I finally arrived at the hotel, ordered food, and showered. Then, I slept like a baby for two hours. I wanted to rest because I was attending a New Year's Eve party with some of my former students who are teachers in the town. I visited them at their school last year during student practice and they are enrolled at a bachelor's program at UCU. Many teachers go to a teacher's college because it is cheaper and then go back to school to get a degree. The timing was perfect because they will soon be heading back to the college for three weeks before going back to work. The holiday time here is about 2 months for schools. It reminds me of our summer breaks. They don't have summer break, so this is there holiday time. Teachers can go to get the instruction for their class for three weeks and then go back home and work on their coursework and prepare for examinations during their next break. This program allows them to teach and still work on their degree.
We attended a New Year's Eve party at a hotel in town. They had a DJ and offered snacks (fried food). We arrived at 7:30 to tight security and very few people. Many more people came as the night went on. I've never really been out to public events here in Uganda because I've always been warned that things can become dangerous quickly. This was especially the case in Kampala with terrorist warnings. But because we were up north near the border of South Sudan, there are less people and the town is relatively quiet. We relaxed in the gardens, ate, and played Uno. I had brought Uno and it was one of our favorite past times. Everybody loved it and we played for hours. At about 10 minutes to midnight, the excitement was in the air and all of a sudden the fireworks started exploding. They were so close and I tried to capture video of them. After every firework, the crowd would yell and shout. It was so much fun. I also brought a lot of noise makers and decorations. Everyone had fun with them. After the fireworks, we headed out and I understood why people felt nervous about the large crowds. People were shouting, but relatively calm. Some guy grabbed my arm and it frightened me a bit. I turned around and one of my friends behind me had already reared back to punch the guy. But we quickly realized the guy was young and mentally disturbed. Some people respond differently to someone or something that haven't seen before, and I'm used to people touching my skin or hair. But this was different because he grabbed at me. My friend had mercy on him and let him go because we knew he was just responding to something that he didn't know. I took a motorcycle back home and opened the gift that the students have given me. It is not acceptable to open gifts when people give them to you so I had to wait until I got home. When I opened the gift I found honey, gnut sauce and really cute shoes.
I was so excited and honored that the students had given me these gifts. I know they don't make much as teachers and I was honored they thought of me. I fell asleep and slept for about 8 hours. Finally my body has adjusted to the time difference...just in time to catch my flight in a few days.
On Thursday, I woke up, had breakfast, and headed into town to book my journey back to Kampala. I'm hoping that the journey is shorter this time, but we will see. I also wanted to upload my posts, so I knew that the town would have wifi at one of the restaurants. My plan is to leave tomorrow morning, arrive in Kampala, pick up the things my tailor made for me, and then head back to Mukono to meetup with friends.
