Day 14: 11 August 2002 9:50 pm
It's nomination day and the group have a late breakfast.
Up at 8:00am so we could get our washing done and dried by the evening. My clothes already have the appearance of a bag lady and washing never gets rid of the red soil stains.
Kabale boda-bodas
We managed to catch the truck into Kabale, Uganda's highest town at 2000m and popped into the bakery. Kabale is literally just one main high street. As it was Sunday, everyone was dressed in their best clothes for church (two little boys were adorned in bow ties and waistcoats).
Tom decided to head back to the supermarket to buy some munchies and told me to wait at the bakery. But after standing like a lemon outside, I thought I would walk up the main street to meet him. As a lone white female, everyone stares at you and it feels disconcerting. I got to the supermarket and Tom was not there so I headed back to the bakery. No sign of him. I then saw Amy and Helen and decided to stay with them.
Amy had come into town to phone home, which is nothing new. She is permanently connected to her mobile phone, constantly texting when travelling on the truck and receiving phone calls at every campsite. Her phone bill in Nairobi came to £200. Most people, including us, are desperate to leave the technology of the western world behind. We do not need to contact anyone unless it is an emergency. Mobile phones are the curse of the century. You can't escape technology though, even in this remote campsite. The bar was screening the UK football Charity Shield and Amy can chat to her family back home. John Simpson, BBC journalist, was right when he said there are few places left in the world that are truly remote enough not to be affected by globalisation.
We strolled up and down the main street, but could find no sign of Tom. The truck picked us up and did a slow trawl of the main street and still no Tom. He had vanished into thin air and I started to panic. Our tour leader asked did I want to return with them and if we didn't find him on the way back, return to Kabale in an hour's time. I agreed, and on the turn-off to the Lake, found Tom happily chatting to a local geography teacher about Osama Bin Laden, the differences between American English and the Queen's English and fishing quotas in the EU - bizarre! I was relieved to see him.
Yet again we missed out on breakfast and only got lunch and dinner. We paid for three meals a day - Tom is not a happy bunny.
Tom had cook duty so we didn't get to go on our walk until 2:00pm. We walked on the path round the lake and it was blissfully peaceful, passing children herding goats, eagles circling above and listening to the gospel choir in the church below. This is more like it. Lack of freedom is a definite feature of this group trip, so we savoured every moment of the walk.
Pig roast was for dinner (the pig had been turning on the spit since 10:00am). We were given the choice of staying at Lake Bunyonyi for another night or travelling to Kisoro and doing a $30 volcano walk. Everyone voted to stay here another night.
I asked Tom for his nominations and he also nominated Amy and Roberta. Roberta as she never lifts a finger, does absolutely no work in any of her group chores, and constantly thinks about her stomach. Amy as she is quite surly and can never put her mobile phone down - it's her umbilical cord to the outside world.
Eviction night: Tom and I have evicted Roberta from the truck. Anyone who enjoys pony club camp and contributes no work to the chore group has to go.
Positives: Peaceful walk around Lake Bunyonyi with gospel music in the background.
Negatives: Lack of freedom and we never know how long we are staying somewhere in advance.