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