they have a good length of time to work on the pieces...
My departure date is getting closer and closer. I'll probably only have time for 1 or 2 more entries - I'll definitely update it with how the concert goes! It is going to be very sad to leave. I'd like to come back in the future and see how the school has developed. It will be nice to get home and see people though. What a fantastic experience it has been! Bye for now, hope you all had a lovely long easter weekend! We had English bank holiday weather here - rained most of the weekend but has been very hot this week! Typical!
Saturday, 11 April 2009
11/4/09
Wow it's been a whole week. Sorry!
So last weekend was basically just relaxing and catching up with practice etc. Manding got back from Dubai also so the shop is now very full of lots of amazing clothes, shoes, jewellery. It's been pretty busy in the shop (in the garage) since then.
Monday I finally manged to collect my passport from Internal Affairs which is good! Went to school and discovered we have to make changes to our Visiting Teachers Concert. Basically there's a guy called Marcel Worms who is coming out here (soon I think) to do piano mastercalsses and lessons and who aslos wants to do a concert so our concert has been chopped in half so he can have the other half. Bit of a shame because we've had to cut all the ensembles (Kampala Cantori singing the Faure and the cello ensemble) which is quite sad but the idea of it is so that our students can see how we play so we've kept all the solo's. Less organising for us I suppose but still lots of practice necesary! We're keeping mine and Sam's duets and Carys, Julie and I are now doing a movement of a Mozart Piano Trio (Carys on piano) so we've been rehearsing that a bit. Had beauty school in the afternoon. We're basically just trying to perfect our pedicure/manicure procedures now. Time's running out to learn more!
Tuesday was just teaching really. Charlotte (to make up for missing a lesson on Good Friday, day off!), Michael and Soloman. Nothing that exciting to report. They're all doing well. And I told them all to practice more - especially the boys! Wednesday was Charlotte again. Her scales and sight reading are good. George, the guy here for 2 weeks teaching organ, is doing aural classes too for each grade which she's been going to. She's doing Grade 5 piano so I'm hoping going back to Grade 1 aural tests won't be too much of a problem! And her pieces are coming along. Slurs getting there, though she finds them hard. It was then general hanging around and eating before waiting for Teddy to go to Jenny and Jessy (Carys wasn't going because she has/had mega sore throat/no voice). Eventually it was getting late so I spoke to her on the phone only to discover she was already there! She thought we were still away coz we were last week! So that didn't happen. But I decided to hang around becuase I was teaching later and thought it would be slightly pointless to go home for like an hour. Did a bit of playing random stuff with Fred as well as just general hanging and chatting to people and playing our trio (minus Julie so not very effective) before receiving a text from Julius, 5 minutes before his lesson saying he wasn't coming. I was so angry! Had just wasted an entire day waiting for him! What an annoying boy. So I went home and destressed before Cantori where we sing the Faure (even though it's not in the concert) and some Madrigals George had brought. So that was a bit of a pointless day. Oh well.
Thursday morning when I came for breakfast, Siya told me I had to pack everything and move out of my room because there is a family here for a week over Easter. This was about 9.15 and I was meant to be teaching at 10 so I literally threw all my stuff into my suitcase to move into the main house. Mohammed has been moved out of his room so I am now sharing with Khadijah (age 8). It's pretty fun being part of the mian house really! Feeling even more part of the family now! I was actually late for school but that was fine coz Disan didn't come. I practiced instead! Concert's so close! Taught Michael - we played some Mozart duets which was quite fun. I think he enjoyed doing something different but I will try to start him on a new piece before I leave so he can continue to work on something. Next was my first rehearsal with my pianist, Paul. Wasn't great as I'm sure most first run though's with the accompaniment are, but at least he now knows the tempos and rubato places etc and we're going to rehearse every day next week so it should be fine. We both need to do some private practise too! Lunch, and then beauty school. Manicure practice this time which we hadn't done in a while. My fingernails are growing to anyone who cares! Someone also did our eyes with some very cool makeup too. And we've been offered free facials - oh the perks of going to beauty school! Was meant to be teaching Francisca who wanted to play in the informal concert that evening, but neither of those happened and we had a good rehearsal on our trio. Then it was time to say goodbye and happy easter to everyone at school!
