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

17 July 08

(PHOTOS: MY BANANA LEAF HAT; JORDAN AND KIRA IN CAFE GINGER IN JINJA; MAIN STREET IN JINJA)

We got back last night from a few days in Jinja, a large town about 80km from Kampala. We went there last year and were quite taken by it.

I really like it, I like the feel of it, the slower pace, the feeling of calmness there.
It's bigger than we thought, once we drove around, and it's quite run down, but I felt very comfy there.

Jon has applied for some work with the larger companies there.
He has had some involvement with an organisation called Nabuur (see http://www.nabuur.com/modules/villages/mystory.php?villageid=428). They have projects worldwide that anyone can volunteer their skills – online - to help.

The project in Jinja is called Beam of Hope for the Disabled, and we went to visit the project and Paul the organiser, when we were there. They offer training eg IT training, and work for people with disabilities: eg sewing machinists making work clothes for a local construction company, and hat making. I bought a sun hat from the man who makes them from dried banana leaves. It's lovely.

While Jon was job hunting I took the children on a boat trip along the Nile. Jinja is the source of the Nile and we saw the actual spot where it starts – a bit of a whirlpool where Lake Victoria becomes the Nile. The river is about 4000 miles long and it takes 3 months for it to reach its destination, Egypt. There are many beautiful birds there, including cormorants and tiny, beautifully coloured kingfishers. There are also monitor lizards and velvet monkeys. Local fishermen catch Nile perch and a fish called tilapia from their boats.

There are 2 currencies used here, US dollars and Ugshs (Ugandan shillings). Most things are in Ugshs. It's rare to find a place that takes credit cards so we use money all the time.

The banks are quite wary about money issues – I tried to change a ten pound note into Ugshs, but even though they are familiar with pounds, they wouldn't change it because it had a biro mark on it. After trying 3 banks I gave up. I did ask about changing NZ$, but that was a complete non-starter.

Jon tried to cash some travellers cheques, but we'd forgotten to bring the proof of purchase slips with us. He tried several Ugandan banks without luck, and eventually ended up in Crane Bank, an Indian bank. It took well over an hour of establishing a relationship with the bank manager and sharing some fried bananas with him before they would give him any money.

There are many small shops and cafes in Jinja, and all the mini supermarkets seem to be run by Indians. The Indians were thrown out by Idi Amin, but are now back here, and there are various mosques around.

One of the cafes we went to is called Ossies – there are a number of Australians in Jinja apparently. It was very strange being there as virtually everybody there was white. 95%+ of people we see are black.

I went with the children to have a look at a house for rent. It was lovely. It has 5 bedrooms, 2 of which have balconies. The master bedroom has a huge balcony which overlooks the river Nile. It was a wonderful view – I loved it!

It had a big garden with a bit of an orchard in it, with different kinds of banana trees (some to eat raw, some to grill, and some to make a dish called matoke which is a bit like mashed potato), pawpaw trees and avocado trees.
A few hundred yards along the path there was a little 'village' of mud huts.

There is lots of very poor housing conditions around. The children are still in culture shock about the level of poverty here.

There are street children around, wearing very poor clothing, and begging from tourists. A group of 4 of them were outside Ossies cafe so I gave them all a coin each. All of a sudden many more children appeared from nowhere asking for money!

I discovered that there is a particular way you drive around Jinja, which I seemed to pick up quite easily. As the road rules (if there are any) are only vague guidelines, and as there are many large potholes in the road which means you don't drive in a straight line, you have to drive around slowly, looking in every direction. Lots of people walk on the roads, there are lots of cyclists, bicycle taxis, motorcyclists, boda bodas and cars, plus the occasional chicken, and they take up most of the road. Cars don't necessarily have right of way.

Anyway we got back to Kampala around 8pm, and there was no electricity. We had to unpack in the dark. I was too tired to try and cook a meal in the dark on the gas cooker, so the others had sandwiches, I had a bowl of cereal, then we went to bed!

The electricity was off most of today, which really hampers what you can do. We went to buy some water from a big store today and the power went off while we were there. People were wandering around in the dark, and the people working on the tills had a helper with them, shining a torch on the till!

It was very exciting when we got back to the house and actually had electricity again.

We’re looking forward to being settled in a place and finding a school for the children.

11 July 2008

(PHOTO: HOUSE WE ARE RENTING IN MUTUNGO, KAMPALA)

Hello again

So we’ve been here just over a week now.

