Mangoes, monkeys and Maggie

Chris and Maggie
in Masindi

Sunday 26 April 2009

Smile for the camera

This Sunday we were invited to another thanks giving at the cathedral. Twice in one month seemed to be excessive and in view of all the thunder and lightening this week we made our excuses. So today we have had a quiet day at home catching up on mail and avoiding filling in a tax return. How come Alastair Darling has time to worry about me this week of all weeks.




PICTURES OF THE PYLON BEING ERECTED.ON THE LARGER PICTURE YOU CAN SEE THE FOREMAN TAKING A REST ON THE TOP GIRDER (IF YOU HAVE GOOD EYES)


This week there has been major excitement at the bottom of our garden. For several weeks there has been building work going on late in to the night and we thought someone was having a house built. As the structure developed it was obvious it was offices and we now find that MTN the mobile phone company has had the offices built. They began erecting a mobile phone mast at the end of last week. It has gone up very quickly built by six men with the aid of a tree trunk with a pulley on the end as their only crane. The men seem to have no fear of heights and walk about the structure with out holding on. Some of them seem to have harnesses but they do not appear to use them. One of the men stands on the top girder and waves when ever Maggie goes out to look. It is an amazing example of building and has absolutely no regard for health and safety. Ugandans are very fatalistic most of the men do not expect to live a long time so they do not consider risks. But considering the statistics those men standing on those girders probably have less chance of dying on this job than a women in the village every time she gets pregnant. Maternal mortality is high in Uganda and even higher in Masindi (over 500 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births). I presume the men get well paid for the job.




SLYVIA AS SHE WAS GETTING BETTER AND JOSEPHINE SITTING OUTSIDE THE MATERNITY UNIT

SMILES
There have been things to smile about this week. The little girl with diabetes survived and went home on twice daily insulin. We were able to give her a supply of insulin and teach her mother how to give it. Of course she is still at risk, she lives in a village away from town and will have difficulty getting supplies but at least she has a chance. Most children with diabetes in Uganda die on presentation often without any one recognising they have diabetes. We received some fresh supplies of insulin this week and an Irish visitor left her glucometer and 100 testing strips so we are able to check blood sugars again. Slyvia (not Sylvia) the little girl had a lovely smile once she was getting better and it made me realise that most of the Ugandans are quick to smile and seem happy to greet you.
This week’s photos are mainly of smiles. Josephine the lady nursing the new born baby is a nurse in antenatal clinic. In spite of her own health problems she is always there to help her family or friends. The picture shows her nursing her latest grand child born eight hours earlier in the hospital. Monica the mother is one of the HIV counsellors and was at work on Wednesday, went in to labour Thursday night and delivered a 3.5 kilo healthy babe a few hours earlier. The maternity unit delivers between 5 and eight babies each day. Babies and children are every where in Uganda. The population growth is one of the highest in the world with the average woman having 7 pregnancies. It is not unusual to have 10 children

SMILEY FACES








Tuesday 21 April 2009

Church and home


THIS IS A PICTURE OF RASOUL OUR WATCHMAN PLAYING LUDO WITH ROSE, AKIM AND ADETHA

This Sunday we were invited to a thanksgiving of one of my colleagues in the community department. Ronald was 58 and wanted to give thanks for his life and his marriage. He had helped as a translator during the workshops for the Miirya project but had become ill during the last workshop. He developed severe heart failure due to hypertension and was off work for several weeks. I visited him at home several times and managed to get his failure and blood pressure under control so he was keen that I attended the thanks giving service.
The thanks giving was part of the weekly English service at the cathedral which is the church that Ronald attends. The first service of the day is at 7.00am in Runyoro. We attended the 8.00 am English language service with about 600 other people. There were 5 muzungos in the congregation. You can not imagine 300 people waiting outside an English church for an 8.00 o clock service but that was what we found when we arrived. The other 300 seemed to be staying on after the Runyoro service. Ronald was there with several members of his family dressed in their finery. They invited us to sit with them in the choir stalls but we opted to sit in the ordinary pews. In spite of this we were spotted and had to stand up and be welcomed by the congregation. The service turned out to be dominated by an election of church wardens. This produced a dispute between members of the congregation and the vicar leading the service. The diocese has a constitution and the election of 12 wardens is not part of that constitution. After a heated discussion the election was abandoned but only after some youth volunteers had been elected. One of the youth did not want to be elected as she did not live in Masindi but her protestations were discarded and she was duly elected to serve the youth of the congregation. It was a shame that in spite of the enthusiasm of the congregation the service appeared to be dominated by politics and collecting money. Ugandans love religion but if this is an example of how the church works they are being let down. I am told that it is very different in the villages and much more joyous.
Maggie’s blog last week mentioned the wild life. She now claims that there is a mouse in the house. Every now and again she shouts out and says she has seen something run across the floor. She is the only one to see it and I am beginning to think she has had too much sun or too much waragi. People say it is a good sign if you have a mouse because it means there are no snakes in the house. The rains are continuing and every thing is growing rapidly. It is a great time of the year here and as long as the roads stay clear you are ok.
This week we have been holding meetings with the volunteers from the Miirya project. Happily most of the volunteers attended the meetings and seem to still be motivated to keep involved. We have nearly finished our first round of net sales and most of the volunteers reported that people had been pleased with the nets. A first look at what had happened to the nets revealed that some people were keeping them and not using them. There is still a lot of education needed so the project needs to develop. One volunteer reported a tragedy where a child had been put to bed in a net and had taken a candle in the bed. She was left alone and the net and bed set alight burning down the house and killing the child. Fires are not uncommon here as people have to use candles or paraffin lamps as electricity is not around in the villages. The villagers did not blame the nets for this tragedy but blamed the mother for leaving the child alone.The nets are flammable but very slowly and appear to be safe. I saw another burn this week of a 3 yr old child whose mother had let fry some eggs over the stove. She was an intelligent mother, a primary school teacher but she did not think that 3 years old was too young to cook. Childhood is very short here for many children. It is not unusual for children especially girls of six years to be caring for their siblings.Most children have jobs to do before and after school such as fetching water or fuel.There is little time to play and most children do not have toys.
Akim and Adetha who live in our compound are luckier than most. Rose is a great mum who spends a lot of time with the children in spite of having 4 jobs. Some one brought out a giant ludo and they love to play. Adetha is the champion at the moment. They also love to play chasing games. Every time we arrive home the boys run out to greet us.They then tig us and shout "Kabali" and race off,I usually manage to catch Akim but Adetha is really fast or may be I am just getting old.

