Male Anxiety!

Irene has had a bit of a tummy upset this week. We are not sure how she caught it, but she didn’t want much to eat on Thursday. Fortunately these problems are fairly quickly recovered from with a bit of care and attention. Malcolm could tell she was recovering on Friday when she said she fancied some meat for tea. However, he was a bit alarmed when she suggested that he go and buy some of the pieces of goats meat which are barbecued over charcoal at our local ‘chip shop’ – so she had toast and jam instead.

One of our treats, about once a week, is to buy a bag of chips each from the local chip shop. The only similarity with those in England is that they are potato slices fried in oil. However, the chips are cooked in large pans of oil over a charcoal fire in the street, and served in plastic bags along with a portion of cooked cabbage and with a meat sauce. They are very tasty and remarkably free from fat, and at 30p for a large portion are good value.

Another concern for Malcolm this week was the training book-keeping arranged on Thursday for Parish Treasurers. About 40 treasurers and priests arrived and benefited from discussion and presentation not only from Malcolm but also the Diocese Secretary and Treasurer. Unlike some groups we’ve met here who can be reticent in interactive sessions, the 40 or so delegates were very forthcoming and there were lively, productive, exchanges of views.

Friday was the deadline for Malcolm to renew his 90 day visitor’s visa. This involved the short drive to the border to leave the country and then re-enter. Jenny Green took the opportunity of giving Malcolm a lift, and they continued to Kigali in Rwanda to do some Christmas shopping.

Christmas has not yet had any effect on Kisoro, so it was in Kigali that Malcolm saw his first artificial Christmas tree and a (talking) mechanical Father Christmas of the year. He decided he hadn’t missed much. What they both enjoyed was lunch of an ‘All Day English Breakfast’ of bacon, sausage, fried egg, baked beans and hash brown – lovely. The last cooked breakfast they will have for some time. Then back to the border where a new visa was successfully granted. Jenny has done the journey on many occasions, and is now on first name terms with immigration and police officers on both sides of the border. Hopefully this will be the last time Malcolm or Irene will need to renew their visas as they expect their applications for two year resident’s permits to be approved soon.

So what else has Malcolm got to be anxious about? Well, Saturday is his birthday, when it is rumoured he will be entering his 60th year – Oh dear!

And, oh yes, he noticed that ‘Nairobi Flies’ are attracted to the lights in the lounge at night. These small ant like insects contain acid in their bodies which burns skin badly if they are squashed. More alarmingly, when he turned the lights off to watch a DVD on his laptop, he noticed they had now been attracted to the light from the screen and were crawling across it.

There is no sound of any new arrivals yet from the nest outside Malcolm and Irene’s office. However, the husband was seen pacing nervously near the nest this week.
The following sign caught our attention because of the name of the Hair Salon. We fully support the need to get ‘Back to the truth of the Bible’, but not sure how it applies to a hair-cut – unless your name happens to be Samson or Delilah. However, we are a bit concerned about at least one of the services on offer.

You know you live in Africa when…

… you use a toilet in an up-market hotel, and find that because the w.c. has been fixed in the centre of the cubicle, it is almost impossible to both close the door and sit down – especially with feet size 11.

… you find out that a ‘Nairobi Fly’, which can burn you with its acid, has no wings and can’t fly

Anyone for cricket?

Last week heralded the arrival of the first of the swarms of crickets. Children could be seen running around with black plastic bags collected them up. Why? Because they could sell them to the shops who then sell them on as a valuable food supply. We have not yet tried them but there is always a first time! (and possibly a last time).

On Sunday we went with Jenny to Mabungo parish church and enjoyed a long traditional service with drums and choirs, with lunch with the vicar afterwards. The church had won the “Family Service Competition” and were presented with a certificate and a rather large drum for the Sunday School to use. We think that maybe the school could meet in the drum; it was pretty big. The children sat around our feet seemed particularly fascinated in us – but this may have been because for some reason Malcolm was wearing one black leather, and one blue suede shoe. Poor old thing - the sun must be getting to him.

In the nick of time Tim Sanders, our Personnel Officer from CMS, arrived on Monday with Jenny and Irene going to meet him in Rwanda and enjoying a shopping expedition and buffet lunch at a “posh” hotel. Irene took the opportunity to renew her visitor’s visa as the 90 days validity was almost up and our work permits have not yet been processed. Malcolm will probably have to make the trip next week to renew his.

On Wednesday we enjoyed another outing, our first visit to Kabale, the closest big (er) town. The journey, through stunningly beautiful countryside and through what is left of the bamboo forest, wasn’t too bumpy as it had tarmac in quite a few places! After having lunch with other Muzungu workers we dropped Tim off. Irene and Jenny then enjoyed buying in better stocked “supermarkets” with Malcolm trailing behind to pay the bill; however he cheered up when he managed to find another bottle of the elusive HP “brown sauce”.

