I've very found memories of our time spent in Africa, went on holiday for two months and stayed for 13 years! We didnt get on our flight back to the UK. A house came with the job my husband found after a newspaper was jokingly thrown at him and told find yourself a job and there happened two jobs he could do and he got both, but decided on the one that a house came with and the rest is history. We had a go at all sorts of things.
Saw and did as much as we could, the contrasts of people, places made us what we are today.
As for the animals fantastic, we did many safari's but as for the small creatures we had more than enough in our home. One vivid memory is of our son, only a few weeks old, I went into the bedroom to check on him as he was having a nap and looked up at the wall and there was a scorpion on the wall, I knew they could climb walls but not smooth and painted plaster ones!
As for snakes, many a time I've seen one and just bid it good day and waited for it to pass on rather too close for comfort.
Great to hear you had a good time, lots of memories for the future.
Fudge
How did I miss this thread? Welcome back Dippy - so glad you enjoyed your trip. Fantastic part of the world. Thanks for the sharing your photos 🙂 - made me feel all homesick (again) - Jinja was not a million miles from where I grew up! One day I must go back - it is the sounds and smells that make me well up!:(
Yes, we rarely appreciate all we have in this life in the West. I still appreciate fresh water - when I was a child ours was collected off the tin roof into a galvanised tank at the end of the house and at the end of the rains a padlock had to be put on it, (so none was wasted) as it was our only drinking water supply for the next six months. At the end of that time it also contained many wriggly additions which had to be filtered out! :016: Health and Safety would have had a field day now!!
Yes we also got close to many varieties of wildlife, including the smaller ones, hence my comments on another thread (spiders) about having a healthy respect for them. On the nearby mountain there were bird-catching spiders that spun webs between the trees - I didn't fancy inspecting them too closely:eeeK: - we got pretty nifty with the fly spray round the house though, which probably wasn't too good an idea either.
Not only were there mossies, but dung beetles, hornets, sausage flies and flying ants to contend with, not to mention safari ants. We had a fright with the latter one night when I woke to a strange noise and went with a torch to investigate (no electricity) to find a whole swarm of these giant ants passing in through one window, underneath our baby daughter's cot, and out through the opposite window :speechless-smiley-0 My husband calmly emptied some food out of some cans, half-filled the cans with paraffin, stood the cot feet in them and calmly went back to sleep. :002: The ants were gone by the morning.
As our bath water came from the river we often shared it with water-boatmen. We used to use the soap dish to catch them! Ah ... memories!!!
Ah thanks for that fudge and Caroline (wow) all those experiences. I’m adding a few more photos just to make you more home sick. The picture of the lion was taken by someone else, (after I left) I didn’t actually get to see any on safari, they were in hiding :rolleyes: but this is a gorgeous picture I had to put it in.
Caroline, I bet no one can teach you anything about recycling lol
Ah thanks for that fudge and Caroline (wow) all those experiences. Im adding a few more photos just to make you more home sick. The picture of the lion was taken by someone else, (after I left) I didnt actually get to see any on safari, they were in hiding :rolleyes: but this is a gorgeous picture I had to put it in.
Caroline, I bet no one can teach you anything about recycling lol
Well recycling was definitely a necessity, nothing was wasted - as all manufactured goods were so scarce - there were no rubbish tips! And we lived off the land almost exclusively. Treats were golden syrup to go with the maize meal porridge and very rarely tomato ketchup to have with the lake fish (tilapia).
Fabulous part of the world - thanks for the photos. The lion seems blissfully relaxed, as only cats can.
When I came to UK it took me ages before I could walk comfortably through green plants (particularly ivy) without wellies and not expect to be bitten by snakes or insects.
But I look at our beautiful countryside here, with so much colour, beautiful flowers, so many fresh different greens and rich textures and know there are few places in the world to match it in May. And it's here for everyone to enjoy!
Caroline