Late news
Maggie is not hallucinating. The mouse is real!

Tuesday 14 April 2009

Wildlife



Above: a weaver bird collecting grass
Below: nest building



The finished result:



When we think of wildlife in Africa we automatically think of the big game and going on safari in a large Landcruiser or similar. But wildlife is also on our doorstep in the form of tiny insects, butterflies and birds. It’s around us all the time but is even more evident after a good rain storm. The seasons are not well defined though there are periods when it’s even hotter than normal. At these times there is a lot of dust but still everything looks quite green. However, when the rains truly begin we really know about it in more ways than one.

Almost every day for the last two weeks we’ve had a good rain storm at some time during the day which has helped to bring the temperature down. The storms don’t necessarily last long but we have torrential downpours and sometimes we are treated to fantastic light shows from the lightening over the hills. The roads can become quite treacherous and most people prefer to just put everything on hold and stay put until it’s cleared. That includes not going to work, appointments, etc!

Anyway, back to wildlife…….. there are some amazing sights after a good rain storm. We have flying ants with huge white wings which, as they hatch, rise up from the ground in great swarms. They shed their wings which cover the ground like petals and the remaining bodies are hurriedly collected to be eaten. People compete with the birds and frantically gather them up in whatever vessel they can find, even in a scrap of cloth or old piece of paper and then take them home to cook. They can be fried or boiled and are apparently highly nutritious. I’m reliably informed that they’re also really tasty which I confidently believe as I’ve no intention of trying them!

Of course we also have swarms of flies around which attract the flycatcher birds. In our garden we have many different species and just this morning I’ve seen the Northern Black Flycatcher and the African Blue Flycatcher. The garden is a hive of activity with the dozens of different birds and at the moment all I can hear is their birdsong. There are too many to even try and distinguish them. I wish I had a way to record them. On my way into town there is an amazing sight of weaver birds building their nests. One tree is full of them beavering away, as if in frenzied competition with each other. The birds have such skill in home-making. The little nests hang precariously on the tips of branches with the entrance at the bottom. Inside the nests they build small chambers to contain their eggs and offspring, to prevent them from falling out and also to deter predators. Sometimes you can look up and see a cluster of little mouths wide open, eagerly awaiting some food. Also, I noticed the other day that the drain alongside the main road, which is full of very dirty muddy water, is now full of tadpoles. As far as I know, no-one here eats frogs which I find quite surprising as I’ve heard that bats and rats are eaten in some areas. One of the disadvantages of the rain is that there is an increase in mosquitoes. There is a belief that the mangoes bring the mosquitoes; it’s just that the rain brings the mangoes!

Another common sound at the moment is that of women and children hoeing the ground in preparation for planting. Children are expected to help on the land and have to fit it in before and after school. Even the schools recruit children to do the digging. Most people have some land where they grow their own crops for feeding their families and what they don’t eat they sell at the market. At home we are now enjoying our new season of avocados and pawpaw. The mangoes are still a little bit small but the salad and herb crops are all growing well. Soon we will have peppers, aubergine and courgette again.

We enjoyed a relaxing Easter weekend. On Sunday we visited friends who are researching chimps in the nearby forest and live near the village of Nyabyeya, about 30k out of town. We had a barbecue and just to remind us of the UK it rained! Even though Masindi is a small town it’s good to get out into the rural areas. There are always new things to see.