Compare and contrast

This week we say farewell to Olav, a VSOer from Holland, who is finishing his two year stint as an IT specialist at Kabalega Secondary School in Masindi. His skills have not been limited to helping the school; he has been in great demand for the whole community, including New Court View Hotel and all the VSOers. We will miss him for his good humour and good company, and not just for his incredible patience when sorting out everyone’s computer problems! Whenever we saw him the conversation always began with “Olav, just one quick question…….”. We had a small party for him and fellow VSOers at our house; the hotel came up trumps again with a Mongolian barbeque and my sticky toffee pudding went down quite well. Needless to say we shared a few beers and glasses of wine!! By contrast, the school had organised an official leaving do for him which we attended last night. Naturally, it was a very typical Ugandan affair. The programme stated a 5 p.m. start and included prayer, six speeches which were each introduced by another speaker (therefore six more speeches!), gift presentations, a typical Ugandan buffet, followed by dancing. In true Ugandan style we did not arrive until 6.30 but the proceedings did not begin for another hour. At least we assume there was dancing; by the time the food arrived it was already way past our Ugandan bedtime so, after a decent interval, we made a polite exit. We were top table guests so had to be on best behaviour! Official functions are very popular here. We are not sure if the format is a corruption of the English way of doing things but everyone loves speeches, so the more the merrier. Whatever the occasion there is always a top table, a photographer and a master of ceremonies. The buffet is always chicken, fish, beef or goat stew, bean stew, matoke (mashed banana), potato (often sweet potato as well as plain boiled which they call ‘Irish’), rice, chapattis and possibly posho which is made from maize. On the same plate you will have slices of fruit, usually water melon. A meal here is not considered ‘food’ unless there are at least four carbohydrates together.

I (Maggie) put on my ‘Tour Guide’ hat again and took a family from Ireland to see the chimps. (Yes Mari, it was me last time too) This time they performed well (the chimps not the family!), though they stayed in the trees because it was raining. They were just waking up from their afternoon snooze and waiting for the rain to stop to go and raid the sugar cane. One toddler was having great fun on a smooth tree trunk by climbing up it and sliding down again! There was a lot of communicating going on which makes you realise that there are many more chimps than you can actually see. These small riverine forests are some of my favourite places here. They are really remote and very few people know that the chimps are there, so it’s a privilege to be able to go. We always see monkeys, baboons and lots of bird life too. I really had to keep a straight face when the mother of my group asked if the chimps would go back to the wild after being here - I’m really not sure how much more wild it can get!

Talking of wildlife, Chris is thinking of introducing a new Olympic sport. It involves a race to go out into the garden to hang out the washing and see who can get back with the least ant bites! At the moment we are plagued by an army of soldier ants which are huge and seem to find their way into your clothing within seconds. They have strong pincers and have to be prised off. I just wish I’d had the video camera ready!