Easter in Uganda

Dear Readers,

I hope your spring has started well or if you are elsewhere, I guess autumn!

Easter just dawned on me by complete surprise and I realised (almost) too late that it would be the perfect opportunity to travel around the country. I also realised that all the expats are out of Kampala quicker than you can say Easter while all my localised and local friends would be spending the holiday with family. I thought I was in for a very chilled day and a lot of quality me-time. I was wrong.

The moon over Lake Victoria

I found a full moon event on FB and was told that a bunch of the so-called localised people were heading there so I just joined up with a group of neighbours and headed out. All of this put the ball rolling for a fabulous Easter weekend. The party was great even though the moon was actually hiding behind some trees a little. 

Hotel Diplomate advertises itself as having the ‘best view of Kampala’

I had made plans to catch up with a local friend of mine who invited me to something I didn’t understand. I considered it a while and then thought, well I must just go and see and that maybe I can come home soon and rest. After a full day of Jenga and other garden games, I finally came home after super fun 10 hours. I also landed an invite to her family’s Easter lunch.

Lunch was great and somehow lasted till 11 pm. There are so many traditional Ugandan dishes that you must just choose what you like.  For example, matoke is made of plantain bananas and posho is like porridge. You always get your meals with stews and now during the rainy season (which has barely happened thanks to the Chinese hoax we know as climate change) more often with greens, too. The weekend really made me feel at home, though in Finland I have a rather small family, it was nice to have a huge family meal and just sit in the garden afterwards talking.

Late Sunday night I received a text inviting me to an impulsive boat trip early the next morning. Waking up on Easter Monday after a full night of thunderstorm was highly unpleasant and I was half sure that the trip would be cancelled or that I would at least bail out and spend some of that quality bedtime. However, the sky cleared and my friends persuaded me so off I went. The marina is by the Speke resort in the south of Kampala. We actually met the marina manager who told us the true story of the horrible accident that took place in Lake Victoria a year ago.

The ship that sank was similar to this

Lake Victoria was clear and the sky cloudless and I steered us to the Serena Hotel for lunch. It had been way too long since I held a helm. The hotel is surrounded by a beautiful green golf course and a perfect view of the lake. Lunch included some amazing fresh tilapia fish from the lake. On our way back we stopped in the middle for a swim which included jumping from the boat roof into the lake.

Overall, Easter was highly enjoyable and full of action and great people. In two days, I am headed to the Murchison Falls national park for the weekend and hopefully will be seeing some hippos! It’s the final African animal on my bucket list. Stay tuned for details.

The marina

Have a lovely week,

Mira

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