4 funerals and a wedding

One of the things that is striking about living in Uganda is the number of people who die. I guess I knew before I came, that people don’t live as long here, and the average life expectancy I think is only around 45. It never really occurred to me though, what this actually meant, in reality. It’s no exaggeration to say (between the 4 of us) we’ve been to a funeral every week, for the past 4 weeks. They’re very different from any funeral in the UK though. Here, people are expert funeral throwers. Often the funeral will be held a day or two after the person’s death, and if you stumbled across a Ugandan funeral you would be forgiven for thinking it was a big outdoor village gathering. They’re huge. The first funeral I went to, which was for a pastor in a neighbouring village’s niece was no exception. We were almost mowed down by the number of bodas ferrying people to the scene, we arrived to a flurry of colourful dresses, poor quality speakers blaring out the words of the preacher and food, a lot of food. We were quickly ushered to an area under some trees, where the ground had been covered with plastic sheeting, sat down and handed mounds of matoke and beans, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. The funeral for one of our student’s father was a more sombre occasion, it was difficult to see this tough young girl weeping for the death of her father, and it really hit home then, just how venerable people are here. How easily something that could be cured easily with the right medication, can lead to someone’s death.

Ironing!

our necklaces we made

make up 

the bride, who hardly cracked a smile all day,
except when she was feeding her new husband cake

Patricia, as flower girl with one of the bridesmaids

The wedding party, with Justine, the stylist!

Caleb, as page boy

On Sunday, there was a much happier occasion to attend to, (although judging by the face of the bride and groom, you wouldn’t have thought so). It turns out, that, on top of everything else Justine does, she is also a wedding stylist! She hires bridesmaids dresses, and uses the two wedding dresses she owns to prepare all the ladies for their big day! Sunday morning Jenny and I went down to her house at half 8, to find Justine ironing a huge wedding dress. We proceeded to string little plastic beads onto elastic to make necklaces for the bridesmaids. When they were finished, armed with dresses, a plastic bouquet, necklaces and tiara, a needle and thread and a bag of makeup we set off to the house of the bride. We arrived to chaos, with women of all ages babbling and eating and rushing around with head scarves on to protect their new hairstyles. After everyone had washed (baring in mind we were almost an hour late) and the wedding was due to start at mid day. We set to work, it was all very exciting, and  and of course we were fed, and my little friend Patricia was the flower girl, and she was ecstatic about being covered in glitter, and everything was bright, and frothy, and it did remind me a little bit of the Gypsy wedding programme! No one really spoke much English, but my Luganda is improving every day, and we managed to get by, mainly using hand gestures. Eventually, after several dress adjustments and eyebrow shaves everyone was ready to go, so we piled into 2 cars, decorated with little bunches of flowers on the windscreens and headed for the church. It’s so endearing how people manage to use the little they have to make things special. We took it in turns to beep our horns, so the journey was effectively one loud car horn. The wedding itself lasted 5 hours, and the church turned into the reception hall, simply by the wedding party moving onto the stage, where their plates were laid out, and large vats of matoke and beef and rice and beans were brought out. Soda was sprayed over the newlyweds, as they stood, very seriously. The strangest part to watch was when the groom sat on a chair and the bride and maid of honour knelt before him and fed him wedding cake and soda, I was pretty uncomfortable with the plainness of the woman serving the man, until he in turn fed her some cake and soda, and everything was fine. 

Sorry, the pictures just wouldn't go where I wanted them to!

a party at the Pagan rock

I’m sat outside the front of our house, on our veranda, with Holly, who is drawing a picture of a shoe which has been out here since I arrived. It’s seven o’clock in the evening, which is a particularly beautiful time of day in Uganda, tainted only by the little mosquitos, (pronounced just as it’s written here). The sky is beautiful, hopefully, if I remember, I will add a photo to this blog to show you just how beautiful! It’s so vast, it’s true that African skies are magical, and bigger than skies anywhere else I think. There are so many noises, a goat and a baby are competing for who can cry the loudest, whilst another boy across the road from us recites the alphabet in the Ugandan way of speaking English, which I’m becoming very accustomed to! There is someone pounding g-nuts (the Lugandan word for peanuts), so there’s a rhythmic thudding. Our road can get quite busy at times, by that I mean we can sometimes get a whole 10 vehicles passing in a matter of minutes! It’s crazy! Two bodas just past each other in front of me, beeping at each other as they crossed paths, as is the custom here. Of course there’s the persistent ringing of crickets.

clockwise from me we have Matia, Rogers, Holly, Joseph.
Jenny, James and Calum . The gang of teachers!

