A day in Entebbe

It was a long night of battling to keep the mosquitos out of my net, they were so small that they could fit through the net holes if they planned it correctly.

Step 1. Fly in front of the fan

Step 2. Get blown against net

Step 3. Angle yourself correctly and breathe in

Step 4. Let the wind from the fan do all the work and push you through the little holes.

Step 5. You’re in!

I did end up switching on the toilet lights and attracting them all there and then shutting the door, but they were still everywhereeee.

Note to self: Don’t open windows to look at the moon after dark - they will swarm in.

Luckily they don’t buzz like the bigger mosquitos, so I didn’t have to get annoyed by that - I just had to deal with the constant fear of malaria running through my brain, after the previous day’s constant fear of the coronavirus at the airports.

I’ve never before been this aware of illness.

So after enduring the night and waking up to a massacre of dead mosquitos on my floor, I got ready to start my day.

This was easily aided by my first Ugandan coffee. Thoughts? STRONG.

Item 1 on the day’s itinerary: Buy mosquito spray/cream/doom/anything!

Yes… I didn’t bring any with me as I though buying it locally would mean it’s more effective for the local mozzies.

Night 1 was lathered in ZamBuk with the hopes that the tea tree would discourage the little ones.

I started walking towards the Victoria Mall where I knew I’d be able to get some supplies for the day.

The streets were gorgeously rural, goats roaming and grazing, people washing laundry in their gardens, chickens crossing roads, BodaBodas zooming past every few minutes with a quick look to check if I want a lift, then dodging as they see a pothole coming up.

I got my supplies at the mall, and walked on to the Entebbe Botanical Gardens, where my eyes could not get any wider in wonder at the absolutely breathtaking trees surrounding me as I strolled around.

There were velvet monkeys playing in the gardens, swinging on branches, pouncing on each other as they provided me with entertainment on the most fabulous stage yet.

I found the Botanical Beach where I sat for a while to take in the majestic lake in front of me, only to realise my path was completely flooded ahead and that I was going to have to either change direction or have a swim.

Before whipping out my cozzie (not really), I checked the beach again to see if I could go along the beach past the lake in the path.

And then I met two friendly Ugandan men.

Seeing that their usual path of sandbags had also been flooded, they came to my rescue with rocks and planks to build a temporary solution to the stepping stone dilemma.

They would place a rock for me to hop on, shift another for me to hop to, then take the original rock to the next gap and so we worked together to get me across the water without getting my shoes wet.

It probably would have been a lot simpler to just take my shoes off and sludge through the muddy water, but this was the first time a man wasn’t creepy or scary to me when they saw I was alone, so I’m glad I didn’t.

(More on the creepy men later)

When I finally got to the other side, there was a loud celebration of Indian Music, so I climbed through some trees and saw a Ugandan ‘Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset Concert’ - a stage where some Indian men were performing to a crowd of 3.

I found out later that it was a Woman’s day concert, but I’m not sure anyone really knew about it despite the luminescent yellow banners around town.

Then I found and inspected some Elephant Apples, before making my way to see some Elephants and others at the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Center.

Zoo number two for Christine’s blog.

The animals were awesome to see, as expected, and some notes were that there was much less between the humans and animals at this zoo.

It seemed like the wire mesh between the people and the cheetahs for example could easily have been clambered over by such big cats.

The chimps could easily have swung over their tree branches and made a leap over to the other side of their moat to join the velvet monkeys prancing around tamely between the spectators.

At the rhino enclosure, I saw a guide take a person to touch and stroke a white rhino as it came closer to the wall, just showing that if they got motivated enough they could easily break through this wall jumaiji style and head out to their freedom.

But I suppose they wouldn’t - they liked their conditions here, getting fed and cared for, and stroked by strangers.

After cooing a the velvet monkeys just chilling around, I saw the otters, with their half-empty little pond, and then heard the most precious thing.

The otters also made very cute chirping sounds but that was not it.

A CUTE little girl, with the cutest little hair and the cutest little dress and the cutest little accent:

“These little guys are so poor. They’re so poor, look at their water!”

I could have dieeddd from admiring that adorable little mind. Which probably would have been great for the hungry crocs on the other side of the path.

After I’d seen all the animals, and sweated out a few bottles of water, I decided to get a Boda back to the hotel instead of walking.

My first experience on the back of one of these bikes was scary, but exhilarating.

I went back to the mall first, to explore the Shoprite and see which interesting unknown-to-me products they have, bought some local snacks and walked towards the hotel with a very cold shower in mind.

I walked past the 2 Friends Hotel, which was a chain recommended to me before coming to Uganda, so I stopped and had some food there first.

A nice big pizza that I couldn’t even finish - with a very plain chicken toping (they don’t really like spices on their food here) - then headed home.

At home I sat and wrote and chilled by the lake, and later decided to have a second attempt at the Saigon hotel’s menu.

This time I chose an asian dish - Spicy Sichuan beef noodles - as I thought it would be better than the other dishes since the maker is from Vietnam.

Little Henry even came out to double check my order, warning me that it is spicy, as people often order this without knowing, much like they order the steak tartare without knowing it is raw.

He was very impressed that I knew what a steak tartare was, and that I knew what spicy was.

I told him I was going to attempt the spice as I was craving anything with a little spice even if it was very hot! Besides, eating spicy food supposedly repels mosquitos right?

Not only was I a little bit scared of the spicy food, but I wasn’t sure about the beef choice either… but when the food came it was YUM.

I’ve never had such tender beef in my life (for real, melting in the mouth).

But it. was. SPICY.

I sat there sweating through my meal, convincing myself to keep eating, and then I saw 2 little otters in the lake in front of me and it made the whole experience worth it!!

SO COOL.

I thought of the little girl in the zoo, and thought to myself:

“These little guys are so rich. They’re so rich, look at their water”.