Once again we have found ourselves coming to the end of another fantastic month in Uganda. We are now actually half way through our year which is a very sad and scary thought.. they always say the next half goes the quickest this worries me as the first half went so quickly already!
This month included the end of holidays and going back to school! I was actually really looking forward to going back as I missed all the kids so much! I was also looking forward to getting back into a teaching routine and helping out at the health clinic again. We had our holidays and now it was time to get back to work!
The 2nd of February was the day before school started. You would think everything would be getting very organized for the main day tomorrow but in Uganda this is not how it works. People here can be pretty good at postponing things until the verrrry last minute so all questions Jess and I asked about the start of school were answered with "we shall see on Monday" at first this got a bit stressful as Jess and I felt like the only semi-organized people in the school! But we sat back and let it be and were ready to help out when they realized infact they did need a bit of organization!
They Sunday before school was eerily calm.. the calm before the storm! we spent that day sorting out books, teaching resources that we thought we may need for the new term (bare in mind at this point we didn't even know who or what subjects we would be teaching!) It was only at 11pm that night that it was decided it would probably be a good idea to put the desks into each classrooms. So there we were in the pitch black night using phone torches and moving desks back with Herbert, sara, tallemwa, site, sajay and deo. The compound was also swept so we were all being chocked by the dust up in the air and were having to dodge burning piles of leaves while moving the desks. Finally we had finished and went to bed to prepare ourselves for the storm the next day.
3rd February - the storm had hit! Well actually it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be maybe a fource 4 gale? Anyway we got up bright and early and were greeted by lots and lots of new pupils to be interviewed to deterimine which classes they went into. Jess and I carried out a few of these. Some were so nervous and I sympathized so much with them as I remember I used to hate on the spot tests and ended up failing them so it was quite heartbreaking when I interviewed one kid, I tried to make him feel as comfortable as possible but he really was not getting any of the questions I asked him even with a lot of help so he had to go into p2 when he was previously in p3. It was such a shame as the tears started to roll down his face, I just wanted to give him a big hug and slip him into the p3 class! Although I know its for the best to put him in a class he can manage. He is doing really well now and is a very happy guy (I kept a check on him throughout the week)
Not only did we have new pupils we also had a bunch of new teachers! We now have a new teacher for the new p5 class and a teacher for p4, top and baby. The teacher for p4 sounds identical to Marty zebra in Madagascar (nearly called him marty a number of times) We also have a new head teacher! His name is fred and he is 19 years old.... i was very surprised when he came out with that sentence!
Jess and I also took the responisbilty of registering each kid in the school and giving out jotters to each pupil and pens and pencils. They were all so excited to get new pens and pencils! Then for the rest of the day the kids were left to rome around the school so jess and i decided to make there time worth while and play games with them like tig, sticky willow, british bulldogs etc fair to say we tired them out! We also had a minor awkward situation when joyce the previous p4 teacher came back. Noone was expecting her to come back well actually i don't think they knew if she was or not and the new head teacher fred had moved into her room. It was verrrry awkward when she asked me where fred stayed i was like errr over there somewhere i think! I ended up having to clear out her stuff with her and phone up a boda boda to take her and belongings back to kampala! I have also come to the conclusion that people here are very bad at confrontations and hope that the person will just eventually get the idea!
So now our new neighbor is Fred not Joyce!
The first day at school once the school day had finished we had a teachers meeting to allocated classes/subjects/roles. Jess and I are now the designated P.E teachers, we do P.E with p1,2,3,4 and 5. We also do reading and writing with p2 and 3 and drawing with p1 and this term we are also more involved with the lower classes baby and top as we now do shading and drawing with them.
P.E is so much fun as the kids love to get out of the classroom for once and run around! Its so different to what they are used to and its so rewarding to teach them new games that they love and have so much fun doing! (thankyou mr fraser and jane for all the games in pe they have been very useful!)
In the meeting Vivian one of the teachers then volunteered me to be the secretary of the school. So now i am a secretary! following my mothers footsteps here! Jess and I have also been put in charge of debate and quiz afternoons on a Friday and we also asked if we could start up an art club on a weekly afternoon which they were happy with. So now the teachers include, Jess, me, fred, erinah, moreen, Vivian, Annette, edith, rose and Charles. A very good team i think!
