Better late than never!

It’s taken Maggie a month to brave a ride on a boda boda. These come in two varieties: a motorbike and a pushbike. As the road from town to our house is up hill, she decided not to inflict herself on the cyclist and opted for the motorbike. VSO actually advises against using these but when it’s scorching hot and you’re carrying big bunches of bananas, pineapples, bottles of water, etc. etc. it’s easy to give in. (She hasn’t yet mastered the technique of carrying everything on her head!). The other problem is returning after dark (7pm). It’s unwise to walk but, if you want any sort of a social life, a boda boda is the answer. Bear in mind these roads are just dirt tracks, full of craters and potholes and treacherous when wet, but exhilarating all the same on the back of a boda boda!
It’s worrying how excited we get when the power comes back on. There’s a mad scramble to rush round the house charging phones, laptops, cameras, putting the water heater on and even washing and blow-drying hair (Maggie that is, Chris doesn’t bother!). The latter is a bit risky as sometimes it’s off again before finishing.
The other highlight of the week has been the arrival of a Rocco Set (3 piece suite), dining chairs and shelves. (We have such an exciting time!) We actually managed our first bit of entertaining of the other VSOers though catering was a bit limited with a two ring burner. We’re finally getting our house staff together. We’ve already got Solomon who patrols the grounds at night looking very fearsome with his bow and arrow. He doesn’t like using his torch as he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s there and decrease his chances of using his weapons! Some other volunteers are leaving Masindi this week so we’ve taken on Rose, their house girl (not exactly a girl as she has five children), and Sam their gardener. Rose and children will live in the quarters in the garden but Sam will live out and come three times a week. Last night we went to the departing volunteer’s leaving party which was quite an experience. It was modeled on an English wedding with a top table. The outgoing volunteer and incoming volunteer cut the cake together whilst being sprayed with some sort of sparkly dust and the speeches were interspersed with outbreaks of Celine Dion.
In desperation of not wanting to just eat tomatoes, onions and aubergines forever more, Maggie plucked up courage to buy fresh Talapia from the market (caught in nearby Lake Albert). It’s a bit off-putting when it’s exposed to the sun and swarming in flies but it’s very fresh and not a problem if cooked straight away. The meat will have to wait a bit! This is a picture of Christine’s shop which is literally at the end of our garden(oh no it isnt we can not upload it for some reason). It doesn’t have the choice of Sainsbury’s but we can buy fresh eggs from the chickens which have had free range of our garden!
For anyone who thinks we’re getting on a bit to learn a new language, they’re absolutely right! It’s fair to say we never have been natural linguists. We’re struggling with our weekly Swahili lessons but struggling even more with the fact that only some of the population speak it and the rest speak the local tribal language of Runyoro. By the time you’ve established who speaks what, a conversation has already been struck up in English!
Chris finally managed a trip into the district. It’s supposed to be a weekly event but has only been achieved once. Even then, it was touch and go whether he would make it but a vehicle finally turned up two hours late to take him. The HIV clinic is extremely busy and will take some time to organize. The first priority is to sort out management of pregnant patients. It appears they they are not getting preventative treatment which is a tragedy when you can prevent children being born with HIV.
Maggie is still spending a bit of time each day trying to improve the catering and service at the hotel. She’s running food hygiene sessions but has had to go right back to basics. It’s certainly a challenge but hopefully only a short term one. We’re slowly finding out about projects in the area where there might be a possibility of helping.
Generally, life is okay here. The weather is very hot (due to get hotter!) and there are storms most days, though these are short lived. The scenery is beautiful and it’s very easy to ignore it when all around you is such poverty. We haven’t encountered any nasty creepy crawlies yet! The house is starting to look more like a home and we met our immediate neighbours recently. One is the gentleman who lives in the hut at the water tower with I don’t know how many children and he tends the compound. Next door is a carpenter, so we know where our next order of furniture is coming from! The locals are all very friendly; the small children address us very politely in English and then fall about in fits of giggles when we reply.

We are having difficulty loading our pictures but we will keep trying