This year instead of celebrating Christmas with snowman, gingerbread, jingle bells and amongst my family back home in Poland I was in Uganda basking in sun! It’s very unusual but with so much hospitality and love from everyone it was an equally wonderful experience.
I’ve started the celebrations by travelling to Sipi Falls with Apollo and Paul, our local volunteers. Both of them have been working with Communities for Development for a couple of years now and it’s been fantastic seeing them grow and develop together with the organisation. For our Christmas lunch we decided to travel east, around half an hour up the mountains, to Kapchora district to see the famous Sipi Falls waterfall. The Sipi River rises on the slopes of Mount Elgon before cascading down to form a series of waterfalls culminating in a 100 metres drop at an altitude of over 1.7m. Overlooking the main waterfall there are number of resorts offering accommodation, food and hikes. We stopped in one of them to admire the spectacular view of green luscious hills of Uganda and the impressive waterfall. When the sun was shining it created a beautiful rainbow of colours on it. We had a lovely lunch and took a couple of photos.
The rest of Christmas time I spent in Bunya district in a village called Magamaga (literally meaning: look, look!). It was a fantastic experience, celebrating with a big African family all gathered in the village for these precious few days. We cooked, ate, relaxed and even went to a beach and swam in Lake Victoria!
I am now back in Muyembe feeling relaxed and recharged and ready to face 2016 and continue working hard with the Bulambuli community!