Hello everyone! Happy Christmas!

I know some of you have been wondering why you have not heard from me for a long time, just to let you know that I havn't died or been in any serious accidents involving evil people chopping off my fingers, nore have I compleatly forgotten about you people back home! The reason I havn't been blogging for a while is that the internet connection in school is not so good and often I can't get enough time to write and post my mamoth essays before someone else wants to use the computer or I have to teach.

However, do not fear happy bloggers, instead I'm writting my blogs in thye old fashioned way then posting them home for my mum to type up. I know she has recieved a couple so hopefully there will be online gossip about travel, white water rafting and general Ugandan life again soon!

I hope everyone has had a great Chrismas anyway! I got sunburn yesterday so it feels like anything but Christmas here, I love it!

Best wishes!

Luxuary is...

Waking up in the morning and having a hot shower, using Bodyshop body butter and drying your hair with a hairdryer, which you can always do because the power is always on

Sainsbury's taste the difference double chocolate cookies

A movie, a feather duvet, takeaway pizza and Fishfood ice cream all in one night

A washing machine

A kettle

Tea and toast fests

Carpet, sofa's and anything cozy

A four poster bed in a four star hotel

Not getting up 'till 1pm and then having a toasted cheese sandwich

Girly nights out spent gossiping about the opposite sex which end with very painful feet, a taxi home and a midnight feast

Chocolate spread, chocolate bars and all other things chocolate

Wearing trousers during the day

Organisation

Sport

Not catching malaria

 

Waking up in the morning, crawling out of your (very uncomfy) tent and having an early morning swim as the sun rises over one of the deepest and most beautiful lakes in Africa. Sunbathing on the jetty and then having a toasted cheese sandwich that you don't have to cook yourself on a charcoal stove.

A student eventually understanding something after spending all term trying to understand your English never mine the math's.

Finally being able to cook a good, healthy, edible meal on a charcoal stove.

Buying stuffed obergine with a white wine sauce, a potato pancake and a proper salad (with lettuce and cucumber) for only 2 pounds

Chips with a yummy bean sauce for 25pence

Any meal that you don't have to cook for two hours

Sunshine in November

Staying at work 'till 7 just to watch a western movie

Watching the lightening from the balcony at your friends house while drinking milky coffee (fresh from the cow) and eating bread and bananas

Traveling across Africa with 15 other volunteers

Spending a week on a golden beach in Mombassa.

Climbing Mount Elgon

Lions, elephants and giraffes

Caramelized bananas on a charcoal stove

Parcels sent from home with Chocolate and Christmas decorations

The power (and therefore lighting) staying on for 6 days in a row

MSN messenger

Recovering from malaria 

Well I feel it's about time to give you an insight into one of the most dangerous and difficult parts of my life in Africa…cooking! Despite the interesting transport system cooking has by far proved the most risky activity! I sliced my finger when cutting passion fruit. (The knife is massive and called Susan!) and then managed to get oil in may face when making chapat's! I had sexy brown marks for a week! Ouch!!

 

When we first arrived here it was defiantly what made us most homesick, well, just wanting to go home rather than homesick! First was the strange food we got given by our hosts, and then there was the really bad food we attempted to cook ourselves! (Where is the Sainsbury's/ Tesco / take away when you need it!?)

 

When I first arrived in Kabale we were given two huge Ugandan sized meals one after the other. This in itself was a challenge, Ugandan's eat about four times as much as we do at home! The food we were given first was matoke and chicken, and maybe rice but I can't remember! Matoke is an um….interesting dish. It involves green bananas that are first pealed with a knife and then boiled and mashed. Personally I find it, on the most part, pretty minging (that means bad to you more "mature" people!) !!!! Ugandan's really like it though! Sometimes it is well cooked and edible, but it is defiantly not pizza! As for chicken I have been a vegetarian for 8 years, since it was the headmaster who had killed one of his own I had to swallow my morals and dig in! Despite the fact that you could defiantly tell the meat came from an animal (it had bones and undesernable mushy bits, unlike the vacuum cling film meat you find in England!) I was relieved that it didn't make me sick! After the first meal we were taken to our (amazing) house and given another portion (or rather mountain) of food, again matoke and meat, this time beef! After a 9 hour bus journey with five of us sat on three seats and two meals I was almost asking when the next flight home was!!

 

The next meal escapade was the before term staff meeting! First we were shown round the school, it was so scary being shown where we would be teaching! The headmaster then gave us strange advice like not wearing trousers as it set a bad example to the girls, (I had to repress the urge to scream "what's wrong with trousers!") about how we should not make friends with unemployed men (I have now found out they are mostly drunk and scary anyway!) and about coming in every day even if we don't have classes to teach (that lasted a week before we questioned him about how stupid it seemed, staying in school when you have no lessons is such a waste of time!) So anyway, after this really traumatizing experience we made our way to the staff room to face…well we weren't sure what! We got matoke, meat, rice and beans. (I think!) It was far too many new things in one day! We had to really try to finish it while repressing the gag instinct! The meeting was interesting, as with all Ugandan meetings a lot is said about very little! (Having said that this 4 hour staff meeting had nothing on the 8 hour PTA meeting) The most interesting topic discussed was the new ban of canning, the conclusion reached was that teachers should "use their discretion." (A topic for another blog)

