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!