Making a Hash of it
Hash virgin attends Africa Hash 2009 in Kampala!
Kampala Hash House Harriers run
Happy May Day Bank Holiday!
Feet are killing me this morning. Several hours dancing to the most fantastic African music, after a run round the streets of Kampala with 250 Hashers descending on Kampala for Africa Hash 2009. The week-end’s only just started: at 10 am I get on a coach to Jinja ‘Source of the Nile’ for an hour’s run along the river, ‘the most scenic spot in Uganda’ (that’s some claim). Another party laid on tonight, then off to run through the Botanical Gardens at Entebbe tomorrow morning, along the shores of Lake Victoria…. followed by another party!
I’m a Hasher ‘virgin’ – no ‘Hash Handle’ yet though I’ll be amazed if I don’t acquire a (normally) rude nickname by the end of this w/end. Dancing with my legs wrapped round the waist of a gorgeous Ugandan as he twirled me around on the dancefloor last night may just have been noticed … no wonder I’m stiff this morning!
Hashing great way to meet people Kampala
Joining the Hash is a great way to meet people, 95% of whom are Ugandans. It started out as an expat club (not normally my type of thing) and there are lots of silly public humiliations, e.g. if you’re spotted wearing new running shoes you’re forced to drink beer out of one of them! Yesterday someone was drinking beer out of a flip flop somehow! The beer was flowing all day but no-one got stupidly drunk which was good.
First Hash was last week, about 7 km, longest run for months. Really had to push myself, thoughts of Prince’s Trust week-end came flooding back! We passed through a village and everyone stood at the side of the – steep and very uneven – ‘marram’ road, laughing and cheering us on. Was kept motivated by young boy of about 11, who joined us as we ran through a village; he ran next to me for 30 minutes, in his flip flops, onto the main road, through someone’s back garden, back through another village… it’s moments like that I treasure here.
It was a treat to be invited to the British High Commission, along with other VSO volunteers
This week was spent In-Country Training with VSO. I made the most of having some ‘thinking time’ out of the office and plan to make use of VSO’s networks and use them to help me develop UCF’s strategy. You get so caught up in the UCF work, it’s good to have a reminder of how we fit into VSO’s strategy for Uganda. We come under the Participation and Governance programme, helping to build capacity of grassroots (community-based organisations).
I’m investigating how, through our access to remote communities, we can help other VSO programme areas. It might be as simple as providing mosquito nets but we could facilitate introduction of other health organisations, working with HIV/AIDS or disability for example. Malaria is the biggest killer here and only a third of rural Ugandans sleep under a net; 78 000 of every 100 000 deaths are due to HIV/AIDS; the disabled are mostly hidden, they are seen as an embarrassment (or worse) and few make it to school. School fees are higher for Special Needs children and schools lack the facilities to cater for them.
It was great to meet up with the other (12) VSO volunteers who I spent my first week in Uganda with. I’ve been so lucky with this placement – one volunteer is quitting hers after six months and another’s leaving early.
I’ve signed up for more Luganda lessons. Pa and Valere: I haven’t forgotten the request for the next Luganda lesson!
Thought for the day – cross-cultural explanations
When you teach someone how to use a PC, you notice how it reflects Western society, and not just in terms of the currency characters on it. (It does get confusing using an English / Thai keyboard set up with North American settings!)
Try explaining to a 21 year old Ugandan what the return [“carriage return”] button. Why is it called return? And what is the big arrow for? I mean, let’s start with asking What is a typewriter? A manual typewriter had a big return key which you usually had to hit hard for it to make the heavy carriage of the typewriter (holding the paper in position) return to start typing the next sentence.
As you wait for programmes to load on a PC, you see a moving mini eggtimer graphic. How do you explain what the eggtimer on the screen means?
A traditional method for boiling eggs to perfection is to use a sandglass or sand timer. It comprises two glass bulbs connected vertically by a narrow neck that allows a regulated trickle of material (historically sand) from the upper bulb to the lower one.
sandglass egg timer
Here in Uganda eggs are boiled until they’re hard enough to peel and eat whole. No such thing as our very English soft boiled ‘egg and soldiers’! [That’s thin slices of toast for dipping into egg my northern European friends!]
