Happy new year!

Hoping everyone has a.......

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!

Another sunny day here - low to mid 70's but can feel like 80 in the sun. Plans are to have some wine this evening but none of us know if we'll be able to stay awake until midnight.....maybe the two who are well under 40 can but the rest of us (nearly 50 and the over 50's) may not.

I have added more photos to the album and still have more to upload--a slow process with mobile internet.

http://flickr.com/photos/anniedanny

Comments on comments

All the comments to my posts are appreciated. Hope everyone had a nice holiday.

Yes, I missed seeing my granddaughter and the rest of my family for christmas but did have a nice time with Danny and friends. Looking forward to seeing them all in May.

Aubrey--I didn't really learn to cook anything at the VSO 'cooking class' except for chapatis (a bread). We were put to work peeling and slicing mostly. The food was fantastic - pumpkin, matoke, beans, various vegetable dishes, g-nut sauce (peanut sauce), salads. They also cooked beef and chicken but I've learned that when they are cooked the traditional Ugandan way the meat is so tough it rips your teeth out! As for my favourite Ugandan foods, I'd have to say the fresh pineapple and avocados. I enjoy matoke with bean sauce but dooubt that I'll miss it when we return home.

Most of the food at our holiday accommodation is good but the staff is on 'African time' - it can take 1 - 1.5 hours to get your meal after ordering. So we've learned to order well ahead of any hunger pangs.

A few pics....

Lake Bunyonyi



Our cottage

 

Orphans who entertained us on Christmas day




















More pics here: http://flickr.com/photos/anniedanny/

Lake Bunyonyi - Christmas Holidays

Crater Bay Cottages

http://www.traveluganda.co.ug/crater-bay-cottages/index.html
As I mentioned before, Danny and I are spending the holidays on Lake Bunyonyi which is near Kabale in SW Uganda--fairly close to the Rwandan border. Unlike other lakes in Uganda it is crocodile and hippo-free. Swimming, canoeing - regular or dugout - are frequent activities here. The lake is 25km long and 7km wide. There are 29 islands dotting the lake and depths range from 44 - 900m. Since the elevation here is more than 8,000 feet it rarely gets hot and seems to hover in the low to mid-70's during the day. In the evening a jacket is required and at night several blankets for sleeping. The elevation and temps also means mozzies are rare!! I have yet to encounter a mosquito which is pure bliss for me as mozzies have become the bain of my existence.

We are in a thatched roof round cottage (banda) which overlooks the lake. The room is small but sufficient and has the bonus of a HOT shower - a luxury for us. There is a restaurant on the premises which has good food, though nothing spectacular. The staff are all very friendly and helpful. We arrived on Sunday the 23rd, and on Monday we hired a guide in a dugout canoe.

Christmas Day

We spent the day on Bushara Island with fellow volunteers/friends. A buffet lunch was offered which included turkey and stuffing, as well as Indian food. Entertainment lasted several hours and was performed by local singers, drummers, dancers as well as children from a local orphanage. They sang traditional songs in the local language.

Photos

I've taken many photos since we've been here so expect them to be uploaded to my Flickr album sometime during our stay.

The hardest part.......

.....of living in Uganda isn't the mosquitoes, the erratic electricity, the bad roads, the bad drivers, the maddeningly slow internet, the cold showers, the lack of quality goods, the lack of modern appliances in our house, or even having to hand wash our laundry. Hands down, the hardest part is not being able to communicate with my adorable granddaughter--in person or by webcam. What could be better than that pretty, smiling face saying 'hi nana'?

Holidays, internet, frustration!

School holidays

Schools and colleges are on the long holiday now and classes will begin again in mid-February. At our college there are workshops this week and next for PTC teachers (called tutors here) from many neighbouring districts.

For our Christmas holiday we will spend 10 days at Lake Bunyoni. I expect to feel quite sad not being with all of my family this time of year.

We are planning a trip to the US in May. We are quite frustrated just now as we have discovered that Emirates will not let us purchase our tickets online from Uganda. Credit cards can't be used on their website if you live in any African country unless in South Africa. To fly with Emirates we have to go on the long, rough journey to Kampala and pay in cash!! Apparently we can use the Expedia site with other airlines, but we prefer Emirates. Still deciding what to do.....

Home internet connection

During our stay in Kampala the internet connection via our mobile modem was much faster than we expected. We were amazed that I could upload some 1.2-1.3 mg photos in 3-5 minutes each. Not the same at home, unfortunately. It is slower than dial-up and I’ve been unable to upload any large photos. The speed we experienced in Kampala made me optimistic that I could upload small videos to YouTube. However, I’ll have to resort to my previous plan to make videos, burn them to a DVD and mail them to friends and family.

Electricity

We are expecting normal electricity service to resume early next week. I won’t be surprised if this doesn’t happen. Weekday electricity seems like a luxury now.

Public displays of affection

In Uganda it is taboo to show affection to the opposite sex in public. However, it is common to see the same sex holding hands, draping an arm around each other, etc. This is common among both women and men.

Summary of Kampala visit....

• big, modern shopping malls
• great restaurants
• spending, spending, spending
• taxi park = pickpocket central
• hot, sweaty, crowded, dirty, dusty
• hot sun, sun, sun--little rain
• discovering that you can purchase almost any American/European brand of food, toiletries, etc....even those horrid Twinkies!
• a week in a really crappy hotel
• a week in a comfortable hotel with blissfully hot showers
• meeting volunteers we'd never met
• seeing volunteers we know
• partying with volunteers!
• the VSO BBQ
• drooling at the sight of washers, big fridges, ovens, etc...
• boring lectures
• interesting lectures
• constant electricity!
• beer, wine, ice cream, gorgeous food, gaining weight
• waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting....

Now for a wee rant!

We hoped the electricity in our area would be sorted by the time we came back...but no. It's still off during the day and tonight it didn't come back on until after 8p.m. Arghh....

The road....emmm....dirt track that goes to our campus from the main road is currently 3km of mud, potholes big enough to swallow a car, and slippery. I'm not looking forward to riding our motorbike down this road!

Finally back home!

We returned from Kampala last night--our motorbike in the back of a pickup truck. A couple of new volunteers were going in our general direction, so a VSO driver delivered all of us.

The campus is quite quiet with all the students gone for school holidays. Schools are closed until mid February.

Nice to be back although unpacking and (hand)washing all these filthy clothes will take some time. The Kampala pollution, dirt, dusty roads combined with sweat makes cleaning the clothes a bigger challenge than normal.

International Volunteers Day

As designated by the United Nations in 1985, today is....

International Volunteers Day

Still in Kampala

I have uploaded new photos of our recent 2 week adventure in Kampala.

http://flickr.com/photos/anniedanny/sets/72157603350390298/

Courses finished on Friday with a Ugandan cooking course at the programme office garden. There were 8 or 9 dishes and it was all fantastic.

Saturday was even more shopping and an evening BBQ at the VSO office. It has been so good for Danny and I to meet and bond with the other volunteers that we hadn't already met.

We are still at Lweza Conference Centre at least until tomorrow morning. One of the staff is expected to drive us and our new motorbike via pickup truck back to our house, as well as a new volunteer who will be placed near our area. This might not be until Wednesday. Since we have been here a full 2 weeks now we are quite anxious to get back home. 

I took quite a few pics on our walks near Lweza which is outside of the city in a somewhat rural area.