When you travel to Africa to do volunteering, you don’t expect any luxuries, and knowing that I was going to a pretty remote place with no power except from the solar panels on the roof, I was totally overwhelmed by the accommodation at Big Beyond. A beautiful place! I felt totally at home 😊
We had hot showers (almost) every day, we had proper flushing toilets and the garden was full of amazing plants, flowers and birds.
The people, however… I always have really high expectations when I travel in Africa, because I have yet to visit anywhere on this continent where the people are not super friendly, open, honest and generally fantastic human beings! And Uganda and BB was no different… I have found many new friends through the work we did and the social events we had… I already miss them immensely! Let me introduce you to a few of them…
From left to right… Friday, who safely boda boda’ed me to and supported me in the lodge hospitality workshops – such an infectious laugh and so many laughs! Sunday, my favourite gardner – he walks two hours each way to get to work, better than the M25)! Gerald, enthusiastic about health and birding, and an uncanny resemblance to a certain football coach – not! 😄  (zoom in to read his jacket!).
Again from left to right… Joseph, meat lover who cannot get enough of spice & pepper. Jennifer, chef and a wonderful and strong woman who has to ‘put up’ with Joseph as her husband 😉 Charity, mother of four and a fab dancer (and brother to Amos)! Joly, coffee-maker extraordinaire and a calm, kind and beautiful woman. Amos, the operations manager who has been with BB from the very beginning, he’s slightly grumpy at times (think it’s a macho thing 😉)! but he has a kind and big heart – his passion and drive for helping his local community is evident in all he does…oh and he likes red wine (randomly!)
We had some really fun evenings, including this goat BBQ event… I have however discovered that I do not like goat (which was not a surprise, as lamb is not a favourite of mine), so I only managed to finish the red wine…and left the meat stick to someone else!
BETINA IN AFRICA 