Colleagues

Eva, my fundraising counterpart; Paul, the Lobbying & Advocacy Officer; Stephen, works in the field. Bonding & boozing after a week long staff retreat...

My house

This is my cosy home on Mawanda Road, which I share with salamanders, cockroaches, mosquitoes & the occasional frog.

The flicks

My local bar, 'Bubbles', runs a movie night every Tuesday. It's like being at the open air theatre, only the seats are comfier, it's warmer & free popcorn is handed out - a welcome luxury when surviving on the VSO allowance! Last night was a showing of 'Clockwork Orange', & it felt like my own private cinema as you can see!

Nicola & Gus lose their sea-legs...

A fun day's sailing on Lake Victoria & then the whole world turns upside down...

The Feast of 'Sinterklaas'

The last few months have been as much an education in all things Dutch as they have been Ugandan… this weekend played host to ‘St Nicholas' Day’. On 6th December, our Dutch counterparts celebrate the arrival of St Nick from Spain to Holland. Traditionally he arrives on a boat, accompanied by his helper ‘Black Pete’ (Holland’s answer to the little elves) & dishes out presents to the well-behaved. Here in Uganda, we had to make do with Lake Victoria (which is shared by Uganda, Kenya & Tanzania!) & a speedboat. It must have been fairly amusing for the local Ugandans to see 2 Muzungus decked out in black face-paint!

In the evening, we ate ‘pepernoots’ (cinnamon biscuits) & exchanged presents & poems (the poem usually derives some fun out of your foibles & quirks & the one I received was quite long?! )

Not wishing to be outdone, this week is truly British. It's 'Panto’ season. Yes, even in Kampala! We’re off to see ‘Robin Hood & his Merry Men of Mbarara Forest’ & we’re dragging the Dutch with us...

(Oh, & can anyone post me a haggis for Burns’ night?)

Fort Portal weekend – 28th – 30th November

A happy weekend was spent with the Dutch bunch (Renzo, Marlies, Guustaaf, Alien & Andre) in Fort Portal. Situated in the northern foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains, 320km west of Kampala - near the Congo border - it’s a pleasant place surrounded by tea plantations, rolling hills & national parks. Trekking in Kibale National Park with baboons for company & breathing in the fresh air around the tranquil crater lakes (a novelty when you live in Kampala!) were the highlights.

Equatorial...

A different photo taken for each time I cross hemispheres...

Grasshoppers & Goats

This old VSO relic doesn't contain '100 different ways of cooking bananas' which is a surprising shame as most dishes here are accompanied by some sort of banana form. Other staples seem to be beans, spinach, rice & goat.

Fresh produce is deliciously divine! Amazing avacadoes, tasty tomatoes & perfect pineapples & papayas.

It's also the grasshopper season. Scooped into little paper cones for Ush 500 (around 15p), they're pretty crunchy, but not bad!

Still missing hula-hoops though...

No, not VSO's answer to 'furniture on a budget', but the result of a few Waragis (Uganda Gin). Surprisingly comfortable!

Halloween

A witch’s hat & an apple hung from the ceiling (in homage to bobbing). I also adopted a scary persona for the day, but other than that, the spirit of Halloween was very much lacking here! At least I didn’t arrive home to find that a pesky trick-or-treater had adorned my palm trees with silly-string.

Botanical Gardens

Never having followed botany with much interest, I had no idea - before my visit to Entebbe's Botanical Gardens that is - that nutmeg, rubber & cinnamon grow on/in trees. What surprised me even more, however, is that apparently cannon balls, sausages, crocodiles and umbrellas do too! Such are some of the names given to Uganda's flora & fauna...

The Office

Gospel music, interspersed with the bleating of goats bounces around my office walls as I try to concentrate. The printer doesn’t work. Bugs scavenge for pineapple, which is concealed in a Tupperware box in my desk drawer (oh, for a fridge!) The photocopier doesn’t work. Colleagues abandon meetings when we’re only half-way through the agenda - to answer the phone, go for a walk, who knows…? The phones have been switched off & the power’s gone.

Whoever thought I’d miss managers, momentum & order!?!

Every day, the sun shines through my window; my desk isn't cluttered; the resident chicken has a new brood; lunch only costs 2,000 Ush (less than £1); I'm learning different ways of doing things all the time.

Maybe it’s not so bad.

