I can´t believe how quickly my time is passing here...a true sign that I´m enjoying myself! Since this is my second time in Buenos Aries (I came here 4 years ago) I have really just been living the life of a Porteña rather than rushing around ticking off all the tourist sites...and the more time I spend here the more I think that I could actually live here. For a long time now I have wanted to live in a different country, one that provides a challenge in terms of a different language and culture...but one where I can still live a life that I am accustomed. As much as I loved Uganda I dont think I could ever live there long term. 6 months without water, toilet, shower, oven, fridge etc was fine...but I couldn´t do it long term. The richer residents in the capital of Uganda do live with more luxieries, however I don´t think I could ever justify living that way in a country where the majority of people live in such severe poverty ( I would just feel guilty the whole time). Now, I know that Argentina has its fair share of people living below the poverty line, but its no where near the scale of Uganda, and when you are in Buenos Aries you really could be anywhere - it has everything that you would find in a large European city (museums, art galleries, parks, restaurants, bars, cafes) with the addition of, in my opinion, a much more favourable culture. So much more emphasis is put on the social aspects of life here - of enjoying a good meal with friends/family, of actually spending time talking to one another and basically doing the things that give you pleasure! This is in contrast, again in my opinion, to the rat race world of London where the majority of people are rushing around trying to earn as much money as possible to buy a flat, or a car or the next iPod...and to spend the weekends in a drunken stupour - the thought of going back to that just bores me. I know living here would be different to what im doing now...and i´d have to get a job...and this city isnt particularly cheap to live in (when you compare salaries)...but it´s a thought at the moment, a serious one...
So, as i said above, I dont have much to report on in terms of ´things´that I´ve been doing as I´ve just been ´living´and enjoying myself! Last weekend I went kayaking on a river about an hour outside the city and chilled on the beaches that line the river banks (its a popular weekend spot for Porteñas wanting to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city). I had a tango lesson (the basic steps are pretty easy...i think!), and of course I have been enjoying the steaks, bars and clubs...a little too much actually - i keep forgetting Im 27, and not 21 anymore!! I´ve met some cool people (as you always do when travelling) and my Spanish is coming along...slowly!
I only have one week left of school (in hindsight 4 weeks is not enough time to learn a language - who would have thought??!) so I´m starting to plan the next part of my South American jamboree. First stop is Santiago in Chile to see Oscar, a good friend of mine that I met in Chicago through work...and then it´s on to Brazil for carnival and beyond! There are quite a few Brazilians at the Spanish school and the more i hear about that country, the more excited I get. If it´s half as good as everyone says, then i´m gonna have trouble leaving the place...and all the time I have put into my Spanish will be wasted, bugger!!
Monday, 26 January 2009
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Hola!
I don't know what it is about this continent, but as soon as I land here (this is my forth time in South America) I instantly have a smile on my face. It just 'feels' right, like I belong here somehow. Maybe, as regards to Argentina, it is the amount of incredible meat that is available at ridiclous prices - steak that just melts in your mouth (it really is a meat-lovers dream, especially after 6 months barely touching the stuff in Africa). Or maybe it is the language that I love but, as yet (watch this space), cannot speak! Or maybe it is the relaxed attitude to life...the effort put into family and friend relationships...the music that just makes you wanna dance...and then again maybe it is the number of beautiful girls just walking around (even the ugly ones are pretty here!)...I think it's probably a combination of all these things that just turns my mouth into a permanent cheesy grin!
Ok, so, what have I been up to for the last couple of weeks? First up, a quick mention of my friend Agus, and her boyfriend Fran, that I am staying with. I met Agus at an Accenture training course in Chicago a few years ago and she, and her boyfriend, have just opened up their apartment and friends for me since I have been here. It's been great to stay with them and experience Buenos Aries through the eyes of a 'portena' (word for a person born and bred in Buenos Aries). I went with them to a friends house party in a rich suburb of Buenos Aries for New Years Eve (most locals either leave the city or have a house party for NYE), so while it wasnt quite the wild, crazy fiesta I had envisioned as NYE in Beunos Aries, it was a really nice evening - just relaxing in an incredible house, drinking and making home-made pizza in a proper wood burning pizza oven! The day after we soaked up the alcohol at a bar-b-q at Agus's family 'country house' (it was here sister-in-laws birthday) - this was a great experience in itself...and the amount of steaks cooked was just ridiculous (check the the pic i have uploaded!)...!
I have completed my first week of Spanish school and, although it's not easy, I am definitely improving...and am loving it! It's a small class - just 3 other students (an old American couple and a young guy from Sweden - who, incidently, isn't that impressed with the women here - which just confirms the fact that Sweden really is spoilt in that respect..!). The school itself has over 200 other students and organises lots of 'extra-curricular' activities - which is a great way to meet the other students. So far I have been to an open-air percusion concert (quality), played 5-a-side football (was great until I sprained my ankle - honestly I had 6 months of playing on un-even surfaces in Africa with guys who were indestructable, and I didnt get injured once..then, 10 minutes on an indoor, purpose-built, 5-a-side pitch and I sprain my ankle - ridiculous! ...Luckily it's not affecting my dancing, i can still wiggle my top half!), and, or course, I have also been to numerous restaurants, bars and clubs (you have to, this is Buenos Aries baby!). Next week I'm gonna to do a spot of Tango (assuming my ankle holds up)!
Just a note on the culture of going out here. Clubs and, indeed, bars don't even start to get busy until 2am in the morning - the time when most people in the UK are dragging their limp, weary, alcohol infested bodies home to bed! It's crazy - you go out to dinner around 10pm, finishing around midnight, have a few drinks in the 'warm up' bar(s) of choice, then hit the clubs around 2am (and continue until you drop..!). It's tiring, but great, as you end up having two or three nights in one - you can go to dinner with one set of friends - meet another set of friends for drinks in a bar - then go to a club with a third group of people...all of which means you have plenty of oppotunities to practice your Spanish with different chicas (purely to improve my Spanish you understand!) ;)
Today I am moving out into an apartment with other students - big Thank You to Agus and Fran for being such great hosts and letting me stay for the last couple of weeks. I need to get used to packing and unpacking my backpack again for when I set off on the gringo trail, but the thought of doing it today in 32 degree heat (did i mention that the weather has been beautiful?!) is not a nice one. Anyway, I'd better get on with it, signing off from a city where even the girls that work in McDonalds are cute...!
Ok, so, what have I been up to for the last couple of weeks? First up, a quick mention of my friend Agus, and her boyfriend Fran, that I am staying with. I met Agus at an Accenture training course in Chicago a few years ago and she, and her boyfriend, have just opened up their apartment and friends for me since I have been here. It's been great to stay with them and experience Buenos Aries through the eyes of a 'portena' (word for a person born and bred in Buenos Aries). I went with them to a friends house party in a rich suburb of Buenos Aries for New Years Eve (most locals either leave the city or have a house party for NYE), so while it wasnt quite the wild, crazy fiesta I had envisioned as NYE in Beunos Aries, it was a really nice evening - just relaxing in an incredible house, drinking and making home-made pizza in a proper wood burning pizza oven! The day after we soaked up the alcohol at a bar-b-q at Agus's family 'country house' (it was here sister-in-laws birthday) - this was a great experience in itself...and the amount of steaks cooked was just ridiculous (check the the pic i have uploaded!)...!