Yesterday was not a hugely exciting day. Just relaxing and practicing and playing with the many kids that are here now, which is what i'm sure will be the story for the next few days. I went for a bit of a walk to do a bit of shopping - have bought the (4) kids little easter bunnies which I might hide in the garden tomorrow for them to find as we won't really be celebrating easter at all (muslim family...). So that should be a bit of fun home tradition! That's about it really. My departure date is getting closer and closer, which is very sad, but exciting too! At least I know everything still fits in my suitcase...! Happy Easter!
So last weekend was basically just relaxing and catching up with practice etc. Manding got back from Dubai also so the shop is now very full of lots of amazing clothes, shoes, jewellery. It's been pretty busy in the shop (in the garage) since then.
Monday I finally manged to collect my passport from Internal Affairs which is good! Went to school and discovered we have to make changes to our Visiting Teachers Concert. Basically there's a guy called Marcel Worms who is coming out here (soon I think) to do piano mastercalsses and lessons and who aslos wants to do a concert so our concert has been chopped in half so he can have the other half. Bit of a shame because we've had to cut all the ensembles (Kampala Cantori singing the Faure and the cello ensemble) which is quite sad but the idea of it is so that our students can see how we play so we've kept all the solo's. Less organising for us I suppose but still lots of practice necesary! We're keeping mine and Sam's duets and Carys, Julie and I are now doing a movement of a Mozart Piano Trio (Carys on piano) so we've been rehearsing that a bit. Had beauty school in the afternoon. We're basically just trying to perfect our pedicure/manicure procedures now. Time's running out to learn more!
Tuesday was just teaching really. Charlotte (to make up for missing a lesson on Good Friday, day off!), Michael and Soloman. Nothing that exciting to report. They're all doing well. And I told them all to practice more - especially the boys! Wednesday was Charlotte again. Her scales and sight reading are good. George, the guy here for 2 weeks teaching organ, is doing aural classes too for each grade which she's been going to. She's doing Grade 5 piano so I'm hoping going back to Grade 1 aural tests won't be too much of a problem! And her pieces are coming along. Slurs getting there, though she finds them hard. It was then general hanging around and eating before waiting for Teddy to go to Jenny and Jessy (Carys wasn't going because she has/had mega sore throat/no voice). Eventually it was getting late so I spoke to her on the phone only to discover she was already there! She thought we were still away coz we were last week! So that didn't happen. But I decided to hang around becuase I was teaching later and thought it would be slightly pointless to go home for like an hour. Did a bit of playing random stuff with Fred as well as just general hanging and chatting to people and playing our trio (minus Julie so not very effective) before receiving a text from Julius, 5 minutes before his lesson saying he wasn't coming. I was so angry! Had just wasted an entire day waiting for him! What an annoying boy. So I went home and destressed before Cantori where we sing the Faure (even though it's not in the concert) and some Madrigals George had brought. So that was a bit of a pointless day. Oh well.
Thursday morning when I came for breakfast, Siya told me I had to pack everything and move out of my room because there is a family here for a week over Easter. This was about 9.15 and I was meant to be teaching at 10 so I literally threw all my stuff into my suitcase to move into the main house. Mohammed has been moved out of his room so I am now sharing with Khadijah (age 8). It's pretty fun being part of the mian house really! Feeling even more part of the family now! I was actually late for school but that was fine coz Disan didn't come. I practiced instead! Concert's so close! Taught Michael - we played some Mozart duets which was quite fun. I think he enjoyed doing something different but I will try to start him on a new piece before I leave so he can continue to work on something. Next was my first rehearsal with my pianist, Paul. Wasn't great as I'm sure most first run though's with the accompaniment are, but at least he now knows the tempos and rubato places etc and we're going to rehearse every day next week so it should be fine. We both need to do some private practise too! Lunch, and then beauty school. Manicure practice this time which we hadn't done in a while. My fingernails are growing to anyone who cares! Someone also did our eyes with some very cool makeup too. And we've been offered free facials - oh the perks of going to beauty school! Was meant to be teaching Francisca who wanted to play in the informal concert that evening, but neither of those happened and we had a good rehearsal on our trio. Then it was time to say goodbye and happy easter to everyone at school!
