December 2008

It’s been 6 months!
I don’t regret for a minute coming here, despite the sleepless nights worrying over how we are going to deal with our next challenge - eg actually having somewhere to live. The people whose house we are staying in come back in less than 2 weeks and we have nowhere to stay. I wonder if there are any empty stables with mangers around at this time of year? The experiences we are having are worth the odd challenge or two .. or three.. or four ….well OK, a hundred.

Anyway the Cinderella panto went really well (“oh no it didn’t” - “oh yes it did”) and was deemed to be a complete success by all. Jon looked suitably gruesome as Ravishing Rita, one of the Ugly Sisters, the children had a great time as the singing and dancing chorus, and Jordan played the part of a ghost really well. I ended up being the prompter, though why I bothered I don’t know, as I had to sit at the side in the wings and noone could hear me!
Jinja has never experienced anything like it before. The Ugandans were in culture shock (“poor Cinderella, those sisters are just too horrible, they ripped her dress and she will never go to the ball”), while the white people were amazed that anything so ‘professional’ could happen here. “Look, you’ve got curtains on the stage! …… and they open!” “Look, you’ve got music …. and lights… and a backdrop!” “Look, the performers are wearing costumes!”
Most muzungus came on both the Friday and Saturday nights of the performance - either because it was so good or because nothing else happens in Jinja.
Only English people really knew how to join in with the panto (“he’s behind you”) but they shouted their hearts out to make up for the other 95% of the audience who hadn’t quite worked it out.

Another bit of good news is that we finally got a car. Woohoo, we can actually go to places now without being ripped off by boda boda & taxi drivers, or having to walk for an hour. A German couple who live in our street (that is, the street we are living in now until we become homeless and have to wander the streets of Jinja) have gone to Switzerland for a year and we bought their car the day before they left. It’s a Suzuki Escudo 4X4, which is the kind of car you need to have to be able to cope with the roads round here.
Wakoli George, our night watchman, offered to clean it one morning at 7.30 after he had finished his duty. He asked if I was going to use it that morning. I said I wasn’t, but wondered why he’d asked as it was still only early. Anyway four hours later he finished cleaning it. It was absolutely spotless inside and out, but as soon as you drive anywhere, even out of the driveway it’s covered in red dust.

The car seemed to come with a free dog, so we now have a part-ridgeback dog called Lotte who only understands commands in German. This is a bit unfortunate as I only know one sentence in German “das ist eine banane” and she doesn’t seem to understand it.
There is also a manic stray dog that lives outside the gate. It arrived before we came and the children whose house it is named her ‘Angel’ as they thought she was a guardian angel. She was malnourished and desperate for affection. I’ve been feeding her daily, though because she was presumably abandoned at an early age, she hasn’t learned the skills of how to be around humans. She jumps on you, scratches you and wees on you. Getting in and out of the house is a bit of an episode. It would be nice to just walk in and out but Angel seems to target me.

I’m going to be doing some training in January for women in agriculture, so have been going with Jami, a volunteer worker, to the local villages to meet some of the farmers. It’s certainly been an experience – we go to the village on a boda boda which takes about 30 mins over rough ground. I discovered you have to keep your mouth slightly open when you go over the many speed bumps otherwise your teeth bang together. The first time we went to meet with a farmer’s group there was an agriculture trainer due to turn up at 8am. We all turned up at 8am, though discovered he operates on Ugandan time. He turned up at 10.30.
The farmers needed the group leader to interpret for us as Jami is English too. It is amazing how long it takes to interpret something simple. One sentence Jami said was 4 words long. It took over 3 minutes to translate it.
The group seemed to feel it important to know how old I was. “How old do you think I am?” I asked. They had a bit of a conflab and replied “28”. I like the Ugandan people.

The next week we went to see a different group. Jami phoned them at 1.45pm to see if they would be there for a 2.30pm meeting. Yes they replied, so we got our boda bodas and arrived at 2.30 only to be told it was a public holiday (World Aids Day on 1st Dec) and that noone would be turning up.
After I got back from one of these trips I went into a café. I used the white serviette to wipe my face and it turned completely brown from all the dust.

The red dust here permeates everything. The house staff wash the floors every day to get rid of it. People don’t have carpets as they would get filthy. Because our washing machine is broken Harriet hand-washes the clothes in the bath. Even though most clothes don’t look particularly dirty, the water turns a very muddy brown. One of the women who lives in a more rural area has a small baby. I remarked that the baby had red hair. “She doesn’t actually” she replied “it’s just the dust from when we drive down the lanes”.

And talking of villages and babies, Rob - the other Ugly Sister and also the husband of Sandy who home schools Jordan - is a missionary who goes to work in the villages. One of the women in the village, who had presumably had many children, had very long droopy boobs. While she was sitting on the ground, her small child comes up behind her and asks for some milk, so she throws her boob over her shoulder and lets him drink.

It’s very common for African women to have many children. Sometimes if they have had enough and their husband asks them for more children they tell him to get another wife. Bonnie, one of the housegirls, was saying she recently went to the funeral of her uncle-in-law. He had 3 wives and 17 children.
Some Ugandan males only count boys as their children and only send boys to school. Bonnie has 3 children, two girls and a boy. Her husband will tell people he has one child.

We are always learning of the different ways over here.
It’s not uncommon for tradesmen turn up without tools and then ask to borrow some. The computer cable installer turned up at Jon’s work possessing only a screwdriver, a hammer and an old nail. “Do you have a drill?” he asked
The plumber turned up and asked “Do you have a wrench?”
The electrician asked “Can you give me money for a boda boda so I can go into town and get a part for the fridge?”

One of the women Jon knows is getting married. Apparently it’s the norm that you give out list of how much everything is going to cost - the flowers, the dress, the reception, the cake, the spray snow(!) etc - and then ask people give you a donation to pay for it.

It’s also normal for Ugandan women from the villages to kneel to greet people. Wakoli George’s brothers-in-law came to our house. Harriet knelt down at the gate to greet them and said a formal greeting in Lusoga, which sounded like a prayer.
Sometimes greetings can take a long time as they have to ask you how you are and how each member of your family is, perhaps several times over.
A common expression people use instead of ‘How are you?’ is “How is here?”
And every time we return to the house, the staff say “Welcome back” even if we’ve only popped down to the shops for 30 minutes.

I was reading recently that Uganda has the lowest car ownership per capita in the world, though proportionately it has 10 times more accidents than London or New York.

One of the lovely things about being here is that there is no evidence of Christmas in Jinja town centre. No hype at all. In fact if you weren’t paying attention you could miss Christmas entirely.
We have been to a couple of Xmas events though. Kira’s end of year Xmas show at the school was a lovely affair which included carols in Luganda (Kira can now sing songs in 3 languages!) and was marred only by the fact that someone nicked the decorations off the Xmas tree….. We also went to a Xmas nativity show (complete with Joseph saying to Mary while she was in labour and trudging to the stable “don’t push”) followed by a light show of 3,600 lights on the banks of the river. It was a beautiful balmy African evening which made it very special.