On Sunday we went back to our Pagan rock, as a surprise for Joseph, who has been a teacher at school, he’s now left to go back to school, to finish his own education (he hasn’t yet sat the equivalent of A levels) so anyway, to send him off, James, Matia, Holly and I took bodas up to the rock, Jenny, Calum and Joseph came an hour later (after finding a replacement boda as the one they hoped to ride had no key) we all jumped out at them, much to Jospeh’s  surprise. We ate bananas in chapattis and scoffed oreos. Oreos are turning into a bit of staple for us, they are pretty much the only western treat we can get, and even better than that, they are only 50p for a packet. We played mtatu, the only card game Ugandans seem to play! And climbed on the rocks, to the sound of a mixture of Ugandan music and our music, played on my little speaker, it’s so great having that speaker here Louis, thank you, hope you have a new one! So many people have asked me for it, or asked me how to get one! We rode back to Kiwangala before it got dark Unfortunately Joseph somehow managed to fall off the back of a boda on the way home, which was a shame, no one’s quite sure how it happened, he said there was a big bump in the road, but Calum ,who was driving, insisted there was nothing there!  He was fine anyway, after a few rolls and scrapes he got up and we went into the nearest house, where they gave us water to fix him up. People are so ready to help each other if someone’s in trouble here.

Thank you for all your comments everyone, sorry I don’t reply to them all. I really do appreciate them though! 

Awee bit of life in Kiwangala

Life in Kiwangala is so much more lively and exciting than I ever imagined it could have been. I really feel like this little village is my new home, and the people I’ve come to know feel as though they’ve been friends for years.The school is more or less the same, although we have remade the timetable, so I am now teaching 6 art lessons a week, and 6 English lessons. As well as a joint debating session for all of the seniors and a weekly trip to the school farm with primary 3-6, which includes a 3 mile walk in both directions. It’s a tiring 3 miles as well, as I found out last time, the children all want to run, and, not wanting to disappoint their smiling little faces, I was pushed to the limit! On the way back, after an hour or so of picking maize and piling it up under the jackfruit tree we walked back. To try and distract them from their burning desire to run all the way, I decided to teach them a song, chanting “Where we go, people always ask us, where we come from, so we tell them, we’re from SURE HOUSE!” They loved it, chanting each line after me, and ending on a huge jump for Sure House. This turned out to be quite tiring as well, as whenever I stopped, they would say sing sing! and we’d start again. But it’s empowering, being around all these incredibly tough children, who manage to make fun from the simplest of things.

I found it difficult to begin with, after almost 6 months of having no routine whatsoever. Being thrown in to, not only going to school, but being in charge of a class, even if there were only 4 students! The responsibility was suddenly on me, it was up to no one else, to plan and give these children the lessons they so need and deserve. I now feel like I’m getting into the swing of things, although the heat of the day still makes teaching tricky!

Living here is about so much more than just being in a classroom though, I feel as though I’ve really landed on my feet, it’s great being in a group of 4, every day there’s something going on! Today, at the school farm/garden Calum found an abandoned puppy, so proceeded to borrow a boda to drive it home. So we now have a little puppy living with us!! We’ve named him Nomad, and Calum, Holly and I are trying desperately not to get too attached to it. Later today we’re going to visit a boy’s house, to make sure it is suitable, then, tomorrow we will take Nomad over to his new home.

I’m finishing this today (today being the day after I wrote everything that’s here so far) Calum and I did walk to this little boy’s house, to check that they were ok to take little Nomad. His mum was lovely, and with Derek ( the 12 year old boy who lives next door) as our guide and translator we agreed we would come back tomorrow (today) to give them the dog. As we were about to leave, the mother whispered something to her son, who then ran off, 5 minutes later he reappeared, bearing a chicken, which we were to take, in thanks for the dog! We hesitantly accepted it, and she is now comfortable in our chicken coop at home! Eggs! Derek then took us to his grandmother’s farm which he wanted to show us. He gave us a tour, pointing out the cassava, matoke, bogoya (yellow bananas), passion fruit, mangoes, avocadoes, sweet pototo, Irish potato, jackfruit, and maize. Every inch of available land here is used to grow something, there’s such an abundance of food. On the way back the sun was setting, and I had the strongest feeling since being in Uganda, of how very lucky I am to be here.

