This was truly a weekend of extreme opposites. To start with the weather, the weather this weekend was fantastic!!! Opposite to what we have had, with the heavy rain showers we had a week before. This weekend there was no rain at all only hot burning sunshine.

But the biggest contrast for me this weekend was the difference between the poor and the rich. On Saturday, Marloes and I decided to take a relax day after a week of hard work. We took a boda and went to a resort, we did not really know what to expect but it exceeded our expectations; it was beautiful; a really nice big pool surrounded with palm trees and stretcher beds and a bar. As soon as we walked in, there was somebody to guide us to our stretchers and he made sure there were some pillows on there. We were treated as royals. We had a swim, ate a delicious lunch (a relief after the daily lunch of beans and rice at the project) and a few drinks. It was so relaxing, but we kind of felt guilty too. I have been to all-inclusive resorts before when I was on holiday and it felt normal then, but now knowing how life is as soon as you walk out of the gate and living that life now on a daily basis it just felt weird. So we had some mixed feelings but we did really enjoyed our day of luxury.

On Sunday we did a hike. In order to reach the peninsula where the hike was, we took a boat and crossed a part of the Victoria Lake. The surroundings there were beautiful, this was really back to basic here and definitely the complete opposite of the luxury of the day before. We walked 14 kilometers up and downhill, on rough dirt roads in the burning sun and there was no swimming pool to dive in and cool off. But the hike was beautiful! The people who live there hardly ever see white people and as soon as they saw us, the kids came running and shouting ‘Hi mzungu’ and ‘Bye mzungu’ (mzungu means white man) and they wanted us to take pictures of them and then we had to show the picture to them. Our guide told us that when he first did this tour and the locals saw the mzungus the locals started screaming and running, they were afraid the white people came to take their land. But now they know that once every two months a hike is organized through their village and that we are only there to walk and look around.

All in all, it was a great weekend despite or perhaps thanks to the big contrasts. The pictures will make it all clear

(pictures will follow later because uploading them will cost loads of time and I need WIFI for that, so hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday)