Slow up!

In the midst of life here hurtling toward the 6^th of February, there have been plenty of times this past week where things have slowed down a bit and given space for fun and thought.

Tuesdays have recently taken a significantly more relaxed structure. Due to the Dr’s back still not being very good, she’s travelling less frequently on the rougher roads so I drive to the village even if there’s not that much for me to do. This week I dispatched some bits of accounts before reading more Tom Wright in the blazing sunshine. However, the real incident of note came on the way home. The dust on some of the roads to the village is intensely thick, but particularly behind lorries that are travelling at speed. I came to the top of a hill at the start of the stretch of road they’d recently repaired and just glimpsed a lorry ahead of me, cloaked in clouds of dust. Keen to overtake, I set off after him but soon couldn’t see much more than fifteen metres ahead. The visibility started to get even worse and I slowly realised this was probably because I was getting closer to the lorry. Just as I started to gently break, the lorry loomed no more than ten metres ahead of me. Exciting! I slammed the breaks, swerved round and smoothly overtook the lumbering lorry. Thankfully, the rest of the journey was more uneventful.

Tuesday evening’s Games Night was slightly shortened by Natalie being sick (though she was suspiciously still well enough to sneak to a Settler’s victory…). However, the bitter taste of defeat wasn’t the only thing I left the house with. I woke up at some unpleasant hour of the morning on Wednesday feeling pretty unwell and having those eggy burps that one get sometimes. Anyway, vomiting and diarrhoea later I ended up with the day off work. In some ways this worked out pretty well as there was this book I wanted to finish and I quite fancied catching up on some sleep. Still, it wasn’t necessarily an experience I felt I needed to have in Uganda. The absence of nice white toast or good cereal (Weetos are all over…) as a gentle re-introduction to food (and the presence of sticky rice with peanut sauce instead) was a bit of a downer, but I snuck the last piece of Christmas cake for my lunch so it was far from all bad.

Thursday evening was Sam’s last night in Uganda and Dan organised a bbq to mark the moment (the irony being that cooking things over charcoal has no novelty for most here). To make it even better, TJ brought back burgers and SAUSAGES from Kampala and Dan made some special kebabs. Sam’s been a wonderful part of lots of life here or the last two and a bit months, especially Christmas and New Year, and it’ll be different (in a bad way) without him, his cheeky face, his honest and open heart, his camera skills, his love of Incubus and (of course) his distinctly Australian take on the English language. The fact that I may win more board games without his insistence that no one should ever help or deal with Paul is some consolation, but his leaving definitely brings the prospect of leaving into clearer focus, despite that idea still being confined to a small corner of the picture. It may not quite yet be the beginning of the end but it is certainly the end of the penultimate scene.

To make the most of the evening, I even stayed over at BJH making it three nights in one week (not in any way linked to the fact that the bulb had gone in my room at home and I couldn’t be bothered to change it), living it up with more hearts and other drama. Then, to complete the emotional side of things, we even gathered to wave Sam off on his mammoth journey back to Australia that began with a 14-hour coach journey to Nairobi before a tangle of flights that finally deliver him home. I love being from England sometimes.

Sat on the kerb by the bird poo.. what memories

On Saturday I went to a traditional wedding. Now, I’d resolved in the past not to go to another due to the length and craziness typically involved, but this one had several important differences. Firstly, I actually knew the bride-to-be which made an amazing difference. Whilst there were still long, character-building waits for things, as soon as something happened to the bride it was okay, I cared, and that made the wait seem almost justified (except when the delays were simply the MC talking for no reason)! It was great.

The classic hunt for the bride.
Brilliantly, I heard the MC say to one of the ladies
"You do know what the bride looks like don't you?"

Secondly, I was wearing a kanzu! Some older men wear them all the time, but most just to Introductions and I finally got involved. Remembering to lift up the hem of the kanzu as I walked and other fun little things I’m sure ladies are good at brought lots of little entertainments that were randomly scattered through the day. The only drawback comes from the fact that kanzus are worn instead of a shirt in a suit and thus you still have the suit jacket and trousers. This is warm. Add to this the Ugandan love of being smart (and that just wearing the semi-transparent kanzu without a jacket would not be smart) and you’ve got an implicit rule against removing your jacket despite the baking sun. Toasty.


Yeah I look good in a kanzu!

Thirdly, I was a semi-official photographer so got to be the one walking in front of other people’s views rather than suffering myself… alright! I’d like to think my selections was partially due to my past work, but it was more that one of the two photographers hadn’t turned up so I was responsible for taking photos of the bride’s side (they had a photographer for each and then a shared video of the occasion). The day ended with a delightful drive home from the foothills of Mount Elgon where we’d been, down through little villages and past gatherings of people, all enveloped in complete darkness, and over dirt roads someone had forgotten to put the cat’s-eyes in.

In general, many work things are now drawing to a natural conclusion. The positive of this is that it doesn’t feel like I’m wandering off and leaving lots of unresolved jobs (though there is one that’s been on every to-do list since August) but the downside is that work life is definitely slowing down for me, despite us getting back to busyness after Christmas. Not yet sure how to spice that up, but I’ve learnt little jobs can come out of nowhere! If not, I might attempt a few short sight-seeing trips into the hills and maybe put some time into securing some semblance of a tan before I get back to the UK.