It’s all about culture, and context…
D Day …
**D Day
Well there IS more to life in Kampala than insects but boy are they gonna give over and let me tell you some other news? Well no frankly, not this week.
D is for Death
IMPORTANT NEWS! House fumigation done! Fumigation does not involve any kind of smoke or fumes but litres of chemical spray. Not very happy about that – for myself, the boys spraying the house or the environment …. must check it out.
The fumigation was very thorough. Drains were sprayed, cupboards were emptied, tables upturned…
House and drains now cockroach-free for at least three months – yeeee ha!
D is for DDT
On the same note, headline yesterday “Court throws out DDT case, spraying to resume.” DDT kills mosquitoes (thereby preventing malaria, a very common and sometimes fatal disease). The World Health Organisation overturned a 30 year ban on DDT, a ban I hadn’t realised existed. According to another site “numerous studies on DDT have shown its environmental persistence and its ability to bioaccumulate, especially in higher animals. Of particular concern is its potential to mimic hormones and thereby disrupt endocrine systems in wildlife and possibly humans.”
D is for Despondent
Was getting down last week at lack of fitness. I don’t even run for a bus anymore (the office is the spare bedroom) and everything had become a real effort; picking my legs up felt like dragging two hefty watermelons and I was getting fed up hear myself moan about it, I just wanted to rest up and eat some more! Lol. I knew I had to snap out of it, as it was starting to knock my confidence plus a group of us are climbing Mt Elgon in four weeks time (eighth highest peak in Africa!)
Lake Bunyonyi view. Diary of a Muzungu
D is for Davina
- I am only drinking at the week-ends, and then only in moderation
- I am not smoking
- I am going to bed earlier
- I am getting up earlier
- I’m going to aerobics once or twice a week. Sometimes I walk there – uphill– then run home. Even if I take the car, I’m still getting an hour’s exercise (i.e. so don’t beat yourself up over it Charlotte!)
- I’ve done the Davina McCall work-out DVD twice this week
- I am joining the Hash (House Harriers) – for the running not the drinking! [First run tomorrow – 5 – 10k, oh god that’s most I’ve run in three months. I can’t back out of it now I’ve told you all – so ask me how it went!]
- I am not dwelling on the not-so-positive health / lifestyle aspects because they are only part of the temporary readjustment.
OK well some might call this last one ‘denial’, but hey whatever works! (Actually people have said right from the off how quickly I’m settling in so I’m probably being impatient with myself …)
D is for don’t you DIG this cricket?!
Insects freak me out – unless they’re HUGE! Somehow that makes them more interesting… nsenene grasshopper
Cricket (or locust?) close-up
I screamed at Simpson that this was a cockroach but this is apparently a cicada. It lives in the trees in our compound (YUCK)
**In everyday speech, D-Day has come to mean “a day when something important will happen.” Literally, D-day was “the day during the Second World War when the Allies began their invasion of Europe by attacking the coast of northern France. The D-Day landings began on 6 June 1944.”
Locomotion commotion
There was a big commotion outside the compound this week. We heard the train rattle past – just a few metres beyond our compound wall – and then a big BANG!
Simpson and I ran and grabbed the locally-made wooden ladder to look over the hedge but it was too dark to see anything. It took us a while to work out what had happened. However, the general hum of hundreds of voices conveyed a sense of excitement.
We heard the next day that the train had run into a lorry packed high with charcoal and the whole of Namuwongo had descended to Go Down to collect free charcoal! I asked about casualties but didn’t get an answer (read into that what you will).
The railway line is 50 metres from the house. A train thundered past on my first night here (so you can imagine what I was thinking!) “No wonder they’ve moved me here, the rent must be cheap if that thing’s going past every night, how am I ever going to sleep? …” As it turns out, trains only pass once a week or so, carrying freight from ships docked at Port Bell on Lake Victoria. The occasional passing train is quite exciting now I know it’s only once a week! And I always wonder where it’s come in from – possibly Tanzania or Kenya. Suddenly the train ‘and what lies beyond’ seems exotic.
It was raining heavily this morning so I went back to sleep to the sound of it, snug under my blanket. (What a treat! There’s the a slight chill in the air).
It’s time to make tea for me and Simpson. Not only have I missed the spout of the kettle but I have filled it with water straight from the tap. A ‘no, no’ but luckily I realised what I’d done. I haven’t had any stomach upsets yet but I don’t want to chance it. Occasionally, National Water add chlorine to the water supply and it comes out of the tap cloudy (and you a grey scums appear when you boil it). We try and avoid drinking it then.
Simpson says there’s a lot of work for him to do on the porch this morning. At first sight there are 100s of leaves to sweep. They turn out to be the wings of 100s of insects – some kind of ant, a delicacy enjoyed by the Baganda and Acholi tribes. The insects have been attracted by the security light. Now the sun’s come out, the ants are all running off, leaving their wings behind! Simpson wanted to sweep them up right away but I asked him to wait so the Greenbul (bird like a Flycatcher) can eat his fill. He wanted to put them in a bin liner but I’ve asked him to put them in a pile under the tree “so we don’t deprive the bird of his natural food.” (He’s getting used to my funny mzungu ways!)
More rain will mean more mosquitoes of course.
“You have to respect their intelligence though don’t you?” I say and Simpson adds “they breed just like African families!” Uganda has the 3rd highest birth rate in the world – he is child number 8 out of 15, and that is very common. I saw an ad for a contraceptive pill on TV last night “for mothers who are breast feeding.” It featured a happy young couple playing with a baby. The line was “enjoy bonding with your baby as a couple, without having to worry about the other children.” So it was promoting quality time (smaller families) + breast feeding as best way of feeding babies. But how do people afford the pill? Do they offer free contraception in Uganda? The authorities should (like they do in the UK) but I would be amazed if they do.
Last week as I walked down the road, someone offered me his daughter to take care of. I laughed in reply but actually the situation made me quite angry. How did that little girl feel? And why have so many children if you can’t afford to look after them? It’s funny; when I lived in the UK I made excuses for people having more kids than they could cope with but here in Uganda, this attitude gets to me. I suppose it’s on a much grander scale in Uganda and many of the kids I see around Namuwongo are absolutely filthy (i.e. uncared for).
My colleague Patrick says there’s never been a lack of food in Uganda – portions in restaurants everywhere are certainly enormous – but malnourishment is still common, as we saw yesterday on our visit to the famous Mulago Hospital (subject of a BBC documentary a few months ago). Mulago is a massive, creaking place. My friend Isla is a VSO Speech Therapist there and has seen some shocking sights.
Today’s visit was to Mulago’s Healthy Baby clinic ‘Mwana Mujimu’ to hand out toys to the kids, hear more about the clinic and suggest improvements such as cheering up the place, installing a playground for example. I’m not sure whether I’m going to get involved or not. I haven’t been in Uganda long enough to decide which personal projects I’d like to support, but will happily collect any unwanted toys or kids’ clothes on my trip home (next year?) if anyone has any they no longer need.
The clinic provides a free meal for the carer too (usually a woman but not always the mother), to encourage them to stay the weeks with the child. This gives the clinic the opportunity to educate them on nutrition.
I came to Uganda as a volunteer with Voluntary Service Overseas. We volunteers are business development volunteers (like me), teachers of special needs children, nurses, midwives, doctors and cardiologists. In addition to our ‘day jobs’ as professional volunteers, we also support other projects, in our spare time.
On a personal note, the Muzungu writes:
Thanks for all the emails and sorry if I haven’t replied yet. I will! I write this blog offline but it’s still taking time to download and reply to individual emails and I’m a bit behind this week after submitting my first fundraising proposal for UCF. Worked on it most of last w/end and two very late nights / early mornings. It’s for a wee $40k! but I couldn’t help but make the same amount of effort as I did with the big Laing PFI bids. UCF Directors and Trustees over the moon with what we submitted so fingers crossed we get the grant …
Bon appetit Simpson! An introduction to Ugandan foods
An introduction to Ugandan foods
Simpson, our 21 year old ‘gate boy’ who lives on the compound with me has introduced me to lots of new foods, which is extremely generous considering his shockingly low wages (more about that next week). He’s shared with me:
- Cassava (like potato) and beans – served hot, mixed together, love it.
