[Photo: Matke Inn Guard dogs (the one in the middle ISN'T one of the guard dogs!)

WEEK 5
We attended Zana Presbyterian Church again and Andrea cooked the meal at Lyn’s flat – her first cooking for six weeks! What’s more, we survived! Steve & Gill from Brentwood were with us and the afternoon passed quickly as we discussed interesting topics such as surge protectors, beds (construction and making of) and water filters.
Monday was a quieter day. No language lessons, letter writing, reading and lesson preparation. When slightly cooler, we went for a slightly walk with Ann (our hostess) and the two compound dogs. They are guard dogs and bark fiercely until you enter the compound and they transform into very friendly animals who love to be stroked.
Back to the language lessons on Tuesday, mainly on numbers. But numbers means time and money and bargaining. It’s one thing to ask how much a pineapple (nanasi) costs but understanding the reply is something else! How about alifualu turusu kalitawu sillingi? That’s 1450 Ugandan shillings of course.
We successfully set up a radio phone so that when we get to Arua we should be able to connect to the internet. Andrea has ordered our bed. I’ve heard there’s an Ikea in Kampala. Wouldn’t that be easier methinks? Probably, and also much much more expensive.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were repeats of Tuesday – except that we covered different things in the language lessons. Andrea knows how to buy and bargain for things in the market but I know how to get her there and back using public transport. Well, I will know how to do it if I have my notebook with me! In getting directions a version of “left-hand” and “right-hand” is used. I found this amusing as “left side” is igi ria and “right side” is anda ria so I suppose I’m left (behind) and she’s (always) right! Some members of our family thought that already.
I learnt to ask for help, especially with things about the car or mutoka. The word for “broken” is andra! So I suppose that if the mirror on the right side is broken it would be “Ma mara andra anda ria"! Sorry about the emphasis on language, but I do need the practice.
Anyway, the broken right side (andra anda ria) i.e. Andrea, returned from shopping with a gas cooker and some other kitchen-type bits that I wouldn’t know how to use. So we have a cooker, a bed and the loan of a kerosene fridge. Yes, it is a fridge that works with a burning wick and we have seen one working. Ask a physicist how it works. One of the Matoke Inn guests is clearing out things from storage and also sold some items today. Andrea called me over to look at tools, kitchen equipment and cotton material – so I ended up with some books!
The dogs took us for a walk on Wednesday but we were adventurous and went a different way. What courage! On Friday Andrea suggested that we walk the dogs by ourselves i.e. she was prepared to take one of them! Both were very well behaved, with Shuna, the older dog looking after us all to make sure we didn’t get lost.
Saturday found us in Entebbe for a very pleasant and relaxing lunch a local hotel. We also bought a kerosene lamp. Not very exciting, but could be essential! I had and short drive of the vehicle we are hoping to buy. I spite of the comments from the back seat, there were no problems and it is easier to drive than I expected.

We’ve had our first languages lessons – and survived! We have asked for separate lessons and this has been generally recommended by other couples so that we learn about topics that are of interest and relevance to each of us. Andrea is enjoying the lessons but I’m (James) finding it very hard work. We can say both formal and informal greetings. I generally spent the rest of the day recovering.

Steve & Gill Golding arrived from Brentwood on Thursday evening. It was great to catch up with Steve & Gill, especially as we have known them for around 20 years and been on holiday with them twice. However, hearing about people back in the UK made us realise how much we were missing our family and friends.

On Saturday we were all up bright and early heading off to Kampala by public transport. Our guide, Lyn Cooke, guided us through the joys of finding 5 places in a taxi (even though there were only 4 seats). Public transport can be very intimate at times! We were led through the maze of streets to banks, foreign exchange, travel agents and eventually for a very pleasant lunch at “Sam’s”. After a brief foray into a Christian bookshop and two African craft areas we ended up at a supermarket (what joy!). Fortunately I spotted another bookshop and got permission to have a further look for school books rather than food shelves. Finally, we headed for the “taxi park”. I think it should be renamed a “taxi jungle”. These are not the small black London taxis but 14 seaters with a driver and a ‘conductor’. There seemed to be little order to or straightforward way of finding the right taxi – until Lyn just asked someone who guided us to the one we needed! It left within 2 minutes and we eventually arrived “home” safely, even though were hot and tired. It was a successful day because Andrea and I felt that at last we might be able to make the trip into Kampala ourselves. [The photo shows the view from our future home in Ushindi School]

We are managing to find our way around – and even travelled to Entebbe (about 35km) using public transport on our own. Last week we were driven north to Arua to visit the school. We went via Murchison Falls National Park and saw baboons on the road, giraffes and elephants along with buffalo, élan, etc. While waiting for the ferry, a hippo was ‘guarding’ the toilet block. It was grazing but we had to be careful when we make our way to and from the block. Not a problem we’ve had before! The roads were generally good; at least those that had tarmac. The dirt roads were not too bad except in a few places that had not dried out and other large vehicles were stuck in them. This had a tendency to cause a traffic jam and general chaos so we were glad that we were in a 4x4 with an experienced driver (Steve) who seemed to enjoy the challenge of avoiding the largest holes by driving up the banks.

On Thursday we were given a guided tour of Arua, pointing out the main shops, market, banks and churches. This was very helpful in finding out what is available in Arua and getting our bearings. By 11am we arrived at Ushindi Secondary School – our future home for a while. The school is about 5km from Arua, but the last 2km is on a narrow mud track. We both decided that we would need to have a vehicle even though we would be living on the school compound. After the formal introductions we were shown the house that we will be living in and were given the opportunity to take measurements and photographs. The windows will need to have netting attached to minimise the entry of mosquitoes and a ceiling will be added. At present there is no electricity either in the school or the houses apart from a few solar panels but there may be a possibility of being connected to the town power supply at some time in the near future, finance permitting. The picture in this section is of our future house – the one on the left end.

On Friday We left Arua at 7.30am to drive back to Kampala around rather than through Murchison Falls National Park using the recognised main road route. Unfortunately, many other drivers were also taking this road, particularly those with very large lorries. There weren’t any problems while on the tar roads, but as on the way to Arua, we had to divert off the road which was still being surfaced. The tracks we followed definitely did not have a surface and some of the lorries were exploring several layers below the surface and assisted by the pools of water from the heavy rain the previous evening. I would like to have taken some pictures of these but my mind was more on how we were going to get past the lorries and trying to keep the majority of my seat on the car seat while moving. We stopped for a short break around midday and arrived in Kampala around 5pm feeling very hot and tired. We do not recommend 10 hour road journeys but the trip was very worthwhile.