A safe arrival!

Well after about 34 hours of travel time, we have made it to Amani Baby Cottage! Our flights were all on time and smooth and all of our luggage was waiting for us when we arrived in Uganda so we really couldn't have asked for anything better (minus the large man sitting in front of us who was snoring really loud). We had an 8 hour layover in London and since it was such a nice day out we decided to take the bus to Windsor for lunch and to check out Windsor Castle (thanks to Mark Fast for the suggestion!). We stopped at a pub for lunch and had roasted lamb, potatoes, and Yorkshire pudding. Yum! Since we wanted to be back at the airport in plenty of time, we decided not to do an actual tour of the castle and instead just walked around it. There were also lots of cool shops to look in.

After London it was another 14 hours of travel until we made it to Entebbe, Uganda and then a 3 hour drive to Jinja where we are staying. Jinja is about 120 kms away from Entebbe which would normally only take about an hour to drive in Canada but because of the heavy traffic and poor road conditions, it takes three times that amount of time.

Now we are at the orphanage and are starting to get acquainted with what life will be like for the next six weeks. There are 51 children currently living here between the ages of newborn to five years old. Right now I'm finding it difficult to remember names of the kids as well as the staff but I'm hoping I will pick them up quickly seeing as we'll be seeing them a lot. Once I become more familiar with what my daily routines are, I will do a post devoted to a day in the life of a volunteer.

As I expected, life here is quite different than what I am used to. However, I didn't know how it was going to be different. Because it is the rainy season, everything is very green and lush. There are several tea plantations in the area which are pretty and I look forward to trying some local tea. The pace of life is much different as well. Most people seem to be hard workers but time is not as important to them. It's kind of refreshing actually to see a slower paced life. I thought there would be great poverty (which there is) but I have also seen very nice houses and lots of people have cell phones.

Right now Sam and I are the only volunteers so it is just her and I living in the guesthouse. Our accommodations are quite nice and we already feel at home in it. There is a large living and dining room area and a full kitchen where we can make breakfast and dinner. Each bedroom has three beds (all donned with mosquito nets) and a bathroom in it. When we first arrived at Amani we met the volunteer coordinator and nurse, Sandra and Emma, and both have made us feel so welcome. They even had us over for dinner last night since we didn't have time to buy groceries for ourselves.

That's about all I have to tell you so far. Hopefully it wasn't too boring! I will leave you with a few more pictures of where we are living.

This is our view from outside our balcony. The children sleep right below us.