Kira’s school has now closed down as it wasn’t financially viable, which is a real shame as it was such a lovely school. However a group of people are interested in joint home schooling on the school’s premises so we will arrange that for the New Year.

And, of course, we have the usual tales of incredible levels of inefficiency. I could write an entire book on it.
Generally we find that doing business with Indians is very easy. They are fast and efficient. Doing business with Ugandans is a tad different.
For example we have been house hunting and have contacted a range of agents (the Uganda ones are called ‘blockers’ here).
One of the Indian agents told us he had a house available for rent. I turned up at his office, he took me in his car to see the house then brought me back. It took about 20 minutes, which included having a good look round the house.
A Ugandan blocker told me he had a house available. We usually have to pay blockers to take us to see houses so we always have to start off by haggling over the price. Anyway, I met him outside a hotel – where I have to pay car park charges. He doesn’t have a car, so before we bought our car we would have to hire a taxi. This time however I had the car with me, along with both children.
We get in the car and he phones someone he knows to see where the house is. We then drive around to find this person. We find him on the street but then he goes off somewhere. We sit around until he comes back – more car park charges – and he has someone else with him. They both squeeze into the car. There are not enough seats so Kira has to sit on Jordan’s knee.
We arrive at the house, which is about a minute’s walk from where I am currently staying. When we get there the 2 guys say they don’t have the key and that they need to phone the owner to let us in. They don’t want to use their phone so they use mine. The owner isn’t answering his phone. I’m not sure what the guy has done with my phone but it is now constantly vibrating, so I have to switch it off. Someone from the house next door, which looks similar, comes out. The blocker asks if we can look round his house to get an idea of what the one next door looks like. The man is appalled at the idea and won’t let us in.
We drive off so that the 2 guys can get a key for another house. They get back to their ‘office’ and say that that house is now not available, so we leave them there. They tell the blocker about another house, so we drive to the other side of Jinja to look at it. When we get there it is next to a scruffy, dilapidated old building. A group of Ugandan children crowd around us and one of them throws a pen at the car. The blocker goes to speak to the house girl who says the house isn’t for rent at all. At this point we give up and I take him back to where I’d met him.
In all, this takes almost 2 hours of driving around, paying parking charges, picking up people … and not actually getting to see a house at all.

However, worse than that – much worse - is going to a bank and trying to get something done. One day I had to go to the bank 3 times. When you are a westerner and are used to western ways, then going to a bank in Uganda - at all - is a challenge, but having to go three times in a day to sort out various issues is beyond the limit that anyone should have to experience.
The first thing I had to sort out was getting a cheque book. We opened a business account and ordered a cheque book in September and have not yet received it. So I reordered it several weeks later. Then this month I went in to see if it had arrived. Ha ha. It hadn’t, so I re-reordered it for the third time. To do this you have to provide ID. I gave the man my driving license which he had to photocopy – for the third time.
Now, generally Ugandans operate at a slower pace than us. However the speed at which this man operated was beyond belief. I watched him walk to the photocopier.
Imagine, if you will, someone walking incredibly, incredibly slowly. Now imagine them walking 5 times slower than that. That was about the speed he was moving at. I was transfixed.
However at the point where he was overtaken by a snail on his way to the photocopier I couldn’t bear to watch any longer. He came back many minutes later and showed me the photocopy which he said hadn’t come out well enough. He suggested I go home to get my passport instead. I said “not on your nelly” and looked at the photocopy. It looked absolutely fine to me. However he decided to go off and photocopy it again.
Many, many minutes later he came back and then had to knock on the office door to get one of the staff to let him back in to get behind the counter. He knocked and knocked and knocked. Noone answered for a long, long time.
While this was happening Jon was at a different counter trying to withdraw some money. “You can’t withdraw money without a chequebook” they said. “My wife” said Jon as calmly as he could, “is over there ordering a chequebook from you for the third time. How do we withdraw money if you won’t provide a chequebook?”
Anyway things carried on in this vein for a lot longer. In all I was in the bank for this particular episode for 2 hours and suffice it to say I was murderous by the time I came out.
I can completely understand why the TV ‘endurance’ programmes only include easy challenges, like eating boiled goats’ testicles or having tarantulas crawl on your face. Including the challenge of ‘Going to a bank in Uganda 3 times in a day’ is beyond the level of human endurance.

But … there are some good things going on too. As the family who homeschool Jordan are American we are having an American as well as a Ugandan experience.
We went to our first Thanksgiving meal at their house recently. I had my first taste of pumpkin pie.
I was homeschooling the 3 boys there one morning when the oldest boy, Ethan, decided to kill one of the chickens in readiness for the meal. So we stopped the maths lesson and had a ‘food preparation’ lesson instead.
Being a city girl, I’d never seen a chicken being killed. For those of you who may be the same, this is what he had to do. Firstly he had to tie its legs to stop it running away while he got a knife. Then he had to shoo away the other chicken that was after a cock fight. Then he had to untie its legs and stand on them, at the same time standing on its wings. He held its head, and then cut it off with the knife.
This poor creature then ran around the garden like …. well … a headless chicken.
When it stopped, he plunged it into boiling water, and then had to pluck the feathers off.
The turkey was next, but Jordan and I had seen enough by this time … the maths lesson seemed a whole heap more appealing at this point.
(Apologies to squeamish people and vegetarians!)

Anyway, this is the final blog for 2008. Tune in next year in order to get your dose of Ugandan life! Merry Christmas

So, even though we’ve been in Uganda over 4 months now and are getting used to life here, there are still things which seem strange, or different, or completely unbelievable, or simply just interesting.

Like the postal service. My Mum sent me a couple of letters in July when we were staying n Kampala. One of them arrived a week ago. It had gone via Vanuatu in the Pacific Islands. The other one is yet to arrive. We have had similar experiences with other items of mail.
In NZ I loved going to the Post Shop and went most days as it had a great energy to it. It was busy, interesting, bright and cheery.
The Post Office in Jinja was built, by all appearances, in the 1920’s, and hasn’t had any work at all done to it since. There is rarely anyone there and the woman working there eats her lunch while sitting at the counter. I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if one day a man arrived at the Post Office on a donkey bringing the mail from the next village in a brown sack. And Jinja is one of the biggest places in Uganda.
I also wonder how - or even if - people get mail. Mail is only delivered to PO Boxes not houses, and given there are around 250,000 people in the Jinja district, there are less than 3000 PO Boxes. Perhaps several thousand people club together to rent a PO Box…?

