A day at Matia’s family home

Matia's sister preparing lunch

dressing up in Jane's gomezes

Matia and his pigs and sister

lunch at Matias

the lunch queue

In the hair salon...

the beautiful barbie doll (not sarcastic, from Jenny)

Matia's mum and their house

Friday morning last week, Holly, Matia (one of the other teachers) and I piled into the car which takes the daily trip to Masaka to drop off Justine’s eldest children at school. We were taken to Nyendo (the residential area of Masaka) which has grown from a few houses, to a sprawling, mash of tin roofed houses in the last 10 years and from there walked to Matia’s family home, arriving at half 8, I was still waking up, we were met by a very bubbly 40 year old woman (Matia’s eldest sister, jane) and his 70 year old mother, neither of whom speak more Engligh than I do Luganda. We were made to feel so so welcome though, and never have I been so aware of how hospitable and generous Ugandan people can be. Jane was preparing lunch when we arrived, she’d already wrapped a pile of matoke the size of a small child in matoke leaves, and sat the parcel in an even bigger pot, she then proceeded to lay chopped pumpkin, cassava, sweet potato, and the biggest yellow bananas I’ve ever seen, on top of the matoke package, then, in the middle, she sat a pot of rice. The whole thing was then covered in more matoke leaves, which she tucked neatly inside the rim of the pot, and placed over the charcoal fire, to cook for the next 4 hours. I left like I was given a real insight into the runnings of a close knit, very sociable, grown-up, Ugandan family. Matia has 4 sisters, 3 older, who are all hairdressers, living in Nyendo, and one younger, in Kampala. Jane, has converted their garage into a hair salon, where she trains girls who have given up on education, to braid hair, in order for them to go on and set up their own salons. Jane and Matia walked us to their piggery project, where we were shown a tiny concrete structure with 4 piglets and a pig, they have just started, but hope to produce lots of piglets, some to give to other people, so they too can bread pigs, and others to sell for themselves. We then went on to visit an orphanage school, run by one of Matia’s old teachers. It seemed like a brilliant place, full of happy children, who all sang for us. Again we were treated like royalty and fed pineapple and watermelon. I do sometimes feel akward and wonder if we get special treatment for being white. But Matia assured me that people are the same to Ugandans, and it’s part of their culture to be hospitable. Some of the files of the children who were living there were shocking. One girl was described as retarded, living previously, with a mother who was “mentally incapable of caring for her”. The demand for such places of refuge for children is so great here, but so far they only had 7 orphans, although they have a capacity for 100. Back at Matia’s house, we feasted on Jane’s lunch, after which she wanted to show us round her salon. I foolishly obliged to let her “do” my hair. She started by brushing it, which made me realise what poor quality it’s in! Then she French plaited it, before taking it out and doing it in a second hairstyle, much to the amusement of the trainee braiders, Matia, Holly, Matia’s other sisters, and the lady who was in the salon having her hair braided. It gets worse. She is also a wedding stylist, so happened to have a couple of wedding dresses stashed away in the salon, she proceeded to dress me in a  particularly hideous one, veil and all, I felt like an ugly Barbie doll! Everyone else was amused to no end, and I had no choice but to join in with the laughter and try not to look at myself in the wall to wall mirrors! Overall though, it was an enjoyable day, full of Ugandan handshakes and smiling faces and singing and laughter, and food! Everything always involves matoke.