- Jack fruit – you stick your hand in a polythene bag to extract pieces of it! Has industrial type ‘glue’ (or sap) that you can’t wash off anything. Nice tho, v different to anything I’ve ever had before.
- Traditional food from his region (Banyankole tribe), which is three items:
- Kidney beans – fine.
Dark brown balls of millet flour, mixed with water and kneaded, uncooked (like thick wallpaper paste mixed with fine sawdust- yuck!)
Served with “sauce” of thin white goat’s milk cheese (smells bad), watered down (double, triple yuck!) - Eating it once was bearable but he offered it to me again the other day and I just couldn’t eat a whole plate of it. I’m not a fussy eater but God it was foul.
“Thank you Simpson, it’s very kind of you to prepare me lunch.” (I have since told him how I really felt!)
I offer him breakfast every day (normally tea and bananas) and wish him “Bon appetit Simpson!” He just loves it when I say this and we both start our day laughing.
We were trying to think of a name for his email address – he looked a bit perplexed when he saw the name Simpson had gone already so I said “why don’t we do something more personal like bonappetit.simpson?” He nearly fell off his chair with excitement!
As for life generally, I’m getting into a routine, but everything takes so long to do here. ..
- There’s no way round it, to avoid the mozzie bites you have to apply repellent at dusk every day
- Carefully check the net’s tucked in when you hop into bed
- Peel the fruit and veg (or rinse in filtered water)
- Blow the candles out because the electricity is back on
- Do the washing-up right away cos you can’t leave anything o/night [you know why! INSECTS! big ones!]
- Top up the water filter (after having boiled the water first …)
- Kill more mosquitoes or they’ll sing you to sleep …
I cooked us all lunch on Friday and it seemed to go down well. “It was a very good lunch,” Patrick said (there was lots of it I think he meant!) although I was a bit peeved to notice one uninvited visitor at the bloody table. Huh!! **
Had stupidly said “I haven’t seen a cockroach for over a week” and a small one scampered across the table – my table – not for bloody long I can tell you. It got a heavy dosing of killer spray and 63 kilos of me for good measure! Even Patrick went “ugh!”
63 kilos – just had to drop that in there, lol… am rather chuffed that even tho I feel the lack of exercise I appear to have lost weight (do bathroom scales work differently at altitude???)
The Muzungu’s photo gallery on Flickr. It’s been great fun swapping comments on my photos. So much better than the old days when I would have made you sit through a whole evening of snaps!! I think most of you are getting the hang of Flickr but please tell me if it’s still not working.
Adding photos directly to my blog is fiddly, e.g. have tried 3 times tonight and it’s failed so will have to stick with Flickr for showing more than 1 at a time…
** a cockroach darted out from a crack in the table!
And then there were three …
And so to work…
Last week was frustrating in many ways … I know I’ve hardly mentioned it so far with all the other excitement BUT … I am actually here to do a job too!
On Friday we let the junior member of staff go. Gladys (the projects assistant) has a lovely disposition but not one that favours working, taking the initiative or getting to work less than an hour late everyday! It’s disappointing but on a 4 day trip to visit the projects – WE’RE TALKING FREE SAFARI GUYS! – Gladys only asked 3 questions. And then didn’t turn up to work the next day. So, not much future for her in the field managing projects on her own when she has to take a day off after every trip… that was her first (and last trip) with UCF.
locust close-up one leg missing
Another frustration has been Angela ‘blood-out-of-a-stone’ the intern who we are helping with a final year degree research proposal. Every time I question her budget she looks at me as though she wants to murder me. That girl has such an attitude I want to throttle her … but then she gives us the sweetest smile …
We’ve been trying to address these issues while still chasing up (it’s all the vogue here) a number of house issues:
– Leaking shower
– Serious damp in my wardrobe – clothes still not unpacked after three weeks
– Fumigation
– Two diseased trees in the compound
Patrick, the Projects Officer, is very enthusiastic about everything but admits to hating paperwork. He’s asked me to help with his IT skills. He’s self-taught and I can see how I can easily help him work more efficiently and even start enjoying using technology. He’s very receptive to being shown anything new: I showed him how to print double sided – it was like pulling a rabbit out of a hat in his eyes!