Also in the previous blog i mentioned how we came back to the school being built with bricks! I can now say that it is pretty much completed! With builders coming from Kampala it was finished within a week! All we need now is doors and windows and paint and it will be done! (windows and doors aren't a necessity at the moment with the heat)
Also this month weve had Herbert and Sara who are my age and a bit younger living here ( i think i mentioned them in the previous blog) anyway they are still here and i don't want them to go! I love just sitting outside with them chatting my luganda is getting a lot better with them as Herbert is always teaching me new words. Some nights i will be sitting out with them under the stars playing snake on my phone and learning new words like "sara ofuyay"(v. bad spelling but basically means sara is gassing) which she replys "oh limba!" (your lieing!) "slimba!" (im not lieing!) its pretty fun to wind her up but i can always reassure her that she my mukwano! (friend)
I've also been taught a word "enyoko" which is apparently a bad word that i cannot say around people under the age of 15.. still don't know what it means though!
In return of Herbert teaching me luganda i decided to teach him Scottish words! So far I've taught him och aye, nae, wee, ta, weisht, bairn, etc the words sound hilarious in his Ugandan accent but he loves Scottish words! I also told him that supercalafragalisticexpealadocious meant great in Scottish... it was a form of torture for him trying to learn it but was so funny, i should probably tell him its not actually true!
This month we also were invited to a wedding in Kampala with Deo! It was very exciting as Deo thought it would be a good idea for us to go and get Gomez's made for the wedding. A gomez is the Buganda traditional dress. I will try explain how to wear one.
First you put on the kichou (not kichoo as i learnt this means a bed bug!) You have this material up to your shoulders like a box then you tie it around you waist and fold the top over itself.
Then you get the gomez and put it on like a coat, button it at the front side and gather the left over material to the side.
This material is then folded in and you tie another bit of material around your waist and let that left over material hand down over it.
Then you get the sash type thing, wrap it around your waist and tie it at the front and voila! you have your gomez!
So for the gomez Jess and I made our way to Mityana to see caroline, deos sister at the market. She then took us to a material shop where we picked out the material we wanted, then we went to go get our kichou and she began to make it! In the next couple of days we came back to find our gomez's had been finished! She then took us into a room and showed us how to put it on (ill tell you its not easy!) everyone at the market said we looked very smart and were very happy to see mzunugus in a gomez!
Before the wedding however we had valentines day! it wasn't that special as we spent the day going to mityana to pick up school uniforms. However i did get proposed to at the rolex stand and invited to go to a mans parents house to be introduced to them, most romantic valentines day ive had. I also got given a branch of a tree for a valentines present..
15th of February- was wedding day! Deo, Jess Site and I headed off early to catch a taxi to Kampala. Deo got off before us to go and collect his suit so we were left with site who had never been to kampala before and ill tell you for a fact it is a lot crazier than the village life we live in kisweera! So we had site grasping onto our hands for dear life while we weaved our way through the hustle and bustle of kampala. We then stopped at a café and we all had a soda and chapatti while waiting for Deo. Deo then finally arrived and we made our way to the old taxi park to get a taxi to the church. Made it to the taxi park after at least 2 close hits by taxis and soon enough we were at the church and under a tree with my top off infront of a busy road and a group of people i had no idea were while an old woman that was one of deos relatives dressed me in my gomez... taxis that drove past were a tad shocked!
We then had some pictures taken with people that wanted a picture and then made our way into the most beautiful church! There were long mosaic windows, huge chandaleirs, flowers everywhere and the bride looked so beautiful! She kinda looked like Janet Jackson! I also saw Julie who was deos neice i think. It was so nice to see her! Then we got piled into a car to make our way to the reception. The reception was very fancily decorated with the colour scheme of gold and red. There were sooo many lights and a huge centre piece. The more tacky the better! We had to wait a while for the bride and groom to come but that was no problem as we were thoroughly entertained by the traditional Buganda dancing and music. It was amazing! I've never seen bums shake so much in my life. It looked seriously tireing though!