I have completed my first week of Spanish school and, although it's not easy, I am definitely improving...and am loving it! It's a small class - just 3 other students (an old American couple and a young guy from Sweden - who, incidently, isn't that impressed with the women here - which just confirms the fact that Sweden really is spoilt in that respect..!). The school itself has over 200 other students and organises lots of 'extra-curricular' activities - which is a great way to meet the other students. So far I have been to an open-air percusion concert (quality), played 5-a-side football (was great until I sprained my ankle - honestly I had 6 months of playing on un-even surfaces in Africa with guys who were indestructable, and I didnt get injured once..then, 10 minutes on an indoor, purpose-built, 5-a-side pitch and I sprain my ankle - ridiculous! ...Luckily it's not affecting my dancing, i can still wiggle my top half!), and, or course, I have also been to numerous restaurants, bars and clubs (you have to, this is Buenos Aries baby!). Next week I'm gonna to do a spot of Tango (assuming my ankle holds up)!
Just a note on the culture of going out here. Clubs and, indeed, bars don't even start to get busy until 2am in the morning - the time when most people in the UK are dragging their limp, weary, alcohol infested bodies home to bed! It's crazy - you go out to dinner around 10pm, finishing around midnight, have a few drinks in the 'warm up' bar(s) of choice, then hit the clubs around 2am (and continue until you drop..!). It's tiring, but great, as you end up having two or three nights in one - you can go to dinner with one set of friends - meet another set of friends for drinks in a bar - then go to a club with a third group of people...all of which means you have plenty of oppotunities to practice your Spanish with different chicas (purely to improve my Spanish you understand!) ;)
Today I am moving out into an apartment with other students - big Thank You to Agus and Fran for being such great hosts and letting me stay for the last couple of weeks. I need to get used to packing and unpacking my backpack again for when I set off on the gringo trail, but the thought of doing it today in 32 degree heat (did i mention that the weather has been beautiful?!) is not a nice one. Anyway, I'd better get on with it, signing off from a city where even the girls that work in McDonalds are cute...!
Monday, 29 December 2008
Part 2 Begins...
After a whirlwind pit-stop at home, I am off again for part 2 of my 'Big Year Out'. I'm spending the next 6 months in South America - visiting friends, travelling and soaking up the continent that I love. The aim is to come back with a reasonable grasp of Spanish...whilst having a bloody good time!
The rough plan is outlined below - although the only part that is fixed at the moment is the first month in Buenos Aries where i'll be studying hard at my Spanish school...whilst enjoying the delights of an incredible city:
The rough plan is outlined below - although the only part that is fixed at the moment is the first month in Buenos Aries where i'll be studying hard at my Spanish school...whilst enjoying the delights of an incredible city:
- Jan: Argentina (Buenos Aries)
- Feb (first two weeks): Chile (Santiago and South)
- Feb/March/April: Brazil (carnival time!)
- April: Venezuela
- May: Columbia
- June: Panama/Costa Rica
All i ask is that you occasionally drop me an email to tell me whats going on...and that you try not to mess up the economy any more than you have done in the last 6 months...If I can't get a job then I may not come back at all!
Monday, 15 December 2008
Big Year Out - Half Time
So, this is it, the last entry from Uganda, from ‘Part 1’ of my year out – how is it possible?! It only seems like a couple of months have gone by since I set off from blighty to change the world (!) – and yet I have experienced so much, seen so much, learnt so much and, I think, achieved so much!
Ok, before I get all emotional lets update you on the last 5 weeks (it’s been a while since the last entry!)
First up is the visit of my good mate Jez. Jez was over for 10days and it was just quality. It was brilliant to show him around Bajjo, to introduce him to my new friends, to watch his face as he saw small children running around with large machetes for the first time, to put him to work digging the 5-a-side football pitch and to just kick back and laugh, a lot, with a good mate. During his visit we also spent a few days up in Murchison Falls National Park, spying elephants, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles , waking up to giant warthogs sniffing the tent and trekking with Rhinos…and, or course, sampling the night life of Kampala for a bit of well earned party time!! Thanks for coming out mate, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
One thing that I hoped to get invited to while I was here was a local wedding. My wish came true when the brother of Justine (our neighbour) got married last month. We rushed around Kampala the night before buying cheap shirts, ties and trousers and turned up at a gospel church in Kawempe (a slum area just outside Kampala) the next day. Being a gospel church they had a great choir which was definitely the highlight of the day (along with the strange whooping noise that people make when they are celebrating a joyous occasion!..)…waiting 2 hours for the bride to arrive in sweltering heat dressed in thick trousers, shirt and tie was not so fun (I know its tradition for the bride to turn up late…and time has no meaning here…but 2 hours was just taking the piss!) The reception wasn’t quite the crazy, dance fest I had expected…instead it was about 4 hours of speeches from men (only) in the family saying the same thing over and over again, all translated into three languages (‘thank you God for putting these two people together, we have been blessed’….etc…). I did get some booty shaking (and of course pointing!) in at the end, but not enough for my liking! Still it was good day and I’m glad I got the chance to experience it.
On the project side of life we have had a great, if incredibly busy last few weeks (and there I was naively thinking that we would get all our work done early and kick back and enjoy the experience for the last couple of weeks!). In the last 3 weeks we have:
- Built a playground at the school which included; monkey bars, tyre swings, stepping stones, rope ladder climbing frame, parallel bars (for disabled kids) and colourful benches.
- Painted health messages on the school (a requirement in Uganda)
- Attached guttering and bought a huge water tank for the school to ensure the kids have fresh rain water (they currently drink very dirty water from a well close to the school)
- Organized the second village party (a great success with nurses from a local clinic in attendance giving a talk on HIV and providing outreach HIV testing and counseling….along with the ever popular football and netball tournaments)
- Marked out the best football pitch in the district (we have spent the last few months digging a trench to drain a large area of land, which was finally dry enough to be marked and an exhibition match was played at the end of the village party…a game in which my team lost 2-1…after I missed a penalty in front of a capacity crowd…its gonna haunt me months to come!)
- Picked up a wheelchair for a severely disabled kid in the village and took him for his first ride
- Karl completed a week of training with AMREF staff (the whizzkids HIV & lifeskills programme that Karl wrote in South Africa and that we have been running in Bombo is to be used by AMREF as part of their strategy to fight Malaria, TB and HIV in Uganda – a great partnership and one that I feel I can take some satisfaction from having made the introduction between AMREF and Whizzkids following the work I did for AMREF in London earlier this year)
- The ‘Bajjo Craft Makers’ had a day trip to Kampala to meet prospective buyers for their products and were officially formed as a business/organization when they paid their registration fee, signed the group operating rules and received a donation from wannabeamazin to help them with their capital costs (a proud moment for me – its been a struggle, especially with some of the business training I conducted – most of the women in the group hadn’t picked up a pen since they were at school 30 years ago…that’s if they even went to school!!)
- And, finally, we finished writing our wannabeamazin programme manauals for Art, Creative Studies, Junior Academy and Sports. We have printed them and put them together in folders to form a very professional looking set of programmes..and something we are all incredibly proud of.