 

However, despite our initial experiences of Ugandan food, I actually love it now! First of all meat is a real luxury and very rarely eaten, so I have not had to eat it since the first week I was here.  School lunch is really plain and Eilidh hates it, but I really enjoy it. It involves beans in a water and bean juice sauce, posho, sweet potatoes and groundnut sauce. The beans do taste slightly of soil but there pretty nice and have a lot of protein which is important as it is often hard to get enough protein if you are a veggy. Posho is a dish made out of wheat powder. The best way to describe it is to say that its like a kind of white edible sponge! Its really filling! It arrives on a massive plate and you take chunks of it. Sweat potatoes are fairly self-explanatory.  Groundnut sauce is the most amazing sauce ever! Defiantly one of my favorite Ugandan things! Its made of crushed nuts that you buy in powder and tastes of peanut butter (ish) It's delicious. We even learnt to cook it last week ands even managed it all on my own last night!

 

Outside school we eat even better Ugandan food (not cooked by us!) Boiled pumpkin is delicious! As is the way they make rice here, its much nicer than the rice I have at home, even Uncle Ben's! At Edwin's house we have roast potatoes too!!! (A taste of home)   We also have this amazing bakery called hot loaf. We often have yummy doughnuts, sweat bread and cakes! Yum. In Uganda they eat sweet things first with milk tea and then eat the savory food. I always want more desert after so I end up having two sweet courses which is amazing!

 

Although we can cook for ourselves now the first two weeks were ummm interesting, I nearly staved! I lost loads of tummy nuss! (Its all back now though!! With vengeance!) We tried to boil rice and it stuck to the pan, we tried to cook beans and they either burnt (twice!) or didn't cook at all. Its so hard at first to cook on charcoal, especially when you don't have paraffin to light it! It takes an hour to light if you use paper! Agh! Since then we have learnt that they take at least four hours and you have to soak them first! Since then though things have greatly improved. We can make a mean tomato soup, potato cakes, rice (fried or boiled!) eggs, chips, chapat's (our favourite by far because they are so yummy, there a kind of bread that you fry…I'm so going to live off them at uni!) and of course pasta and tomatoes sauce! The latter is our favorite because it only takes an hour on a charcoal stove. I have even made my own garden where I am going to grow Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage and carrots! 

 

Another amazing food thing here is the fresh fruit you can buy. Every morning for breakfast I eat bananas and passion fruit and we eat amazing avocado, lemon and tomato salad. Even without a fridge fresh fruit keeps food keeps for about 5 days. Strangely, Ugandan's do not eat a great deal of fresh fruit. You never have salad, although you do sometimes have avocado on its own. Most meals are mainly Carbs (posho, rice, matoke) and when I told a friend about having banana and passion fruit salad she thought the idea of eating them at the same time, rather than separately, was really strange. This might be one of the reasons why, although the students look young most of them are actually younger than me!

 

The solution to the food issue (it taking hours to cook food, burning it e.t.c) is defiantly to eat out! We can afford to do this about once a weeks, its great, no washing up. (This is even more boring than at home  because you actually have to go and fetch water in a massive plastic jerry can from next door, its pretty heavy!) Last Saturday I had the most amazing stuffed egg plant (obergine but I cant spell it  right!)   with a white wine sauce, salad and potato pancake all for 2 pounds. This was a luxury, usually we go and get chips from an amazing Ugandan café for 700 shillings, that's about 25 pence in sterling! Although flights to Uganda are expensive for most people I'm so sure its worth it considering how little you spend on food and accommodation because of the exchange rate. You definitely get more for your money!

 

The final thing I have to end on in this culinary extravaganza is my first experience of eating a yummy stick! (Don't even think it!!) Its called sugar cane and they eat it raw here. You rip pieces off with your teeth and then chew them. They are really sweet and juicy. It like the Ugandan version of a Mars bar. It's perfect for when you finish a run and don't have any boiled water to drink! After you have got the juice out you spit the wood bit on the floor, kind of anti social but worth it for the taste!

 

Well got to go, sorry for the delay writing this, the power was of most of last week!

 

Hope everyone is well!

The two most interesting things that have happened this week have been my visit to the malnutrition ward at Rigorama Health Centre and every ones reaction to rain!!! (its mad!)

 

I visited the health centre on Monday. I am planning to visit every week while I am here to help in any way I can and to get another perspective on Ugandan life. I found out about the malnutrition clinic through the rotary club. The club is supposed to be sponsoring a garden where the clinic could grow their own food, as well as providing some other foodstuffs every week. These foods are then used once a week to cook a meal for the children. The benefits of this are many. Not only are the children receiving much needed protein and vitamins which they cannot access at home, but the carers (mostly mothers) are being educated in how to plant and grow crops as well as cook them.

 

At first it struck me as odd that people who had been living off subsistence farming need to be taught such techniques. I mean I had no idea before I came here how to plant and grow crops or how to cook many raw vegetables (you should have seen our first "meals"!) but most people here have no choice but to grow and there own food. Unlike in England where gardening or having a vegetable patch is a hobby, here it is a obligatory way of life. This in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, as with every cultural difference I find there are pro's and con's. If you live by subsistence farming you will have a very stress free life (providing you can grow enough!) Compare this to England; how many people pay to go to yoga classes or therapists, or just permanently feel tiered? At the moment the students in school are writing to pupils in England. One boy wrote a really interesting letter about how he must gather firewood in the evening and collect water. I could just imagine the students reaction in England! They would think their pen pal was very poor, had a difficult life and possibly needed pity or charity. With this student the opposite is in fact the case. He had a brilliant life! He has both his parents and several siblings at home. Every evening he enjoys a big family meal that his mother prepares from fresh ingredients. Not only this but his parents can also afford to put him through school. I do not think that to have a happy childhood you need to have a mother that cooks dinner every night (it can be an advantage not to – how many uni students can't cook because someone has always done it for them!!), but neither to you necessarily need a constant supply of electricity or never ending money supplies.

 

For many mother at the malnutrition clinic however, subsistence farming does make their life difficult. Their way of life means that they cannot educate their children as they have no money to pay school fees, they cannot buy new clothes or even try different foods. When I asked the nurse why the children were malnourished when they even grew enough food not to be, she replied that many parents sell all their food to get money. They may use this money for school fees for other, older children, other types of food or even give it to their husbands to spend on alcohol. (A stereotype that s often true – you hardly ever see women drinking)

 

The children are also malnourished because they are not getting the right type of food. The basic diet here is sweet potatoes, posho (it's a kind of slab of mushy stuff made with rice flower) and matoke (mashed savoury bananas…mmm). Although things like cabbage, coli-flower, peppers and carrots grow here in only three months, people tend to stick to what they know. This is why the work that the clinic is trying to do is so important. It is no good providing children with the right nutrients for 6 weeks (which how long children are supposed to stay, although in reality they rarely stay for more than two weeks as it is too expensive) if they are only going to go home and face the same poor diet. The role of the rotary club in providing a garden is important not only because it provides food for the short term but also because it can be used to teach vital information to carers.

 

Last Monday I spent most of the day finding out exactly what problems the clinic is facing. The main problem is that the garden has not been properly maintained and so the only crop growing is beans! The other problem is that the clinic is not receiving enough money from the rotary club to pay for the needed food. I did a budget; each week the clinic needs around 5,000 shillings. (that is around one pound fifty.) To put this in perspective of the exchange rate I live fairly comfortable on 100,000 shillings a month. I presented this information to the rotary club and they have agreed to buy seedlings and food this week! It was such an easy thing to do it just needed someone to do it!!! (You get that feeling a lot here, people talk about things but don't ever do anything! I recon its like a governors meeting in schools back home!)  I was really pleases I had actually done something that has made a difference long term!

 

I also spent a lot of time at the clinic talking about the illnesses children often have, and challenges the nurses face. I borrowed a book about that is written by the World Health Organisation about dealing with health problems that are very common, based on limited resources. It's really interesting and shows that although medicine is vital, so is education. One child at the clinic even died because a mother did not follow (or understand) that she must give her child fluids every day.

 

The health centre is run by European doctors and I spent most of the day with a German student who is working as a health assistant in her gap year. (she is training to be a doctor) It was great swapping stories. She is here on her own (although there are many other older Germans working at the clinic) so she found the first couple of months even tougher than me and Eilidh did. She also showed me some amazingly cute clothes that are made in Church knitting groups in Europe and then sent over for the children. They are so cool! If I ever had children I would be happy for them to wear them! They are also warm which is really important when you are living here. (It's one of the coldest parts of Uganda and even Africa here, despite being on the equator as we are at such a high altitude!)

 

Well, enough medicine for one week! I said two really interesting things happened this week, the second one being the rain!!! After we walked to school on Tuesday we were listening to assembly outside when it started raining a tiny bit. All the students went crazy and ran away!!! Half of the teachers who weren't in and didn't come in until later! Then on Wednesday we woke up to it raining. As we had overslept anyway we begged Edwin for a lift in the car, thinking, in a very English kind of way, that we would be disapproved of for being at all late. We got into school and only one teacher was in! Oh, and the headmaster! Many of the students weren't in either! It was so mad. We were going to teach but trying to teach a class of 10 is nearly impossible when the rest of the school are hyper and talking really loudly! It seems that whenever it rains here people stay in bed! We could only start teacheing when the rain stopped and even then only half the students were in.  I definitely think we should adopt this approach in England, my school only ever took days of if the roads were impossible. Defiantly the wrong attitude!

 

Well, enough for this week, hope you guys at home are enjoying the frost, here its still sunbathing weather during the day!!!! Bring on the tan!

 

Love to everyone!!!

Well the past week has been even busier than usual! I think now is the time to give everyone an insight into the Ugandan transport system via our weeks adventures. Let me start by asking one question for you to think about, how many people can you fit into a car and charge for transport? Keep thinking about that while I explain our weeks escapades!

