Saturday and Sunday, the 20th and 21^st of August 2011

Due to the writer of this piece for these two days, feeling ill from the arrival in Holland up until now, this report got on here (too) late. Of course, my apologies!

Saturday, we had the opportunity to decide for ourselves how would spent our last day in Uganda. Initially, everyone had planned to do something different from each other – since this was one of the few occasions were we could do something without it involving to whole group. Anyway, we decided that it was best if we would end our two amazing weeks all together. We ended up heading to Jinja, to make a boat trip to the Source of the Nile – the point where the Nile emerges from Lake Victoria, all the way up to Egypt.

After a short, and for some of us a very, very short night, we all sat in the bus, driven by our trusty super-driver Eddy – got to the give the man some credits for his enormous efforts. The way to the so called cultural capital of Uganda, was comparable to any other drive we had made; hectically (because of the mess traffic can be), smelly (because of the gas emissions) and bumpy (no further explanation needed;-)). But, after a while, we were getting used to that, and eventually maybe for a moment miss it when it’s gone, now we’re back in Holland.

After a while, we found ourselves staring over the calm White Nile, with mostly only the sound of the guide that was telling about the surroundings on the banks of the side of the lake. Lots of special coloured birds and, to most of the women in our group, scary lizards crawling close to the waterside, gave a beautiful impressions of the inhabitants of the Niles islands’ shores. Not only the animals living there, made it to an incredible afternoon; the weather, the green leaves, palms trees and the small islands laying randomly in the water, made it to the ultimate relaxing activity.

After heading back to Kampala, we packed our stuff, which for some, was a stressful activity. After we had gathered all the things and cleaned our rooms, it was time to say goodbye to the people from the ICU guesthouse. After a lot of hugs, kisses and handshakes, Sander (van Zanten), the owner of the guesthouse, luckily just arrived right at the moment that we were leaving, so we got the chance to say goodbye to him and his family too.

Then we dinned a the ultimate Mzungu-place (!) in Entebbe, called Faze 3, where the United Nations seemed to have found there own regular spot at the parking lot. Our last dinner couldn’t be more of a worthy end to a trip to never forget. We looked out on Lake Victoria, with the sunset turning the evening-sky into a nice sight of blue, yellow and red. While everyone was enjoying their dinner, some concluded with a few words.

By then, we got to the airport and said goodbye to Uganda. For the most, the flight back home wasn’t too bad, because we flew by night and could sleep all the way through. When arriving at Amsterdam, we met the ones, relatives and friend, that were waiting for us. Finally, the group had to say goodbye to each other. The ending to two exciting, instructive, intense weeks, where people that were strangers to each other, became friends, and shared an experience of doing voluntary work in Uganda to never forget.