Another Peaceful Sunday

July 28, 2019

Rashmi and Lily’s perspective:

Today was a rest day for everyone, so luckily, we got to sleep in a little more this morning. We got up around 10am, headed into the hotel kitchen for a nice breakfast of matooke, fresh chapati, and coffee. After our meal, we agreed that it was time to catch up on some work for the past two or three days. We reviewed our notes from the interviews and sent them to Ibrah and Helen so that they could be used in their report. We also finally got around to writing our blog posts for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Even though we were not getting back super late every night, three long days with lots of traveling really tired us out! In the afternoon, the whole gang decided to go get a late lunch at a local restaurant and then head over to an outdoor communal game area. There, we met Peace’s sister (this is Peace’s hometown) and played a few rounds of a game that we can’t seem to get the name of, but is basically another version of “Sorry!”.  The weather was beautiful and it was really nice to spend a few hours outside together, just relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. At around 5pm, we decided to head back to the hotel for some individual down time before dinner. Rashmi and Lily both read their books outside until the mosquitoes got bad, and then moved into their respective rooms. We went back to the same local restaurant for dinner as it seems to not only have really good food, but has options that will not upset anyone’s stomach any more. Overall, it was a very peaceful, much needed rest day, but we are super excited to start training the newest group of peer educators tomorrow!

Aayush and Mariam’s Perspective: 

Today Mariam and Aayush slept in and left the suites at about 12:30 to have brunch with Karis, the other intern from the UK. We went to Cafe Java’s and ordered iced coffees. Mariam ordered a chicken pesto sandwich with masala fries and Aayush ordered a vegetarian quesadilla with regular fries. We sat in the balcony as the weather was absolutely perfect. After brunch, we went to the African Craft Village! It was such an amazing place, with many stores selling handmade authentic African crafts and souvenirs. We went from shop to shop and bought some souvenirs for friends and family back home. The place was filled with arts from stone and wood sculptures, small and big, to paintings, to colorful printed clothes. It was fun checking out all the different vibrant prints they use in the crafts and we managed to bargain for good prices. Finally, we walked around the area to a nearby mall that didn’t seem to have many shops. After contemplating what to do next we decided to just head home. Aayush managed to nap for 2 hours, while Mariam and Karis hung out for a bit at the suites. Then we all got together to have some vanilla tea and bourbon biscuits in the balcony and watched the sky turn dark. As it got darker the mosquitos started coming in so we went inside, worked on our blogs and went to bed. It was a super chill day, though it was much needed!