June 2010

(You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them)
So, Kira has recently emerged from a weekend of parties.
She, and a friend Naomi, share the same birthday - they were both 10 on 20th June - while another girl has a birthday three days later, so all three had their parties at the weekend.
We have here a newly-formed ‘Jinja Explorers Club’, which is similar to Brownies, and they all decided we should go camping to celebrate Kira’s birthday.
We went to the camping grounds of a beautiful hotel resort called Kingfisher Resort on Lake Victoria, owned by Naomi’s mum. There were 10 girls, plus me, Vicky the teacher and another parent.
Those of you who know me well, know that I’m a Jolly-Nice-Hotel Person rather than a Camping Person, but as it was Kira’s birthday and as it’s Africa and going to be warm, I thought it would be OK. And anyway we were only going to be there from Friday afternoon till Saturday morning.
Of course, the whole time we were there the weather was uncharacteristically sun-free. It rained while we were putting up the tents.
Anyway I provided the food - sausages which Vicky cooked on a charcoal grill (see photo above), bread rolls, a rice dish and an ice cream birthday cake (cheesecake base with ice cream on it).
We then sat around the campfire while people told campfire stories. It was very interesting as it was only the Ugandan children who told stories. They told stories of Ugandan legend and folklore tales. Some of the girls were excellent story tellers. The western children were very impressed, as it’s not something we really do in our culture.
Off we went to our tents at 10.30pm. At midnight I got up and told the girls to stop running around and get back into their tents. They told me the next day they got to sleep at 1am.
At 4am a couple of the girls got up and woke the others up. They all got up and got into their swimming costumes, ready to go into the pool. A bit later I heard Vicky saying ‘Girls, go back to bed it’s not even 5 o’clock’.
Anyway after a morning swim and breakfast we all went down to the jetty, but the grey clouds looming overhead made us go back and pack up. As we were taking down the tents, the heavens opened and the rain came down in torrents. We threw all 13 mattresses into one 4-person tent and we all sat in there, listening to the deluge and the thunder directly overhead, whilst telling more stories. After 45 minutes in there we could hardly breathe through lack of oxygen, and I tried to take photos but my camera had steamed up. The steamed up photo below is Kira amongst the duvets in the tent!
I got a fit of the giggles. Surely you would expect camping on the equator to be a lovely, warm sunny experience? We had the worst weather we’d had for ages in the short period of time we were there. Of course by the time we left at lunchtime it was sunny again.
So, struggling with lack of sleep, I tried to pack the soaking wet tents - complete with large snails and frogs on them - when the rain finished. My clothes were wet through, and the lake flies had come out in their hundreds and were sticking to my hair, flying in my face and going down the back of my neck.
What IS the big deal about camping?

Anyway we got home at lunchtime, I went to bed, and Jon took the girls off to their next party.
The next day we were back at Kingfisher for Naomi’s party and disco. By the time we got home in the evening, Kira was asleep!

And talking of sleeping, Kira’s friend had a sleepover one weekday. In the morning I homeschool Kira from 8-10am. We did Maths then a music lesson where we filled glass bottles with different amounts of water, and hit them with a spoon. They also got out some empty tin cans and used them too, accompanying their playing with loud singing. Although Jordan was in the next room, he managed to sleep through the entire cacophony!

He is now pretty independent here, getting around on his own, either walking or using a boda boda.
I’ve been using boda bodas a bit more at the moment as Jon has contracts in Kampala and takes the car with him. They are an excellent way of getting around, as there are many of them and they are very reasonably priced.

A number of people here have a ‘driver’ - which we would call a chauffer. It’s pretty common, and basically you give the driver the use of a car, money for petrol, and then pay him a salary. The salary won’t be huge, which makes it affordable and extremely helpful for people who have busy lives.


