The exterior is decent, and the lobby pleasant.
The dining room was fine, and WiFi was available there so I spent a lot of time in the dining area checking e-mail and writing my blog.
The rooms were not quite as great as the public spaces. There was a nice balcony which my roommate Pat used to great advantage for hanging her washing which she did each day. However, below our balcony was a tent used for some late-night drinking and carousing (by whom I'm not sure) which created some sleep problems several nights.
The room itself was okay. But there were no flat surfaces on which to put one's possessions, the wardrobe door opened only partially (because it ran into a bed), and the bar in it for hanging clothes was so high I had to stand on the bed with one foot, balancing myself with the other foot on a wardrobe shelf, and reach up to attach the hanger to the rack. Just getting clothes to wear was an adventure!
But the worst was the bathroom. -- Small with a shower head that had no stall/curtain, leaving the entire bathroom wet. And much of the time there was no hot water; one morning there was NO water. American standards are not those of much of the world. . . . At least there was a flush toilet, and it mostly worked.
I had considered going with some of the other volunteers to Eunice's (GUW staff person) Pentecostal church for the cultural experience, but instead I slept until I woke up which made me too late for the service. According to Mary it really was a fun event; she was very glad she'd made the effort to go.
Instead I had an incredibly leisurely breakfast with Patty, Sue, Pat, and Laurie. Then I worked on blog stuff (I'm slowly catching up), and was ready for the 12 noon bus to the GUW office (which didn't depart until after 12:30). There I met with Sarah to talk about Mariam, my sponsored student, and Anna, the woman with whom I'd had my "Day in the Life." I received more information about Anna. She cared for her son until he died of AIDS about 5 years ago. She took insufficient precautions in his care so is herself now HIV positive. No wonder she appears old and a bit frail (although she can still outwalk me and carry a large water container on her head).
Returned to the hotel to begin organizing and packing for our departure tomorrow. Also did a lot of blog catchup work. I enjoy sharing my travels with friends and having all the information fairly well organized by the time I return home from a trip. -- But keeping up can sometimes be a bit of a problem. So I was appreciative for some free time to bring things up to date.
We had our final dinner at the Prime Hotel with Anika, Sarah, Katie, Eunice, and Conrad, GUW paid and volunteer staff.
Cammie passed on our heartfelt thanks for all the local staff had done to make our stay pleasant, interesting, and productive. Despite her protests about not liking/being good at public speaking, Cammie has become quite a speech maker.
Off tomorrow for our mini-safari in western Uganda in Murchison Falls National Park.
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