Enid on the other hand, doesn’t seem to like change. She accepts the fact her email may take 30 seconds to send, and that when wireless doesn’t work all three of us have to use her PC. “That’s Uganda for you,”she sighs after venting spleen about the internet provider, the landlord, the owner of the property, the electrician … and I realise that as much as she is trying to enlighten me, she seems to be enjoying my frustration. When I suggest alternatives, she offers me yet another reason why so-and-so solution just won’t work “that’s Uganda for you.”
With all the other changes taking place, I’m not going to attempt to change Enid’s attitude directly. I’ll work with Patrick (who has asked me for IT support) and if he chooses to suggest to Enid she follows suit then that’ll be great. She’s an intelligent lady so I’m not going to push her. Although I had two long conversations with her about Sophie and felt we all agreed to let Sophie go, Enid may still feel threatened. Since the last volunteer left, it seems there’s been a lack of communication between the UK and Uganda, and motivation and morale are low so I think I should tread carefully now.
As we’ve been working out what to do about Gladys for the last fortnight, certain things have been left on hold. But now she’s gone we can get on building the team. I’m going to cook everyone lunch this week, we can all eat together, kick back and have a laugh and I’ll get a photo of us all.
There’ll be five of us for lunch: the house team of Eva and Simpson, and the full-time Ugandan UCF team of me, Patrick and Enid.
(The directors and trustees all work on a part-time voluntary basis and my remit is to improve communication and involvement there too).
Dealing with insects (aka Therapy with Simpson)
An insect phobia!
Am getting the upper hand over the mosquitoes. Score is 2:1 to them but I’m fighting back. Last night however, I came eye to eye with a medium sized Unmentionable at the back of my food cupboard. We had the obligatory game of Chase-Me-Charlie and the little fu**er scarpered.
Was kind of mentally prepared for An Encounter as I had found a very small dead cockroach earlier. THANK GOD I’m not alone in the house so have lots and lots of moral support! Such an encounter, when I was just coming to terms with mosquitoes, mosquito nets and candlelight would have sent me under just a day or two ago. I really can’t imagine how I’d have coped without Simpson (the gate boy and personal demi-god). If I had the money for his uni fees I would hand it over right now.
We bonded over a cockroach!
Health warning – for those who fear insects!
Talking of Simpson, this afternoon’s story is just too funny not to relate but if you feel anything like I do about roaches, skip this bit…
So, this morning I asked Eva (our house girl) and Simpson whether we could empty and fumigate the kitchen cupboard (Thomas, I really really feel for you having to clean out your mum’s cupboards back home in St Lucia!) and then I said:
“Simpson, look here’s a dead one.”
He laughed, “that’s not very big. You’re frightened of that?”
“No, the one I saw was a lot bigger.” I drew a shape about 1.5 cm and he laughed again.
“That’s nothing” he said.
I recoiled (as he cradled it in his palm and looked at it).
“But it’s ALL those legs, why do they have so many?” I asked.
“So you don’t like spiders then?”
“Actually I don’t mind them. Look Simpson, put it on the ground outside and let me have a proper look at it, I need to get used to these things…”
Then he asked “you want to see where there are very very many?”
“No.”
“Look”, he said, and he lifted up the drain cover in the yard.
O MY GOD. It was like something out of a horror film.
As the light hit them, the whole lot ran, there must have been 30 or more, all colours and sizes of ‘don’t ask me what’ insects. I was too busy screaming to take it all in.
As Simpson held the drain cover open, tiny little Eva poured a tub of Doom powder down the drain and into the outlet pipe and I could see ‘things’ trying to climb out. An enormous shiny brown cockroach 2 inches long (MY WORST NIGHTMARE, give me mice, snakes, rats or ants any time!) climbed out and escaped!
And came scuttling down the alley towards me!
O god.
I ducked back into the kitchen as it was Doomed by my heroes Simpson and Eva.