And how could I write a blog entry without mentioning the ‘A word’ … Ants!
Yes, they continue to share our life, more so than they used to. Not sure why things have got worse.
Jon had made a nice meal of tuna and herb potato cakes. It wasn’t until we had almost eaten them all that Kira decided to look at hers closely and noticed that a number of the ‘herbs’ had 6 legs on them …
And then when we were out one time, a couple of the big safari ants got into one of my shoes. They either bite or sting you, and embed themselves in your skin. It’s very painful. I hopped on one leg, trying to pull them out, and tried to steady myself by grabbing onto the nearest thing - which happened to be a barbed wire fence! I have a hole in the palm of my hand now.

Other than the ants, Uganda is generally a lovely place … if you can float above the surface and not have to deal with anything even vaguely official.
For example I don’t think I know anyone here who hasn’t had the power company threaten to cut them off for non-payment of bills. This is due to the fact that the power company often don’t provide people with bills.
I’m responsible for paying the school bills. As people don’t have letter boxes, the power company employs people to hand-deliver the bills to people’s houses. We hadn’t received one at the school for two months so I went to the offices to find out how much we owed. It was more than I’d anticipated so I paid as much as I had on me. I then asked why we hadn’t received the bills. The woman phoned the man responsible, who said he hadn’t delivered the bills as “There is a dog in the compound”.
I couldn’t believe it. Not only do many people have dogs in their compound, but the school has had two dogs for a long time. Not only that, but surely the recruitment policy would be such that you wouldn’t recruit people who are afraid of dogs…?
As expected, a couple of days later we received a bill saying the power was going to be cut off.
I decided to send the power company an email. I went onto the website, found the email of the local manager and sent him my thoughts.
Of course the email address was invalid.
I sent the email to the Managing Director instead. I am awaiting a reply. Ha ha.

Sometimes we decide to just not do things as we know the process is going to be extremely laborious and most probably fruitless.
For example I thought I might phone up to find out what time the squash courts opened in the morning. Or at least I thought about it for a fraction of a nano second and then decided it wasn’t worth it, given the steps you would have to take to do that, each of which could prove futile.
Firstly you would have to be able to find the phone number in the phone book. The chances of it being listed in the phone book are … well, nil.
The phone book only goes up to the letter ‘S’ for some reason (which means many organisations starting with ‘Uganda’ are not in there, including the phone company Uganda Telecom). So although the squash courts are at Jinja Club and have the chance of being in there, I knew they wouldn’t be. I checked a few days later and they weren’t.
It is rare to have a landline here and most people have mobile phones.
Assuming I did know the phone number, that would mean someone would have to be in charge of the mobile phone, not lose it or steal it, and be able to answer it.
They would then need to be able to understand me, and vice versa. Although English is the official language here, in general only educated people speak it in a way that I can easily understand.
And then, assuming we could communicate, they would need to know the answer to my question ‘What time does the squash court open?’
Generally Ugandans like to give ‘pleasing’ answers, so if they don’t know the answer, there is a chance they will make one up, just so they can give you an answer.
So even after all of this, if I did get an answer, it isn’t one that I could necessarily believe.

Similarly, we need to know how we can access details of our bank account once we leave Uganda. The bank doesn’t have internet banking.
I was homeschooling Jordan, and Jon was about to go to the bank. (Banks, aargh!) I said to him ‘If the teller looks like they may be able to answer the question, why don’t you ask them how we can access details of our account when we leave?’
All three of us looked at one another and fell about laughing.

We’ve decided not to buy a house, but to buy a plot of land instead, with the intention of coming back sometime and building a house here.
Although we’ve seen lots of plots and have tried to buy a number of them, things are not as easy as you’d like them to be.
The main one we found is in an area called Masese, overlooking Lake Victoria. We had all the relevant searches carried out, agreed a sale price with the owner, and went to the solicitor to sort out a sale and purchase agreement.
‘This is very straightforward’ he said. ‘In fact, it is so straightforward that I don’t need to deal with it and can pass it over to my assistant.’
We were amazed. Nothing here is straightforward.
‘Unless…’ he continued ‘there are conditions where you need approval from the Jinja Land Board’.
Needless to say there were conditions which did need approval. The lease on the land said it could only be sold if there was a building on it, and if there wasn’t, then the Land Board had to approve the sale.
The owner hadn’t built on the land. Typically this wouldn’t have been a problem getting approval for the sale.
However, the Jinja Land Board has ceased to exist (!), so any land sales needing their approval can’t go through. People have no idea if or when the Land Board may reconvene. It may take years.
Other plots we looked at also posed some challenges, so we have looked in a different area which comes under a different Land Board - which is in existence.
We saw a couple which looked OK. One of them was sort-of owned by someone. The man had bought a plot, but the Land Board had taken it off him and given him another plot, and we weren’t sure how valid his ownership was.
Another plot seemed to be OK, so Jon went with the blocker (real estate agent) to pick up the owner and drive to the Land Board to get the documentation. He picked her up, and drove to the office, but she realised she had left her phone in town. So he drove her back to town and then back to the office. She then realised her phone was out of power, so he had to drive her back to town again so she could pick up a relative’s phone, and then back to the office. When they got there the owner’s husband said he didn’t want to sell the plot after all...


Anyway we have found another plot we like, and are in the process of buying this one. It is very nice, and has banana trees, matoke trees, pawpaw trees, mango trees and jackfruit trees on it. Fingers crossed! Watch this space.


One of our friends has bought a plot and is having a house built. This is a very common thing to do. I went with her to have a look at the house. The walls and roof are up; it is currently being plastered, then will need windows, plumbing and generally finishing off.
She has hired builders from Kampala. They basically spend a period of time here working, and live in the unfinished house, along with what looked to be their families. They sleep on the floor on sheets of newspaper, dig a hole in the ground for a toilet, and cook on a charcoal burner. When I went round, they had a chicken sitting in a washing up bowl on the floor in the kitchen. They keep it so they can have eggs to eat.

Most of the people we spend time with here have either left or are leaving, or are going away for a period of time. It seems like a time for change.
When we leave, Kira’s homeschool centre will close down, and the remaining children (all two of them) and Vicky will move to different premises where another couple of girls are being homeschooled by a teacher.

Our friends from Zimbabwe who were due to move to New Zealand last week, unfortunately found out that their daughter in South Africa had been involved in a bad car accident.
As their passports were in NZ getting approval, they had to find an official in Jinja to approve a flight to Kenya. They then had to go to the Zimbabwean High Commissioner in Nairobi to get approval for a flight to South Africa. When they finally got to South Africa their daughter - who had just graduated from University - was declared brain dead.
So instead of boarding a plane to NZ to start a new life, they found themselves arranging a funeral. It is very very sad.
They will be moving to NZ next month.

We are leaving here probably mid-August. At least I will be leaving with the children, and Jon will probably need to stay on for a bit longer to finish off some work contracts.
We are off to Lancashire in the North West, to live in Sunny Blackpool.
Well sunny-ish Blackpool.
Well OK, sunny occasionally.
Oh alright then … it was sunny once.
A long time ago.

Having lived away from the UK for 15 years, it seems very strange to be moving back. I like moving to places I don’t know, learning how to live there and then moving on. This will be the first time I’ve gone to live in a place I know. Jon and I stayed with my Mum for three months in Blackpool before we emigrated to NZ.

To be honest I’m quite concerned about having to live in a cold climate again. The weather in Uganda completely suits me, I just love it. I appreciate it every day.
My body doesn’t cope well with the cold. It never did even when I’d only ever lived in the UK. Having lived in warmer climates for so long, and especially living on the equator for two years, it’s going to be a bit of a shock.
Does anyone know of any natural therapies that can warm up your body temperature?

Anyway my plan is to set up a Centre for women and girls in Blackpool offering a range of activities, eg courses, expos, seminars, classes, hobby activities etc. supported by a website offering advice, articles, online training etc
If you know of anyone who could offer something via the Centre, or a venue that may be suitable, feel free to let me know.

Until next month…