Thank you again to everyone who helped me get here, everyday I feel something inside me expands a little, (and I’m not just talking of the weight gain that comes from a diet of matoke!) so thank you.

Bits of my holidays .. Boda ride Kabale to Kisoro

Rather than trying to write out everything I did whilst travelling I thought I might write out little bits of my diary, as it all seems quite a long ago now and it won't be so fresh if I try to write about it now.

But, here's the schedule, so you can see where the little bits of diary are coming from...

14th, set off from London
15th, landed in Kampala, stayed for 2 nights in my big fancy house
17th, post bus to Kabale
18th- 21st Lake Bunyonyi for 3 nights
21st-23rd, Kabale, tried to leave on the 22nd, but had to go back as our motorbike broke
23rd, Lake Mutanda
24th, Kisoro
25th, Kabale again
26th, set off EARLY for the Ssese Islands
26th-30th, Hornbill campsite on Bugale Island
30th-2nd, Kampala
2nd, traveled to Kiwangala, my new home!

.. The next morning in Kabale we all got up to find motorbikes to ride to Kisoro. It took A LOT longer than we had anticipated. My first real taste of Afrcian time! But it did mean I got the chance to learn how to ride a bike, which was fab. It didn't help that Sam was set on getting a dirt bike, we waited for a loong time for a guy to come with a bike. Turned out the bike needed some maintenance  so followed a couple of trips to different garages. One of which trips resulted in my jacket ending up entwined in the chain of the bike. he arrived back, holding my jacket, covered in motor oil, with a line of holes down the back in the perfect pattern of the chain. A man called Vian, who made Sam and I pairs of trousers (I will post a picture) hapenned to be there, he said he knew someone who could clean it for me, so I left it with him. Finally, 3pm (5 hours later than anticipated) we set off on our dirt bike, Stuart on his, with John on the back, Calum on his boda bike and Al and Kelty (a Canadian couple we met at Bunyonyi) on another boda. We were a real Muzungu convoy! Really beautiful road.. we made it  30km, (out of 70) before our bike spluttered and cut out, I realised when we stopped that the burn I had got from a boda exhaust the other day had stuck to my legging, by which time, we'd gathered an eager crowd of children, who gathered round me to watch the Muzugu apply a dressing, with my first aid kit open, they were enthralled  it was really quite funny! By the end, the brave ones were literally peering over my shoulder! Al then rolled our bike down to the next village which was conveniently positioned at the bottom of the hill, where we gathered another crowd. The drunk chairman tried to join our convoy, asking for a ride to Kisoro, very persistently. Sam and I waited at the health centre for the boda owner to turn up to collect his broken bike. A man called Herbert stood and chatted to us, whilst it gradually went dark. Eventually he showed up, on the back of another boda! By which time we'd had enough of the bike, so handed over the keys, and managed to hitch a lift back to Kabale in a 4x4, a posh one. Not quite sure how the boda man managed to make it back with his broken bike. The next morning we were up at 7am, hopped on a bike and were off again, take 2. It was a cold morning, the wind on the bike was bitter, but we were happy to be off on a good bike! Everything was even more beautiful with the morning sun shining on it. Mist still in the valley. We stopped to say hi to Herbert on our way through his village. BEAUTIFUL ride. Over a mountain, we passed through the edge of a national park, and made it Kisoro by 11, as everyone was getting up. There are huge volcanoes that tower over the town here, the tallest is Volcan Muhavara which is 4127m, and well into the clouds.

That turned out to be a lot longer than I was expecting... Sorry if I'm going into too much detail! I have so much to write about, but I feel like I have to do everything I write about justice. I'll write again before I leave this place with internet!
Love to everyone

My new home in Kiwangala

This was written yesterday evening… and now I have internet I can post it on here J