Once the bride and groom arrived some speeches and dancing and singing were done. Then it was time for dinner! There was chicken, rice, gnut sauce, and more and of course soda! Once everyone had finished dinner it was time for giving the presents to the bride and groom. We all had our presents and had to dance towards the bride and groom where we were then given a huge hug by them and thanked and we then proceeded to dance to our seats.
Once the wedding was over Jess and I made our way to backpackers where we entered in our gomez's and got a lot of positive comments and shocked expressions!
As i said earlier because we are back at school we are now helping at the medical centre again every market monady (every fortnight) It was so good to be back and see everyone again. We set up our work station once again and started to register new babies and what immunisations they had received that day in the records. Once we had finished this job we asked mercyline if she needed anymore help. To which she replied yes and we were then led through into the injection room. Very oblivious to it all we watched her do an injection upwards into a babies arm. I thought we would probably just help her clean the babies arm before she did the next one but nope. She handed a needle to me i was like "wait your wanting me to inject the baby?!" she was like "yes! you saw me to do it, you know now, you learn from trieing".... i felt my hands start to shake as i walked over to the baby oblivious to what i was about to do to it. Merycline kind of talked me through it by saying now pinch the arm and put the needle into the indent. I pinched it and went for it and stabbed the needle upwards into its arm and quickly injected the liquid to prevent measles before i had registered what i was actually doing! I then stepped back and was like what on earth have i just done?! I then had to dispose of the needle without pricking myself. I then also gave mouth drops to babies to prevent polio which was a hell of a lot less nerve wracking! Then Mercyline did an injection into the babies upper thigh to prevent diphtheria. Once again i found myself with a needle in my hand about to stab a baby in the thigh. That one i found easier and soon i was injecting a few more babies. Bare in mind throughout this Ugandan mothers were watching me doing the injections which did not make it any more easier! Once the injections had finished Jess and I walked out of the clinic and only then did it truly dawn on us what we had just done. I'm not sure how i was trusted with it but mercyline had said next time we could try the bcg one... i think im going to have to draw the line at that one!
After that health clinic session we went back to school where i helped edith draw a billion mud huts into the baby classes books for them to copy.
25th February - first day of rain!!! Rainy season has begun!
you have no idea how happy i was to walk out of the p2 classroom i had just taught and feel the water droplets on my bare arms! I saw deo and shouted "Its raining!!" then i saw Vivian who had an ongoing joke that it would never rain ever so i smugly said "eh Vivian what do you call this?" she laughed a lot then assured me it would stop very soon! Herbert was freezing sheltering under the rain and thought i was crazy for standing in it. I was going to try and put a basin out for water but the water was so dirty as it was washing the roofs from dust and was falling off the gutter brown.
So this month has been pretty hard with it being dry season and having very limited water. Bore hole trips are fun though when its not baking heat. yesterday Herbert, sara and i made our way to the bore hole on the bikes and when we got to the bore hole Herbert was like you are not like any other mzunug ive met! i guess that is a compliment maybe, but he did say this after i showed him my party trick or rolling my eyes so its just white eyeball staring at him. Sara said she was going to have nightmares so now whenever i see them i just flash them my white eyeball and they freak out, its hilarious! Now i think times are going to get easier with the rain, you don't realize how much you love it until its gone!
However with the rain i have today developed a cold.. i did miss the rain but not a classic cold!
ps very sorry i didn't put photos in this one as i forgot my camera but will post another blog sometime with photos of new school etc!
Wednesday 26 February 2014
Saturday 8 February 2014
January the second month of our holidays and preparing for going back to school!
Okay so I stupidly forgot to bring my diary into Mityana today so I'm going to try write this blog from memory!
We decided that the best way to get around Uganda without being seriously delayed and more importantly a more safer option would be to rent out a car and make our way round the places we wanted to see in Uganda. We started off in Kampala, trying to describe what driving is like in Kampala would be hard! Its crazy, hectic is an understatement for it! Steph who was the driver out of the group hadnt driven in 4 months and got plunged straight into the deep end! Getting out of Kampala was a releif and we were soon making our way to Sipi falls through Jinja. It took us around about a day to get there. It was such a beautiful drive though as we got higher up and at points could see right to the border of Uganda to Kenya! We finally arrived at crows nest where we would be staying at sipi falls which had cute wooden shacks perched on a hill facing the falls. The next morning george who worked at crows nest took us on a day walk to the 4 falls. It was so cool getting able to go under and behind the waterfalls and in the caves. It was boiling hot that day so the water from the falls was bliss! George was a very good guide and told us all about the history of the village and all about the falls.
