A day in Entebbe...or...attack of the critters!

On Saturday we decided to rent a car on Sunday and go on an adventure! First of all, it's not expensive to rent a car here. Second, we needed to get out of the house. We emailed a friend who lived in Entebbe (and now lives in Kitgum) and asked her what there was to do (inexpensive) in Entebbe. She suggested the Botanical Gardens. While researching that a bit we found out that their is a Wildlife Center (zoo) near the Gardens....so we decided to check it out, too!

First of all, I must brag on Scott and his AMAZING driving skills getting us out of Kampala. Let me tell you, this city is SCARY to drive in!! There are roundabouts everywhere and people kind of. sort of follow the laws. Then add to that the boda bodas (motorcycles) passing you and weaving in and out of traffic and us only living in the city for 2 weeks. He did a great job!!

So we're driving along on the streets of Entebbe looking for a bank. We're all kind of looking around at signs when all of a sudden a hawk....yes, a HAWK....flew in Scott's window. It all happened so fast. Scott kind of hit at it with his arm and gave a little shout. I looked over and saw something brown at his window then all of a sudden it was gone. I said, "What was that?" and he yelled (while laughing), "A hawk!" We all started laughing hysterically. The silly thing scratched at Scott's shirt and neck in his effort to get back out of our car!

We finally found the zoo (there are NO signs advertising where to go!!). As we got out of the car Laura was feeling really sick because she hadn't eaten much at home. So I pulled out an apple for her to eat. As we entered the zoo we realized that there were monkeys roaming free around the zoo. "How cute" we thought! Then suddenly (again it happened really fast!) a monkey ran up and jumped on Laura's arm. She screamed and threw her apple down. The monkey happily grabbed the apple and ran off. Again, we all started laughing because it made the 2nd time we'd been attacked by "critters." Laura actually had a dusty monkey paw print on her hand from where the monkey had jumped on her!

There was a huge tree in the middle of the zoo called the Elder Tree. It reminded the kids of something from Lord of the Rings.

We had a really fun time at the zoo. We saw giraffes, all sorts of snakes (including a cobra), rhinos, camels (which were roaming around, too!), zebras and lots of birds. We went to the chimpanzee exhibit and couldn't see the monkeys anywhere. The zookeeper could see us standing there and she started calling to the chimps and shaking their food bowl. All of a sudden 10 chimps came lumbering out of the wooded area. It was REALLY cool!

At the end of our time we went over to the playground to watch the monkeys playing. There was a mama monkey with a baby hanging on to her stomach as she ran. The monkeys were so cute, trying to get into the trashcans. We sat down to watch them and Scott and Nate walked over to see the lake (Lake Victoria). Suddenly the monkeys started getting mad at each other and fighting. Then they started moving their fighting over close to where I was sitting. I got up to walk away and all of a sudden I heard SCREAMING behind me. I thought it was a monkey....I've never heard that kind of screaming before. I looked back and poor Garrett was surrounded by 4 or 5 monkeys. I ran back to him and grabbed his hand to pull him away from them. They kept following him and he kicked off his shoe as he ran. I told Scott later that I didn't know what to do....should I kick at them (with my sandal?)...what to do? I grabbed Garrett as his other shoe fell off. He was still screaming. I remember kind of yelling at the monkeys to get away and then calling to Scott to please get over here (I said it as nicely as I could, considering the fact that I was panicking!). He ran over and put Garrett up on his shoulders and tried to calm Garrett down. My heart was racing so fast. I told Scott that I completely understood Garrett screaming....that if I wasn't a 42 year old mom, I would have been screaming, too! We were QUITE happy to leave the zoo...and have no plans on returning anytime soon!!

These are the wicked evil little creatures that attacked my sweet boy!

We also went to the Botanical Gardens that my friend suggested. That will be a post for another day!