So, in an ode to my time at Accenture, what were the lessons learnt in the last 6 months:
- Things take a looooooong time to happen in Africa
- Maybe Idi Amin wasn’t all bad
- In a dark bar I look like Michael Schofield (stop laughing)
- Tiny parasites called Jiggers hurt, a lot.
- I can’t live without a shower, toilet or oven indefinitely – 6 months is enough
- Kids in the UK are wrapped up in too much cotton wool – let them play with knives – they’ll soon learn
- Things take a long time to happen in Africa
- Human sacrifice is still performed fairly regularly in Uganda!
- Malaria, TB and HIV really do kill a lot of people every day in Africa (I’ve seen it first hand)
- We really don’t appreciate how many opportunities we have in the UK – we can do anything if we really want to – anyone moaning about their situation needs to just look around at all the possibilities and grasp them
- Kids don’t need expensive toys – a bottle top can keep them amused for hours
- Termites are bloody destructive creatures
- Things take a long time to happen in Africa
- I can happily live without a TV…but I do miss watching major sporting events (still gutted I didn’t see Bolt break the 100 and 200m records at the Olympics…and the recent Joe Calzaghe fight..)
- Experiences are enhanced when shared with a loved one…finding someone that you love, that you truly love, who is in the same place as you (mentally and physically) is a near impossible task
- Fried grasshoppers are really quite nice…fried white ants are not so nice
- I still love travelling and meeting new people – but friends and family are impossible to replace
- Things take a long time to happen in Africa
- Change in Africa has to come from Africans
- Education is key to a countries development – it really can affect the mindset, culture and development of a country
- Working in a culture that has no concept of time is at first interesting, then annoying and ultimately incredibly frustrating!
- Things take a bloody long time to happen in Africa!!
- I can kill a chicken.
I have had a great weekend to finish on - we invited around 40 people to our house on Friday night to have a big Christmas party and gave out presents to many of the people there –seeing the kids faces as Vinny (our local employee) came round the corner dressed up in a Father Christmas outfit was priceless! We followed that with a meal on Saturday at the local chairmans house, and another one yesterday with SPAU (the charity we have ‘officially’ been working under here). I left Bajjo yesterday and it was hard, really hard. I have become so close to the people there, especially our immediate neighbours...I’m not ashamed to say that a tear was shed.
And so, I fly home today. Looking back at the goals I had for my time in Uganda – to have an adventure and to do something ‘good’ – I can say, hand on my heart, that they have been achieved…and I am just so thankful that I have had this opportunity, and that I picked this option over a couple of others that I had. This has been an incredible experience, one that has helped me to develop again as a person, as a human being. And, as I leave Uganda, I know that Uganda and the people of Bajjo will never leave my heart – I’ll be back, that’s for sure.
Ok, before I get all emotional lets update you on the last 5 weeks (it’s been a while since the last entry!)
First up is the visit of my good mate Jez. Jez was over for 10days and it was just quality. It was brilliant to show him around Bajjo, to introduce him to my new friends, to watch his face as he saw small children running around with large machetes for the first time, to put him to work digging the 5-a-side football pitch and to just kick back and laugh, a lot, with a good mate. During his visit we also spent a few days up in Murchison Falls National Park, spying elephants, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles , waking up to giant warthogs sniffing the tent and trekking with Rhinos…and, or course, sampling the night life of Kampala for a bit of well earned party time!! Thanks for coming out mate, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
One thing that I hoped to get invited to while I was here was a local wedding. My wish came true when the brother of Justine (our neighbour) got married last month. We rushed around Kampala the night before buying cheap shirts, ties and trousers and turned up at a gospel church in Kawempe (a slum area just outside Kampala) the next day. Being a gospel church they had a great choir which was definitely the highlight of the day (along with the strange whooping noise that people make when they are celebrating a joyous occasion!..)…waiting 2 hours for the bride to arrive in sweltering heat dressed in thick trousers, shirt and tie was not so fun (I know its tradition for the bride to turn up late…and time has no meaning here…but 2 hours was just taking the piss!) The reception wasn’t quite the crazy, dance fest I had expected…instead it was about 4 hours of speeches from men (only) in the family saying the same thing over and over again, all translated into three languages (‘thank you God for putting these two people together, we have been blessed’….etc…). I did get some booty shaking (and of course pointing!) in at the end, but not enough for my liking! Still it was good day and I’m glad I got the chance to experience it.
On the project side of life we have had a great, if incredibly busy last few weeks (and there I was naively thinking that we would get all our work done early and kick back and enjoy the experience for the last couple of weeks!). In the last 3 weeks we have:
- Built a playground at the school which included; monkey bars, tyre swings, stepping stones, rope ladder climbing frame, parallel bars (for disabled kids) and colourful benches.
- Painted health messages on the school (a requirement in Uganda)
- Attached guttering and bought a huge water tank for the school to ensure the kids have fresh rain water (they currently drink very dirty water from a well close to the school)
- Organized the second village party (a great success with nurses from a local clinic in attendance giving a talk on HIV and providing outreach HIV testing and counseling….along with the ever popular football and netball tournaments)
- Marked out the best football pitch in the district (we have spent the last few months digging a trench to drain a large area of land, which was finally dry enough to be marked and an exhibition match was played at the end of the village party…a game in which my team lost 2-1…after I missed a penalty in front of a capacity crowd…its gonna haunt me months to come!)
- Picked up a wheelchair for a severely disabled kid in the village and took him for his first ride
- Karl completed a week of training with AMREF staff (the whizzkids HIV & lifeskills programme that Karl wrote in South Africa and that we have been running in Bombo is to be used by AMREF as part of their strategy to fight Malaria, TB and HIV in Uganda – a great partnership and one that I feel I can take some satisfaction from having made the introduction between AMREF and Whizzkids following the work I did for AMREF in London earlier this year)
- The ‘Bajjo Craft Makers’ had a day trip to Kampala to meet prospective buyers for their products and were officially formed as a business/organization when they paid their registration fee, signed the group operating rules and received a donation from wannabeamazin to help them with their capital costs (a proud moment for me – its been a struggle, especially with some of the business training I conducted – most of the women in the group hadn’t picked up a pen since they were at school 30 years ago…that’s if they even went to school!!)
- And, finally, we finished writing our wannabeamazin programme manauals for Art, Creative Studies, Junior Academy and Sports. We have printed them and put them together in folders to form a very professional looking set of programmes..and something we are all incredibly proud of.
So, in an ode to my time at Accenture, what were the lessons learnt in the last 6 months:
- Things take a looooooong time to happen in Africa
- Maybe Idi Amin wasn’t all bad
- In a dark bar I look like Michael Schofield (stop laughing)
- Tiny parasites called Jiggers hurt, a lot.
- I can’t live without a shower, toilet or oven indefinitely – 6 months is enough
- Kids in the UK are wrapped up in too much cotton wool – let them play with knives – they’ll soon learn
- Things take a long time to happen in Africa
- Human sacrifice is still performed fairly regularly in Uganda!