Feels like a long time ago now, that I was on the little islands on Lake Victoria. I’m sat on my bed in my new home in Kiwangala, and it really does feel like home, it’s strange, I never thought it would be this easy to settle into a place. Calum is sat at the end of the bed playing his guitar. He’s feeling far too smug as he just scared the life out of me by jumping out behind my wall in the dark. We have no electricity in our little section of the house. I tried to attach some photos to this blog.. but my camera is being akward, Louis, if you were here, you'd know what to do! but I will post some photos so you can see what the setup is like here. We have 2 houses, which is basically 1 house with 4 rooms and 2 front doors, so we all have our own room, the front room in both houses leads through to the back room, which then goes out to our garden. The garden is fab, it’s walled in which means we can lounge around in shorts, to our hearts content, showing your legs in public is a big no no here. We have a groovy little lean-to with a big picnic table under it, and another little building which is our kitchen, Jenny and Holly painted it yellow and blue and we have a hob in there. At the end of the garden are our long drops, we have 6! For 4 of us. Then we have our fire pile, where we put all our rubbish to burn, and next to that is a pen for chickens.. which we’re going to get! When Calum and I were playing pool this evening along at the pool place in Kiwangala I was speaking to a guy who told me where we could get some. Then we have a little walled in bit which is for washing. Having no water is pretty hard, it’s like camping constantly, but when it rains we collect the water off the roof, and a few days ago James, an ex-pupil showed us where the bore holes were in the village, Jenny and Holly had never been before! I think they must never have washed for 5 months! But, turns out they’re not that far away, about 1km, so yesterday Jenny and I walked along and she helped me wash a load of clothes. Then I washed my hair under the pump, it felt so good to have unlimited relatively clean water.

So that’s our home, thank you for all your comments on my last blog, it means a lot to hear from everyone! Hope you all got my replies, not promising I’ll do that every time though!

I have so much more to say! Another blog to follow..

Muzungu!

So I'm sat again in this little internet cafe,this time there is a tape playing describing the way a lion lives. Very strange.

Since I last wrote I've been thrown further into Ugandan life, and loving it more and more every day as I gradually learn about the slow way people live here.

On the 18th we hopped on bodas (small motorcycles) to Lake Bunyonyi, which is stunning place, with hundreds of islands, apparently its 900m deep, making it the second deepest lake in Africa, but I'm not sure how true this is, you really can't believe everything you read or hear here. and the landscape would suggest otherwise. So we stayed for 3 nights right on the lake side, in a little hut attached to the school there.
I'm finding it hard to think what to write here,as I'm still feeling overwhelmed by eveything, so I'm just going to write somelittle bits from my diary, and hoipefully you will get an idea of what it's like here.

20/01/13 LAKE BUNYONYI
  There's a jetty here, with the sun shinig on it, there's a breeze in the trees and the water is lapping on the shore. The locals all have large canoes carved from tree trunks, the little children row them up and down the lake. Yesterday, right in front of us, one boy tried to take down another canoe with 4 boys sat in it by crashing in to  the side of them. There was a lot fo shouting and laughing, before they headed off again in opposit directions. The children here really know how to have fun. When Sam and I took a canoe over top the otherside of the lake to climb the hill there, a group of young children soon sniffed out the muzungus and followed us up. One girl, of about 4 was carrying her young sister of about 1 on her back, I was shocked at just how strong there little bodies are. I was sweating and out of breath, and she seemed unphased.

21/01/13 LAKE BUNYONYI
Been here 3 nights now, everything seems to have slowed down somehow, although the last few days have gone pretty fast, I feel like I've been here a long time. On our first morning we got up at 7am to watch the sun rising. It was so overcast you couldn't actually see the sun, but somehow it still managed to be the most beautiful 7am I've ever seen.

Lake Bonyonyi is filled with crayfish, no other fish, but thousnads of crayfish. Yesterday we saw a man pull up to the jetty we were sat on, in his big canoe, and procceed to untie and haul 4 large wicker nets/crates full of crayfish, without even slightly rocking the boat.

There seems to be always either music or drums playing constantly from the villages around our little section of the lake. There is always the sound of voices and laughter,carried on the breeze across the lake.



Thank you for everyone's comments on my last blog. Joe Wilkinson, you are a comic genius. I was sat laughing out loud to myself. However, don't expect my writing to get any better, I'm not planning on checking through what I write, I'll leave that up to youy! I don't feel like I'm doing this blog justice, so I'm going to stop.Although since Bonyonyi I have been to Kisoro, and nearby Lake Mutunda, both are spectacular. I will write again soon, and upload some photos, not surprisingly I have already built up a rather large collection! Might not get on again until I get to Kampala, which will be the middle of next week. I'm off to the Ssese islands with Sam (a PT volunteer who's been here since September and knows the ropes) tomorrow for a few nights. Calum is off to climb mt Elgon with 2 other volunteers.

VEEEEEEEERy nearly lost all of that just now, when the power cut out and everything turned off.. but somehow it restored my session,. thank goodness,I think I might've cried!