Downtown Kampala, at the taxi park

Pure, organised chaos - welcome to Kampala taxi park; an essential foray into Uganda's public transport system (if you want to avoid death by boda-boda when travelling across town!) Masses of taxis & people haggle, jostle & push their way through this minibus maze... though somehow it seems to work. The fare out of Kampala is often not the same when you're coming back; the buses are equipped to take 14 at a time, though are often packed to bursting & it's not unusual to share your seat with the odd rooster...

VSOs

My house!

I can no longer remember...

...what it's like to feel cold
(except when taking a shower)
- smooth pavements beneath my feet
- the taste of hula-hoops
- not being bugged by bugs
- washing machines
- fast access to the internet

& other things, even though it's only been a few weeks!

Nile trip

9th October is Independence Day. I avoided the speeches & instead, took a jolly to Jinja (south east Uganda) & a trip along the Nile from its source at Lake Victoria. (6,500 miles & 3 countries later, it arrives at the Mediterranean, but we only paid for a 30 minute boat ride). The 'source' of the river is characterised by an underground bubbling spring; the area is populated with beautiful birds & monkeys & the view across Lake Victoria is beautifully serene.

Kampala Hash House Harriers

Last night, I joined the Kampala 'hash' running club in an effort to get fit & to meet some locals. The club meets at a different location each week, so it should also be an opportunity to get to know the city as I jog around. Not that I'll see too much though, as I have to keep my head down most of the time, in order to avoid those ever-present - you've guessed it - pot-holes!

Some Ugandan English

Muzungu = white person
The ‘jam’ = traffic
Airtime = pay-as-you-go mobile credit
Stage = bus stop
Mangu mangu! = faster!
Boda Boda = motorcycle taxi

My favourite luganda phrase at the moment is ‘mpola mpola’ (slowly, slowly) which I say to all the boda boda drivers before getting on… my motorcycle helmet is also coming in handy as a rather fetching handbag!

House-warming

I moved into my little house this weekend & spent the afternoon haggling for household goods in the local market. I’m hoping that my landlady – who shares the compound – will teach me a bit more luganda & show me how to cook a local dish or two… outside of the compound, I’m on a little cul-de-sac which has a primary school at one end & a few dukas at the other selling eggs, vegetables, washing powder & charcoal. The rest of the street is dotted with rather run down palm trees, roosters & of course, pot holes!

On Saturday, old met new, as my VSO group met the existing Kampala VSOs in a bar downtown. There are quite a few of us – mainly from the UK & The Netherlands, working for NGOs & in the public hospitals.

There was a minor earth tremor last week. The look on my face as my desk wobbled was a source of great amusement to my colleagues!

Today, I walked home from work. I passed mango, avocado & papaya trees, chickens cooped in cages, mobile manicurists & women carrying matoke in baskets on their heads; dogs curled up on porches & a higgledy jumble of roadside wares & little wooden shacks (‘dukas’) selling all manner of things. I heard taxi horns, sizzling barbeques & children, peeping from behind banana trees, shrieking ‘muzungu!’ as I passed by. I avoided muddy pot holes, though my once black flip-flops are still nicely encrusted in a dusty orange hue. I’m really, really missing pavements…

I’m writing this wearing a head-torch which Eva says makes me look like a ‘nerd’, but what else can you do when you’ve run out of candles & there’s just been a power cut?

African perfomance at cultural centre in Ntinda

'Muzungu' in Kampala

Week 1
Spent with other newly arrived VSOs at a training centre near Kampala. We were introduced to the delights of the local lingo (Luganda), taught how to pluck a chicken & how to avoid malaria, as well as other bits 'n' bobs. We were also taken to see an African dance (photos attached).

Have met lots of friendly Ugandans – particularly those who run the local bar which we descend on every night. The strangest thing is getting used to complete darkness falling at around 7pm & with no street lights anywhere, we are quite a sight with the bobbing beams of our head torches as we come down the hill!

Week 2
Kampala is hot, dusty & orange & roaming with goats & chickens; the 'roads' are full of pot-holes & cover-less, 5ft deep manholes - a scary prospect when riding the boda-bodas (motorcycle taxi) in the dark! At night, I can hear the chattering of the monkeys, occasionally the traffic & boom of the night clubs, & - as it's the rainy season at the moment - the frogs... I can now see what people mean by a 'frog chorus' - they go on croaking for hours!!

I have met my 6 colleagues & found out that we share our office with a local radio station next to the Mulago Hospital. Much of the week has been spent house-hunting though & we finally found a little bungalow in a compound close to work today. I'm hoping to put my hammock up in the garden.