- Malaria, TB and HIV really do kill a lot of people every day in Africa (I’ve seen it first hand)
- We really don’t appreciate how many opportunities we have in the UK – we can do anything if we really want to – anyone moaning about their situation needs to just look around at all the possibilities and grasp them
- Kids don’t need expensive toys – a bottle top can keep them amused for hours
- Termites are bloody destructive creatures
- Things take a long time to happen in Africa
- I can happily live without a TV…but I do miss watching major sporting events (still gutted I didn’t see Bolt break the 100 and 200m records at the Olympics…and the recent Joe Calzaghe fight..)
- Experiences are enhanced when shared with a loved one…finding someone that you love, that you truly love, who is in the same place as you (mentally and physically) is a near impossible task
- Fried grasshoppers are really quite nice…fried white ants are not so nice
- I still love travelling and meeting new people – but friends and family are impossible to replace
- Things take a long time to happen in Africa
- Change in Africa has to come from Africans
- Education is key to a countries development – it really can affect the mindset, culture and development of a country
- Working in a culture that has no concept of time is at first interesting, then annoying and ultimately incredibly frustrating!
- Things take a bloody long time to happen in Africa!!
- I can kill a chicken.
I have had a great weekend to finish on - we invited around 40 people to our house on Friday night to have a big Christmas party and gave out presents to many of the people there –seeing the kids faces as Vinny (our local employee) came round the corner dressed up in a Father Christmas outfit was priceless! We followed that with a meal on Saturday at the local chairmans house, and another one yesterday with SPAU (the charity we have ‘officially’ been working under here). I left Bajjo yesterday and it was hard, really hard. I have become so close to the people there, especially our immediate neighbours...I’m not ashamed to say that a tear was shed.
And so, I fly home today. Looking back at the goals I had for my time in Uganda – to have an adventure and to do something ‘good’ – I can say, hand on my heart, that they have been achieved…and I am just so thankful that I have had this opportunity, and that I picked this option over a couple of others that I had. This has been an incredible experience, one that has helped me to develop again as a person, as a human being. And, as I leave Uganda, I know that Uganda and the people of Bajjo will never leave my heart – I’ll be back, that’s for sure.
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Change is coming...
The end of my African adventure is in sight, less than 5 weeks left…where has the time gone?! We are busier than ever trying to finish writing our recreational programmes, building the sports pitches, train a group of budding business women, launch the outreach clinic and get everything in place to ensure that what we have started will continue long after we have left the place I have come to call home for the last 6 months – Bajjo!...
Last week was Annas birthday and she decided a trip to Kampala for the night to sample some meat, wine and a hot shower was in order to celebrate – I certainly wasn’t arguing. We took Vinny (our local programme manager) along for the celebration. Now, although Vinny is reasonably well educated (he almost finished secondary school) and his English is pretty damn good (he’s even using a bit of slang now!) he is a true village boy, and rarely travels into the city (this was his third time in 2008 and the second time was when we took him to watch Uganda play football last month!). It was truly a night of ‘firsts’ for Vinny – his first ever hot shower, his first ever pizza and his first ever time on the internet (I have been giving Vinny regular computing training sessions on our laptop so he can send us reports when we are back in the UK but this was the first time he had used the internet and email!). When I told him that the internet was like a giant book with pages about every conceivable subject he could ever imagine I don’t think he believed me…but an hour sitting on Google typing in anything that came in to his head convinced him and, to be honest, blew his mind a little bit!
My rare mid-week internet access is due to the fact that I am preparing myself for the impending arrival of Mr Jeremy Katz tomorrow morning. Jez is a good mate of mine and I’m thoroughly looking forward to the next couple of weeks. I shall be ensuring he earns his keep with some hard graft sorting out the five-a-side football pitch, constructing a climbing frame and painting the school…but will also take in one of the highlights of Uganda – Murchison Falls National Park (includes the worlds mast powerful waterfall). And yes, for those that have requested it, I will try and sort out some pictures of the locals stroking the body hair of my furry friend (see earlier blog for those who are confused)!
The big news item last week, that no doubt didn’t go unnoticed where you were(!), was of course the US election. It’s amazing how the election has gripped Africa as I’m sure it has everywhere else. Food stalls have re-named themselves to ‘Obamas outlet’ and ‘Barrakcs Buns’ (ok I made the second one up, but you get the idea!) and on the lead-up to the election locals in Kampala would regularly call out their support for Obama as you walked past (we muzungu are all the same – American, English, whatever!). The night itself coincided with Annas birthday so we were in Kampala and thus had access to TV’s – indeed the hostel we were staying in had an all night election party for all the ‘Peace Corp’ in Uganda (can never say ‘Peace Corp’ without using an American accent…or smirking afterwards…not sure why!). The reaction the morning afterwards was even more amazing – as we walked through Kampala locals were constantly coming up to us shouting the name ‘Obama’ and enquiring as to whether we supported him. There is a real feeling that because of his African roots he is gonna directly help every individual here in some way. Now, while I think that Obama is a great choice, I’m not sure American policy towards Africa will change that much and ,indeed, one of the things that people don’t necessarily give Bush credit for is the huge amount of money he has ploughed into Africa over his 8 year term (albeit with a number of conditions attached...). At any rate, if change is going to really happen in Africa then it will have to come from the people that are here, not a leader from some ‘developed’ country overseas… Right, before I get into a really deep political rant, lets talk about eating bugs!
So, when I am travelling I always like to try and sample the local foods. For me it’s part of the experience and living here in Uganda has been no different. One of the local delicacies that has only recently come into season are flying ‘white ants’. They are about an inch long and are similar to the flying ants we get in England in the summer – the ones that all of a sudden appear on a summers day and start flying around in swarms (how the hell they all coordinate and synchronise when they emerge from their nests is one of lifes great mysteries!). It’s exactly the same here – although it seems to be every couple of weeks that is designated as ‘flying day’ and the little beasts decide to take to the air...and the locals love it, especially the children! They run around catching them as they fly from their nests (they are quite sluggish in the air) and pop them straight into their mouths! Now, whilst I like to try everything, I haven’t quite brought myself around to eating them ‘raw’. Nope, being a sophisticated fellow, I wait for Justine next door to wash them, then fry them before I sample the little blighters! And what are they like, I hear you ask…’crunchy’ is all I can say – they are neither good nor bad, just kind of crunchy!
Idi Admin, the name in the West conjures up images of mass graves, of oppression and of evil dictatorship. But the impression of Idi Amin here in Uganda is not the one that was portrayed in ‘the last king of Scotland’. Indeed I have spoken to a number of people now about Idi Amin and what they think of him and have received the same view from people of different tribes, from different areas of Uganda and with different levels of education – that Idi Amin was not such a bad guy, that he didn’t commit all the atrocities we are led to believe in the West. Indeed the general feeling is that he was a good, honest leader who helped to develop the country in many ways. The stories of mass killings that we are told in the West are said to unfounded, unproved or the work of the opposition who then blamed Idi Amin for the atrocities. It is interesting that this view is repeated across Uganda and you start to wonder who has been fed propaganda…is it us in the West, by Governments that had fallen out with Amin and were not comfortable with his relationship with Colonel Gaddafi and so led a huge smear campaign assisted by Amins opponents in Uganda…or have the Ugandans been brainwashed into believing that one of their former leaders was really a hero and that the meddling of foreign governments prevented him from fulfilling his dream of developing Uganda into a great developed nation…who knows!?