 

Last year the volunteers spent their weekends helping out at the beautiful lake near us teaching swimming lessons to the local schools on the lake. We decided this secondary project sounded amazing! Not only did the girls help the community and make friends with people outside school, they also got to stay in the most amazing accommodation (safari tents with beds!) and got to swim every weekend for free! So, after talking to one of the teachers at Bubaare, who also teaches swimming lessons, we decided to walk to the lake after my lesson on Friday and arranged to meet him at 3pm. However….as we left our house (after having the best cuppa soup ever sent all the way from England!) the rainy season decided to set in big style! O no!!! After walking for about 30 minutes the rain stopped but we new it would take much longer than the 30minutes we had left to reach the lake! Fortunately as we started the massive climb to the lake a supper friendly Rwandan gentlemen stopped in a massive four by four and offered us a lift to the top of the hill! Eilidh decided it was fait! This meant our timing was perfect, we arrived just as planned to meat the swimming teacher at three by the canoe and motor boat docks! But…what with it being Uganda an all the teacher was no where to be seen. Cautiously we made the decision to go to the island anyway in a canoe, at the cost of £1.50! (Quite a lot on our wage!!! The exchange rate is mad!)  Just as we were about to pull out of the dock who would arrive but the teacher! He said he was not in fact staying on the island but instead would be in town at the weekend! He said the swimming lessons may be possible still, he would talk to one of his friends about it sometime…not being too specific! Agh! Suppressing the urge to scream "we have just walked for two hours in the rain to meet you, we are cold and wet and tiered and expected a nice Ugandan welcome" (they really are brilliant when they happen– good food and very friendly people usually) We told him it was ok but that we still hoped we would be able to teach swimming the next day.

 

As we headed on to the island with our friendly canonist, we had a typical Ugandan conversation. It involved the canoeist telling us his financial situation, which did awful, his father had died and he had to support his family on his income which is fairly unreliable. He ended by asking if we could sponsor his school fees. Although it is easy to understand why people always ask for money, it is so frustrating trying to explain that we are not rich (although we are white) and that we cannot sponsor him or help him financially. So many people in Uganda have similar stories and even if you did have money you could not help everyone. Plus now, having been here for a while you begin to realise that aid can have huge negative as well as positive effects. What would be so much better than aid (which although it helps, only teaches people to depend on free gifts) would be industry or jobs as it would allow people to support themselves, giving the incomes, higher self esteem and much greater independence. That is why if anyone wanted to help a developing country I would always encourage them, instead of giving aid, to go on holiday to a country and buy lots of local products and foods!

 

Anyway, back to the canoe… when got to the island and were greeted as tourist but soon explained that we were volunteers. After much confusion we were told to go to find someone called Stacy. We went to the island offices and found that Stacy was not a Ugandan but was Canadian! She is belonged to an NGO and was actually the one who started the swimming lessons! She was leaving at the end of the week we had dinner with her two replacements, two Canadian girls who have just finished uni! We had the most amazing meal, pizza! (Loads of cheese, wow!) And had a great night with people who understand British humour! yay! When we made our way to our tent it was very cold and small! (It said two man but I'm placing bets on one and a half person or one person with bag!)  We unfortunately were not offered safari tents!

 

We woke up in the morning pretty cold and tiered still, with a large feeling of disappointment as it did not look like we would be teaching swimming lessons any time soon!)  Our trip however was made all worthwhile by the beautiful scenery and the amazing feeling of a morning swim before breakfast in one of the largest most beautiful lakes in Africa. (With a jetty to dive off, how good can you get!) It was just the best feeling! It was great to be able to wear a bikini that did not cover my knees (compulsory dress code is pretty much loose trousers or full length skirt!) and just relax! The peace and quite after a mad week of teaching was so good! It was one of those times when we actually got a chance to think about what we are doing. Most of the time we are really busy but with things that are really tiring and repetitive like cooking on a charcoal stove or hand washing clothes or marking homework!  I loved it! We then got time to enjoy an amazing English breakfast that we did not cook ourselves! ( Eggy bread!) before writing letters home. (Mine are much overdue!) After lunch (I went for the Ugandan obtion of beans sweet potatoes and rice as it is soo cheap but really filling!) we completed the 3 hour trek back home.

 

Anyway, I bet your still wondering about the answer to the car question! The reason we ended up in a "taxi" which is basically a public bus, is that we are at Kisiizi at the moment with a couple of other volunteers. We came across to surprise one of them for his birthday. This is what the transport involved (mum please stop reading now!)

 

One: getting a boda-boda to town. A boda boda is a kind of bike taxi which you sit on the back of while some poor guy peddles madly in a vain attempt to get half way up the hills as non of the bikes have gears. You hang on for dear life trying to repress the urge to question why you are on the right hand side of the road when it is supposed to be left hand drive. Instead you concentrate on attempting to sit nicely side saddle with your long skirt on.

 

Two: attempt to get a mini bus to Kisiize. Unfortunately, you find out (already having spent half an hour after asking everyone you know where exactly you can get this bus from) that the last one has just left 5 minutes ago.