Sometimes we forget how complex the Ugandans like to make procedures, and go about life as if it were ‘normal’. We got a slip in our PO Box saying there was a parcel for us. I took it to the counter and handed it in, expecting the woman to go and get the parcel and give it to me. How silly of me. That is way too simple. “You have to take the slip to the counter in the room next door” she said. My heart sank. I knew it was going to take a looong time.
In all the times I have been to the Post Office, the counter in the room next door has been completely devoid of anyone, either staff or customers. In fact the room itself is always completely devoid of any life form at all. Kira and I went to the room. There is a little bicycle bell on the counter. I rang it… Nothing. Kira rang it… Nothing. I rang it again and eventually a man who looked to be about 150 years old staggered to the counter and asked us to come in. We went into the mail sorting room. I was aghast. There were bags of mail strewn all over the floor, letters and parcels were in piles all over the place. We could see the backs of the PO Boxes and some of them looked like they were full of years’ worth of unclaimed mail. I can’t imagine how any letter ever reaches its destination.
The 150 year old man disappeared. There was another man in the sorting room, working through a pile of yellow slips, I told him we’d come to collect a parcel. He pointed to a desk which had 2 chairs by it and told us to wait there. Kira and I sat and waited. And waited. And waited. I wondered where the person whose desk it was had gone to and when they would be back. We waited. Eventually the man finished with the pile of yellow slips and came over to us. Apparently it was his desk. And apparently he felt it was OK to keep us waiting – and waiting - while he sorted through his yellow slips. He finally got us the parcel. We have to pay to get parcels released, so we were charged 2000 shillings. Maybe the money goes towards refurbishing the seats we sat on.They must get worn out pretty quickly….

Jon has similar frustrations with boda boda drivers. He uses one to get to and from work. There are many, many, many, many boda boda drivers around. Mostly they sit together in groups waiting for customers. Most of the time they don’t seem to have any customers. You can’t walk more than a few yards before they will approach you and ask “We go?”. It’s a 10-15 minute walk into the town centre from where we live and it’s not unusual to be asked 5 times on the way if you want a ride. Jon has tried to get a driver who will take him on a regular basis to work, but even though they are always looking for custom, no one seems to be able to offer a regular service. The first time he asked a driver to come and pick him up in the morning, the driver said “I pick you up at 8.30?” “Yes” “I good at telling time. I know when 8.30 is. I be here exactly at 8.30. I pick you up in morning.” He didn’t arrive. So Jon tried someone else. He didn’t arrive either. After a while Jon gave up. So what he does now is walk to the end of the road. There is a group of them about 20 yards away and he flags them down. About 3 drivers then all race to him to see if they can get the ride.

However it’s not all bad. Jinja is a lovely place with some really beautiful scenery. We know a number of people who have houses overlooking the Nile. The views are stunning.

There is also a good community here as the ex-pats feel the need to stick together. There are more white people around than I thought and they all seem to turn up when something happens. When you hold a child’s birthday party here, then you would invite a lot of the community as well as it’s a good excuse for people to get together.

People here are generally different to those in Kampala. As a big generalisation, the ex-pats in Kampala are there for jobs, eg their company has transferred them or they are working for a NGO (aid agency), whereas the people in Jinja have specifically chosen to be here and often decide to set up a business. As Jinja is known as a tourist centre, lots of ex-pats have set up businesses aimed at tourists, eg kayaking, horse riding, cafes, restaurants.

It’s interesting to see some of the businesses Ugandans set up. They may for example have a little BBQ-type grill at the side of the road and they sell grilled corn on the cob. Or they may have a ‘toenail’ business. Some of them have a bowl of water where they wash people’s feet and then cut their toenails. Or they have a basket of nail polishes and paint women’s toenails while they sit on a little stool on the pavement. This even happens in Kampala city centre.

It’s a regular occurrence that children in the town centre crowd around you and ask for money. It’s also a regular occurrence that people turn up at the house either asking for a job or asking for money. We usually talk to them at the gate.
One day a man called Apollo turned up. I didn’t know him but apparently he had met Jon in the street one day, had told him his story and Jon had given him some money. So he came to me, telling me he knew Jon. He had his younger brother with him who has syphilis. The boy was covered in sores. He shook my hand. I tried to avoid the bit with the open sore on it. Apollo told me his employer had died, so he had not only lost his job but also his home as he couldn’t afford the rent. He had been in hospital and showed me the bandage on his side along with the prescription for the medicine he needed to buy. He then said it was his sister’s funeral the next day and he needed to be able to pay for transport to get back to the village. And he needed to get the bus at 5pm that day. All of this was going to cost him 40,000 shillings (a lot for a Ugandan to ask for) and could I give it to him. When we give the children pocket money we ask them to tithe, so they had saved 10% of their money for a worthy cause. I went into the house and told them Apollo’s story and they were both happy to give him their money, so all three of us went out to see him. I explained that the children had saved some of their pocket money and were happy to give it to him. It was about 6000 shillings. Kira gave it to him. He looked at it and said “It’s not enough.”
He told me he was going to wait till Jon got back and would ask him for more. He waited till 6.30pm (presumably had missed his bus) but Jon said we’d given him all we were going to give.
Then he came to see me again a couple of weeks later. This time he had several packets of seeds with him. He said that he needed money to get transport to the village so he could plant the seeds, grow vegetables and earn a livelihood. He also told me he had no family (not sure what had happened to his ‘brother’ then), and still needed medicine. He showed me the prescription again. I said I wasn’t going to give him any more money. At this point Jordan had come out of the house to see I was OK and stayed with me. Apollo asked if I could give him some food as he hadn’t eaten all day. Jordan and I went to get some bread for him and gave him about half a loaf. He wasn’t impressed.

We used to give money freely in the beginning, but there are so many people needing and looking for money that it’s a mammoth task and one that is never, never ending.

A few days later a man came to the house asking to speak to Moses or Wakoli George or Bonnie (the people who work here). I asked him in and he spoke to Bonnie, one of the house girls. She ushered me into the bedroom and whispered to me that he used to work here, then went to work at the school, but was a convicted rapist and wasn’t allowed into the compound, so she escorted him out. He was followed an hour later by someone asking for work. I told him there were no jobs available here. He went away then came back a few seconds later and asked if he could live here for 3 days while he looked for work. I said no. Bonnie said he looked too well dressed to be looking for work and would have just wanted to case the joint.
Good grief, as if snakes, earthquakes, bribes and electrocution weren’t bad enough!

And then there is Moses, one of the gardeners here, who is always entertaining and a bit of a wide boy. He asked Jon if we want to buy a cow. He said it would only cost us 200,000 shillings, then all we needed to do is pay someone 30,000 to look after it till Xmas, then we could have it slaughtered and we would make 150,000. “Thanks for the offer” said Jon “but perhaps not.”