Hope you're all well, thinking of you as I'm sat here in the sun, as you're shivering in -5'C, hope you get some snow! 

OVERWHELMED

HELLO EVERYONE!

THIS IS THE FIRST CHANCE IV'E HAD TO GET ON THE INTERNET. I AM HAVING THE MOST UNBELIEVAVLE TIME, UGANDA IS INCREDIBLE, I'M HAVING TO WRITE IN CAPITALS JUST TO TRY TO CONVEY HOW EXCITED I AM, AS WORDS ALONE REALLY ARE NOT ENOUGH!

I FEEL AS THOUGH I'VE BEEN LIFTED OUT OF MY LIFE INTO A WHOLE, NEW WORLD. I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START. CALUM AND I HAD A PRETTY DRAINING JOURNEY, STOPPING IN ADDIS ABABA BETWEEN 3 AND 7 ENGLISH TIME, BUT THE SUN WAS RISING BEAUTIFULLY AS WE WERE LANDING, IT TRUELY WAS SPECTACULAR. THEN CONTINUED TO KAMPALA, I WAS SHOCKED, FLYING OVER UGNADA, AT HOW INCREDIBLEY LUSH AND GREEN EVERYTHING IS. IN KAMPALA JOHN MET US AND TOOK US BACK TO HIS HOUSE. BUT ACTUALLY I STAYED IN THE GUEST HOUSE ACROSS THE ROAD, WHICH WAS RIDICULOUSLY BEAUTIFUL, WITH A 4 POSTER BED, AND THE WORLDS BIGGEST MOSQUOITO NET SURROUNDING IT. A FEW OF THE GUYS WHO'VE BEEN HERE SINCE SEPTEMBER WERE AROUND IN KAMPALA, AND CAME OVER TO MEET US. WE WENT FOR A WANDER TO GET BEER. ON THE WAY BACK, CALUM LITERALLY DISAPPEARED WHEN HE FELL DOWN A 6 FOOT... I KID YOU NOT, IT WAS A 6 FOOT HOLE IN THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, HE WAS TOO BUSY WATCHING OUT FOR THE BODA BODAS SPEEDING TOWARDS US. MUCH TO THE AMUSEMENT OF A GROUP OF UGANDANS WHO WE'D AQUIRED. IT WAS THE FUNNIEST THING I'D SEEN IN A  LONG TIME. IT STILL MAKES ME LAUGH JUST WRITING ABOUT IT (SURPRISINGLY HE WAS UNHARMED)

THE NEXT DAY WINNIE TOOK US INTO TOWN, WE CAUGHT OUR FIRST "TAXI". KAMPALA IS INCREDIBLE,. IT'S THE BUSSIEST, NOISIEST, MOST CROWDED, HOTTEST, DUSTIEST, SMELLIEST CITY I'VE EVER BEEN TO. BUT THE PEOPLE MOVE SLOWLY, NO ONE IS IN A HURRY, EVERYONE, WELL MOST PEOPLE, HAVE TIME FOR YOU. THE POLAR OPPOSITE TO CITIES IN THE UK. DEFINITLEY MORE DIFFICULT BEING A GIRL THOUGH, THE FUNNIEST WAS SOMEONE ASKED ME TO "TALK ABOUT LOVE".
THERE'S SO MUCH MORE I COULD WRITE ABOUT KAMAPALA, BUT I HAVE OBNLY 6 MINUTES LEFT IN THIS LITTLE INTERNET SHOP, WHO IS PLAYING ABBA, AS THE OWNERS, AND FRIENDS, SING ALONG.

I'M NOW DOWN IN KABALE (I KNOW I YOU SAID I SHOULDN'T TRAVEL STRAIGHT AWAY MUM) BUT WE'RE WITH A GUY WHO'S PROJECT IS DOWN HERE. WE'VE JUST GOT BACK FROM VISITING HIS LITTLE VILLAGE, WHICH WAS VERY EYE OPENING. IT'S BEAUTIFUL DOWN HERE, LIKE, STUNNING, LOOK IT UP! WE BOUGHT 9 PASSION FRUIT FOR 25P BEFORE, THERE'S FRUIT DRIPPING FROM THE TREES.

REALLY HAVE TO GO NOW\

LOVE TO EVERYONE
LOVE YOU MUM, DAD, JEN, LOU, LIZ AND JACK\
THANKS FOR READING! LEAVE ME A COMMENT IF YOU HAVE TIME, SO I KNOW YOU'VE SEEN IT
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