Safari

When in Uganda, I had to do a Safari tour. There are two major destinations for Safari in Uganda: Murchison falls and Queen Elisabeth. I chose the first one and was very excited.

I chose one of the more affordable packages: three days in Murchison falls, on the Nile and a Rhino Sanctuary. All inclusive, except for food. Also, one of the most exciting things: I was gonna sleep in a tent.

Now, one of the most fun things was letting my parents know about my plans.

They were really happy about the Safari, but not crazy about me sleeping in a tent. Here are some comments I heard:

#1
Mom: "I raised you... I spent sleepless nights for you... and this is how you are thanking me? Spending a night in a tent so some lion would eat you? You, ungrateful child!"
Me: "Mom, it's not one night. It's two nights"
Mom: "Ah, what difference does it make. You're gonna be eaten at some point!"

#2
Me: "Mom, it is really ok. There are a lot of people. No animal is going to eat me. I promise, there is nothing to worry about"
Mom: "How did I raise you so abnormal? Did you get it from my breast-milk? Ah, they told me not to breast-feed you longer than 6 months. This is what happens when you do!! "

#3 (I was already on the way to Murchison. On the phone)
Me: "Hey daddy! Happy Birthday!!"
Dad: "Hey sweetie! Good that you remember my birthday. You know what the best gift for me would be? Would you give me the gift of surviving those 3 days and not being eaten by lions or whatever creature you will see?"
Me: "Yes, daddy. I promise!"

Safari was awesome. I didn't see lions or leopards, but I saw a whole bunch of other wonderful things.

Turns out, even if I don't get eaten by lions, my tent might be attacked by a warthogs. That's why we were all told to take out everything that we have that smells (good or bad, doesn't matter).

Here are the falls: Murchison and Uhuru (Independence).

And the rest of the wonders of Murchison Falls National Park

Rhinos are the scariest animals I have seen. They are freaking huge!! Plus, I heard this from our ranger 

Ranger: "If it attacks you, you have to hide behind the tree" 

Me: "What if I don't make it? Would you shoot the rhino?"

Ranger: "Oh, no. The life of a rhino is costs way more than human's. They are dying species, you know..."

Well, maybe not exactly his words, but all the ranger meant was that he was in no way going to harm the rhino.

Btw, funny story. There is a family of rhinos in this sanctuary, where the Mom is from the US and the Dad is from Kanya. Guess the name of their child! Obama! Haha.

Even though I booked my tour by myself, I met a bunch of nice people and shared a drink or two (or three... or four, who keeps count)

BEST TRIP EVER!

Uganda's nature

I am sure I have mentioned this before, but the nature in Uganda is stunning.

Although the rainy season has begun, and the rays of sun don't burn your head as often, Kampala stays its gorgeous self.

The rain here is nothing I have seen before. Here, it rains as if there's no tomorrow. But unlike Germany, or Norway, it stops after a short while. 20 minutes, 30 minutes. Not more than that.

DID YOU SEE THAT HORNY COW?!

One of the things that amuse me the best in Uganda is the nature. Not a day has passed without me smiling at a chicken, a goat, at those weird-looking-man-eating marabous, and other beautiful birds of different colour and most importantly - the cows.

A horny cow would usually mean something else in a different context, but in this one - it literally  means a really horny cow.

The cows here are amazing! They have huge horns, which make you worry about your ass when you approach them. I was told by the locals, that the cows are not aggressive and won’t attack, but honestly - they are badshit scary!

Here are some pictures! You judge.

I was attending a very serious and important training in Mbarara. Halfway through the training I noticed the cows from the window!! Leaving the important event behind, I raced to the field, where the cows were enjoying the fresh grass. I didn’t care for the rain, nor the slippery soil. All I cared about - were the cows! Ah… the cows!! 

My colleague joined me in a while. He started telling me different fascinating facts about cows. Apparently I am the last person to find out that when the season comes for cows to get pregnant, they get on top of other female cows to “send a message” to the bulls that they are ready for… you know…

With this in mind, I remembered several occasions, where females of another species - humans, would get all over one another to impress the males. Come on, we have all seen that in bars. Girls making out with each other to impress a guy….

Well, next time I encounter that, I will enlighten the females that they did not invent the girl on girl action. The Ugandan cows did! :D 

Things that I've been told

People in Uganda are extremely nice. Culturally, they are very hospitable, caring and curious about the newcomers. I like that. However, differences of the expressions that are not appropriate in my society may actually be considered a complement here. Here are some things that were told to me personally. I didn’t take any offence, but thought it might be interesting to share.

Case 1. Hairiness

- What is that? Do you have a beard? Let me take one of the hair out! Hahahahaha, I am joking! 

Alright, my nation is genetically hairy. Sue me! 

Case 2. Weight 

Stranger: You are fat! Eat more so you can become bigger! Eat!

Me: Excuse me?

Stranger: You are fat! 

Me: Excuse me?

Stranger: Fat!! Big! Fat!

(this was happening when I was sitting outside, with a big bowl of rice and g-nuts)

Case 3. Muzungu vs. Chinese lookin’

- Hey, China!! China!! You are China!!

I don’t understand what that supposed to mean. I am… China! I should have one of those labels “Made in China!"

I understand that most of the times people were either thinking that I would appreciate the joke. I never did, but I had to be understanding of the culture of complements here. I wasn’t! I tried very hard for those words not to offend me, but they did!

These “complements" would haunt me forever!

Summer 2014

Summer of 2014 was the craziest, most adventurous and most amazing I had. As I am sure you noticed from my Facebook wall - I spent two entire months traveling. Instead of going home to see my parents, like good girls would do, I shut down my computer for good 60 days and wondered around!

I have never been the girl with brilliant logic. Instead of traveling to countries that are close to each other, I made an impossibly complicated rout around Europe.

Stavanger (NO) ---> Oslo (NO) ---> Rome (IT) ---> Florence (IT) ---> Venice (IT) ---> Den Haag (NL) ---> Amsterdam (NL) ---> Hamburg (GE) ---> Barcelona (SP) ---> Porto (PT) ---> Lisbon (PT) ---> Madrid (SP) ---> Athens (GR) ---> Fira, Santorini (GR) ---> Heraklion, Crete (GR) ---> Kampala (UG)

You see, not much of logic regarding my destinations.

I call my journey "4-day-traveling" as that is approximately how much I spent in each of the cities. Actually, sometimes it was way more, but it always felt I like I was staying in one place for 4 days, which is enough to get familiar, but not enough to get attached.

To be honest, I can never say which of the places I like the most. I gave it a thought -- and I have no way of picking my favourite. All of the places were magical in their own way. However, if I were to give titles to those places - here is how I would do it.

Best food - Portugal
Best view - Santorini
Most welcoming - Madrid
Most fun - Barcelona
Most expensive - Oslo
Most romantic - Florence (duh!)
Most calm and relaxing - Porto
Most unbelievable - Amsterdam
Most historically interesting - Athens
Place I would return to - Santorini
The most outstanding - Kampala

Traveling is amazing, but sometimes you find yourself wondering - where am I? Usually that was the question I asked myself within 5 seconds of waking up "Ok, where am I now?"

Although, once, when my plane landed, I couldn't understand where I was. I took a short nap in the plane, and I was a bit jet-lag from the flight. I tried to figure out by the language spoken in the airport. It sounded like Norwegian. Wait a second. Did I go back to Norway? Or am I dreaming?

I was really confused. It took me 10 minutes after washing my face and getting double espresso to realise that I was in Copenhagen. Ok. Capital city of which city is Copenhagen again?

Oh! Copenhagen! Danmark!

Wait a minute. What am I doing in Danmark?

It took me some time to really put myself together, and when I finally woke up - I remembered I was going to Hamburg to visit a friend.

This summer was really unforgettable. I managed to visit friends I hadn't communicated for a long time, travel with my brother, make new friends, learn and most importantly - enjoy life. I know it sounds very cliché, but I have no other way of putting this.

I realised a lot of things, one of which is the following: the more you explore, the more you understand that you have seen nothing so far! So, this summer I learned to love traveling. It made me obsessed about visiting new places. Now I am  impatiently waiting for my travels in South America. 

World Youth Day

The first day when you realise you're the part of the team is when you take a picture with the logo of your organisation. At least, that is what I felt very often.

Today is International Youth Day, and together with my Colleagues from Refugee Law Project, other NGO's and, of course, refugees and asylum seekers, we celebrated it by marching down the beautiful streets of Kampala.

Afterwards, we attended a football match between Refugee and Ugandan youth. I don't know who won, but the point is not winning - right?

Becoming religious in Kampala

As many of you know, I used to be hard-core agnostic. Ever since I was a little girl, I was raised non-religious. Although years of being bullied at school for one single sentence "There is no God" in church class, at the age of 23 I managed to stay exactly where I was. Religiousless.

My life has changed now. Even though the concept of God is still beyond my imagination and understanding, I developed a very unusual habit: I started to pray.

Every morning, the entire time between 8:30 and 8:55 I pray to God to survive the chaotic traffic of Kampala. I repeat the action from 17:30 to 17:45, as I rush home from work.

So far, my prayers are working.

My everyday accessory: a slightly-smelly but very useful safety helmet

Even though I don't pray out loud, I have come up with a song that I sing every day on the way. Along with my driver, we proudly sing the following lines, as loud as it can get:

Verse:
Laura: I'm gonna dieeee!
David the driver: You're not gonna dieeee!! (in tone lower, with his deep voice)
Laura: I'm sooo going to dieeeee!!
David: You won't dieeeee!!

And for the Chorus, the lyrics continues:

Laura: Maaaaaam!! I don't want to die!! I am still single and I have no kids. I can't dieeeeee!!
David: You will not dieeeee!!
Laura: DIEEEEE!!

To be honest, our little song attracts a lot of attention from the passers-by, other boda-boda and car drivers, etc. But I think at some point we are making them smile. Not every day you see a singing white girl on a boda, with a mortified face, with her arms around the driver, squeezing his guts and probably causing internal bleeding.

Every day, I pray before going to sleep that tomorrow would be less stressful on the road, but so far it's been the same chaos. I am patient this time.

Wish me luck, and, please, pray for me too!!