And then there are the ants! Uganda must have half of the world’s population of ants. If you look around they are all over the place. We have to go around the house and spray it with insecticide otherwise you would share your house with millions of unwanted little pets. I think the country should be called Ug-ant-a. We have a couple of washing lines here and the ants use one of them as a major thoroughfare to get from the wall of the house to the tree. You have to take the clothes off the line and then shake them to get the insects off or else you really would have ants in your pants.

Anyway the children are both happy. Kira has a number of friends and spends a lot of time with them. We hardly see her! She loves school and likes being with her friends. She does drama once a week after school and is involved in the panto. She still misses NZ and her friends, and even though she has a lovely time here, still wants to go back.

Jordan is more settled. He gets on really well with the 2 boys he’s homeschooled with (which is just as well as there are very few other muzungus his age around!). He started African drum lessons recently. He did ‘normal’ drum lessons in NZ. Here they use 3 drums, one of which has a skin made from monitor lizard skin, while the others are made of cow hide.

Recently the 2 boys organised an American Football ‘exhibition match’ for parents to watch– they got 2 teams together The Wildcats and The Warriors, got the uniforms, bought lime and made up the pitch at their home, got the refreshments and got 3 girls (including Kira) to be the cheerleaders. It went really well.



Over the weekend we went to a children’s birthday party. It was an army party and the children had to get dressed up in army clothes and paint their faces with camouflage paint. They had ‘basic training’ by one of the adults, then had to do an assault course – including being doused with flour and crawling through a very muddy pit – then stopped for rations, and then rescued one of the adults who had been captured and tied up by the enemies. They loved it!

On Friday Jordan and I went on a homeschool field trip. We went with Sandy who homeschools him, her husband Rob, the 2 boys Ethan and Seth plus another couple of children. We went to a place called Mabira Forest about 30 minutes from here, and did a 3 hour walk. We managed to see some monkeys, lots of safari ants (to be avoided!) and some beautiful butterflies. The photo shows butterflies at rest. When Jordan walked through them they flew into the air and he was surrounded by a multi-coloured cloud of butterflies. It looked amazing.


We came out on the main Jinja-to-Kampala road at a place that is the Ugandan equivalent of a motorway service station. When cars and matatus (ie minibus taxis driven by lunatic 'who-cares-about-safety-let’s-go-as-fast-as-we-can' drivers) pull over, people selling food and drink rush over to them and thrust their wares in through the window in a desperate attempt to sell whatever they can.


Sandy and Rob bought some ‘chicken on a stick’, but I decided to give it a miss. If you look at the photo, it shows the chicken before it’s cooked. It was out in the full force of the sun and covered in flies….


Anyway, more to come in the next blog!

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Month 3....and 4

Hello, we have been in Jinja around 6 weeks now and really like it here. It is lovely and peaceful with many beautiful views, especially over the river Nile. This is a photo of us in the garden.

The children are enjoying their school experiences. Kira goes to Kiira Kids International School just down the road, so we walk there and back. She loves it and wants to go early every day. There are only 6 altogether in her class, 4 girls and 2 boys. One is from Germany, one from Uganda, one from France, one from Korea, one whose parents are from the UK / South Africa, plus Kira. There will be 8 children in the class next term. On the first day she made friends with a girl called Lauren and went home with her to play, so that was nice. She has 2 teachers, one who is from Uganda, while the main one is from South Wales. She has been very fortunate in having a school that she enjoys. Once a week they have a French woman teach them French, they also go to the local swimming pool, and have a sports teacher come one afternoon. Morning tea and lunch is cooked on the premises and is provided at a cost of 10,000 pw (approx $8.50)

Jordan enjoys his homeschooling with the 2 boys. Sandy does the bulk of the teaching at her house, 4 mornings a week. One afternoon Jon teaches the boys IT at our house, on Wednesday mornings we pay a sports teacher to teach the boys swimming, football, running, tennis & cricket, and on Friday afternoon a woman who is an English teacher and is based at an orphanage 30 minutes into the countryside teaches several children creative writing.
I help out sometimes at Sandy’s.
I am including ‘business’ as part of Jordan’s home schooling. He’s been showing and interest in earning money, buying shares, companies such as Microsoft etc. I’m planning to set up a Centre in Jinja – like a community centre, which offers activities to local people and tourists – so have asked Jordan to be my business partner. We are working through information on a website produced for Kids interested in Business, have written a basic business plan, and are currently doing research.

Jon started an IT contract this week. It’s a part time contract with an organisation called Health Child (http://www.healthchild.info/) which is very conveniently based in Jinja, and is also part-time, which is great.

And we finally got our boxes of stuff, but not without hassle of course. They’d been in the country for quite a while accruing daily storage charges until finally, after many phone calls and many emails to NZ, Kenya, and Uganda we were told we could go to get them released. Because they are just personal items they are supposed to be released for free, so we went to Kampala one Friday (got up at 6am, paid 100,000 shillings for the taxi and a 2 hour journey each way) to meet the agent at 9am. Apparently there is only one person at Customs that we can deal with. He refused to see us, despite the agent trying to get us an appointment with him. It seems they thought we had brought the goods into the country, weren’t planning to stay, and were instead planning to sell them to make a quick buck and then leave the country. “Why have you got so many toys?” they asked. I thought it was obvious we had brought them for the children, but apparently not. By 5pm he was still refusing to see us so we had to come back.
So, back we went again on Monday to meet with the agent (another 100,000 for the taxi, another 2 hours each way, another morning of getting up at 6am). We had photocopied everything we could think of to show that we were staying in the country, but weren’t allowed to meet him again - Instead we were offered to have the goods released officially for 800,000 or pay a bribe for 500,000 or keep coming back in the hope that he would meet with us and allow them to be released for free.
If you have read the blog entry below about the driving licences, you may understand how we were feeling at this point! We were past the point of being able to cope, so paid our first ever bribe (plus another 100,000 to get our stuff delivered). When we got back we told other muzungus and they said “oh yes, 500,000 is about the going rate”.
There is a lot we need to learn…

When we stayed in the hotel in Jinja we asked the receptionist if she would phone for a taxi for us. She picks up her cell phone, and says “If you pay for a phone top up for me I’ll call a taxi for you.”
Things work differently here…

Meanwhile back at home, Jordan has taken to cooking the evening meal. He does really well, and calls himself Jordan Ramsay. He does however struggle when he has to peel and chop onions, as his eyes hurt. Always one to solve a problem, he now wears his swimming goggles at onion-cutting time.