Finally a quick word to all the accenturites out there reading this – have a few leaving drinks on my behalf this Friday! For those not enclosed in the dark world of accenture you probably won’t be surprised to find out that the current global ‘credit crunch’ (that has barely made the news over in Uganda) has hit accenture hard and they have been through a big process of cost cutting and redundancies. The process has, apparently, been a long one, although I only heard about it last Wednesday evening when HR rang me informing me that the deadline for applying for voluntary redundancies had passed! I managed to get an extension considering my circumstances (complete and utter ignorance of the whole process!) and, after considering the package on offer, had my mum submit the appropriate forms on Thursday (lack of internet needn’t be a blocker in these circumstances when you have supportive family!). By Monday this week my application was accepted and that is pretty much that. After a little over 4 and a half years of working for one of the biggest consultancy companies in the world I am out of there. It’s a strange feeling, but I think it is definitely the right decision – I have been thinking about leaving for a long time and this provided me the perfect ‘get out’! It feels good, I can go into the second half of my year out with a clear head and can think about what I really want to be do with my life, hmmm…
Last week was Annas birthday and she decided a trip to Kampala for the night to sample some meat, wine and a hot shower was in order to celebrate – I certainly wasn’t arguing. We took Vinny (our local programme manager) along for the celebration. Now, although Vinny is reasonably well educated (he almost finished secondary school) and his English is pretty damn good (he’s even using a bit of slang now!) he is a true village boy, and rarely travels into the city (this was his third time in 2008 and the second time was when we took him to watch Uganda play football last month!). It was truly a night of ‘firsts’ for Vinny – his first ever hot shower, his first ever pizza and his first ever time on the internet (I have been giving Vinny regular computing training sessions on our laptop so he can send us reports when we are back in the UK but this was the first time he had used the internet and email!). When I told him that the internet was like a giant book with pages about every conceivable subject he could ever imagine I don’t think he believed me…but an hour sitting on Google typing in anything that came in to his head convinced him and, to be honest, blew his mind a little bit!
My rare mid-week internet access is due to the fact that I am preparing myself for the impending arrival of Mr Jeremy Katz tomorrow morning. Jez is a good mate of mine and I’m thoroughly looking forward to the next couple of weeks. I shall be ensuring he earns his keep with some hard graft sorting out the five-a-side football pitch, constructing a climbing frame and painting the school…but will also take in one of the highlights of Uganda – Murchison Falls National Park (includes the worlds mast powerful waterfall). And yes, for those that have requested it, I will try and sort out some pictures of the locals stroking the body hair of my furry friend (see earlier blog for those who are confused)!
The big news item last week, that no doubt didn’t go unnoticed where you were(!), was of course the US election. It’s amazing how the election has gripped Africa as I’m sure it has everywhere else. Food stalls have re-named themselves to ‘Obamas outlet’ and ‘Barrakcs Buns’ (ok I made the second one up, but you get the idea!) and on the lead-up to the election locals in Kampala would regularly call out their support for Obama as you walked past (we muzungu are all the same – American, English, whatever!). The night itself coincided with Annas birthday so we were in Kampala and thus had access to TV’s – indeed the hostel we were staying in had an all night election party for all the ‘Peace Corp’ in Uganda (can never say ‘Peace Corp’ without using an American accent…or smirking afterwards…not sure why!). The reaction the morning afterwards was even more amazing – as we walked through Kampala locals were constantly coming up to us shouting the name ‘Obama’ and enquiring as to whether we supported him. There is a real feeling that because of his African roots he is gonna directly help every individual here in some way. Now, while I think that Obama is a great choice, I’m not sure American policy towards Africa will change that much and ,indeed, one of the things that people don’t necessarily give Bush credit for is the huge amount of money he has ploughed into Africa over his 8 year term (albeit with a number of conditions attached...). At any rate, if change is going to really happen in Africa then it will have to come from the people that are here, not a leader from some ‘developed’ country overseas… Right, before I get into a really deep political rant, lets talk about eating bugs!
So, when I am travelling I always like to try and sample the local foods. For me it’s part of the experience and living here in Uganda has been no different. One of the local delicacies that has only recently come into season are flying ‘white ants’. They are about an inch long and are similar to the flying ants we get in England in the summer – the ones that all of a sudden appear on a summers day and start flying around in swarms (how the hell they all coordinate and synchronise when they emerge from their nests is one of lifes great mysteries!). It’s exactly the same here – although it seems to be every couple of weeks that is designated as ‘flying day’ and the little beasts decide to take to the air...and the locals love it, especially the children! They run around catching them as they fly from their nests (they are quite sluggish in the air) and pop them straight into their mouths! Now, whilst I like to try everything, I haven’t quite brought myself around to eating them ‘raw’. Nope, being a sophisticated fellow, I wait for Justine next door to wash them, then fry them before I sample the little blighters! And what are they like, I hear you ask…’crunchy’ is all I can say – they are neither good nor bad, just kind of crunchy!
Idi Admin, the name in the West conjures up images of mass graves, of oppression and of evil dictatorship. But the impression of Idi Amin here in Uganda is not the one that was portrayed in ‘the last king of Scotland’. Indeed I have spoken to a number of people now about Idi Amin and what they think of him and have received the same view from people of different tribes, from different areas of Uganda and with different levels of education – that Idi Amin was not such a bad guy, that he didn’t commit all the atrocities we are led to believe in the West. Indeed the general feeling is that he was a good, honest leader who helped to develop the country in many ways. The stories of mass killings that we are told in the West are said to unfounded, unproved or the work of the opposition who then blamed Idi Amin for the atrocities. It is interesting that this view is repeated across Uganda and you start to wonder who has been fed propaganda…is it us in the West, by Governments that had fallen out with Amin and were not comfortable with his relationship with Colonel Gaddafi and so led a huge smear campaign assisted by Amins opponents in Uganda…or have the Ugandans been brainwashed into believing that one of their former leaders was really a hero and that the meddling of foreign governments prevented him from fulfilling his dream of developing Uganda into a great developed nation…who knows!?