Sophie came flying out of the office when she heard me screaming and we all laughed and laughed at this crazy mzungu.
Moral of the story:
I have to say this was a good team-building exercise, it has drawn everyone together laughing at me!! It’s taken me a few days to put this event behind me and relive it onscreen but it was such high drama I can see the funny side now.
*An Unmentionable is a COCKROACH.
I am fed-up
The ups and downs of life as a volunteer in Uganda
- No internet or office phone, nor promise from provider to solve it any time soon.
- Feeling fat.
- Sophie (junior) didn’t turn up to work, nor tell anyone she wasn’t coming in.
- Patrick isn’t in as his kids have all got malaria.
- Enid has been telling me about the frustrations of Uganda – inefficiency, protecting their jobs, saying sorry but not trying to address situation, refusing to give name of supervisor, not returning calls, blaming other people etc etc
- Simpson not here to cheer me up.
- The sun’s gone in!
- I have no plans (yet) for the w/end.
- Ken the painter didn’t understand me when I called to explain he needs to apply damp proof paint on all the walls inside the wardrobe (so I haven’t been able to unpack properly yet).
- It’s Friday the 13th which is cool cos maybe that explains everything?!Feel a lot better now I know why I feel pissed off!
The First Fortnight (is that all it is…?)
Random notes from the Muzungu’s Diary
- First night under a mosquito net and I thought of Holly in Johannesburg, tucking hers in around her every night. Holly and I were flatmates in London many moons ago, she did VSO too.
- Monkeys! Before breakfast! A group of them play in the trees below the canteen.
- “Muzungu! Muzungu!” two boys shout out as they see us pass in our minibus. Was totally captivated first time I was called mzungu. It refers to a white person (and strangers generally) and isn’t derogatory (unless someone already knows your name, apparently). Little kids love calling out Muzungu and waving. I join in, it’s fun.
- Nature seems so much closer. A pair of Brown Kites cartwheeled over my head, so close by and unafraid of me. One settled 20 feet away to drink from a puddle.
Learning Luganda
- Struggled to get my ‘frame of reference’ with Luganda, tho recognised a couple of imported Arabic words. Had lessons in the banda (round but open covered traditional construction) with Isla, who arrived a couple of months ago. (We get on really well, and she introduced me to two other VSOs near me so social life looking good already!)
- We sang a Luganda nursery rhyme to teach us numbers 1 – 10. Our teacher Julie is so open and adorable, it was all very natural and I felt like a schoolgirl again. None of us were confident singers but we all chimed in.
- As soon as I get confident and ask for another word, out comes a really long one, e.g. obutongulu (onions).
- Isla’s favourite phrase is Tulabagane olulala meaning ‘see you soon.’
- We thanked Julie for being such a great teacher. She replied, “no thank you for being such great students and having such a great attitude.” Isla and I plan to have more lessons with Julie but Rose (at VSO) says we need to wait eight weeks to check that Luganda is the most appropriate language for us / our work. A dozen languages are spoken here in Uganda.
- VSO induction week was brilliant, a holiday in some respects (couldn’t stay awake after 9.30pm any night), an opportunity to bond with the other new volunteers and a time to learn more about:·
Ugandan culture Do’s and Don’ts.
- Don’t expect meetings to start on time.
- Do take time to stop and greet everyone every morning and ask after them and their families.
- VSO Uganda’s strategic objectives (addressing Education, Disability, Participation and Governance)
- Luganda language (a few hours of lessons)
- Child protection issues (abuse, negligence, denial of education, forced early marriage, even sacrifice). This was really shocking.
- There are so many interesting people on the induction, I wish I had more time to know everyone, e.g. Dutch couple Jan and Freddie are in their 60s and have done VSO (2 years a throw) in Namibia, Botswana and Kenya. Stephen is ex World Wildlife Fund and living in mud house with corrugated iron roof and rats running across his mozzie net at night! He lives near Bwindi Impenetrable Forest (where the gorillas are).
- Stormy weather! We took a real battering last night, storm with v heavy rain went on for hours but very cosy under net. It does give a real sense of security. Could not sleep on several occasions pre-departure (“the lists! the lists”), great to be able to sleep again. Chill.
