"It's almost like coming home..."

After wishing our fearless instructors a fond farewell, our intrepid foursome spent one final night in Kampala, and then left for Jinja, bright and early, for one final day of adventures before returning to our respective placement sites.

We enjoyed a beautiful day by the pool, a delicious dinner, and a fabulous night of DIY karaoke (singing along to music from our computer) and a rousing game of zilch. Our plan for a late-night swim was foiled, alas, by a disembodied voice that came out of the shadows to warn us that the pool had just been treated with some heavy-duty chemicals, so we had to settle for a final morning swim instead. Our fellow guests at the resort this time was a group of about 25 female missionaries from the Southern U.S., so the stay was a little less quiet than before. Still, it made for good people-watching.

The four of us went together to the matatoo park. Matatoos are kind of a cross between a bus and a taxi -- large vans that follow set routes and pick up/drop off people at set points along the route, but the fare depends on the distance travelled and there is no set schedule. Lyanne and Sarah managed to find their way onto the matatoo headed to Mbale, and we have arrived safely after a fairly pleasant drive.

Seasoned travellers that we are, we've been pilfering saving the little bars of soap and extra rolls of toilet paper from the hotels where we've been staying these last few weeks, so we arrived at our dormitory well-armed. We're staying in the same building, but different rooms, just to maximise our potential for trying to open someone else's door. Mbale feels lovely and familiar after all our travelling, and when we headed to the supermarket to pick up some food for tomorrow's breakfast, we ran into the Ugandan midwife who is our main supervisor for our last two weeks, which made us feel a little more like we've returned to our Ugandan home-base. It's certainly strange to be navigating the city without Angela, and speedbumps have been added to the road near where we're staying, which has thrown off our whole system for crossing the road. Fortunately our favourite Rolex vendor was working tonight (no samosas for sale today, unfortunately) so we picked up a tasty, if greasy, dinner and we're settling in for a quiet night. Our plan is to spend Sunday by the pool once again to shake off any remaining Lower Mulago stress -- neither of us is particularly the "lounge by the pool" type normally, but we're both finding that spending a day swimming and reading is the perfect way to unwind from the craziness of the work here.

Monday we head back on the wards!

Posted by Lyanne and Sarah