Finally a quick word to all the accenturites out there reading this – have a few leaving drinks on my behalf this Friday! For those not enclosed in the dark world of accenture you probably won’t be surprised to find out that the current global ‘credit crunch’ (that has barely made the news over in Uganda) has hit accenture hard and they have been through a big process of cost cutting and redundancies. The process has, apparently, been a long one, although I only heard about it last Wednesday evening when HR rang me informing me that the deadline for applying for voluntary redundancies had passed! I managed to get an extension considering my circumstances (complete and utter ignorance of the whole process!) and, after considering the package on offer, had my mum submit the appropriate forms on Thursday (lack of internet needn’t be a blocker in these circumstances when you have supportive family!). By Monday this week my application was accepted and that is pretty much that. After a little over 4 and a half years of working for one of the biggest consultancy companies in the world I am out of there. It’s a strange feeling, but I think it is definitely the right decision – I have been thinking about leaving for a long time and this provided me the perfect ‘get out’! It feels good, I can go into the second half of my year out with a clear head and can think about what I really want to be do with my life, hmmm…
Thursday, 23 October 2008
Michael Schofield? - Yeah thats my brother
Football - what most of us know and something that Americans just need to accept – it is the most popular game in the world. No question. In Europe it’s huge, in Asia they are fanatic, in South America there are more football goals than you would believe and in Africa it’s a way of life! People love it here and, in particular, the English premiership! People are either Man Utd or Arsenal fans (with a few Chelsea and Liverpool thrown in for good measure!). Bombo (the local town) grinds to a halt when there is a big game (the local team even cancelled there league game when Man Utd played Chelsea earlier this season – all cramming in to a local shack in Bombo to watch the game!). To fully experience the love for the game out here Karl and I played for a local team a couple of weeks ago after an invitation from one of the guys in Bombo. We travelled on the back of a motorbike (more about that later) to a ‘pitch’ about 8 miles away and played a game, in the middle of nowhere, in front of about 300 people (biggest crowd I’ve ever played in front of!). It was a great experience and a proper African game – tackles were flying in (I’ve said it before, but these people are indestructible!), crooked goal posts and sloping pitch (with pot holes everywhere!). We came on to play the second half with our team 1-0 up, me in centre midfield, Karl in the centre of defence…and soon it was 1-1!! The rain started falling but we pressed on – I almost got a shot in, before one of my team-mates cracked a half-volley into the back of the ‘net’ (metaphorical net of course). And that’s how it ended 2-1 (bloody relieved we didn’t lose it for them!), brilliant. I added a team photo in my last set of photos (the one with the yellow shirts)…
Another great football experience was watching a world cup qualifier in the national stadium (Uganda v’s Benin) last weekend. We took our local employees along as a treat (and for protection!!) and got involved, wearing Uganda shirts and dancing along to the drumbeats in the crowd. It wasn’t the best quality football, but was definitely an exciting game - Uganda had to win to stand any chance of progressing to the next stage of qualifying…and Benin were the unbeaten group leaders…some of the refereeing was a bit dodgy (apparently hardly anyone ever loses when they play at home in Africa – corruption/bribery?...surely not!)….Uganda won 2-1, but unfortunately results went against them elsewhere (Angola also winning and progressing at the expense of Uganda). It was a great atmosphere though…even when the police started firing tear gas into the crowd (this was after the local support had pelted the Benin players with bottles as they were walking off the pitch – I wouldn’t like to be around when the team loses!!)
One thing I don’t think I’ve really mentioned yet is the transport that we use to get around here. Most muzungu living in Uganda are with large charities or NGOs and thus get chauffeured around in 4-wheel drive trucks. But for us, in ‘wannabeamazin’, we keep it real and go local! The main transport between towns are called ‘taxis’…but not the taxis that you and I are accustomed – these are small mini-bus vans (about the size of a VW camper van) with 4 rows of 3 seats in the back and 2 seats (+ the driver) in the front. They are licensed to carry 14 passengers…but this is Africa and they routinely squeeze 20 passengers in…I think the record I have seen is 24! It’s not the most comfortable of experiences and the drivers are crazy – for a country that is, in many ways, incredibly slow-paced, these guys do not hang about – time is literally money for them, the faster they can get somewhere, the faster they can offload the current set of passengers and get some new ones on – they hammer it! The taxi parks, where the journeys start and begin in Kampala, are just as crazy. The best term to describe them is ‘organised chaos’ (think a huge open space, crammed with mini-buses pointing in every conceivable direction, with no obvious ‘roads’ inbetween the rows of vehicles, and the conductors trying to fill their taxis by shouting out their end destination). I don’t know how it works, but somehow it does! Crazier still is the mode of transport to get around towns – ‘boda bodas’. These are small motorbikes that get up to 4 passengers on the back before weaving through the crowded streets of Kampala (a lot of areas are grid-locked) at break-neck speeds. They are bloody dangerous (obviously no helmets) but you have little choice if you want to get to the other side of town quickly – you just have to get on, close your eyes and hope for the best! I had my first accident last week, though luckily in the more serene surroundings of Bombo. I was riding from Bajjo to Bombo on the back of a ‘boda boda ‘up the steep dirt track through the valley that separates the village from the town. Recently the ‘road’ has become really bad (the rainy season has started) and the driver slipped down a ‘trench’ in the road – to try and get out he jammed the accelerator and the front wheel just shot up in the air and we both came off the back, luckily with just a couple of bruises and scratches to show for it! To be honest I’m incredibly surprised that I have not seen more accidents since I have been over here!
My mum and her partner have been here this week and had (I think) a great time. I was so pleased that she came out – it was her first time outside Europe and to do a bit of ‘adventure’ travel and they are already talking about doing a trip to South America (that’s the thing about travelling, as soon as you do it you realise what you have been missing and get addicted!). They spent their first week in Kenya on safari (which they loved) and the second week experiencing the delights of Kampala and Bajjo…they even got themselves in a ‘taxi mini-bus’ one day to go to Jinjja (a town North of Kampala – famous for being the source of the Nile), I was most impressed! Well done mum and thanks for all the supplies you brought with you – the resource centre is looking much healthier!
Rain – we think we have rain in England – we don’t have rain, Uganda has rain! The rainy season is underway and around 4 pm most days the heavens open and water just falls from the sky for about an hour. The ‘road’ in the village turns into a river, and our backyard become a convenient lake for the grateful ducks that live next door. One benefit of living in such a wet climate is that things just grow here – if you don’t keep an area of ground clear by hoeing it every day then you’ll wake up with a jungle the next morning! Indeed, something that has just sprouted up recently in our backyard is marijuana! Huge plants of it, 10 feet tall. The thought of all the preparation that goes into growing it in the UK (silver foil, lamps, heaters etc) and here it is just growing on its own in our backyard (don’t worry mum, I have no idea how to convert it from the plant into a smokable form!)
A quick word on the work front – things are finally progressing with the cooperative I have been trying to set-up in the village - an income generation project for the women (and men) that make crafts. It has been a slow process (almost 3 months) of sensitisation, trying to convey the benefits of working as a group and selling crafts to muzungu for a higher price (we can afford it after all!). But finally things seem to be moving. We had our first official meeting of 15 members – a chairman was elected, a name chosen (‘Bajjo Craft Makers’), and a motto selected (‘The harder we work – the better we become’). There is still a long way to go, but with the financial crisis hitting most big companies in the West I think this could be an opportunity for ‘Bajjo Craft Makers’ to rise up and become a global powerhouse!!
One final thing I must admit is that whilst I love living in the village and experiencing village life, I do also look forward to going to Kampala every couple of weeks to experience a bit of luxury (by luxury I mean a toilet and a shower – not necessarily a hot shower!) and to have a beer or two in the local bars! One thing that has made this quite amusing is that, when I have a freshly shaven head, I get mistaken for being Michael Schofield (the lead actor in the series prison break). Now, I can already hear some of you laughing and scoffing at your computer screen in disbelief, but this is not the first time – when I was in the States 2 years ago with a shaved head some of the yanks also commented on the similarity! Needless to say, I’m certainly not going to discourage the comparison…and I might, sometimes, even claim to be his brother... (just a small white lie!!), hahaha!
