Two months! (ish)

It’s seems strange that I’ve been here nearly 2 months now! Amazing. However, I realised that my body has always been trained to work hard for 8 weeks and then have some time off. The real world is less generous, but I have managed to squeeze in some great relaxation time over the last weekend.

Probably the highlight of last week came about 12 hours after posting the previous blog. It ha rained really heavily on Sunday night and this meant that the drive to the clinic on Tuesday was even more exciting. Most of the journey was normal until we came to this bit of the road that the locals have recently re-directed a stream over so that they have water closer to where their erecting a new building. This bit of the road has been getting steadily worse, but in the face of the heavy rain it was a delightful quagmire. We came to it and had to wait for two local taxis/buses to be dragged out and then ran through by local helpers. I took this break to assist by taking photos and setting the tyres to 4x4 mode. Then the moment came, I waved off those starting to tug at the bull-bars to help us, put the Cruiser into L4 and set off into the breach. Needless to say I was grinned like a fool throughout and punched the air in excitement on making back onto solid ground. This may not sound too exciting but it was great great times.

Wednesday was also notable for an incident whilst driving, but this one was of a less cheery nature. I was out in the pickup (which is cc16 years old and great times to drive about in, partially due to having a manual gearbox set on the side of the steering wheel) bringing someone back to the house and, out of nowhere, a boda driver crashed into the left hand side. We took the driver to the hospital as he’d cut his hand (I’ve still got a bit of the blood on my right shoe). Helping him was made a bit tricky by his story changing a few details, but some kind assistance from the Reverend Simon led to it all ending well. The pickup suffered a small scratch which, as you might imagine of a 16-year-old vehicle, is easily lost in a sea of damaged paintwork.

On Thursday, we (Dr, Rev, myself and Tiff from Jenga) set off for Kampala for the weekend as there were various things scattered over several days that needed doing. Thursday ended up being largely spent travelling and going to see people in shipping about a container that Jenga was/is waiting for. I learnt lots about shipping (inc the meaning of demurrage) and met lots of very kind Ugandans who helped us free of charge. Friday was a free day which I took with both hands. After visiting some shops with the Dr, I went off for lunch (I had a burger! (unfortunately not McD, can you believe there are no McD in Uganda!)) and then went round a few more shops. Some of these trips were of my own volition. Finally, the relaxation reached a crescendo as I spent several hours in a café reading the Kiterunner whilst sipping a ‘soda’. I definitely did have teary eyes at several points whilst sat on my own in a café reading a book, that would be embarrassing. When I finally got embarrassed about my poor rate of soda consumption, I went and sat on the floor by the main gate to continue reading; I’m a great tourist.

Saturday was the Dr’s birthday! However, she was at a conference for much of the day so various other jobs acted to fill the time before celebrations. Best of these was helping do decorations for a wedding as the family we were staying with in Kampala do this as a part-time business. We went out for a meal in the evening to an Italian restaurant and I had a pizza that looked like a pizza (unlike some of the other pizzas I’ve seen here). Plus, there was a real Italian working at the restaurant! Amazing. To my horror, I failed to finish my pizza. I still haven’t quite worked out the implications of this, but I’m a little scared. After dinner, we came back to have birthday cake. The Dr was just cutting the cake when I managed to catapult the young girl I was playing through the air so that she cut her nose on the very table the cake was on. Blood and tears commenced, as did my embarrassed look. She’s fine though! It’s okay!

Finally Sunday! We set off pretty early so that we’d get back in time for dinner as a team was coming through Mbale to visit a project and the Dr. However, we did stop off at ‘the source of the Nile’. This beautiful and momentous spot had been slightly ruined by the erection of a hydroelectric dam by the British a long time a that submerged the waterfall. This dam does provide the power for all of Uganda (or used to until they built a new replacement next to it), but I’m sure some Cost Benefit Analyses would be unhappy. Still, it was brilliant to be there; wonderful to look out over Lake Victoria and down toward the Nile.

I wasn’t completely convinced by Kampala as an exciting tourist destination. I know complaining about the busyness and bustle makes  sound like I was born in a village and not the mighty metropolis that is Gloucester, but getting around Kampala is not fun. More striking is the proximity of dirty, impoverished slums with luxury hotels and large shopping malls. On a minor note, it’s also hotter and there are more mosquitoes (I’m starting to sound like a great British tourist). I learnt this first hand on Thursday night when I failed to tuck my net under my mattress. I woke to find four mosquitoes inside, all looking annoyingly like they were well fed (you should have seen their smug faces) which I promptly dispatched (that way, if malaria somehow overcomes the Larium I know that the agent of my sickness suffered a worse fate). However, when I looked in the mirror I realised an unfortunate thing had happened. I’d clearly spent most of the night sleeping with the right hand side of my face on the pillow which had led to the left hand side having about 11 bites on it, but none on the right… ideal.

This week is largely caught up in finishing off jobs that need the Dr as she goes for 6 weeks leave next Monday. Planning for next Tuesday’s enormous house party will also probably take up quite a lot of time. The Dr’s absence will lead to quite a few things looking different at work and at home so that will be interesting, but could be good in the appropriate places. Beyond that, I’m also starting work on a preach I’m doing in a village church on the 18^th which should be cool and am about to install new accounting software. Hold on to your hats, it could get pretty wild!