Six months!

It has just dawned on us that we have now been here six months. When thinking about what to write about on the blog, it seems that incidents that happened five or six months ago deemed worthy of comment but those same situations now seem less out of the ordinary and not worth mentioning. So, although it’s difficult to think what to write about, a lot has actually happened and the days have passed really quickly.
A parcel of somewhat squashed mini chocolate eggs from Becky and a box of ‘bits and bobs’ from Kare were most welcome. The eggs were fine after a few hours in the fridge! We’ve had various visitors this week - some more welcome than others! Somehow a couple of baby bats escaped from the roof into our bedroom (one lodged in the mosquito net and scared me to death), followed by a mouse and then a frog - geckos don’t count anymore! Our invited guests were Grania and Dan from Kampala who came to stay with some of their friends from the UK and camped in the garden. We had a good night with them all and the monkeys behaved themselves and left them alone. Work has been busy for both of us this week. Every day brings new challenges and frustrations. The notion that life would be simpler here was way off the mark. Nothing ever goes according to plan and just the simplest things become so complicated. Fortunately there aren’t any complicated things to sort out. Adapting to not being able to achieve as much as you would like is one of the hardest lessons. It’s not all doom and gloom though! It’s good to be able to walk down the street or around the market and be recognised by people who want to greet you and wish you well. There’s never any hostility but plenty of curiosity!
Being English I feel it’s my duty to mention the weather! The temperature has dropped a few degrees this week and the rains have started in ernest. It’s interesting to see the local people in their thick padded jackets and woolly hats and babies in several layers of knitted garments and quilted blankets. We are still walking around in t-shirts which prompts a few comments.
Now that the ground is wet Sam, the gardner, has been really busy planting my vegetable and salad seeds which arrived from the UK (thanks Steve and Denise). The only problem is keeping the monkeys and the mongoose off them. It will be such luxury to have lettuce again. I’m easily pleased these days - who needs radicchio, lollo rosso, curly endive, little gem and rocket when a good old iceberg will do?
This is going to be a brief blog as I want to try and upload some photos that we’ve been unable to do the last few weeks due to poor network. We’ll see what happens!