 

Three: ask for help. You find a friendly teacher from school who advises you to get two matatu's (public coaches) to Kisiizi and you are guided helpfully to the first one. You realise that the coaches are in fact cars which you have to share. There are four people in the back. You are squashed! (No this is not the answer to the first question)

 

Five: get to where you have to get a different matato (public taxi). You are again ushered to another car. You wait for half an hour, a nun gets in, you relax, only one more seat to be filled. The nun gets out in some kind of angry argument. You are left with men staring amazed into the car with the white people in and feeling slightly unnerved.

 

Six: the car leaves for Kisiize. There are a grand total of ten people in the car! (Which seems like it is not capable of driving one person safely!!) You spend the next hour in the car. Wherever it drops someone off it has to be pushed down a hill for it to start as the ignition has broken. You wonder why the fuel meter and speedometer has been saying 0 all the time you have been travelling.

 

Seven: You finally reach Kisiize and the surprise gathering is a success! You look forward to a couple of days with a shower, oven and company as the boys live in a mansion! You realise you have left the cake in the bus/taxi/ broken car which has now left!!!!

 

So as you must realise, getting around here is far more interesting than at home! O we also had a really funny experience with a motorbike. Although I avoid getting them at all cost we were late for a rotary meeting last week because a new friend (who we arranged to meet at three) only finished entertaining us at about 6:30 (African time!) Needless to say, (without explaining the whole situation) we ended up driving through Kabale with three of us, Me, EIlidh and a school pupil who is a driver (who is probably about 18) on one motorbike with our skirts hitched up above our knees (not the thing to do!!!) in an attempt to escape from other motorcycle drivers who wanted to completely rip us off for a one minute journey!!! It was one of the funniest things we have done so far although the look on our Pakistani friend's face as we shot past was not one of amusement!

 

Anyway, after the canoe, boda-boda, motorbike, and several "taxi" journeys later me and EIlidh are no worse to wear! We will defiantly be trying to get a coach home tonight though!!

 

If anyone is wondering about teaching its getting easier, I know that at least one of my pupils can do simultaneous equations and the quiz charts are going well! Marking has been way too heavy this week but its all part of the job! O, I have started helping out at a malnutrition clinic in town on Mondays, I think it will take a while to figure out what I can do to be most useful but it seems really good. The staff are really friendly and it is a really worthwhile project, although as with everything here the patients have to pay.

 

Well I have to go catch a coach now!

Best wishes to everyone!

 

P.S (Just to mum) lol means laugh out loud!

What a weekend!

 

On Thursday night we went to the Rotary Club as usual. There was a gentleman there who was talking about the clubs involvement in a malnutrition program that runs in Kabale. As usual in an large organisation there is a lot of talk but often it takes a long time to get anything done! (Very frustrating!) The club is supposed to organise the administration of the project, this involves checking which parents (usually mothers) and children are attending the clinic and monitoring their progress. The clinic is responsible for giving nutrition advice, growing food to give to children and also teaching mothers how to grow and cook their own food. Unfortunately, as the clinic runs on weekdays and the professionals that are in the rotary club are all at work at this time, very little has been arranged. I think I have found my secondary project!!!  I hope to e-mail the man in charge today. I hope that the clinic runs on Mondays (my free day) as well as Wednesdays so I can go to help. If not I will volunteer with Eilidh at a street children's organisation called Hope Africa.

 

Last week we had no tap water for 4 days! Pretty hard to wash! We had to fill up the jerry cans with water from the cheese factory down the road on Thursday as even the next door neighbours tap had run out. (The factory is an adapted house with a storage room and three massive pots over charcoal fires. It supplies cheese to local supermarkets and is ran by a French man called Franco) The jerry cans are really heavy! We then had to wash all the clothes and ourselves and the bathroom floor before our trip to Kampala the next day! (The floor was in a bad state because we always wear shoes inside as all the other rooms have concrete floors.) We then hoped the clothes would dry overnight! We got the coach to Kampala at 8ish on Friday because transport here runs when it is full rather than at set times. We woke up, or rather got out of bed while still asleep, at five in the morning to dry our clothes with a hairdryer and iron them to kill any insects that may wish to bury into our skin! Nice!

 

The weekend in Kampala was amazing! We met all the other volunteers and found out that our project is by far the most organised! The best bit had to talking about the different cultural experiences and teaching experiences people have had. One girl during one lesson told her children (who are about 4-5 years old) to put their hands on their head when they had finished. The pupils did this but looked terrified, almost as if they were about to cry! She asked them why this was and was told that in that part on Uganda putting your hands on your head is a sign that your mother is going to die! Oops! I think the children got over it! Other volunteers have been having problems dealing with corporal punishment in their schools. Some of the stories sounded really violent and horrific. Although the cane and all forms of beating are now illegal in Uganda in most areas it is still part of regular school life. Although I can understand why it may be used in some cases in moderation (not that I condone it in any way) some of the stories sounded more like child abuse than regulated punishment.

 

Other things discussed where far less serious! How to cope with a long drop (fortunately Eilidh and I don't have to!) Public washing and the unavoidable cries of "Muzungu, muzungu, give me my money!" (I have given up explaining that it is not their money but my money that they want to no avail. The response 'give me money' or speaking in Rukiga works much better!)