Harriet, the housegirl, was telling me about different tribes in Uganda. There is apparently a tribe in the north whose custom is to eat their first born child. “So that would mean” she said “that you would have to eat Jordan.” I looked at Jordan. He is now the same size as me. I decided I’d left it too late…

There was a major problem with the electrics in the house just after we moved in, with a huge amount of power surging into the house. It blew up the inverters (in a puff of blue smoke) and also blew up one of the surge protectors. That was a tad unfortunate as both my cell phone and laptop were plugged into it. They seem to be OK but the power cords to both were destroyed.
The electrician said to turn the electrics off at the main which we did, but there was still a huge amount of power coming into the house which made everything metal become live. We have a metal framed living room door and metal door handles which we couldn’t touch. Nor could we touch the taps. Even the water coming out of the taps was electrified.
Because the people whose house it is use the inverters when there is no power, they had nothing else we could use – no lamps or candles. We had to sit in the dark in the middle of the room trying not to touch anything, whilst holding our torches.
Of course one of the pipes to the washing machine decided not to work around the same time and so flooded the laundry. So we had to get a plumber out too.
What fun. Good job they didn’t happen at the same time.

Having survived that with only some minor electric shocks all round, we were then phoned up a few days later (while we were in the house one morning) by Harriet and Wakoli George the night guard (who were in the garden!) to tell us that someone had broken into the compound during the night. They had cut a hole in the wire fence and had stolen Wakoli George’s bike. He must have been asleep. They then started cutting into the front door, but he must have woken up by this time and sent them on their way. There are 2 holes in the front door.
We had to buy Wakoli George a new bike as he lives about an hour’s cycle ride from here and couldn’t get home.
Now you would expect, wouldn’t you that the people to contact would be the police. We know better now but didn’t at the time.
Jon phoned the police to ask them to come round. They refused and said Jon needed to go to see them. He went round and gave a statement. They then said they would come round, but on a boda boda which Jon had to pay for. Other people have told us that if they come in a police car, you are expected to refund the cost of the petrol. When they arrived they said they needed a photo of the scene which they said Jon had to take and print off for them. Then they took the printouts, went on their merry way, and that was that.

Wakoli George’s son Wilson (aged 12) is the one who lives here with Harriet. He came home at lunchtime one day, which he doesn’t usually do. I asked if he had come back to get some lunch. He said yes and went into Harriet’s house. A few minutes later he came out and started to go back to school. I asked what he’d had for lunch so quickly. “Nothing” he said, “there is no food there.” I gave him a sandwich and biscuits. He shook my hand politely and said “Thank you very much.”

Then the next episode was a couple of weeks ago when I was in the living room and saw Moses, one of the gardeners, screeching and jumping up and down. I thought he must have stood on an anthill. Anyway it turns out a snake had crawled up his leg. He and Wakoli George killed it and disposed of it.
I now know what to do in the event of a snake bite. Amazing what you can learn when you have to.
This incident was followed by a sizeable earthquake an hour later….
Today Wakoli George found another (very dangerous) snake. He killed it but showed it to me this time so I know what to look out for. Groo!

Not far from us is a lovely guest house called Gately on the Nile. Recently we went with a friend and her children for a meal. The view over the Nile is just stunning, so beautiful. There are many beautiful views in Jinja. I love living near water.

Just round the corner are a couple of swimming pools we use, one at Hotel Triangle and the other at a place called the Jinja Club. All pools we’ve seen are outdoor ones. We went to the Jinja Club pool last week (I was wearing my XXL swimsuit of course) and there was a little frog swimming in the pool too!
I also found a frog on one of Jon’s shirts on the washing line

And so there is going to be a pantomime in Jinja in December – Cinderella.
“Oh no there isn’t” “Oh yes there is”. I hadn’t realised how British a thing pantos are, as even though it was mainly muzungus who turned up for the auditions, most people didn’t know what a panto was. (Makes you wonder why they turned up!) Anyway we decided we will all be involved. Jon is one of the Ugly Sisters, Jordan is a footman and also a ghost, Kira is in the chorus and I’ll be Front of House. I can’t act. The only time I have ever been in a play was when I was 5, it was the school nativity performance and I was a tree.
The posters advertising the auditions didn’t have any contact phone numbers on them. When we asked why, the organisers said that Ugandan people would either phone up asking for a job, or if it was a man’s name, women would phone up saying they are in love with him. There are many poor Ugandan women who see white men as a way out of their situation.

And yes, we have managed to find a barber who knows how to deal with muzungu hair – he’s Indian. Indians have the same kind of hair as us, so the boys are OK now!

Getting a driving licence

How to renew your driving licence in New Zealand

1. Go to the AA Shop, fill in a form, have an eyesight test, have your photo taken, pay the money, get your new driving licence.

How to get an exchange driving permit in Uganda

1. While living in Kampala pay 30,000 shillings (approx $26) to get a taxi through the horrendous Kampala traffic to URA (Uganda Revenue Authority) to pick up an application form
2. Go home, fill in the parts of the form you can, then realise you will need to see a doctor for him or her to complete part of the form
3. Consider which doctor to see. If you go to the one who treats muzungus, it will cost 30,000 in a taxi, 60,000 for Jon to register as a new patient, plus 30,000 each for the doctor to fill in 2 lines on the application forms, total cost 150,000. Walk to the nearest African doctor and pay 15,000 in total.
4. Get another taxi and pay 30,000 to go back with the completed forms
5. Wander around URA and eventually find the correct (unmarked) room
6. Stare at the many queues in front of various unmarked counters in different areas of the room
7. Pick a queue and join it
8. Don’t bother to ask anyone what the queue is for as no-one will understand you
9. Realise that they aren’t really queues, they are a free-for-all and that people push in front of you because you are politely standing there, so eventually learn to push to the front and wave the forms in front of the staff member’s nose
10. The staff members tells you to get a photocopy of your passport as ID
11. Send Jon off with the passports while you valiantly stand at the front to save the place
12. Jon comes back
13. Wave the completed forms and copies of the passports in front of the staff member’s nose
14. She needs to see the UK licences.
15. She then needs to show the UK licences to An Important Person to verify that they are indeed driving licences
16. She does something with the forms and points to another unmarked queue
17. Join this queue
18. This staff member says it will cost 60,000 each for a 3 year licence
    
19. Inform her you want a 1-year licence. "Not possible." You point to the poster on her wall where it says 1 year or 3 year licence
20. She amends cost to 45,000 for 1 year licence
    
21. You point to the poster on her wall where it says to pay 25,000
22. “That’s an old poster” she says
23. She gives invoices which need to be paid at a bank
24. Go to the bank
25. It’s closed
26. The next day pay another 30,000 to get a taxi back
27. Go to bank and pay two lots of 45,000
28. Go back to URA with forms and receipt for payment
29. Push your way to the front, and wave the forms in front of the same staff member’s nose.
30. She has to check again with the same Important Person to verify that our UK licences are indeed driving licences
31. Receive a temporary driving licence and get told to come back next week
32. Bad timing….move to live in Jinja
33. Next week now pay 100,000 and travel 2 hours each way in a taxi to URA
34. Go to counter and hand in temporary licence. "You can't have a 1 year licence, go and see that person over there"
    
35. Go to That Person Over There and get told nobody has a 1-year licence, they are all 3 years and cost 60,000. "The woman last week said we could" we say. They go to see the woman and argue with her.
36. They go to see someone else and argue with her
37. They say "How long will you be in Uganda?" We say "We don't know." They say "You can have a 1 year licence."
    