Having picked up 6 gas cylinders the return trip was smoother as the weight helped keep the pick-up on the road, although we had to stop to rearrange the ropes holding them upright when the bumps loosened them.

Malcolm had the privilege of visiting with the auditor from the Anglican Province in Kampala several of the farmers in Nyakabingo who had been given a sheep following training in modern agricultural techniques. Many of their homes were up narrow tracks into the hills where they manage to scrape a living.

Fortunately the land is very fertile with some fields growing in abundance mixed crops of potatoes, maize, cabbages and bananas.

There continues to be a lot of activity around the nest outside our office, although it is difficult to get a good view!

This week’s sign is from Kabale – the shop name appealed to us

You know you live in Africa when….

… you are interviewing someone in her lounge when a hen struts in and jumps up beside you on the sofa

--- you discover a scruffy street child’s entire English vocabulary when you have the following conversation:

Child: ‘How are you?’
Answer ‘I’m fine. How are you?’
Child ‘Five plus five’

You know he will soon master ‘Give’ and ‘me’ and 'money'.

What a shower!

Irene is very happy.

Irene is very, very happy.

Malcolm successfully connected the water heater to the electricity and now she can have a hot shower every (yes every) morning – as long as Malcolm remembers to switch the heater on, of course. As he needed to go back into the loft to make the wiring connections, and he came down looking in the same condition as he did 2 weeks ago, it was in fact Malcolm who had the first hot shower. However, he wanted to include a photo of Irene’s first shower – but the world is probably not ready for this yet.

It has been quite an eventful week. On Sunday we were invited to Judith for a traditional Sunday roast – roast goat - delicious and similar to lamb. Judith has lived in East Africa most of her life and currently cares for Pamella, a young Ugandan girl. Judith’s adopted son runs the local honey cooperative which sells some excellent honey.



On Wednesday Irene gave her final Business Studies lesson for the term. The students were most excited about being given certificates for attending the course. Amos, the Vocational Training Centre manager who has been translating for the past 5 weeks was delighted to be given a Mars bar by way of thanks. Next week the students sit their exams and then the College closes for Christmas and the national elections, reopening next February. Just as well Irene has lots of other things to do including helping out at Potter’s Village babies home.

On Friday Ezra, who is the Administrator at Potter’s Village, needed to visit Nombe, a village on the border with the Congo and about 15 miles from Kisoro – so we went along for the ride with Kristen, a Peace Corp volunteer working at Potter’s . The scenery was once again stunning as we drove carefully along unmade mountain roads.


Nombe overlooks the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the ‘Impenetrable Forest’ where families of Mountain Gorillas live. These are a major tourist attraction for wealthy tourists as a day’s trekking costs $500 a person – about 4 months salary here.



We visited the Nkuringo Gorilla campground (we didn’t see any Gorillas camping though) for a soda (excessively priced at almost 50p a bottle!!!!!) and to find out about their excursions. Irene would like to see the Gorillas, but at $500 she will have to make do with Malcolm. Shame.




When Ezra visited the local school it was us Mzungu's who suddenly became the local attraction with the children.



The signs this week are African road signs. The ‘Men at Work’ sign is fairly conventional. The second sign is typical from what we have seen here and in Tanzania but comes in various forms – sometimes bushes, other times branches and on this occasion a tree trunk. It is very adaptable to what it means - maybe we should suggest that the UK Highways Agency uses it?


You know you live in Africa when….

… you walk gingerly over the sharp, stony paths in your walking boots and realise others are walking bare-footed

… the second time you cook beans, and decide this time to soak them in hot, not cold, water before cooking, you notice little black boiled weevils floating to the surface and realise that you must have eaten them the first time you cooked beans. But you decide it’s not a problem and would have simply meant you had eaten extra protein.

Half Way Points

It doesn’t seem it but this Friday was the half-way point for our first ‘term’ in Uganda. We’ve been here just over 2 months, and in the middle of January we return to the UK for a couple of weeks for our eldest son’s wedding.

Its also half way point for our plumbing. This week a team of plumbers came to install a water supply to the kitchen and to plumb in a water heater for the shower and kitchen. This meant our kitchen moved into the lounge which made it harder for Malcolm to ignore the washing up.



The pipe-work has completed – the missing bits are:

- we need to have a cupboard made for the sink top – until then we continue to use a plastic bowl for a sink, with no drain even though the pipe has been installed

- plastering
- Irene is waiting for Malcolm to connect the heater to electricity – until then it is still cold showers. If he doesn’t get a move on then he’s the one in hot water! Perhaps next week we will be able to report (without photo!!) Irene’s first hot shower for several weeks. Phew!

On Friday we had our first trip out of Kisoro as Jenny drove us 20 miles through the mountains to Rwamashenyi to inspect a piece of land owned by Potter’s Village. