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.