Another great football experience was watching a world cup qualifier in the national stadium (Uganda v’s Benin) last weekend. We took our local employees along as a treat (and for protection!!) and got involved, wearing Uganda shirts and dancing along to the drumbeats in the crowd. It wasn’t the best quality football, but was definitely an exciting game - Uganda had to win to stand any chance of progressing to the next stage of qualifying…and Benin were the unbeaten group leaders…some of the refereeing was a bit dodgy (apparently hardly anyone ever loses when they play at home in Africa – corruption/bribery?...surely not!)….Uganda won 2-1, but unfortunately results went against them elsewhere (Angola also winning and progressing at the expense of Uganda). It was a great atmosphere though…even when the police started firing tear gas into the crowd (this was after the local support had pelted the Benin players with bottles as they were walking off the pitch – I wouldn’t like to be around when the team loses!!)
One thing I don’t think I’ve really mentioned yet is the transport that we use to get around here. Most muzungu living in Uganda are with large charities or NGOs and thus get chauffeured around in 4-wheel drive trucks. But for us, in ‘wannabeamazin’, we keep it real and go local! The main transport between towns are called ‘taxis’…but not the taxis that you and I are accustomed – these are small mini-bus vans (about the size of a VW camper van) with 4 rows of 3 seats in the back and 2 seats (+ the driver) in the front. They are licensed to carry 14 passengers…but this is Africa and they routinely squeeze 20 passengers in…I think the record I have seen is 24! It’s not the most comfortable of experiences and the drivers are crazy – for a country that is, in many ways, incredibly slow-paced, these guys do not hang about – time is literally money for them, the faster they can get somewhere, the faster they can offload the current set of passengers and get some new ones on – they hammer it! The taxi parks, where the journeys start and begin in Kampala, are just as crazy. The best term to describe them is ‘organised chaos’ (think a huge open space, crammed with mini-buses pointing in every conceivable direction, with no obvious ‘roads’ inbetween the rows of vehicles, and the conductors trying to fill their taxis by shouting out their end destination). I don’t know how it works, but somehow it does! Crazier still is the mode of transport to get around towns – ‘boda bodas’. These are small motorbikes that get up to 4 passengers on the back before weaving through the crowded streets of Kampala (a lot of areas are grid-locked) at break-neck speeds. They are bloody dangerous (obviously no helmets) but you have little choice if you want to get to the other side of town quickly – you just have to get on, close your eyes and hope for the best! I had my first accident last week, though luckily in the more serene surroundings of Bombo. I was riding from Bajjo to Bombo on the back of a ‘boda boda ‘up the steep dirt track through the valley that separates the village from the town. Recently the ‘road’ has become really bad (the rainy season has started) and the driver slipped down a ‘trench’ in the road – to try and get out he jammed the accelerator and the front wheel just shot up in the air and we both came off the back, luckily with just a couple of bruises and scratches to show for it! To be honest I’m incredibly surprised that I have not seen more accidents since I have been over here!
My mum and her partner have been here this week and had (I think) a great time. I was so pleased that she came out – it was her first time outside Europe and to do a bit of ‘adventure’ travel and they are already talking about doing a trip to South America (that’s the thing about travelling, as soon as you do it you realise what you have been missing and get addicted!). They spent their first week in Kenya on safari (which they loved) and the second week experiencing the delights of Kampala and Bajjo…they even got themselves in a ‘taxi mini-bus’ one day to go to Jinjja (a town North of Kampala – famous for being the source of the Nile), I was most impressed! Well done mum and thanks for all the supplies you brought with you – the resource centre is looking much healthier!
Rain – we think we have rain in England – we don’t have rain, Uganda has rain! The rainy season is underway and around 4 pm most days the heavens open and water just falls from the sky for about an hour. The ‘road’ in the village turns into a river, and our backyard become a convenient lake for the grateful ducks that live next door. One benefit of living in such a wet climate is that things just grow here – if you don’t keep an area of ground clear by hoeing it every day then you’ll wake up with a jungle the next morning! Indeed, something that has just sprouted up recently in our backyard is marijuana! Huge plants of it, 10 feet tall. The thought of all the preparation that goes into growing it in the UK (silver foil, lamps, heaters etc) and here it is just growing on its own in our backyard (don’t worry mum, I have no idea how to convert it from the plant into a smokable form!)
A quick word on the work front – things are finally progressing with the cooperative I have been trying to set-up in the village - an income generation project for the women (and men) that make crafts. It has been a slow process (almost 3 months) of sensitisation, trying to convey the benefits of working as a group and selling crafts to muzungu for a higher price (we can afford it after all!). But finally things seem to be moving. We had our first official meeting of 15 members – a chairman was elected, a name chosen (‘Bajjo Craft Makers’), and a motto selected (‘The harder we work – the better we become’). There is still a long way to go, but with the financial crisis hitting most big companies in the West I think this could be an opportunity for ‘Bajjo Craft Makers’ to rise up and become a global powerhouse!!
One final thing I must admit is that whilst I love living in the village and experiencing village life, I do also look forward to going to Kampala every couple of weeks to experience a bit of luxury (by luxury I mean a toilet and a shower – not necessarily a hot shower!) and to have a beer or two in the local bars! One thing that has made this quite amusing is that, when I have a freshly shaven head, I get mistaken for being Michael Schofield (the lead actor in the series prison break). Now, I can already hear some of you laughing and scoffing at your computer screen in disbelief, but this is not the first time – when I was in the States 2 years ago with a shaved head some of the yanks also commented on the similarity! Needless to say, I’m certainly not going to discourage the comparison…and I might, sometimes, even claim to be his brother... (just a small white lie!!), hahaha!
Saturday, 11 October 2008
Under Attack!!
Ok, after the last lengthy serious(!) blog I’m gonna stick to a few tit-bits that I think may amuse you…
First up is the attack of the flesh eaters – Jigger Bugs! These are small little critters that somehow manage to munch their way under your skin without you noticing, before settling down to gorge themselves on your flesh whilst creating a ‘nursery’ for the eggs they begin pumping out! The first thing you notice is an itch…this is soon complemented by a small, indiscriminate black dot on your skin and, if you leave it - which I have the habit of doing (I have a lot of itches out here - see ‘skin-eaters’ below) – the area starts to ache and the black dot gets bigger!! Luckily we have the community clinic next door and Justine has kindly dug these critters (3 and counting) out for me (think razor blade, large safety pin and a lot of pain!)
Next up on the ailment front is the attack of the skin eaters! Both Karl and I have been suffering recently from some invisible beast that attacks us throughout the day leaving us covered in small red bites which are incredibly itchy! From doing some reading we think they are small flea/lice like creatures which, thankfully, live in our clothes and not our skin (you have to look for the sliver lining in these situations!). So we have finally done what my mum advised me to do before I left the UK – we have invested in an iron and ironing board and are vigorously ironing all our clothes before we put them on (this, we are advised, is the way to get rid of the little b*stards). It is weird when people that live in mud huts are shocked to find out that we haven’t been ironing our clothes the whole time! Actually it’s interesting what you find once you enter the mud huts in the village – clocks (with grandfather style pendulums) on the wall, chairs, tables, beds, radios…I was expecting to just see a mud floor and straw for a mattress!