After Sipi falls we set off early again to make our way to murchison falls via Gulu. As it took the whole day we had to stop that night in packwach (dont know how to spell it i arrived their in the dark and left early in the dark so didnt see any signs!) Anyway this turned out to be a night of hell as two girls got taken down by the sipi water we drank yes i know very stupid of us but dehydration took its toll on the walk and the water looked so clean! very deceiving though and i thank achiltibuie for my cast iron stomach as i didnt get any side effects...yet. Anyway the next morning we set off earlyish to get to the national park in Murchison. Just driving to Red Chili where we were going to be staying we saw so many animals including elephants! It was surreal as we got so close to them! I kept on forgetting that they were infact in the wild! After nearly hitting a waterbuck (a big hairy deer like thing) we made it to red chili. I made the very very very stupid mistake of only taking 8,000 in to a national park with me which is 2 pounds... so 2 of the girls went on the boat safari trip while Lauren and I stayed at the red chili chatting with the staff who were super friendly and gave us free bananas and shared their biscuits with us (may have been out of pity since we couldnt afford anything) They then took Lauren and I on a drive to the village in the national park. They told us about how many people had been eaten by lions by going to the toilet at night etc. It was an eventful drive!
The next day we did a game drive. We first had to cross a river with the car as more animals were on the other side of the river. We then charles who was our guide for the day. He first took us down many tracks, i think it would have been impossible to do it without a guide! We saw so many animals so close up like warthogs, kobs, herds of buffalo, waterbucks, elephants, we actually saw a huge elephant with ginormous tusks, it was so close to us and just stared straight at us! We also saw girraffes which were incredible! I knew they were always big but you dont realize just how big they are when they are right beside you! When they run they look like they are running in slow motion it was the best thing i had ever seen. We also saw wildabeasts bathing in the mud, it all felt like david attenborough should have been speaking over it all!
After the game drive we headed back to the campsite and had dinner. When it got dark we then went out on a night game drive with one of the staff members Ivan and a guy from zimbabwe. we didnt see much and im quite suprised we didnt get lost! I got quite a few scratches on me though from haning out the window while we drove past thorn bushes. When we got back Backa one of the staff memebers came up to us and said wanna see a hippo? bare in mind this is the most dangerous animal in Uganda we decided why not? He then took us to the humungous hippo that was actually taller than me! It was happily munching away and didnt seem to dangerous! although backa said do not shine your torch in its eyes and dont stand between it and the river as you will get flattened.. also turns out the hippo was right outside mine and Laurens tent! We also werent aloud any toothpaste, shampoo, facewipes anything that had a scent in our tents otherwise the warthogs would rip open our tent! So that night we went to sleep to the sound of the hippo munching grass right beside me! best night sleep yet.
The next day we left red chili reluctantly and made our way down to Fort Portal where we would first stop of at Kihura where some of the girls lived then go jungle treking in a park in Fort Portal. After the worst roads known in history we stepped out of the car in Kihura looking like we had a bad fake tan from the orange dust we got washed up at the girls house and went back out to the car to find that it wouldnt start! We got robert who studied mechanics to look at it and it turned out to be some techincal plug thing that had come away. Although it was very annoying that we had to cut our trip short it was still soo lucky that it broke down then as if it had broken down when we took a wrong turn and came over the horizon to find lake albert and broke down there we would have been screwed!
So that was our road trip! It was so much fun and definitely an experience to remember!
After our roadtrip we then spent a few more days in Kihura which were also eventful as when we were at Home again the Roberts casually mentioned to us that they had 2 puppies! They took us to a ditch where they had put a metal sheet over them and under were the 2 cutest little puppies ive ever seen! they were petrified of us at first and you could see that they were crawling with fleas. We decided the best thing for them would be for us to take them back to villa maria and get them cleaned up and healthy again.
Walking through Kihura village with two puppies seemed to attract alot of attention! But soon we were at villla maria where we gave them some eggs and bread and tried to shave/cut off as much fur as possible. After this whole ordeal they were not scared of us at all and were so happy to see us each morning! i dont think Home again will be getting them back anytime soon....
