Uganda Project Day 33 – 15th July 2007
Waking up, I realised that this was it. My time in Africa is over. it didn’t really hit me that much yesterday when I spent the day in Kampala. Very disappointed that I couldn’t stay any longer but glad to get back home to my creature comforts. Packing my bag, we all hung around to say goodbye to everyone. It was a very sad affair and lots of people cried.
Lots of crying indeed except for Phil who looked happy all the time. We weren’t that bad were we?
But indeed I had to catch the plane back with some others who were catching the same plane as me. So after grabbing a taxi, we spent some time at the airport before climbing aboard the plane and passed the time without any interesting stuff happening except when we were about to land at Dubai to change planes there.
Now, throughout the entire Uganda Project experience, I prided myself for not having a serious illness like very bad upset stomachs or malaria or gashes or bruises. Perhaps pride was a sin as it came to bite me in the ass on the plane. Shortly before we landed at Dubai, I started getting nasty cramps in my stomach. Rushing to the toilet, nothing came out as I felt so constipated! Sitting back in my seat, I felt something lodge within my bowels and I knew I desperately needed to get to the toilet straightaway. But as luck would have it, the seatbelt sign came on as we were landing imminently. So throughout the torturous process I had to sit there with my legs absolutely straining to keep things in. Of course, the steps to get off the plane had to come slowly and everyone filed off slowly as well…into a shuttle bus that was going to take a very long circular route to the other side of the airport. I can distinctly remember hanging on for dear life on a pole in the shuttle bus and nearly bursting into tears that I was going to literally ‘shit myself‘ in front of everybody.
Luckily, I managed to hang on and we are filed off quickly to be greeted with security barriers. Knowing I couldn’t hang on any longer, I abandoned my group telling them I would see them at the gate and rushed forward to be first in the security check. They probably looked at me suspiciously when I was muttering to myself incoherently and beads of sweats rolled down my face. But I did get through and ran for it crying out to a nearby airport attendant – ‘where’s the bloody toilet!‘ He pointed and to my relief, I managed to burst through the doors only to find all the cubicles occupied. Dropping all british stiff upper lip style, I started wailing and banged on the doors. An old guy came out looking confused after he finished and I pushed past him to see the shining bowl of glory. And then, according the sod’s law, there just had to be one thing to go wrong. My zip on my jeans got stuck. Knowing it would be any second, I ripped the zip through with brute force, pulled down my underpants, sat on the porcelain rim and you know what? It was the best feeling ever on this entire Ugandan journey. I stayed in there for a very long time and I didn’t care when a fellow stomach sufferer was banging on my door, wailing.
Feeling positively better, I meandered through the shops of Dubai Airport, enough shops to fit 500 shopping malls I reckon! Meeting the others at the gate, we boarded the plane straight back to London Gatwick.
I’m back home.
If you want to know more about RexyEdventures, please do follow me on Facebook or Twitter. or you can even receive emails from this amazing website by subscribing on the homepage 🙂