Final day of induction and due to meet our employers (in my case Patrick from the Uganda Conservation Foundation). Employers are due to arrive from 9.10 am.
9.50 a.m. Patrick’s not here yet
11.10 a.m. Patrick finally walks in!
Week 2 in Nam’ – My new home
Life in Namuwongo is just what I wanted.
I’m on a secure ‘compound’ (walled garden), five minutes walk from Nam’ (a suburb of Kampala approx 15-30 minutes away, depending on traffic). In Nam’ I can get public transport, use the internet (well, in theory at least!) and do all my food shopping (more about that another day, what an experience that is too!) There’s a shanty town over the wall, just 100m away, so there’s a constant buzz of human activity (not to mention drumming!)
First day in my new job, shame I couldn’t iron my clothes! It was all very relaxed and am learning to go with the flow. Spent the morning listening to Patrick and Enid understanding more about UCF’s immediate needs.
Hoping to meet two of the Directors this week and 4×4 driving lessons are planned once I get my Ugandan driving licence (though this is just a formality and not a prerequisite to driving!!) With all the other changes going on, almost forgot I am starting a new job as well, almost seems incidental. Meeting the Trustees in London and spending some time with Mike (the founder, who lived here for ten years) means I knew quite a lot about my new role. Still can’t believe my luck, this is such a great placement.
rewiring Namuwongo house
Electricity, we have some! Not all fixed yet but landlord arrived at 7.30 this morning. Most of house has been rewired now. Feels strange to have light and power! Once my bathroom has been rewired I will even have hot water! (But a power shower it ain’t).
There is a cluster of volunteers my side of town who I met up with yesterday so support network is building nicely too.
Michele has been asking about the men, well some really gorgeous young men on our first night out, playing the drums and doing the traditional African dancing. I just need to find out where the “h- edu(ma)cated” men hang out (and get a bit of a suntan first!) Still, plenty of time for all that – mpola mpola as they say here.
Avocadoes are ripe and dropping off tree into our garden compound but the paw paw aren’t ripe yet. It stinks out there tho, Simpson thinks there’s a dead rat over the other side of the hedge.
First days in Nam’ – a lesson in Luganda
Talk about “Deepest Darkest Africa!”
No electricity (or hot water or internet) for first three nights in Namuwongo, Kampala.
Cooked and showered by candlelight (it’s dark here by 7 pm) and no chance to unpack first night, so wandered around in the dark, not knowing what was where, mosquitoes screeching in my ears.
No credit on Ugandan mobile phone and UK phone one not working.
It’s probably good that I can’t see what I’m eating (some tomato and egg combination).
Battle against insects
So much for conservation: anything with more than 4 legs must die.
My Luganda phrase book is coming in more useful than thought: its dead mosquito-scarred cover is testament to a few long evenings with nothing else to do!
I have enjoyed giving the mozzies a Lesson in Luganda – THWACK!
Drums and singing took my mind off mozzies for a moment. The sound was captivating. The village is a hundred yards or so away and with all the windows open sound was coming from every direction, it was like being in a dream.
Africa!
“The people they are welcoming you. Did you hear them?”
Simpson asked me.
Tried writing some of my diary by candlelight too but was getting dive bombed by a mosquito every two minutes.
It’s bloody relentless. Retired to sanctuary of mozzie net for the night …
Introducing Johnny and Julie… my four-legged mosquito-munching house guests.
Salvation! Geckos in the house!
Just hope they’re hungry – for mosquitoes…
I’m just going to have to get used to the sound of mosquitoes. Thought I was clever bringing earplugs with me but I can still hear the ba**ards with them in! Must’ve killed ten mosquitoes tonight…
Welcome to Namuwongo
Can’t believe I have only been here in Namuwongo one week!
Rain is now coming down hard, outside the internet cafe in Namuwongo, essentially a large village outside the city of Kampala. It’s like the West Indies 20+ years ago, poor, very dusty and ramshackle, banana palms and colourful shacks. I feel very welcome and not a hint of trouble (I’m the only muzungu it seems).