After Kihura Jess and I decided it was time to go to home sweet home! It was soo nice to go back to our little old village. We got alot of "kuli kyo's" to which we reply "nvoodayo!" not how you spell it at all but basically meanning welcome back then im back! We also got greeted by lots of hugs from our crew of kids that play outside our house.
We also came back home to the biggest suprise ever, the foundations of a brick school!! I got such a suprise when i went around the corner to find this! It is such an amazing step for the school as it actually looks like one now and looks so smart and propper compared to the broken papyrus school building. Everyone in the village is so happy about it as well and as they are passing by they come to take a look at it. So it is very big news not only for us but the whole village! Me and the head nursery teacher Annette would just stand and stare at it in disbeleif that it was actually happening! So all is very exciting here with builders coming in from Kampala to finnish it all up. Jess and I have also been very busy with painting the outside of the new tin school. Its looking really good so far although were still in the process of finishing it. People walking past stop and watch us so we usually have a good sized audience while we do it!
We have also been helping with the building of the school by measuring, cutting and holding the tin for another part of the school and loading bricks into wheelbarrows for the brick building.
It is also dry season at the moment so it is hotter than usual and it also means that the water tanks are empty! This means that we have to once again go and fetch our water from the bore hole in the blistering heat! Except it is alot easier when we manage to get hold of a bike to tie the jerry cans to. Also because of the building even more water is needed to be fetched to help make the cement. So i spent a few of my days helping sara and tallemwa go and fetch water from the bore hole. Sara and I mastered the technique of me cycling with the jerry cans tied on the back then she would run along beside me then jump onto the back! You would hardly feel her jump on so it worked very well! I only fell off once! (appologies to sara)
However now unfortunately the closest bore hole has broken so we now have to travel to the further away one which is also harder to pump so there has to be 2 of us pumping it at the same time! very tireing. There is also usually a huge que of jerry cans waiting to be filled as everyone now has to go to this one to get water! You usually get some interesting conversations while waiting though.
Sara also asked me to "escort her to the garden" so after collecting water we headed down to their garden which is even further away than the 2nd bore hole. There they have coffee trees, pumpkin, casava, sugar cane and more. We then filled huge bags of pumpkins and loaded them onto the bike to take them back home. I did get a pumpkin out of it though!
This month we also met a mzunug in the posta in Mityana. It was such a suprise as Jess and I literally thought we were the only ones! I think they must hide in the daytime... Anyway they very kindly invited us over for lunch at their house. Of course Jess and I did not refuse a lunch date where American food would be made! She picked us up in her air conditioned car ( i have not felt cold air for a while!) and we headed to her beautiful house (even nicer than my house in scotland!) It was so strange being there they had 2 sausage dogs.They cooked us chicken fajitas which were amazing!! I have not had chicken in 5 months and it was so good having meat that didnt have bones sticking out of it! They were so nice and it was lovely to be invited to their house.
Before school started we also decided to show rose herbert and edith and everyone else how to make mzunugu pancakes! In return they showed us how to make banana pancakes which were suprisingly easy! We made pancakes for everyone including all the builders who all enjoyed them very much as well! I think the end vote was that mzunug pancakes won! Before we started cooking Herbert had said that i couldnt cook but by the end his mind was changed, he said "I'm never eating banana pancakes again!"
So the first month of 2014 has been pretty hectic but so much fun! I cant wait to start teaching in the new buildings and everything else that will come in the next month! Including another wedding we have been invited to with Deo. We are getting gomez's made for us as well for the wedding which is going to be fun! (they are the traditional dress for the women here with huge pointy shoulders lots of material hanging everywhere, it will be interesting to say the least!)
Murchison falls national park
Christmas tree decorating at home again
The puppies!
sorry tried to upload more photos but internet is extremely slow!