 

We also had a talk from an ex-pat doctor on how to avoid being killed in Uganda! His seven tips included not travelling in matatu's (mini-busses that are hardly ever repaired, hurtle around blind corners much faster than they should and that are licensed to carry 14 people but often contain 20!) Using common sense, keeping your pants on, sleeping when you are tiered and taking anti-malarials every day and for four weeks after you get back to the UK!

We also got a talk from a primary school teacher, this involved discipline ideas and class learning techniques which were usefull even in secondary teaching. Finally we spoke to a member of the British High Commission about travel advice. We also visited a holding cell in a prison! I think project trust wanted to scare us into submission! Lol. The conditions were pretty awful.

 

Other than talking the weekend was also great for food!!!! We had cheese and cereal for the first time in a month! Also pizza, Mexican, Chilli and even chocolate brownies! Heaven after a diet of potatoes, mashed banana, maize, beans and rice!

 

We also planned our holidays. We are planning on climbing mount Elgon, Mount Kenya, visiting many safari parks and spending a week on the coast near Mombassa. (Kenya) I'm soooo excited! Any travel advice or altitude sickness advice is much appreciated! We are spending Christmas day with the boys at Kezizi (if that is how you spell it!) They are the only ones with an oven! We will stay down here for new years to, hopefully staying on Bushara island, an amazing resort in Lake Bunyoni! It is going to be great, I just hope I can afford it having spent 50 pounds already on food and stuff for the house! (We are hoping to re-decorate after Christmas too! Hmmm…!)

We left Kampala on Monday morning and got the 8 hour bus back here. (No suspension so very bumpy, especially since we were on the back seats!) I have to say it was great to be back despite the fact that we knew there would be no shower! It is so much quieter and more beautiful where we are. We met someone who lives and works in Bubaare and shared a special (what we would call a taxi at home!) back. Then we were treated to yet another AMAZING meal at Edwin's. On Tuesday all the staff said that they had missed us are were really warm when welcoming us back! It feels like we are starting to make a home!

 

We also met a teacher who works at Bushara island where last year's volunteers taught swimming lessons. We are going this Friday and hopefully will be able to teach swimming every week! Yay! We are planning on walking to the lake up a massive hill in preparation for mount Kenya. The swimming should help too!

 

Well that's it for travel news. This weeks classes have so far been good, although I gave up trying to teach senior 2 simultaneous equations today as most of them couldn't multiply, divide, add or subtract simple fractions so we had a revision / learning for the first time lesson instead! I felt so sorry for the ones who do the equations perfectly but too many of the others were having problems to carry on. I am running a maths help class on Wednesdays after school for people who want 1-2-1 help. I hope some students attend! In contrast my S1's are amazing!!! We have so much fun and they are great when we do the quiz in groups, you can hear the buzz of concentration!

 

This week we are going to rotary club on Thurs as normal and then going to Bushara island on Friday after my one lesson in the morning. We are coming back on Saturday and visiting a teachers house where she will teach me how to cook posho! (traditional Ugandan food made out of maze) On Sunday we are going to church and on Monday I am hoping to visit the malnutrition clinic. Tonight I am also going for a run!!! Very busy! Its so much better than when we first got here!

 

Well, best wishes to all! I'm impressed you've read all of my novel style journal! Lol!

Well, it seems like much longer than a week since I last blogged! Unlike last week I have been very busy with school. I set all my classes homework (big mistake!) and so I have eight lots of 50 books to mark. Wow! This is the first time I have taken all books in and it has made me realize the size of the challenge I am undertaking. In senior 1 (year seven) the marks ranged from 0 to 21 out of 26. In my senior two class today half the students had finished and half could not complete the first stage. As you can imagine this is a huge problem! Should I go really slowly so no one gets left behind, and face many tiered board students, or go quicker but loose half the classes attention because they cannot follow the work? I have considered splitting the class into groups and setting different sets of work but since there are so many students this is very difficult. Still it is a possible option! Another challenge is that rather than staying in one class I move to the students class. This means it would take too much time each lesson re-arranging desks! Hopefully I will get more teaching ideas when I visit Kampala this weekend.  My main success this week has been a quiz I have run with all senior one sets! (Cakes are great motivators!) Working in groups means they can help each other which means they will learn without me always being there to talk to each individual. Also, looking at the results gives me a good idea of what they need to be re-taught.  I am hoping to do wall charts with each teams results and then give out prizes at the end of term.

 

Outside school me and Eilidh have done loads this week.  We had a great meal out on Wednesday night for my birthday with two friends. Spaghetti and cheese! Yay! Not exactly UK restaurant standard but western food non the less! We also tried a bottle of pineapple wine. It is brewed in Bubaare at Edwin's grandfathers factory. It was pretty nice. Paul bought us 4 AAA batteries, this was the best present ever as we can now use the I-pod again! After you don't have it for a while you begin to really appreciate music, even if it means putting up with Eilidh's boyzone/ the sound of music obsession!

