So I’ll be honest, when we first saw our accommodation in Mbarara University of Science and Technology, our immediate reactions were ‘oh fuck what the hell have we done?’ To call our accommodation basic is an understatement, and the community we thought we’d live in is non-existent. Our house is a little bungalow, with variable electricity, no hot water unless you want an electric shock, mosquito nets with holes in, and every creature you could think of bedding in with us at night. So after having unpacked a little, and contained some minor freakouts, we went to chat to our two housemates, Canadian Mercedes and Spanish Blanca, about how to survive here. Bigger oh fuck. Sounds like there’s not all that much to do aside from frequenting the supermarket come Internet café / bar come night club that’s a couple of minutes walk up the road. However, determined not to be defeated by our own negativity we agree to a quick beer in said establishment before taking ourselves to bed. Now I have to say that it wasn’t all that bad. Whilst the wifi is variable it does exist and is therefore the reason I am able to produce this blog, and the beer is huge, cold, and pretty nice. Dad I believe it is called ‘Club’ if you’re interested and it is a local Ugandan beer. Furthermore the girls we live with are lovely. Mercedes is a surgical resident interested in going into paediatrics, so we took the opportunity to grill her about the hospital situation; its location, quality, facilities etc, and of course what are the weirdest things she’s seen. We were pleased to find out that the hospital is merely across the road (those of you that know me well enough will know what a godsend that little perk is), and that provided that they don’t run out of oxygen and you don’t need ventilating it’s in pretty good shape for Africa (make of that what you will, T.I.A afterall!). Blanca is an intern for an NGO that does a lot of work with refugees and seems to have a bit more local knowledge on how to get about and find some fun here. I also got a call from Viola (our supervisor for our internship) to arrange for an informal meeting the next day so she can fill us in on what to expect during our internship, and we go to bed that night with the reassurance that Mbarara has some potential for entertainment and a lizard on the wall. Oh joy. T.I.A!