Yesterday was not a hugely exciting day. Just relaxing and practicing and playing with the many kids that are here now, which is what i'm sure will be the story for the next few days. I went for a bit of a walk to do a bit of shopping - have bought the (4) kids little easter bunnies which I might hide in the garden tomorrow for them to find as we won't really be celebrating easter at all (muslim family...). So that should be a bit of fun home tradition! That's about it really. My departure date is getting closer and closer, which is very sad, but exciting too! At least I know everything still fits in my suitcase...! Happy Easter!
Saturday, 4 April 2009
4/4/09 Safari and Murchison Falls!
Sorry this is so long! It's been a fun week!
To carry on where I left off in the last one, Saturday I arrived at school bright and early ready for Junior Orch - which definitely did not happen despite Julie having texted everyone to say it was on. Oh well! Surprisingly Julius was one of the only people to turn up so I gave him quite a long lesson in the absence of Orch. I then had the fun job of going to the bank to get money for safari, but the bank decided to block my card coz they thought it had been stolen. Stress! So spent most of the rest of the day making expensive international calls to sort ot out, which after 3 attempts - it was! (apparently..) Other than that was practice etc and after dinner we turned out all the lights in the house in support of that 'Earth Hour' thing. To raise awareness about global warming and I think it was quite a big event worldwide. Nice to feel we're doing our bit! Went for a drink with Julie at a bar nearby which was fun. Sunday too was a chilling out day with the family and more practice and general lazing about. Would have gone for a swim but it rained! I think the rainy season has finally started, not that it's any colder! Just occasionally wet and muddy!
Monday was the day the house was 'infumegated' to get rid of all the bugs so we all had to be ready to leave by 9 when the men with the spray arrived. All the windows were opened in my room and everywhere sprayed. We were all given funny gas mask things during the process. So then it was time to vacate the house and let the smell leave. I was off to the bank again to get the money I so desperately needed, only for the same stupid message to come up again so more phone calls had to be made! I felt like screaming/crying! But after about half an hour it was eventually sorted and I got my money thank god. And after all that stress I decided to treat myself to a coffee and a chocolate croissant from this posh place near the bank. Yumm. Just what I needed then. Next was retrieving my passport from Internal Affairs. But that too was unsuccessful as the lady I'd handed it in to had forgotten to get me to sign something so it had to be resubmitted and I'll collect it next week. Met Carys for lunch then it was off to beauty school to do more pedicures and the massage to go with it. Carys used sooo much oil on one of my legs it was practically dripping off, then she managed to pour nail varnish remover over my freshly painted nails! Hilarious times..! Had a duet rehearsal with Sam after, and after a little coaching from Julie we were sounding pretty good! It's more a question of getting our individual parts good then working on phrasing etc together. It'll be fine!
Tues was teaching - Michael and Soloman, Disan had exams or something I think. It's all going well. They're both getting the hang of the left hand and tuning so I've been working on sound and tone production more recently. Getting there! Went home for lunch and get ready for safari. Met Carys at school once she finished teaching and we set of to the Red Chilli Backpackers place we had to go and pay and where we were staying the night before leaving at 8.30am the following morning. They were very respectable dorms, and we had such a yummy breakfast in the morning - I had bacon and eggs! I've been missing bacon a lot seeing as we don't have it at all at home (muslim family...) So that was fab. By the way 'we' here is me and Carys. Sam made a last minute decision he'd like to join us but sadly there were no spaces left on the trip we were going on. He can go another time though I'm sure! It was about a 6hour journey to Murchison, stopping for lunch and the occasional toilet break in the bushes. Passed the time with ipod listening and sleep so it was a fine journey really! When we arrived we were shown to our tents (very nice, and big, with real beds!) and told not to panic if we saw warthogs or hippos wandering past our tent (we were very near the Nile). We did actually have a babboon wander past our tent once. And there were lots of warthogs around! Then Carys and I decided to take a walk and investigate our surroundings. All very beautiful. Saw hippos, and amazingly coloured lizards and babboons and beautiful butterflys. Lovely stuff. Then went back and showered - was very hot! At dinner it clouded over and we were in amongst a huge thunderstorm which was quite exciting. Could see sheet and fork lightening all around. Luckily the tents were sturdy enough to withstand the storm! Bed fairly early as we had to be at the van at 6.40 the following morning to go on our game drive.
Got a packed breakfast which we ate in the car and got on a ferry across the river to where all the animals were. Drove around from about 7.30 to 11 or so seeing so many animals! It was still quite nice and cool/cloudy so no worries about getting burnt! We saw lots and lots of giraffes, buffalo, wildebeast, wart hogs and baby wart hogs (they're like very cute baby Pumba's from the Lion King!), waterbucks, bush bucks, moniter lizards, lots of different types of birds including the absinnian ground hornbill, weaver birds and my favouite - the black bellied bastard! We saw 2 lions from afar (with binoculars) but then drove closer and so briefly saw them up close before they ran away. Which was cool. Then as we were diving back to get the ferry, we came across an elephant, who wasn't particularly happy with our presence and tried running at the car! Very exciting! Got a few good photos though because it was so close to us. S0 it was back to camp for lunch (Burger! Yumm) and a bit of a rest before we went on our boat trip in the afternoon. It was great. We saw millions of hippos and crocodiles and elephants drinking at the waters edge. Lots of pretty birds too. Was nice and sunny by this point too. The point of the journey was to see Murchison Falls - which are amazing! We were allowed off the boat onto a rock to take some photos. It was so beautiful! That evening we had a delicious (though expensive) dinner - I had pasta bake, and Carys had Beef Mousaka and we shared them. Sooo good! The place was fly ridden though, probably because it hadn't rained like it had the night before. So we escaped the bar and went back to the less fly-ey tent and played silly but fun alphabet and story games to wile away the evening before falling asleep (pretty early again - we had been up since 6!).
The next day we had breakfast at the camp - pancakes! And payed our bills. Food was pretty expensive there so we had to ration our money a bit. But we did ok! We then set off to walk up to the top of Murchison Falls. Which was AMAZING! We were so close we could actually feel the spray! And almost dip your foot in a little pool - but we were told not too. It's an incredible sight. It's 50metres worth of Nile dropping 45metres through a tiny 7metre gap. So powerful. Wow. That's all I can say really! Took so many photos on the trip my camera battery completely died, though luckily not until I was looking through all the photos on our journey back, which we started after we'd seen the falls. We stopped for lunch in the same place and slept most the journey - travelling's tiring! The driver very kindly dropped me right outside my house as we'd actually nearly passed it on our way so I asked if he could drop me near there on the way back, but he took me all the way home! Fantastic trip. Had a great time. Set everything to charge when I got back (everything had run out of battery!) and went and washed the travels off me and tended to my many many bites which are driving me insane! I've got a really good cream but still it'll take a while for them all to go. Ouch. Oh well, I'll live. Had food and was just about to crash out in bed when I received a call asking me to go out to which I felt obliged to say yes as my time here is running out! So Ben picked me up and we went round collecting everyone who was coming and we partied - for a long long time! Was very fun. Though by about 4am I was definitely very tired! We left around 4.30, after all having a go on the random driving games they have in the clubs here. They also have films on the TV's which I find very strange!