We decided that the best way to get around Uganda without being seriously delayed and more importantly a more safer option would be to rent out a car and make our way round the places we wanted to see in Uganda. We started off in Kampala, trying to describe what driving is like in Kampala would be hard! Its crazy, hectic is an understatement for it! Steph who was the driver out of the group hadnt driven in 4 months and got plunged straight into the deep end! Getting out of Kampala was a releif and we were soon making our way to Sipi falls through Jinja. It took us around about a day to get there. It was such a beautiful drive though as we got higher up and at points could see right to the border of Uganda to Kenya! We finally arrived at crows nest where we would be staying at sipi falls which had cute wooden shacks perched on a hill facing the falls. The next morning george who worked at crows nest took us on a day walk to the 4 falls. It was so cool getting able to go under and behind the waterfalls and in the caves. It was boiling hot that day so the water from the falls was bliss! George was a very good guide and told us all about the history of the village and all about the falls.
After Sipi falls we set off early again to make our way to murchison falls via Gulu. As it took the whole day we had to stop that night in packwach (dont know how to spell it i arrived their in the dark and left early in the dark so didnt see any signs!) Anyway this turned out to be a night of hell as two girls got taken down by the sipi water we drank yes i know very stupid of us but dehydration took its toll on the walk and the water looked so clean! very deceiving though and i thank achiltibuie for my cast iron stomach as i didnt get any side effects...yet. Anyway the next morning we set off earlyish to get to the national park in Murchison. Just driving to Red Chili where we were going to be staying we saw so many animals including elephants! It was surreal as we got so close to them! I kept on forgetting that they were infact in the wild! After nearly hitting a waterbuck (a big hairy deer like thing) we made it to red chili. I made the very very very stupid mistake of only taking 8,000 in to a national park with me which is 2 pounds... so 2 of the girls went on the boat safari trip while Lauren and I stayed at the red chili chatting with the staff who were super friendly and gave us free bananas and shared their biscuits with us (may have been out of pity since we couldnt afford anything) They then took Lauren and I on a drive to the village in the national park. They told us about how many people had been eaten by lions by going to the toilet at night etc. It was an eventful drive!
The next day we did a game drive. We first had to cross a river with the car as more animals were on the other side of the river. We then charles who was our guide for the day. He first took us down many tracks, i think it would have been impossible to do it without a guide! We saw so many animals so close up like warthogs, kobs, herds of buffalo, waterbucks, elephants, we actually saw a huge elephant with ginormous tusks, it was so close to us and just stared straight at us! We also saw girraffes which were incredible! I knew they were always big but you dont realize just how big they are when they are right beside you! When they run they look like they are running in slow motion it was the best thing i had ever seen. We also saw wildabeasts bathing in the mud, it all felt like david attenborough should have been speaking over it all!
After the game drive we headed back to the campsite and had dinner. When it got dark we then went out on a night game drive with one of the staff members Ivan and a guy from zimbabwe. we didnt see much and im quite suprised we didnt get lost! I got quite a few scratches on me though from haning out the window while we drove past thorn bushes. When we got back Backa one of the staff memebers came up to us and said wanna see a hippo? bare in mind this is the most dangerous animal in Uganda we decided why not? He then took us to the humungous hippo that was actually taller than me! It was happily munching away and didnt seem to dangerous! although backa said do not shine your torch in its eyes and dont stand between it and the river as you will get flattened.. also turns out the hippo was right outside mine and Laurens tent! We also werent aloud any toothpaste, shampoo, facewipes anything that had a scent in our tents otherwise the warthogs would rip open our tent! So that night we went to sleep to the sound of the hippo munching grass right beside me! best night sleep yet.
The next day we left red chili reluctantly and made our way down to Fort Portal where we would first stop of at Kihura where some of the girls lived then go jungle treking in a park in Fort Portal. After the worst roads known in history we stepped out of the car in Kihura looking like we had a bad fake tan from the orange dust we got washed up at the girls house and went back out to the car to find that it wouldnt start! We got robert who studied mechanics to look at it and it turned out to be some techincal plug thing that had come away. Although it was very annoying that we had to cut our trip short it was still soo lucky that it broke down then as if it had broken down when we took a wrong turn and came over the horizon to find lake albert and broke down there we would have been screwed!
So that was our road trip! It was so much fun and definitely an experience to remember!
After our roadtrip we then spent a few more days in Kihura which were also eventful as when we were at Home again the Roberts casually mentioned to us that they had 2 puppies! They took us to a ditch where they had put a metal sheet over them and under were the 2 cutest little puppies ive ever seen! they were petrified of us at first and you could see that they were crawling with fleas. We decided the best thing for them would be for us to take them back to villa maria and get them cleaned up and healthy again.