38. “Go to a different building” they say, "Face Technology who produce driving licence cards". It’s in a different area of the city
39. Go to the Face Technology building
40. Ask at the Information desk where to go. Get told to go to a kiosk on the outside of the building
41. Go to kiosk and hand forms in
42. Sit and wait to be called
43. Get called and go to a queue outside Room F
44. Go into Room F to get photo taken and a finger print scan. I fail the scan. How is it possible to fail a finger print scan? Who knows, but I do. Do a thumb scan instead
45. Realise there is still a long way to go so decide to go to toilet.
46. Wander around and find the toilet outside. There is a man with a small table outside the toilets selling phone top up cards. He charges 200 shillings for use of the toilet
47. Go into the toilet cubicle. It is dark. The light doesn’t work
48. The toilet is not a toilet but is in fact a long drop
49. Try not to fall down the long drop hole in the dark
50. When finished eventually locate the washhand basin on an outside wall. The water trickles out very s-l-o-w-l-y
51. Join the fray again and go to a table to fill in the form the woman in Room F had given. Have to write date of birth as CCYY-MM-DD (where C means ‘century’)
52. Go to counter 6 where a man fills in the details on the computer. He asks to see UK licence
53. He says “you have too many names to fit on the screen, I will just put your first and last name”
54. We go to the man at counter 12 who is sitting back-to-back with the man at counter 6. I have put the UK licence away as it has been looked at 3 times. He asks to see UK licence
55. He goes into the computer and corrects the mis-spellings of the man from counter 6 then says “you must have all your names on the computer screen”. “They don’t fit” we inform him. He makes them fit. My name is now Kim Ilenaandanarchamberlain but I’m past caring
56. Get given an invoice to pay for the actual driving licence card and get told to go to the final counter, counter 17, to pay
57. Go to counter 17 and pay 20,000
58. Feel a wave of relief as you realise you have finished the process
59. BUT NO! Get given a second temporary driving licence and get told to come back in 2 weeks
60. Turn to look at Jon. He has lost the will to live
61. Two weeks later pay 100,000 in taxi fares and travel two hours each way to go to Kampala
62. Jon picks up his driving licence
63. I’m too busy to go to get licence as I am in a meeting. I tell the people in the meeting about the driving licence saga. “Why are you getting a Uganda driving licence?” they ask “you can drive around using your UK one”
64. :-(
65. Now all we need is a car….

Month 2 (August)

Kim’s Blog, Stardate 7 September 2008

So we have been here 2 months now, and it’s a month since I last wrote a blog entry, the reason being that not very much has happened.

Jon says that the way to produce a blog is little and often, and not subject people to great tomes of reading all at once. Oh dear! However, you don’t have to read my entries all in one go, feel free to read several chapters a night and then you will have completed all 37 volumes in no time at all …

We have spent the last month in the house in Kampala, getting life sorted out. We knew that things would take a long time, and they do. For example, it’s 6 weeks since we opened a bank account and we still don’t have our cheque books. For those of you in NZ who’ve seen the TV advert about the man who emigrates from Scotland and has his bank account all sorted out in 20 minutes, well it’s nothing like that over here. I’ve been in maybe 8 times to 3 different branches. One time they needed a photocopy of my ID. When I tried to give them my passport to photocopy, they gave it back to me and pointed to the bank’s photocopier and I had to go over and do it myself.

Trying to get an ‘exchange’ driving license is happening in much the same way. We are up to visit number 4, and still a few more steps to take.

And then there are our 16 boxes of goods we shipped out several decades ago and which should have arrived here at the same time as we did. They have finally arrived in Kampala, though we now have to try and release them. So far we have over a week’s amount of storage to pay, plus they are trying to ding us for about 3million sh

illings (a lot of money) even though we understand we shouldn’t have to pay anything for the release of personal goods. What fun!

We’ve all been existing on a suitcase worth of stuff for 2 months, but at least when the boxes arrive they’ll be eligible to appear on the Antiques Roadshow.

Jordan and Kira have been spending most of the time with the 15 year old twins next door, Gordon and Tanya, which has been great for them. The boys seem to do rather a lot of ‘screens’, while the girls do a range of interesting things like taking the dogs for a walk, drawing and painting, rollerblading, make-up and baking biscuits. The neighbours have 3 dogs Alice, Tigger and Mandy, though Mandy was ill and had to be put down. They had a ceremony to bury her in the garden. Kira was heartbroken as she is very much an animal lover. She says that when we are settled she wants a place where she can have a donkey, 2 horses, some cats, dogs, lizards and geckos, a guinea pig, rabbit, goat, cow, etc etc.

Jon and I have been forming our company, Chamberlain Consulting, and have been applying for contracts. Jon has put a proposal in with a group of others for a 4-6 month contract mainly based in Kampala, though also travelling around Uganda. He wrote the proposal during one of our power cut days. He was sitting there typing into his laptop by the light of a tiny candle, occasionally using a torch to shine onto the screen.

I’ve got a number of possible contracts in the pipeline for several organisations, also in Kampala.

Often at the weekend we’ll go swimming, and have tried out a number of pools. There’s quite a nice one near us, it’s round and deep, but OK and has a nice bar / restaurant we go to a

fterwards.

I have to say that finding a swimming costume to fit has been a major episode. I can’t quite understand what’s going on with costume sizes as the Ugandan women look normal sizes to me, but the size I thought would fit me, ie adult size small, actually fits Kira who’s only 8. I’ve tried several shops to get one to fit, including a small Indian sports shop. They had no changing room, so in order for me to try the costume on, I had to stand in a corner while the female shop owner held up a sheet in front of me. I have now given up trying to find one that completely fits and so have bought an XXL which is only a bit too small.

