Beautiful Bushara

There's really no other way to describe it. The pictures don't do it justice. We're living on the tip of an island with an incredible view of the lake. It's small enough that we can see the communities all around, perched on steep green hills, which people trek daily carrying jerry cans of water. We've had to carry a bit of our own water, and let's just say the 30 second trek to our house leaves us winded and in pain..(we like to think it's the altitude - we're about 2500m above sea level). We were warned about Lake Bunyonyi being cooler than other areas of Uganda - just how cold, we were not prepared for. Wearing a skirt can be a bit of a stretch at times, as we often find ourselves in fleece and wool socks. We finally made it into the lake today - it is also quite cold.

Bushara Island is a tourist camp run by a local NGO called Lake Bunyonyi Development Company (LBDC). All profits go into community development. When we first arrived, we stayed in a safari tent and got the full tourist experience, complete with breakfast delivered to our tent, and hot water for our outdoor shower.

We are the only people actually living on the island, apart from restaurant staff, which means that the programs we are involved in will require us to travel to different communities - by dugout canoe!! In the background of this photo, you can see Bwama Island.
Everyone we've met so far has been fantastic - extremely warm and welcoming. Brad and Stacy, who lived here last year, have done an amazing job orientating us. We have learned a lot from them. We've been practicing our Rukiga with Evas, one of the camp staff who laughs a lot with us and loves the little Rukiga we've learned. We're hoping to set up lessons with a tutor so that we can get past greetings and "hello, my name is..". We took a tour of Bwama Island, the island next door to Bushara. Ben gave us a tour of the agroforestry nursery where Emily will be spending a lot of time, and we visited the primary and secondary schools there.

Kabale is the closest town. First impressions are pretty good - it has a wide variety of things, and we get to drive the truck on a kick ass switchback to get there. Running errands takes a lot of time.. 20 minute boat ride to our truck, 30 minute drive into town, and then many different stops for everything. We quite enjoy stopping at the bakery for bread, the market for fruits and vegetables, and Royal Supermarket for everything else food and toiletry related. Town visits will soon take even longer, as we will soon be sharing boat fees and gas with LBDC when they make town visits for restaurant supplies.

After a few days in the safari tent, we moved into our house, Woodpecker Cottage. Meal preparation has proven to be the biggest adjustment. We have no electricity, and therefore no refridgeration. Happily, we have a gas stove and oven (unlike some girls we met from the UK who are cooking over charcoal!). This luxury, however, has proven to be a bit challenging for us, particularly with regards to temperature regulation.. we may or may not have burned both meals we served to Brad and Stacy. Hopefully it will be a fast learning curve, or we may be eating a lot of french toast (the only meal we seem to have down). In all seriousness, though, we're looking forward to learning how to cook, as you have to make everything from scratch and not all ingredients are readily available.

Brad and Stacy are leaving on Tuesday - after that, the real test begins. We're looking forward to brainstorming and getting started on our respective programs this week. It will also be good to sit down with Patrick, the General Manager of LBDC, to discuss some of our ideas on Tuesday.

First impressions: great. We'll stay.