Kampala (and soda?)

Well, my first taste of Uganda is... wireless internet. For free! I didn't really expect that. I'm feeling pretty much fixed, apart from my stomach, which still isn't agreeing with me. After the third time I found myself strolling into the dark Kenya countryside with only trowel and headtorch for company, I said to myself, 'this is getting really boring'. Nevertheless, there's something wonderful about camping out in the middle of nowhere. There was one slightly hairy moment when a vehicle drove towards us. Rob and Boyo (our driver) went to 'have a chat' and came back all smiles. The jeep was, apparently, the police, just come to check if we were okay. They went away satisfied, although, to be honest, men with AK-47s can demand any satisfaction they want. Today was a drive day, although we still weren't up too early. The one thing I am doing right is sleeping well at the moment. My new sleeping bag is toasty, and a month of practice has done me good. The 'stomach' thing, also, means I have no problems getting out of bed in the morning. Instead of, 'just five more minutes', it's, 'out of bed. Now! Move!'

Anyway, once I'd borrowed some 'tummy drugs' from Jess, our resident medical student (who's a veritable pharmacy), I really enjoy just sitting in the truck, looking at the scenery. It's so lush and green, and the soil is a rich ochre-colour. We stopped for lunch by the side of the road, and I've never seen so many butterflies in one place at one time. I took a load of photos, but there was a glorious electric-blue butterfly that eluded me. Since I'm still not really eating, I cut a solitary figure, like Ahab on the prow of the Pequod, after Moby Dick.

More driving, and still the children wave. I have a theory that they're dropped off by buses run by the Kenyan Tourist Board. They position them to wave at us, then pick them in the evenings. We reached the border around lunchtime, and were immediately surrounded by a bunch of 'money changers', as well as a young boy with a basket of bananas on his head. Rob's very good at dealing with this sort of thing. He told the money changers to get lost but, after a conversation, he told us we could buy bananas from the boy. This felt very fair – he was earning a wage and we were getting a great product. Their sales pitch is amazing, too – at one point, he said, 'Sir, maybe you need some Potassium...'

Through to the Uganda border, and a similar group of money changers appeared, only this time they were all wearing long yellow jackets and security badges. They looked for all the world like rural London Metal Exchange 'open outcry' traders, and they were acting in a very similar way. Rob okay'd them and we duly changed up for some Ugandan currency.

Uganda is 'different' to Kenya. I'm not sure quite how, but it seems more 'rural'. It's just awesome to look at. There are fewer churches and schools here, and, at one point, there was a disturbingly-high frequency of shops selling coffins. They also seem to have a thing for 'hot pink' and 'sunshine yellow', as half of the shops are this colour. There's roughly the same proportion of machete owners.

I realised today that Dave wasn't annoying me so much. An hour later, I realised it was because I hadn't spoken to him at all that day – and that I'd been at the exact opposite end of the truck. There was a beautiful moment for me last night. As we sat round the fire last night, he came out with something else I found slightly crass. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rachel and Jess – two girls sharing a tent but traveling on their own – exchange a glance. In that moment, the realisation came crashing in that it might not be just me who's tiring of him. We shall see. I haven't had a beer yet, so I haven't really been able to get into deep conversations with anyone yet...

So I'm sitting by the kitchen area. Everyone's sitting around drinking, and I should go get a shower...

Oh, I'm in negotiations to stay a bit longer. I want to see Zanzibar...Wish me luck.