 

On Saturday we spent 6 hours at school in the most boring PTA meeting ever, nothing in England compares! All in a foreign language as well! Most of it involved the head teacher reading his notes, then people disagreeing, then someone reading a financial report and people disagreeing, then last years minutes were read…followed by more disagreement! Agh Rounded off with meat (I am a vegetarian!) and mashed banana…..yummy! lol. 

 

On Saturday night we went to watch England play football. Rubbish game! Found out today though that Scotland beet France! Miracle! Then we went to watch a Ugandan pop star, Ragga-D perform, it was mad. There were so many students there who were supposed to be tucked up sweetly in their boarding houses! Me and Eilidh aren't really the disciplinary type though, after all, who would like to be in school 24 hours a day, especially considering the distinct absence of extra curricular activities this term. (apparently they are on the rest of the year!) So we didn't say anything, still it put us in a very alkward position. Many of the student were caught and got suspended when they returned to school.

 

Afterwards we went to a club called Mix and Match. We probably wont go again for a while as clubbing is considered very un Christian here! Might get in trouble! I didn't enjoy it that much anyway, I was really tired and wanted to sleep! Lol you can tell I've been affected by the change in lifestyle!

 

On Sunday we got up early and went to Lake Bunyoni. We got boda-boda's into town, (bike taxi's) and then got a taxi from there to the lake. It was so beautiful and sunny! (thankfully) A different sight from last week! We went swimming  to the opposite side of the bay and met a woman who's son did project trust last year! The world really is a small place! We were observed by many amused and interested Africans who find water very fearful. For African's, the lake is seen as scary and therefore there are no African houses nearby. Because of this the resorts are mainly inhabited my muzungus (white people) and Asians. We had a nice meal (pizza and chips) but the day was made really difficult by the fact that the friends who had asked to go with us did not or could not afford to pay. Often it is very frustrating being a muzungu because everyone assumes you have limitless amounts of money that you should naturally give away. This assumption is not made about rich African's or Asians. Because of this, when you go out even with friends moneyu can make fun situations very awkward. We are getting better at dealing with this though. There are few problems if you make it very clear at the start how much you will pay and what you expect of others. Me and Eilidh have given up trying to convince people that we are volunteers and therefore don't have much money, as the fact that we are muzungus means to everyone else that we will always be rich. In many ways this is true, we will be traveling over Christmas and other people do find money much tighter, especially when they have many dependants.

 

On Monday we spent the day with the mechanic fixing the bike! This was fun, I even earned 100 shillings (3pence) helping the mechanic fix a can tyre/ attempting to be of some use! The mechanic (Tom) was really friendly as was his friend nicknamed Bill Gates. Gates is a plumber so we may be employing him later on to fix the many water leaks that occur at our house spasmodically. Now the bike is fixed Eilidh can cycle while I sit on the back! (No suspension though so going over bumps can be very painful on the buttocks! lol) We are hoping to go for a pick nick some time.

 

We spent the evening at a Christian clubs farewell tea for the chaplain. The singing was beautiful and the sweet African tea was, as always, amazing.(It is made with milk rather than water) Still we had to sit through more speeches! Agh! As always they follow the same pattern…first I would like to thank…for…then…for…then…for…I don't have much to say other than to thank….! You can imagine the rest!

 

The rest of the week has been uneventful. Last night I went jogging, its great to be stared at for something other than the colour of your skin! Not many people enjoy running so all the children found us very amusing, some even tried to join in!

 

On Friday I am going to Kampala for a project trust meeting. I cant wait to see all the other volunteers and exchange stories! I wonder what their projects have been like. Also we will have talks from a doctor and a professional teacher so that we are more adapted to living here. We will also visit a prison holding sell to discourage us from doing anything wrong!

 

Tonight we are doing some hand washing, hopefully our water supply which has been off the past couple of days will come back! Otherwise we will be using cold water. On Thursday we will make our usual trip to the rotary club.

 

Best wishes to everyone as always!

 

I think I should write a little more about school to give everyone a picture of what its like. Its on a large hill and every morning when I wake up there is a thick mist in the valley. Eilidh and I wake up around seven and after breakfast (banana, brad and jam and a cup of tea) we make the 15 minute climb to the top of the hill.   Usually we get in around 7.45 (which is, I have to say, getting later everyday, toady we got in at 8!) The students which are on time are all gathered in a circle in front of the staff building around the flag. There is a sign in the bushes by the flag that reads, "Bubaare secondary school." At this time the students have already sang hymns and there is usually a sermon of some kind for about 15 minutes.

 

After this the flag is raised and the national anthem and the school anthem are sung. Eilidh and I were told yesterday that we were not standing appropriately! We had our arms crossed which is a sign of disrespect, instead you must stand to attention! If you do not do this and an important head of state is present you can get arrested! At least we know now. The teacher that told us this was so shocked that we do not sing the national anthem in England every day!

 

After the anthem notices may be read or the headmaster may speak. They talk about exactly the same kind of things as they do in England – time keeping and the state of pupils school uniform! Feels just like home. After this the lessons start straight away…which means students amble off to their classrooms/ the field/ somewhere else and the teacher have a chat! (Again the same as at home!) Usually lesson actually start at about 20 to nine.