Problemo was we were all meant to be at Junior Orchestra at 10 this morning! That didn't happen! I arrived at school about 10.30 which isn't too bad really, would have been there even earlier if our road hadn't been closed because of the helicopter on the airstrip opposite the house so I had to walk all the way to the end of the road to find a boda boda. Was kinda drizzly too, nice it's not so hot and sticky at the moment. Luckily orchestra didn't seem to have worked out this week either so my lateness was excused! Taught Francisca, who I hadn't seen in a while! She's doing well. Again working on sound as her left hand is pretty in tune. She might play a piece in the informal concert on Thurs which would be good. Next was Julius, who really needs to work on his technique still - don't think it helps that he only comes to school on Saturdays so can only do a small bit of practice before our lesson every week. Oh well. We'll do our best. Then Charlotte. Am trying to make up for the lessons we missed this week. Her slurs are definitely improving though she says she still finds them hard. She'll get there! Spent the rest of the afternoon trying to out put photos on facebook for you all to see but it's not letting me! Will keep trying... Time to rest lots I think! Hope there arn't too many April Showers at home! See ya'll soon :D
To carry on where I left off in the last one, Saturday I arrived at school bright and early ready for Junior Orch - which definitely did not happen despite Julie having texted everyone to say it was on. Oh well! Surprisingly Julius was one of the only people to turn up so I gave him quite a long lesson in the absence of Orch. I then had the fun job of going to the bank to get money for safari, but the bank decided to block my card coz they thought it had been stolen. Stress! So spent most of the rest of the day making expensive international calls to sort ot out, which after 3 attempts - it was! (apparently..) Other than that was practice etc and after dinner we turned out all the lights in the house in support of that 'Earth Hour' thing. To raise awareness about global warming and I think it was quite a big event worldwide. Nice to feel we're doing our bit! Went for a drink with Julie at a bar nearby which was fun. Sunday too was a chilling out day with the family and more practice and general lazing about. Would have gone for a swim but it rained! I think the rainy season has finally started, not that it's any colder! Just occasionally wet and muddy!
Monday was the day the house was 'infumegated' to get rid of all the bugs so we all had to be ready to leave by 9 when the men with the spray arrived. All the windows were opened in my room and everywhere sprayed. We were all given funny gas mask things during the process. So then it was time to vacate the house and let the smell leave. I was off to the bank again to get the money I so desperately needed, only for the same stupid message to come up again so more phone calls had to be made! I felt like screaming/crying! But after about half an hour it was eventually sorted and I got my money thank god. And after all that stress I decided to treat myself to a coffee and a chocolate croissant from this posh place near the bank. Yumm. Just what I needed then. Next was retrieving my passport from Internal Affairs. But that too was unsuccessful as the lady I'd handed it in to had forgotten to get me to sign something so it had to be resubmitted and I'll collect it next week. Met Carys for lunch then it was off to beauty school to do more pedicures and the massage to go with it. Carys used sooo much oil on one of my legs it was practically dripping off, then she managed to pour nail varnish remover over my freshly painted nails! Hilarious times..! Had a duet rehearsal with Sam after, and after a little coaching from Julie we were sounding pretty good! It's more a question of getting our individual parts good then working on phrasing etc together. It'll be fine!
Tues was teaching - Michael and Soloman, Disan had exams or something I think. It's all going well. They're both getting the hang of the left hand and tuning so I've been working on sound and tone production more recently. Getting there! Went home for lunch and get ready for safari. Met Carys at school once she finished teaching and we set of to the Red Chilli Backpackers place we had to go and pay and where we were staying the night before leaving at 8.30am the following morning. They were very respectable dorms, and we had such a yummy breakfast in the morning - I had bacon and eggs! I've been missing bacon a lot seeing as we don't have it at all at home (muslim family...) So that was fab. By the way 'we' here is me and Carys. Sam made a last minute decision he'd like to join us but sadly there were no spaces left on the trip we were going on. He can go another time though I'm sure! It was about a 6hour journey to Murchison, stopping for lunch and the occasional toilet break in the bushes. Passed the time with ipod listening and sleep so it was a fine journey really! When we arrived we were shown to our tents (very nice, and big, with real beds!) and told not to panic if we saw warthogs or hippos wandering past our tent (we were very near the Nile). We did actually have a babboon wander past our tent once. And there were lots of warthogs around! Then Carys and I decided to take a walk and investigate our surroundings. All very beautiful. Saw hippos, and amazingly coloured lizards and babboons and beautiful butterflys. Lovely stuff. Then went back and showered - was very hot! At dinner it clouded over and we were in amongst a huge thunderstorm which was quite exciting. Could see sheet and fork lightening all around. Luckily the tents were sturdy enough to withstand the storm! Bed fairly early as we had to be at the van at 6.40 the following morning to go on our game drive.