Tried calling home but mobile won’t work at the moment and no elec (and therefore internet or hot water) in new home since Friday. Can send and receive texts but will keep them short / few as not sure how much they cost yet.
Mozzies have been annoying but I’m living with it and no ‘You Know Whats’** in the house tho a big one did fly onto my plate as I ate out one night! I am being very grown up about it tho.
It’s been great to have Simpson (the gate boy) around this w/end. He’s between school and uni, just saving up for his fees. What a lovely young man he is, very tall and dark with fine elegant features and beautiful manners, so charming and helpful. He has kept me sane actually in my battle with the mozzies. They have been relentless! Luckily I also have Johnny and Julie (house lizards) on my side.
Settling in well tho I know Patrick (UCF Project Officer) has been getting v stressed about the (lack of) electricity situation. Simpson seems to think it’ll be back on Monday for the week. I didn’t expect anything to be fixed over the w/end so am taking it ‘mpola mpola’ (slowly) and slowing down my expectations.
I recognised Patrick as soon as I saw him.
Our Luganda lessons had taught us the importance of formality so I was taken aback when he gave me a big bear hug!!
I used my few words of Luganda to great effect when we arrived at the house / office; I held out my hand and said ‘osiibye otya’ (good afternoon) and Enid and Sophie went crazy, screaming for a good five minutes. I thought Enid was going to expire! It was so funny and a tremendous welcome.
Eva (the house girl) made my room look very pretty and welcoming and I know everyone has been putting a lot of effort into sorting out the office and making me feel welcome too.
**cockroach
Touchdown in Africa – a letter home
Am writing from a really grubby internet cafe on the main road outside Kampala. We took a half hour walk thru the village to get here, all the kids shouting ‘Mzungu mzungu, bye!’ and waving at us. It was great fun.
Poverty is everywhere though: stalls just selling 4 tomatoes and a bunch of plantain, four people on a motorbike, enormous potholes and rubbish everywhere. My old colleagues at Laing Roads and the Waste team would have a field day here!
Had my first power cut last night – disappointingly short!! (The novelty will wear off I know).
This week we 12 new VSO volunteers are staying in relative luxury in Lweza outside Kampala in a religious conference centre. The reception area displays a calendar showing faces of all the Ugandan bishops (a must-have item for 2010 I think).
Today I had my first Luganda lesson, it was so much fun. Everything here is done with a smile on your face. Isla and I sat under the banda (like a bandstand) next to the ten feet high bamboo, watching the monkeys go by! We are learning to take life mpola mpola (slowly by slowly)…
Ugandans are so friendly and welcoming, so not the stereotype you see on TV of Africans (ignore typos, keyboard is heavy with red dust!)
I love Uganda already.
Induction very interesting. I’m bonding with some great volunteers. VSO are very good at getting us to connect and set up our own support network over here. About 30 VSO volunteers in Kampala, so life should be fun. Met British Consul yesterday so am already networking too 🙂
Food is pretty crap but no big bug scares yet.
First night went to African drum and dance show at the Ndere Cultural Centre. It was superb. I had to pinch myself – “I’m in Africa! At last!”
Even when I was on the plane I was obsessed with ramming my bags into the smallest cubby hole possible, trying to economise with every bit of available space. I kept saying to myself: “I can’t believe the months of packing (my flat / my possessions that are in storage / the stuff to bring to Uganda) are finally over!”
Gym and running have been non-existent this past month and the Ugandan diet threatens to turn me into a Big Mama very quickly (choice of 4 carbs for lunch!) Or was I supposed to eat all 4 of them? That said, maybe I’ll take up African dancing (‘the men aren’t bad looking’ as Michele will say!)
Meet my new colleagues at the Uganda Conservation Foundation on friday when we all move to our long-term accommodation. Hope to catch up with everyone more then. Don’t forget to drop me a line, one and all!
To read more about why I first came to Uganda, read The Story so Far
Are you planning to volunteer in Uganda? Are you a VSO?
Do you have any other Uganda travel tips you’d like to share?
Please leave a comment here or contact me directly if you have any questions. I’d love to hear from you!
