The Ssese Islands

Last Sunday Bry'Chell and I went to the Ssese (pronounced: Say-say) Islands for a little break before Bry'Chell goes back to school. Sr. Elizabeth contacted her youngest brother, Jude, and he arranged for a lodging. Their cousin, Fr. Aloysius, accompanied by Sr. Elizabeth, gave us a ride to the ferry. The islands are located in the northern part of Lake Victoria.

I wanted to go for two reasons. First, monkeys live on the islands. We hadn't seen any and I wanted to see some. We did. Second, I had heard the islands were beautiful. They are.

Jude had asked whether we wanted to stay at an inexpensive place or a more expensive place. This time we went for the cheap place--25,000 Ush a night for the two of us. That's about $12.50 a night. This was for a double room--a double bed and a twin bed with mosquito netting and a bathroom, although no running water. However, we were provided with jerry cans of water and warm water for bathing. Although there was a shower head, with no running water we bathed in a large basin (think large plastic dish pan.)

The room was clean. It was small. We had electricity every night from 7:30 PM to about 10 PM. There was a kerosene lantern in the room, but we brought a battery powered one, so we didn't use the kerosene one.

Before we went, I told Bry'Chell to think of this as camping. For camping it was pretty luxurious. For a hotel, it was basic, although I've stayed in worse. Jude bargained some to get the local price for us. I am grateful he did.

Jude picked us up from the ferry on his motorcycle and had another boda-boda there to take the other one of us. Bry'Chell has always said she would never ride a boda-boda, but she did when she had no other choice and she had a great time. She did hold on for dear life, but she was grinning the whole time. There's not much traffic on the island, so it's a good place to ride a boda-boda, if you have no other choice.

There's a lot more to write about, but it's time to braid Bry'Chell's hair. I want to do a nice job since she goes back to school on Monday--after a two month vacation for Christmas. (It wasn't that much of a vacation since she had to do American History and math almost everyday.)