The last days

Tuesday was my last day in Uganda and Wednesday was the last day of journeying. I was able to visit Egypt on my way back.

I spent the Tuesday at the project. First thing in the morning I did something I'd been meaning to do the whole time and visited the landing site where the fishermen bring in and sell their catches in the morning. It was only 20 mins walk and I went to the site with Counsellor Dixon and Barbara and her sister.

Where the lake met the land was like a swamp. It was mostly women on the muddy shore cleaning and organising the catches; when a fisherman rowed back from his work, the people waded out to meet him and negotiate a price for the fish. There was a chap in charge who presided over most dealings. I was shown around by Dixon who got a mamba and mud fish for me to look at. The mamba is a funny looking fish that they said is only eaten by men and also used by people suffering from HIV as it gives a boost of strength. Women cannot eat it and nor can people from the mamba clan.

I felt a need to wade out to see the fishing dealings up close. I was reassured that balharzia would not be a problem as they only get people in still areas of water. (Balharzia are worms which get inside your body under your toe nails and crawl up your body to be parasites, reproducing on your insides). I'd avoided going in the lake because of my fears but felt a need to put myself at risk. Walking around in the muddy water, I only appeared to collect a small leach on my foot: it remains to be seen whether I have any worms reproducing inside me. It can take 4-6 weeks to find out.

Dixon negotiated a price for a large fresh nile perch for lunch and we met many of the footballers from the local team bringing in their catches. We bought the perch from the guy who was going to take us to Amin's paradise island. We never made it on this trip in the end. There were lots of birds hanging around, especially hammercops and a saddle billed stork strolling about nearby.

On the way back from the site we revisited Culture the tame monkey for a last photo shoot, and returned to the project. Here, people were starting to gather for a last day of activities. I did some filming with Didas who explained to me his work in the garden and we found a couple of cobras who sadly ran away as soon as we got near. The main issues of the day were deciding what to bring to the UK and also trying to get some last snippets of film to try and cover the people at the place.

The ladies wanted me to bring many examples of their works to the UK - this mainly includes mats, trays, baskets and purses they have made using the resources from the garden. Also, Ben wanted me to take his carvings and Joseph wanted me to bring examples of his bark cloth - all things made at the project. I ended up delegating responsibility and letting them decide what was the priority. This naturally resulted in me having space only for a few smalls to add to my case and I ended up leaving nearly all my clothes behind. Many of them also gave me letters either for myself or people in the UK.

I left the project at 8 in the evening and was sad to go. I hadn't really developed any home sickness at all and was in no rush to return - but the show must go on.

Justine collected me and we returned to Kyangera - where I first stayed - to rest before my flight which was at the unseemly time of 4.30am. Justine had insisted on taking me to the airport in the morning. I was sorry to put her out at such an hour. I had my last supper with her, Marie and Bridgette and caught the first half of Nigeria v South Korea. I went to bed at 11pm to get up at 2am for the drive to Entebbe - about 45 mins. I drove us to the airport. The drive to Entebbe is fairly easy but you have to stay alert to potholes or boda-boda drivers suddenly surprising you at this time of night.

I was soon settled on the flight and was able to sleep. I was very tired by this point and regretting the 8 hour stopover I had planned for myself in Cairo following my landing in 5 hours time.

Cairo

Luckily, I was able to sleep and at Cairo I was very much up for the prospect of ticking off some cliche tourist trap boxes. I had no specific plan other than to see if I could actually get out of the airport and see something of the legendary city. I was soon deeply irritated and annoyed with the place.

It was very odd visiting the airport toilets and see myself in a vast brightly lit mirror. I naturally looked a state and was again reminded of how little i've seen of my face and self generally in the last month.

I purchased a visa and this was my entry to the Cairo theme park for the day. I was under no illusion that I would not be completely taken advantage of knowing what I had heard about the place and also having no guide books or anything or one to steer my passage. Tired and hungry I was soon collared by a tour guide and asked for around £75 GBP to be given a tour of the city and the pyramids. I decided all I really wanted from this was to get a picture of me in front of the pyramids just for the sake of ticking a box and just wanted to get on with it. I had a driver, guide and a car to myself.

The driver was a seething, snorting, wheezing lump, occassionaly slurping and dribbling at a huge flask of water. This chap was supposedly going to facilitate my tour of Cairo assisting in English but spent most of the time speaking on his mobile or to the guide in a loud and sticky, drawling Arabic. He had some small broken English and told me how he had enjoyed looking at sex films on one of his recent customer's phones and did I have anything similar to view on my phone? The net effect was unfortunately entirely evocative of Jabba the Hutt.

The rip off rodeo soon began as I was taken not to the pyramids or museums but to a conveyor belt of show rooms located somewhere on the outskirts of town underneath a huge highway. These shops were teeming with other English speaking tourists types - mainly jolly americans it seemed - and contained "authentic" Egyptian wares such as tacky art works made from papyrus paper; perfumes; and other tourist crap I wasn't interested in. I was given a guided tour of these shops and assured that I would be given "good discount". My back was very quickly up and I tried to stress to my driver and attending guide (whose English had all but deserted him - "are you enjoying the world cup?" "what? sorry, no understand") that I was more interested in historical sites.

When we got to the Giza pyramids I was instantly underwhelmed. The sun was much more severe than in Uganda and I and my guide were soon being harrassed and buffetted by people offering "deals". I had no time to take in the scene as I was constantly working out what my guide was up to and how we can make the harrassers disappear. My guide seemed just to not want to be there at all but entered into long fruitless discussions I could not follow. One guide wanted a tip just for the pleasure of having spoken to my guide. After some very protracted debates which resulted in me having to fork out more cash we were soon on horses trotting around the pyramids, looking at the sphynx, etc. Everyone I interacted with wanted a tip and I soon scrapped any efforts to be polite, resorting to being quite severe in saying no.

Without seeing the city centre or museum i was returned to the airport half an hour late. Deeply annoyed - especially when the driver asked for another £10LE to get into the airport, and a tip when we stopped - I thought I would try my luck by complaining to the tour manager. Of course they were nowhere to be seen but I was helped in tracking them down and, surprisingly, I got £25GBP back for my efforts after some negotiation. I'm sure I was still overcharged but it was a mini victory. It also gave me money to buy an Egyptian sim card and a couple of beers.

My flight was delayed so I was able to catch nearly the whole of England's defeat of Slovenia which was a nice lift. Generally though, the whole experience of Egypt was quite unsavoury. It was certainly a massive contrast to where I had been. I'm glad I was only there a day and have no desire to return any time soon.

... to be continued and updated with pictures