Got a packed breakfast which we ate in the car and got on a ferry across the river to where all the animals were. Drove around from about 7.30 to 11 or so seeing so many animals! It was still quite nice and cool/cloudy so no worries about getting burnt! We saw lots and lots of giraffes, buffalo, wildebeast, wart hogs and baby wart hogs (they're like very cute baby Pumba's from the Lion King!), waterbucks, bush bucks, moniter lizards, lots of different types of birds including the absinnian ground hornbill, weaver birds and my favouite - the black bellied bastard! We saw 2 lions from afar (with binoculars) but then drove closer and so briefly saw them up close before they ran away. Which was cool. Then as we were diving back to get the ferry, we came across an elephant, who wasn't particularly happy with our presence and tried running at the car! Very exciting! Got a few good photos though because it was so close to us. S0 it was back to camp for lunch (Burger! Yumm) and a bit of a rest before we went on our boat trip in the afternoon. It was great. We saw millions of hippos and crocodiles and elephants drinking at the waters edge. Lots of pretty birds too. Was nice and sunny by this point too. The point of the journey was to see Murchison Falls - which are amazing! We were allowed off the boat onto a rock to take some photos. It was so beautiful! That evening we had a delicious (though expensive) dinner - I had pasta bake, and Carys had Beef Mousaka and we shared them. Sooo good! The place was fly ridden though, probably because it hadn't rained like it had the night before. So we escaped the bar and went back to the less fly-ey tent and played silly but fun alphabet and story games to wile away the evening before falling asleep (pretty early again - we had been up since 6!).
The next day we had breakfast at the camp - pancakes! And payed our bills. Food was pretty expensive there so we had to ration our money a bit. But we did ok! We then set off to walk up to the top of Murchison Falls. Which was AMAZING! We were so close we could actually feel the spray! And almost dip your foot in a little pool - but we were told not too. It's an incredible sight. It's 50metres worth of Nile dropping 45metres through a tiny 7metre gap. So powerful. Wow. That's all I can say really! Took so many photos on the trip my camera battery completely died, though luckily not until I was looking through all the photos on our journey back, which we started after we'd seen the falls. We stopped for lunch in the same place and slept most the journey - travelling's tiring! The driver very kindly dropped me right outside my house as we'd actually nearly passed it on our way so I asked if he could drop me near there on the way back, but he took me all the way home! Fantastic trip. Had a great time. Set everything to charge when I got back (everything had run out of battery!) and went and washed the travels off me and tended to my many many bites which are driving me insane! I've got a really good cream but still it'll take a while for them all to go. Ouch. Oh well, I'll live. Had food and was just about to crash out in bed when I received a call asking me to go out to which I felt obliged to say yes as my time here is running out! So Ben picked me up and we went round collecting everyone who was coming and we partied - for a long long time! Was very fun. Though by about 4am I was definitely very tired! We left around 4.30, after all having a go on the random driving games they have in the clubs here. They also have films on the TV's which I find very strange!
Problemo was we were all meant to be at Junior Orchestra at 10 this morning! That didn't happen! I arrived at school about 10.30 which isn't too bad really, would have been there even earlier if our road hadn't been closed because of the helicopter on the airstrip opposite the house so I had to walk all the way to the end of the road to find a boda boda. Was kinda drizzly too, nice it's not so hot and sticky at the moment. Luckily orchestra didn't seem to have worked out this week either so my lateness was excused! Taught Francisca, who I hadn't seen in a while! She's doing well. Again working on sound as her left hand is pretty in tune. She might play a piece in the informal concert on Thurs which would be good. Next was Julius, who really needs to work on his technique still - don't think it helps that he only comes to school on Saturdays so can only do a small bit of practice before our lesson every week. Oh well. We'll do our best. Then Charlotte. Am trying to make up for the lessons we missed this week. Her slurs are definitely improving though she says she still finds them hard. She'll get there! Spent the rest of the afternoon trying to out put photos on facebook for you all to see but it's not letting me! Will keep trying... Time to rest lots I think! Hope there arn't too many April Showers at home! See ya'll soon :D
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