Talking of sizes, we often see posters around advertising for (presumably) women to get hips and bums. It’s seen as attractive if these parts of your body are quite sizeable. So, if you are large in this area … come to Uganda! You will be regarded as beautiful. I wonder what the women with big hips and bums do to find a swimming costume to fit…

Another new experience is clothes washing. When you hang it on the line to dry, it’s highly possible that a little bug will burrow into your clothes (or sheets, or towels…..) and then when you put your clothes on it will bite you mercilessly. Having had the experience of a bug in my knickers which bit me literally hundreds of times all the way round (the women with big hips and bums must get bitten thousands of times!) it’s not one you would want to repeat. This means I now have to iron everything to kill off possible bugs. I actually like ironing, so it isn’t a big deal for me, but I can honestly say I’ve never ironed things like pop sox, swimming costumes (even XXL ones), flannels or undies before.

I had to go to the doctor’s a while ago as a really common complaint is bronchial problems due to the dust, vehicle fumes and constant smoke from burning rubbish. Jon got it too but braved it out and we are both OK now. I guess you must get used to it after a while. I don’t know how people with asthma would cope.

Recently we went to what has been called ‘East Africa’s premier event’, The Royal Ascot Goat Races (http://www.thegoatraces.com/races.html). It’s like horse racing only with goats! The goats have not the slightest interest in racing, and wander aimlessly round the track stopping to eat grass every few yards. They have the 'goat boys' running after them with 2 single mattresses joined together to form the width of the track, egging them along.
I think the main attraction for people was to get dressed up and get drunk. Oh well, at least we've been.

A few days ago I decided to take Jordan to get a haircut. I was a bit concerned as hairdressers and barbers seem to deal only with African people. The women tend to get amazing things done to their hair, while most African men have their head clean shaven, or have their hair shaved extremely short. I didn’t think they would know how to cut western hair, but as Jordan was looking like the wild man of Borneo I thought we needed to brave it. It took the man 45 minutes to cut his hair, he charged only 5,000 shillings (about NZ$4.50), but my fears were completely justified. Jordan just wanted a bit of a trim, but he cut it very short and in a genuine basin cut style! Poor Jordan looked like a monk from the middle ages. I couldn’t see what it looked like as I was sitting to the side of him, but when he turned to show me I just about fell off the chair. As we walked out of the salon, I ruffled it all up for him and it looked fine, just a bit short. We went to the shop next door, then had to walk back past the salon, so we flattened it all down again till we’d walked past and then ruffled it up again. When we got back I combed it back into the basin cut to show Jon. He creased up laughing.

Anyway, the woman whose house we were staying in came back to Uganda on 3^rd September so we moved out on 2^nd. We had already planned to move to Jinja in early September in time for school term, but still had stuff to sort out in Kampala so stayed on for a few more days. We stayed in a place not far away called Red Chilli Hideaway (http://www.redchillihideaway.com/facilities.htm) We rented one of the cottages for 3 days. It was a house really, with living room, 2 good size bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, toilet, shower and outside courtyard. It was fairly basic but absolutely fine for the amount of time we were there. The place had lots of monkeys around, dogs, goats, cats and what sounded like a huge group of frogs just outside the boundary. Each night as soon as dusk came the frogs would break into song and sing all night long. I would have loved to have seen them. There was also a plunge pool in the grounds which the children loved, plus there was a nice restaurant with a good selection of food at reasonable prices. We enjoyed staying there.

On Friday 5^th we came to Jinja. We stayed in a hotel for a night until we could move into the house. An American family are going home for 4 months so we are staying in their home while they are away. It’s a lovely 4-bedroom house, quite sizeable with a beautiful garden. The garden has a big play structure for children, a covered seated area, BBQ and lovely plants, along with the usual array of East African birds.

The house is in a lovely peaceful area, not far from the Nile. Just around the corner are a range of trees which are home to thousands of bats. During the day they hang upside down in the trees and sound like they are talking to one another. In the evening they fly around, and because there are so many of them, they fly around in almost ‘sheets’ of bats. It’s very impressive.

The American family have employed 4 ‘indoor’ staff, ie people who keep on top of the housework, etc, though there is only one here now, Harriet. I can’t say I’d know how to keep 4 staff busy. Harriet is very nice and lives in a small thatched house in the grounds (it’s called a ‘compound’ here), and all we’ve asked her to do is the clothes washing (the washing machine is broken and the spare part needs to come from the States), some cleaning, the washing up and will also ask her to go to the market for us to get fruit and veg. The food shopping here is even more limited than we are used to in Kampala and they have ‘supermarkets’ which I would call a mini-mart. They tend not to have fruit and veg, and if we go to the market we would get charged muzungu prices. So hopefully Harriet can get us food at a good price.

There are 4 ‘outdoor’ staff, 2 gardeners and 2 askari (guards). One of the guards has a son, Wilson, who is 12 years old and lives with Harriet, so he is always here. He’s a nice kid and the children enjoy playing with him.

School was supposed to start on Monday 8^th. However the ruler of one of the Ugandan kingdoms has died and there will be a state funeral that day so it’s been declared a national holiday.

Kira will be going to the small international school called Kiira Kids http://kiirakids.com/ (the words Kira and Kiira are Uganda words for the Nile, so we see them around a lot), which happens to be on the same street as we are living on.

Jordan is too old to go to this school and there are no other schools catering for muzungus his age in Jinja, so he will be home-schooled by an American family who have 2 boys aged 11 and 14. He’s looking forward to it. They are using an American home schooling programme canned Sonlight, which seems to have a good reputation.

The family have an adopted African daughter called Kiira who is around Kira’s age and goes to Kiira Kids too. I think Kira was meant to be here…

She still finds it hard being here sometimes as she still really misses her friends in NZ. I expect that because we have somewhere to settle and she has a school to go to, things will be better for her.

Overall both children are doing really well, and we hope we are giving them some interesting life experiences.

3 August 08

(PHOTOS: TYPICAL AFRICAN HOUSE; SUNSET VIEW FROM OUR HOUSE)

Hello

So, we have been here a month now and this time I thought I'd tell you about some things here which differ from life in NZ and the UK.

Firstly the weather. Uganda is on the equator and so the weather is very similar all year round, approx 26 degrees. Generally nice and warm, sometimes quite hot and sometimes wet and / or chilly. I'm a cold person, but can wear sleeveless tops almost every day. Sometimes I'll put a cardigan on. They have a couple of rainy seasons which we haven't experienced yet.
Kampala is about 40miles north of the equator so we are in the northern hemisphere, though parts of the country are in the southern hemisphere.