 

Then the fun begins…all students love simultaneous equations…lol

 I really feel I am getting into Ugandan life! Yesterday I milked cows at Edwin's farm by hand! It was sooo weird! In the evening Edwin came round for tea, which here they take with mostly milk and a small amount of water, and I cooked chapattis. (very thin fried bread.)

 

Yesterday I also did some gardening! (How domestic!) My neighbors were so surprised to see a muzungu (white) girl digging, especially as I had borrowed a traditional hoe. They wanted me to take a picture as they presumed white people do not dig in England! There is a common belief (although it is not held by everybody) that white people are all very rich and that tasks like cooking, cleaning and digging is only done by servants. (Most middle income earners here have servants) Often people  do not know that there are black people in England. I pointed out that there are to a neighbor and they said, "so they do all the digging?" These beliefs are largely held because in the main it is only rich tourists or wealthy NGOs (Non-government organizations) that visit here, most of whom are white.

 

I hope to grow potatoes and carrots in the back garden and flowers in the front, also some herbs if possible as they are hard to buy. I'm not sure of the quality of the soil though…at least it looks better now I have tidied it, it may even dissuade insects from setting up camp in the garden!

 

Lessons are going much better, I am much better at judging the pace I should take lessons at, and how much I can hope to teach them in a single lesson. Now the only challenging thing is keeping the lessons interesting! Especially difficult when I teach the same lesson for the fourth time! I am still practicing the balance between playing games and getting through the work. My new knowledge from today is that it is unwise to write homework on the board while students are supposed to be doing class work. The pupils just ignore the class work and try to finish the homework in record speed, mainly by copying the person sat next to them! This does not teach them much!

 

On Saturday we went shopping in the market. On Sunday we went to church, it was exactly as typical as people expect! The children's singing was amazing!  The sermon was based on the instruction that one should try all good things and avoid all evil, I think its an extract from Timothy. This was then applied by the vicar to everything from dropping litter to playing football! The students found it really funny but me and Eilidh haven't quite got the hang of the Ugandan sense of humor! After church we walked into town (about 50 minutes away) and bought pizza and donuts!!!!! OOOO it tasted good! We then went with an Pakistan family we have met to Lake Bunyoni. (I think that's how you spell it!) Even though it was cold and wet it was so beautiful. Eilidh, whose mother is from New Zealand, said it was so similar to there. There are many tall islands, all covered in trees and gardens surrounded by a massive expanse of water. Even though the family is fasting they bought me and Eilidh ships in one of the hotels. The hotels are all very tasteful, I think most of them aim to develop sustainable tourism and work with the local environment. They are all Ugandan owned. There is a new five star hotel being built though and some people are worried that it may pollute the lake. After visiting the lake we were treated to a delicious Asian meal!

 

Tomorrow it is my birthday!!! Yay! Eilidh is sooo nice and has made a massive effort! We have saved up and are going for a meal in a restaurant in town tomorrow night, she has even bought me a present and a birthday cake! We are also having eggs and chapattis on tomorrow morning to celebrate! (a luxury, also nearly impossible as it doesn't get light until 7, takes about an hour to light a charcoal stove and we have to leave for school at 7.30!) On Sunday we are going to visit the lake again and stay overnight, hopefully we will go swimming if the weather is good enough! The volunteers last year stayed at the lake every week and taught swimming in the mornings to African children. We are hoping to do the same if our time table permits it next year. (At the moment it is a bit too cold as the rainy season is due to start any day!) On Sunday a staff friend from school is also coming, although she is not staying the night.

My mum has sent me some birthday parcels but they are unlikely to arrive for a couple of weeks. (if at all, the post here is dodgy, especially with parcels marked gift!) I wish my family and friends could be here to celebrate!

 

Well, things have definetly improved! We (me and my co-volunteer Eilidh) made friends with Edwin, the nephew of the man who owns our house. He turned our electricity on! This moarning we even found out we had a water heater! No more cold baths! Edwin also gives us fresh milk from his dairy, you have to boil it for ten minutes, which can be difficult on a single gas ring (last night it took 1 1/2 hours!) but is well worth it. It was great to have dairy products again!

I feel a lot more settled in now, I have taught 3 double lessons today, and gradually I am getting better. The challenge is that I have a class of about 40-60 mixed ability. Some of them are very fast, others struggle to understand the basics. I think the best way to handle this seems to be to teach new things and set homework for the first half of the lesson and then play games (Fizz Buzz was a massive success!) or go over basics, today we did fraction to decimals. I teach 8 classes for one double period a week, the S1's (equivalent to 1st year or year7) and S2's. In a way this is a huge advantage, by the fourth time I have taught the same lesson I have found out what works and what doesn't, but at the same time, teaching the same equation lesson four times, each lesson lasting 1 hour 20 can be very tiering!

Well, on to more interesting things like the surrounding and the people I have met. The teachers are all really friendly and me and Eilidh are gradually learning everyones names. We have met a really kind family from Pakistan who live in Kabale, the major town. Next week we are going with them to a beautiful lake nearbye. Anyway, got to go, the one working computer is needed!

Best wishes to everyone!

Caz