Walking through Kihura village with two puppies seemed to attract alot of attention! But soon we were at villla maria where we gave them some eggs and bread and tried to shave/cut off as much fur as possible. After this whole ordeal they were not scared of us at all and were so happy to see us each morning! i dont think Home again will be getting them back anytime soon....
After Kihura Jess and I decided it was time to go to home sweet home! It was soo nice to go back to our little old village. We got alot of "kuli kyo's" to which we reply "nvoodayo!" not how you spell it at all but basically meanning welcome back then im back! We also got greeted by lots of hugs from our crew of kids that play outside our house.
We also came back home to the biggest suprise ever, the foundations of a brick school!! I got such a suprise when i went around the corner to find this! It is such an amazing step for the school as it actually looks like one now and looks so smart and propper compared to the broken papyrus school building. Everyone in the village is so happy about it as well and as they are passing by they come to take a look at it. So it is very big news not only for us but the whole village! Me and the head nursery teacher Annette would just stand and stare at it in disbeleif that it was actually happening! So all is very exciting here with builders coming in from Kampala to finnish it all up. Jess and I have also been very busy with painting the outside of the new tin school. Its looking really good so far although were still in the process of finishing it. People walking past stop and watch us so we usually have a good sized audience while we do it!
We have also been helping with the building of the school by measuring, cutting and holding the tin for another part of the school and loading bricks into wheelbarrows for the brick building.
It is also dry season at the moment so it is hotter than usual and it also means that the water tanks are empty! This means that we have to once again go and fetch our water from the bore hole in the blistering heat! Except it is alot easier when we manage to get hold of a bike to tie the jerry cans to. Also because of the building even more water is needed to be fetched to help make the cement. So i spent a few of my days helping sara and tallemwa go and fetch water from the bore hole. Sara and I mastered the technique of me cycling with the jerry cans tied on the back then she would run along beside me then jump onto the back! You would hardly feel her jump on so it worked very well! I only fell off once! (appologies to sara)
However now unfortunately the closest bore hole has broken so we now have to travel to the further away one which is also harder to pump so there has to be 2 of us pumping it at the same time! very tireing. There is also usually a huge que of jerry cans waiting to be filled as everyone now has to go to this one to get water! You usually get some interesting conversations while waiting though.
Sara also asked me to "escort her to the garden" so after collecting water we headed down to their garden which is even further away than the 2nd bore hole. There they have coffee trees, pumpkin, casava, sugar cane and more. We then filled huge bags of pumpkins and loaded them onto the bike to take them back home. I did get a pumpkin out of it though!
This month we also met a mzunug in the posta in Mityana. It was such a suprise as Jess and I literally thought we were the only ones! I think they must hide in the daytime... Anyway they very kindly invited us over for lunch at their house. Of course Jess and I did not refuse a lunch date where American food would be made! She picked us up in her air conditioned car ( i have not felt cold air for a while!) and we headed to her beautiful house (even nicer than my house in scotland!) It was so strange being there they had 2 sausage dogs.They cooked us chicken fajitas which were amazing!! I have not had chicken in 5 months and it was so good having meat that didnt have bones sticking out of it! They were so nice and it was lovely to be invited to their house.
Before school started we also decided to show rose herbert and edith and everyone else how to make mzunugu pancakes! In return they showed us how to make banana pancakes which were suprisingly easy! We made pancakes for everyone including all the builders who all enjoyed them very much as well! I think the end vote was that mzunug pancakes won! Before we started cooking Herbert had said that i couldnt cook but by the end his mind was changed, he said "I'm never eating banana pancakes again!"
So the first month of 2014 has been pretty hectic but so much fun! I cant wait to start teaching in the new buildings and everything else that will come in the next month! Including another wedding we have been invited to with Deo. We are getting gomez's made for us as well for the wedding which is going to be fun! (they are the traditional dress for the women here with huge pointy shoulders lots of material hanging everywhere, it will be interesting to say the least!)
Murchison falls national park
Crater lake in Fort Portal
Crater lake
The puppies!
sorry tried to upload more photos but internet is extremely slow!
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