The food. If you go to a biggish supermarket you can get a lot of 'normal' food, though not quite the range we are used to. We eat a more limited range of foods here, and it would be nice to go and buy some of the stuff we are used to, such as Hubbard's cereals, proper yoghurt (not milky substance with food colouring) and normal mushrooms.
Much as I like bananas, and while they are plentiful and cheap, I have to say they make up rather a large proportion of my food intake. If I look yellow and a bit arc-shaped when you next see me you'll know why.
Bread here is generally in two sorts: salt bread and sweet bread. Needless to say the children prefer sweet bread. You buy the supermarket loaves in one of 2 sizes – 500g or 1kg.
Apart from long-life milk, you buy milk in plastic bags which you then put into a jug when you get home. Or at least you put about 90% of it in. We usually manage to spurt some in the kitchen sink in the process.
Kelloggs cereal is by far the best, but twice as dear as African cereal (usually made in Kenya). Some of the cornflakes taste like cardboard. Not that I've eaten cardboard.........
Eggs generally have a whitish yolk, I think because the chickens aren't fed good quality food. Our neighbour Eric who is a bit of a foodie, looks forward to the 3-weekly visits from the Yellow Egg Man to buy some decent eggs.
Similarly, the sweetcorn is quite a pale yellow too.
Some of the fruit and veg look a bit different, but are generally OK. Jordan discovered kiwi fruit from NZ in the supermarket today.
I bought some rice flour and maize flour to make pancakes. I wondered why the dearer brands (which I didn't buy) said 'sand free' on the packets. After our Sunday breakfast of gritty pancakes I understood why!
You can’t drink water from the tap, so we boil it for at least 3 minutes when making hot drinks, and we buy a huge 5 gallon container of water for drinking.
But the MAIN thing is that Cadbury's chocolate doesn't taste very nice. In the absence of anything else I have to force myself to eat it on a daily basis – mainly because I don't eat wheat and there are few other dessert-like things here that I can have. At least that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Hair products. African women seem to be very bothered about their hair. They all seem to have amazing things done to their hair – straightened, or intricately plaited, or made into some very interesting creations. The hair product shelves in the supermarket are full of weird and wonderful things I don’t understand – lotions and potions, and braiding things, and oils and ‘hair relaxers’. I tried to find some hair colour, but of course the only colour is black. I also tried to find some hair spray which was a major episode as they obviously don’t use it. When I finally tracked some down they only had one type – in the largest canister you have ever seen, way too heavy to lift up, and probably containing enough spray to last a few decades.

TV – I thought NZ TV was bad, but I take it all back now. We only have the ordinary channels not satellite TV. It's SO bad that the children never switch it on in the evenings. I guess if you like to spend your evening watching an African version of American Idol, a religious preacher or a Nigerian soap opera with very poor sound quality, then TV here would be quite acceptable.

Driving. The way people drive here is just incredible. INCREDIBLE. You would have to experience it to understand. People will drive the wrong way down a road. They will overtake you on the inside or the outside. Often there will be 2 cars doing both at the same time. If you leave more than a 2-inch gap behind the car in front, someone will jump in. If you were to adopt the great British reserve and politely give way to other people you would never get anywhere. You would be completely stationary. At major intersections there will be no lights, roundabout or traffic police. It is a complete free-for-all. You don't need eyes in the back of your head, you need a row of eyes all the way round your head, as anything could happen coming from any direction. Just when you think you've worked out all the incredible things people can do, someone will do something else.
Today we went to Didi’s World (“Disneyland in Uganda”) which is a theme park. We spent quite a bit of time on the dodgem cars. Afterwards I wondered why we’d bothered spending the money as you get that kind of experience driving round Kampala anyway. I am now absolutely convinced that that is where Kampala drivers go to learn their driving skills.

The environment. Excluding the centre of Kampala, I like the environment. Streets are generally fairly peaceful. I like the atmosphere.
Everywhere has red soil which makes the place quite dusty, but it gives it a real African feel. It is a bad mistake to do what Kira and I did before we came out - and buy white shoes. They are forever looking a reddish-brown. John Bosco our houseboy sees it as one of his jobs to clean them.
I often go for walks around the streets where we are staying. You will see a whole range of houses. Because of the poverty amongst the people here, the more expensive ones have big gates to protect them. Houses will be made of red brick probably with plaster, and red roof tiles. The poorer Africans will live in very small and very basic housing. Many don't seem to have a front door and have a curtain instead. You will see people doing chores outside, eg washing clothes in a washing up bowl, washing children in a washing up bowl, cooking on some form of wood burner. There is always lots of washing being dried on a washing line or draped over anything available eg bushes or even the roof of the house.
You rarely see people on their own, it's a very communal way of living. Even people having driving lessons will have various family members in the car with them.
Because you have to pay for refuse collection, you will see Africans burning their rubbish. There is often a burning smell around. You get used to it.
There are many chickens and goats around – people will use them as a food source for milk, eggs etc.
Some people have little stalls near their house selling fruit or veg.

Creatures. There are quite a few animals around, eg goats, cockerels, hens, cows, African cows with huge horns, dogs, plus some rabbits and cats. I believe there are quite a few snakes though we haven’t seen any yet.
There aren’t too many insects, surprisingly. There are a number of ants and I’ve become a bit of an ant-watcher. They are quite amazing in how they operate. I keep an eye on local ant trails and they change fairly often – I’m not sure what they are doing or why they change but it keeps me fascinated!
There are of course a number of types of fly, plus mosquitoes. We spray the bedrooms with Doom at least half an hour before we go to bed, and always sleep under mozzie nets. You have to get bitten by a female mosquito who has already bitten someone with malaria in order for you to get it.
Then there are the lizards and the geckos which are good to have around. There are usually a few small ones in the house. Jon accidentally knocked one the other day, and as a defence mechanism its tails comes off (it will grow another one), the gecko stays completely still in order to appear dead, while the tail carries on moving.

Staff. It's very common to have staff, and seems to be accepted that you will have at least one person working for you. Ours and Eric's house are next door to each other and we live at the end of a cul de sac, sharing a driveway and the big gates to protect the houses. In this little area of 2 houses there are the 4 of us plus John Bosco. There is Eric, his partner and her 2 children. Eric has his housegirl who has a little boy. His partner has her housegirl who has 2 small children. There is the daytime askari (guard) whose job is to open and close the gates for us when we go in and out, and there is the night time askari. That's 16 of us in a little area of 2 houses! Plus a gardener who comes every 3 weeks or so.
Some people have a driver – someone they employ who drives them around. Labour here is very cheap and you would pay a driver (ie chauffeur) about 300,000Ugshs per month (about $US200). A houseboy or girl may get paid 200,000Ugshs per month (about $US140) working 6 or maybe 7 days a week.

John Bosco has been very good and has done things such as help fix the car when it wouldn't start and unblock the drains. One of his favourite jobs is going into town for us. The post office is in the city centre and I can't face driving in there, so if we need to post a letter he is more than happy to take some money, jump on a boda boda (motorbike taxi) and zoom into town. We get charged muzungu prices on boda bodas but he can get into the city (which is about a 20 min ride) for 1000 Ugshs (about 70c).

Anyway, more in our next update!

Kim