We came to Kampala, the capital, several days ago and have been very fortunate, as we now have a house to stay in for a while. Eric, the president of the British Residents Assoc'n has been incredibly helpful. His neighbour has gone to the States till 5th Sept so we are able to rent her house till then. It's lovely, in a peaceful setting, with a lovely garden and beautiful views. He has been so helpful in explaining how things work, taking us to the supermarket, helping us get internet access etc.
The house comes with a houseboy who does the washing, ironing, house cleaning, washing up, cleaning the car etc
It’s very strange having someone in your house most of the day who does household chores. We don’t even have to make the beds.

Kira has been merrily playing with a couple of lovely little African children next door. It's been such a joy to watch them playing together. They are aged 3 and 5 and call her 'Kiki'

It feels very much like ‘Africa’ here – lots of African people who are intrigued to see muzungus (white people), though are always very friendly when we greet them. Little children will stand and stare, then laugh and shout “muzungu!”

There is lots of very basic housing around, with people living quite poorly. It’s very much an outdoor way of living, unlike NZ and the UK which is an indoor way of living. It’s a slow pace of life and while people are often outside doing things there are lots of people who are outdoors, just sitting around, in no hurry at all.

Getting around Kampala is a bit of a challenge – it’s enormous, with horrendous traffic. There seems to be very few road rules, and you seem to drive however you like as long as you get to your destination.
We all braved using a boda boda today (motorbike taxi) – only used them because we are in a quiet area. Great fun!

Resources here are scarce, so you don’t waste anything. We have to buy bottled water, and bottled gas for the cooker. Power cuts (‘load shedding’) are frequent, and happen at planned intervals. We have them every 3 days, and as the house we are in doesn’t have a generator or inverter, we have no power at all, so go around with candles, torches and kerosene lamps. It’s a very different way of thinking.

We only have dial up connection (when the power is on!) and it’s very slow, but at least we are connected from time to time

5 July 2008

(PHOTOS: VIEW OF THE GARDEN FROM OUR ROOM AT THE BOMA GUEST HOUSE, ENTEBBE; A TYPICAL BODA BODA)

Hello from Kim!

Well we are here now, up to day 3.

We left NZ on Monday 30^th June, and stayed with friends in Sydney for 2 days. That was really nice as it allowed us to wind down a bit after all the rushing around we had to do before we left. Despite spending every waking hour doing the packing, we still hadn’t finished by the time the removals people came and were frantically throwing things into boxes while they were there!

The hardest part for me by far, was having to leave my cat, Frankie. Even though he is being looked after by the neighbours and their house is his second home and they love him to pieces, he’s very much ‘my’ cat and is like my shadow. He spends all his time with me, waits at the end of the drive for me or inside the front door. I cried every day.Kira was equally upset and still cries about him.

We left Sydney on 2^nd July and flew to Dubai (17 hours) then onto Ethiopia and into Entebbe, Uganda on 3^rd in the afternoon.

We were very fortunate that all our flights and connections went to plan and it was as easy as it could have been.

Jordan seems to be taking it all in his stride and is very laid back about it all. He has been talking about buying some shoe polish to blacken his face in order to fit in with the locals (!), but other than that is doing really well.

Kira is doing well, though it’s been a lot harder for her. She has a lovely life in NZ – she loves school, has some really good friends, loves her hobbies, loves Frankie, etc etc. Understandably she sees no reason to leave a life she loves, and has had a few tears now and then. When we arrived at Entebbe airport she was sick.
We know she’ll be OK, though it’s hard when she has some tough times.
I bought her a diary yesterday which she likes to write daily, and she’s been writing about the nice things that she’s experienced.

We are staying at The Boma guest house in Entebbe (http://www.traveluganda.co.ug/thebomaentebbe/) which we stayed at last time – it’s lovely and the staff are very friendly. It seems to be patronised by expats. It has beautiful gardens and a vast array of birds who provide some lovely birdsong.

The weather is nice and warm, we sleep under mosquito nets and have the fan going during the night to keep us cool. There are little lizards roaming around on the walls. They are good to have around as they eat flies and mosquitoes.

We showed the children a plant we discovered last time. It’s one where when you touch the leaves, they close up and look just like a twig. It must be a defence mechanism, because it looks dead once you’ve touched it. Kira runs up and down the paths touching all the leaves!

Today we went round the Botanical Gardens. They have such lovely trees and plants here, including sausage trees and cannon ball trees. They also have elephant apple trees – certainly not one to sit under and have a picnic as the apples are enormous, very hard, and just fall out of the tree. You’d be knocked unconscious if one landed on your head.

There are over 100 termite mounds in the gardens – apparently the Queen Termite lives a metre deep into the mound, is around 9” long and tastes very nice when fried...

We also saw a huge trail of safari ants – very impressive in how they operate, but ones to be avoided. One managed to climb onto Jordan’s trouser leg without him realising. The next thing he knew, it had crawled up and bitten him on the shoulder…

We leave here tomorrow and are going to the capital Kampala