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