After a seemingly endless time planning this trip we have finally arrived in Africa and it is as every bit as chaotic, manic and poor as we expected. On leaving the airport terminal in Nairobi our taxi nearly drove in to a small herd of zebras and we instantly knew that we were in Africa for real. Nairobi was ok, we didn't really do much as it has such a bad reputation and only stayed the night. Impressively whilst waiting for the over night bus to Kampala, Marte got somewhat overcome by the fumes and managed her first vomit after less than 24 hours. Luckily she is made of stronger Scandinavian material than I and soldiered on and took on the 14 hour bus journey.

On arrival to Kampala we were pretty knackered but luckily we got picked up by the project coordinator. He took us to our home for the next two months. We will be teaching refugees from Congo, and various other war torn places, English as they need to speak English to try and make a life for themselves in Uganda. Many of the refugees we have spoken to already have pretty heart breaking stories and it is quite surreal to think that people our own age have gone through so much hardship already. Albert, who is the head of our project called PEDRUU, only had to hand in his thesis after five years study in Congo to get his final degree only to have to flee for his life as the violence got worse. His wife Mary who is only 22 studied law for two years before having to leave as well. Both, like many of the other refugees, have spent large proportions of the last few tears in refugee camps in Rwanda and Uganda which sound pretty horrific. One of the refugees said to me that he had no hope left in Uganda and the sadest part is that most of them simply want to return to Congo, which they love to talk about, but they are simply too scared to do so.

The compound that we are living in is in what could be called a 'slum' but really it seems just like a typically poor part of Uganda. We have electricity most of the time and have to content ourselves with bucket showers but its something that you get use to very quickly. The people at the compound are really nice and the kids that mill about are great fun, the only trouble is trying to remember their names.

We don't start our teaching until Monday so we have some time to try and figure out how things work, especially the public transport system which is really daunting. No doubt there is more stories to come.

Pete