Something that has always fascinated me is the fact that whenever you see Africans living in a rural village on tv they always have shaved heads – but how? Do they burn their hair off? Do they use a sharp knife? Do they get some small exotic animal with razor sharp teeth to graze on top of their head?! …For the case of Bajjo the answer to the mystery is a disappointing one - one of the neighbours has standard electric clippers and, when there is power, he simply shaves the hair of the locals for a small charge (about 10p)!! In addition, African hair grows at an incredibly slow rate so they only need to shave it 3 or 4 times a year (versus my hair which needs doing every 3 or 4 weeks!). However, it is really my hair that is the fascination here – not the hair on my head – but the hair on my legs!! The locals simply don’t have any and they are amazed by the fact that I do! I’ll be standing talking to someone or looking at the view and suddenly feel something on my leg, I’ll look down and one of the kids in the village will be sat by my feet stroking my legs!! Even the adults get involved, stroking away, its quite bizarre!!! Anyway, the really funny thing is, I’m not even that hairy…whereas Jez, who is coming out in November, is like a gorilla and has a good rug of hair on his chest – you are gonna get mauled Jez, hahaha!!!
Another thing for you (Jez) and mum (who is coming out next week) to be wary of are the local ‘head choppers’! As recently as 2001 there was a group (loosely associated with the Lords Resistance Army in the North of Uganda) who were capturing people (mainly kids) on the road from Bajjo to Bombo (the local town where we buy our food) and chopping their heads off! Apparently as many as 2 or 3 heads were chopped a week!! The children had to use the road (which descends down into a valley from Bajjo before reaching Bombo on the other side of the valley) as all the secondary schools are in Bombo and this was the only access route! This is no joke – I have met one of the kids who was captured, but fortunately released by the group! Just as disturbing is the fact that a famous witchdoctor lives in our village of Bajjo and, I have been reliably informed, he sometimes requests the head of a human when performing some of his rituals. People requiring the doctors services then pay someone to get a head for them – the going rate to chop off a head is in the region £350 – a tidy sum when the average pay for someone here is less than £1 a day!! But don’t worry Jez/Mum, we are on good terms with the witchdoctor – he likes the programmes we are running in the village so we are safe for now!!
Keeping with the ‘attack’ theme – this time from cyber-space (potentially the geekiest line I have ever written!) - my hotmail account was recently hacked and a number of emails sent to friends claiming I had been robbed and asking for money! Apologies to all those who received the fraudulent emails…I just hope no-one fell for it and sent money!
Finally, just a quick note on our latest success out here (you’re not getting away without a quick bit of self-praise!), we have just hosted our first Village Party! It was an all day event involving sports tournaments for different age-groups (5-a-side football, netball and volleyball), drumming and dancing performances and food stalls…All this was really just a way to get the community together for the real purpose of the day – a health talk delivered by Justine (the local clinician). We intend to make this a monthly event and focus on a different health issue each month. It was a great day (although bloody knackering) with almost 300 people attending...My team got to the final of the 5-a-side football tournament but, unfortunately, lost 2-1…probably a good thing otherwise we might have had our heads chopped!! ;)
First up is the attack of the flesh eaters – Jigger Bugs! These are small little critters that somehow manage to munch their way under your skin without you noticing, before settling down to gorge themselves on your flesh whilst creating a ‘nursery’ for the eggs they begin pumping out! The first thing you notice is an itch…this is soon complemented by a small, indiscriminate black dot on your skin and, if you leave it - which I have the habit of doing (I have a lot of itches out here - see ‘skin-eaters’ below) – the area starts to ache and the black dot gets bigger!! Luckily we have the community clinic next door and Justine has kindly dug these critters (3 and counting) out for me (think razor blade, large safety pin and a lot of pain!)
Next up on the ailment front is the attack of the skin eaters! Both Karl and I have been suffering recently from some invisible beast that attacks us throughout the day leaving us covered in small red bites which are incredibly itchy! From doing some reading we think they are small flea/lice like creatures which, thankfully, live in our clothes and not our skin (you have to look for the sliver lining in these situations!). So we have finally done what my mum advised me to do before I left the UK – we have invested in an iron and ironing board and are vigorously ironing all our clothes before we put them on (this, we are advised, is the way to get rid of the little b*stards). It is weird when people that live in mud huts are shocked to find out that we haven’t been ironing our clothes the whole time! Actually it’s interesting what you find once you enter the mud huts in the village – clocks (with grandfather style pendulums) on the wall, chairs, tables, beds, radios…I was expecting to just see a mud floor and straw for a mattress!
Something that has always fascinated me is the fact that whenever you see Africans living in a rural village on tv they always have shaved heads – but how? Do they burn their hair off? Do they use a sharp knife? Do they get some small exotic animal with razor sharp teeth to graze on top of their head?! …For the case of Bajjo the answer to the mystery is a disappointing one - one of the neighbours has standard electric clippers and, when there is power, he simply shaves the hair of the locals for a small charge (about 10p)!! In addition, African hair grows at an incredibly slow rate so they only need to shave it 3 or 4 times a year (versus my hair which needs doing every 3 or 4 weeks!). However, it is really my hair that is the fascination here – not the hair on my head – but the hair on my legs!! The locals simply don’t have any and they are amazed by the fact that I do! I’ll be standing talking to someone or looking at the view and suddenly feel something on my leg, I’ll look down and one of the kids in the village will be sat by my feet stroking my legs!! Even the adults get involved, stroking away, its quite bizarre!!! Anyway, the really funny thing is, I’m not even that hairy…whereas Jez, who is coming out in November, is like a gorilla and has a good rug of hair on his chest – you are gonna get mauled Jez, hahaha!!!
Another thing for you (Jez) and mum (who is coming out next week) to be wary of are the local ‘head choppers’! As recently as 2001 there was a group (loosely associated with the Lords Resistance Army in the North of Uganda) who were capturing people (mainly kids) on the road from Bajjo to Bombo (the local town where we buy our food) and chopping their heads off! Apparently as many as 2 or 3 heads were chopped a week!! The children had to use the road (which descends down into a valley from Bajjo before reaching Bombo on the other side of the valley) as all the secondary schools are in Bombo and this was the only access route! This is no joke – I have met one of the kids who was captured, but fortunately released by the group! Just as disturbing is the fact that a famous witchdoctor lives in our village of Bajjo and, I have been reliably informed, he sometimes requests the head of a human when performing some of his rituals. People requiring the doctors services then pay someone to get a head for them – the going rate to chop off a head is in the region £350 – a tidy sum when the average pay for someone here is less than £1 a day!! But don’t worry Jez/Mum, we are on good terms with the witchdoctor – he likes the programmes we are running in the village so we are safe for now!!
Keeping with the ‘attack’ theme – this time from cyber-space (potentially the geekiest line I have ever written!) - my hotmail account was recently hacked and a number of emails sent to friends claiming I had been robbed and asking for money! Apologies to all those who received the fraudulent emails…I just hope no-one fell for it and sent money!
Finally, just a quick note on our latest success out here (you’re not getting away without a quick bit of self-praise!), we have just hosted our first Village Party! It was an all day event involving sports tournaments for different age-groups (5-a-side football, netball and volleyball), drumming and dancing performances and food stalls…All this was really just a way to get the community together for the real purpose of the day – a health talk delivered by Justine (the local clinician). We intend to make this a monthly event and focus on a different health issue each month. It was a great day (although bloody knackering) with almost 300 people attending...My team got to the final of the 5-a-side football tournament but, unfortunately, lost 2-1…probably a good thing otherwise we might have had our heads chopped!! ;)
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