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?