Food glorious food!

We are casting our minds back over the last two weeks trying to remember what we have been doing (we missed last week’s entry) and it seems that the most memorable occasions have revolved around food and eating! For my friends that will not come as a surprise. We are prone to fantasizing about food back in the UK and can’t wait for an almond croissant, fresh from the oven and ousing marzipan, washed down with a proper cup of Italian coffee, at the Nightingale Patisserie near Kare and Steve’s. Or maybe a nice fat crab sandwich at St. Abbs in Northumberland whilst looking out to sea. Then again, there’s fish and chips at Whitby which can only be eaten straight from the paper whilst sitting on a bench and shivering with the North Sea breeze. Or maybe a succulent pink leg of spring lamb and mint sauce. I could go on and on but must stop! We really don’t do so bad for food here. Last night we hosted a VSO meal for 9 people where we shared the cooking. We ate Italian stuffed aubergines and tomatoes served with olive and rosemary drop scones, followed by freshly caught whole Tilapia fish with a sweet and sour sauce and then sticky toffee pudding and fresh fruit salad to finish. Not bad for up-country Uganda! Thanks to Kare we are also indulging on Garibaldi and ginger biscuits this week!
One of our coping strategies here is to deal with time in bite-sized pieces, whether it’s events that are happening here or visits from other people, as long as we have something to look forward to! One such thing is our visit to the UK. It is necessary for Chris to return within the financial year to have his annual appraisal so we have just sorted out dates and booked our flights. Hannah is coming to visit us here in February so I (Maggie) will return with her on the 15th and Chris will follow a couple of weeks later. We will then have three weeks together in the UK which will hopefully give us time to visit London, Sheffield, Hull and Berwick (and hopefully see as many people as possible in that time).
On a sadder note, Chris’ laptop has well and truly died after contracting a very nasty virus which has wiped out his keyboard. We needed his laptop to access the internet at home as my Apple is not compatible with the system we have. The electricity supply for the last two weeks has been the worst we have ever experienced. Perhaps it’s the storms which have damaged the lines, as we are now in the rainy season, or perhaps it’s because people steal the wire for other uses. We had just got used to the luxury of having the internet at home but will now have to return to trips to the internet cafe and rely on them having fuel for the generator and for the network to be working.
Maggie
Miirya Volunteer Project.
Part of my reason for being here has been to try and develop preventative health in the village. This has been extremely difficult due to lack of resources and in particular transport.
Pam and I have managed to train 91 village volunteers in Miirya sub county. They are remarkable people. Many have been working in various capacities in their villages for many years. Some are traditional birth attendants, some are drug distributors and some health educators. There have been various projects where volunteers have been trained over the years but most of these have fallen by the wayside through lack of funding and organisation.
Our project is linked to community health centres which are key elements of the government health strategy. We hoped that by linking in to the government service this would mean that the project would be sustainable.
The emphasis of the project has been educating villagers about reproductive health, immunisation and malaria prevention. Part of the role of volunteers will be in helping in the distribution of mosquito nets.
Malaria continues to kill children in Masindi district. It accounts for about 80- 90% of the work of health centres. It is preventable. Families that use treated mosquito nets have far fewer attacks of malaria. Our aim is to offer nets at a greatly reduced price. Our problem is finding a reliable supplier and raising the money to buy 5000 nets.
At the moment our best source of nets appears to be to import from Rwanda. One supplier in Kampala raised their price by 100% overnight! The government supply seems to have dried up and they say they are waiting for donors.
It is frustrating to find so many barriers to such a simple intervention.
Chris