Today was my last day of work before my Christmas holiday!
My holiday is going to end up being a month because the FSD staff (Robert,
who’s leaving soon, Anita, and Nina) have invited me on a trip to Murchison
Falls National Park next week. I’ll leave Masaka on Saturday afternoon and go
to Kampala for the weekend. On early Monday morning, we’ll head out for
Masindi, which is a town nearby to the park. We’ll stay there three or four
nights, and then return to Kampala in time for my flight to Hong Kong next Friday.
Murchison Falls is the largest national park in Uganda and
has all the big animals. There is a forest reserve next to it that also has
chimpanzee tracking but I’m not sure if we’ll have time for that. As of now,
we’ve planned to do a boat trip to the base of the falls (along the Nile with
animals drinking by the shore) and at least one day of safari in the park.
We’ll probably also do a forest walk among an old mahogany forest and maybe
walk up to the top of the falls.
I’ll fly to Hong Kong and arrive on Saturday evening and
will be staying with a good friend for a few days while I wait to get my
Chinese visa. Hopefully I’ll be on the Mainland by Tuesday afternoon, but
luckily Aaron will come over Monday night after work so I won’t have to wait so
long to see him. Fingers crossed that I get the visa, otherwise it’s going to
be a much more expensive trip!
I am very much
looking forward to this break. I am enjoying my time in Uganda but it’s
difficult to keep motivated sometimes when everyone I love is so far away. Work
has its ups and downs as well, with some weeks being busy, and others involving
me doing personal research because I’m waiting for feedback or decisions to be
made about the projects I’m doing. Recently, my supervisor tasked me with finding
out what it would take for the organization to set up a Savings and Credit
Cooperative Society (SACCO) so I spent a lot of time putting together the
information about how to register, drafting registration forms, and writing the
by-laws that will form the SACCO’s constitution (26 pages!). After that was
submitted, we had a management meeting to discuss some of the issues I couldn’t
make decisions on (such as loan terms, fines and penalties, etc) and we made
some headway but they wanted feedback from the employees. It’s now been a week
and a half with no response so it may have to wait until I get back.
For now, I’m going to enjoy my holiday, hopefully see some
awesome animals, and soak up the time with my friends and boyfriend.
