Six month report!

It seems amazing that we have been here six months already. I'm not sure what we have achieved in that time although Rob has organised all the paintings for the exhibition in London and may even have persuaded some people to become corporate members of UCU to help keep the funding coming in for more conservation projects.

As for me, I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching both pre-service students and in-service teachers and hope some of it will help them have the enthusiasm to teach in often very difficult situations. I have some images of the college and teaching which made me look twice and will perhaps highlight some of the differences in a teacher training college in a third world country! Here is the Teachers' Resource Centre and my office! In the background you can see the washing! The compound is always draped with washing and students with their bowls and buckets scrubbing busily!

Here I am teaching some in-sevice teachers in a classroom at the adjacent primary school. This is the school compound with the 'bell' hanging from the tree!

I have really enjoyed supervising the students on teaching practice. They co-teach, these two in a Primary one class.

Then, the accomodation........... students live in dormitories like this with all their belongings stored in trunks and suitcases in any space they can find. They fetch water in jerry cans from taps around the compound and there are latrines (long drop toilets) across the other side of the compound.

Here is one of the Lecture Theatres where I teach the second year students. This is the one that sometimes has a bat hanging in the roof! There can be 50-80 students in a class, the occasional interesting bird and sometimes chickens.

To finish..... my overall thoughts about this adventure which I know proved to some that I was mad and needed my 'bumps felt' (!!!) is one of continued surprise, enjoyment and some frustrations. I love the way people here always greet you with a smile and ask, 'how are you?' It still brings a smile when I see what can be carried on a bicycle...this week it was at least 6 folded foam mattresses stacked high above the man pedalling and another with a wardrobe and of course at least 4 crates of beer! The frustrations of having so few resources and that so many of the students struggle to pay fees or buy books or stationery, the intermittent electricity,water or internet. The fact that a 10 o'clock meeting starts a 11.30 if you are lucky! The daily diet of matooke, rice, beans and posho.......but it is all worth it when the students give me a round of applause for a lesson they enjoy, the fact they are so keen to learn and will take part and try out different ways of teaching and learning. The last photo of the college students dancing at the graduation represents the colourful, enthusiasm and fun which has made this first six months an incredible, unforgettable experience!

Photos of Gorilla Trek at last!

We have at last found a way to upload some photos before this very slow internet connection goes down. Not sure how good the resolution is but at least it gives an idea of how amazingly close we were ! It was an amazing feeling being so close to such wonderful creatures in the wild.

Art and Artists in Uganda

Francois Gordon the British High Commissioner and his wife

plus Roni Madvhani (Chairman Uganda Tourist Board) and his wife came to our house to choose the pictures (by Ugandan artists) for the Uganda Conservation Foundation exhibition at Collier Bristow Gallery (4, Jockeys Field, London W.C.1) from 10th-29th September.

The artists are donating half the money from sales to UCF.

They are (left to right) Taga Nugabawa, Pualo Akiiki, Henry Mzili, and in front, Margaret Nagawa, Enoch Mukiibi and Fred Mutebi.

They also chose two watercolours by Rob including this Ellie. So he will be exhibited in the same place as work by David Shepherd also of Elephant fame.

If you would like to go to the exhibition please let Rob know and he will arrange to send you an invitation.

grillers

didnt realise how long it was since we last posted anything.Alice and Edward have been with us and things got a bit eventful. first off we went on a gorilla safari.about 450 of the worlds remaining mountain gorillas are in Bwindi impenetrable forest in the south west of Uganda and only 24 people a day are allowed to visit them.Its quite an event apart from the cost of the permits which is frightening enough ;you are also only 30k from the Congo border and their home grown rebels, so you trek with two or three armed guards as well as porters and guides.We went for two days the first to see the R or rushorosa group which tends to be nearer than the others,it was after passing the long drop toilet there they were about five minutes from the Uganda Wildlife Authority HQ.



We watched them amble around ignoring us for a good hour,it was just as well ,a lovely but not small lady from the Express was researching an article on Uganda and I doubt if she would have enjoyed the next day when we sought the H group.this took three and a half hours up two mountains and was seriously knackering.



The astonishing thing was watching the four hundred pound silverbacks totally ignoring us until Machati(the playful one) came alittle close and got admonished.apparently he likes cameras and will take them off to play with,although only five he weighs in at 180lbs and is as strong as at least three big men so not to be argued with.He mock charged us and then sort of studied us for several minutes until told off I think he was bored anyway by that time as we all hid our cameras except Ed who got a photo of him.



After that we went to South Africa for a few days with Des and Suzie and needing to 'follow that' as 'twere went Shark diving,all except Robert went in but he was seasick and spent the entire afternoon feeling lousy so forgot to take any photographs! We missed the Elgon cup and Uganda won 29-10 Kenya came second!Seems rather tame being back in Uganda but SA was very cold!Then nUganda beat Nigeria 2:1 in the Nations cup!

food glorious food?

Food is one of those central things here,people eat a lot,and fairly regularly.
breakfast is usually a light affair eggs, sausages, bread and jam and tea or instant coffee,there is always some fruit.In the middle of the morning there is tea or coffee or porridge(maize meal soup) and toasties or chapatis or fried cassava,and groundnuts. Lunch is a monster meal matooke(mashed up steamed green bananas) which has the consistency of mashed spud but less, if possible, nutritional value! rice boiled to extinction,beans , generally excellent, mashed spud(irish), and soup probably originally meat. There is also a pink sauce which is made from ground nuts.Meat is usually cooked to death so tapeworms are avoided,and pork(or goat) served up crispy as a muchomo,or kebab.The evening meal is usually much as that at midday only slightly smaller quantities.The volunteers all tried cooking yesterday and actually it wasn't at all bad,if for no other reason than Ugandans traditionally dont use oil and we also had a Phillipino and an Indian who did their own culinary thing with fish and eggplants.Ugandans also eat lots of fruit which is fabulously fresh and cheap.
What was missing was the occasional insect,not just visiting but deliberately included;at road junctions and rugby matches men and others wander round with tupperware boxes with odd things in them,Grasshoppers,a great treat!(and now you know what happened to all that Tupperware)
When it rains and you leave a light on so arrive vast numbers of flying ants which in the morning have all shed their wings and expired. Eva our lady what 'does'collects them up and hands them to Joseph the factotum ,guard and everything else who washes them ,fries them and they then tuck in . There are several different types of ant, some ants ,some termites, some just things that fly,Eva tells me that they are all very tasty and recommended, as are grasshoppers and if I buy some would I bring some for her? I tell her that people in some parts of Africa eat locusts.
"OOH," she says," locusts,oh no urgh.!"

I'm not sure about grasshoppers!

And here are the hippos and buffalo. Rob says I must mention that this very exciting and luxurious trip was only possible using his hard earned savings, not my meagre VSO allowance. They do say however, that I married well!!

Boat trip in Queen Elizabeth National park on the Kazinga Channel between Lake Edward and Lake George (all sounds so African??). It was a great trip and we saw hippo, buffalo and this elephant!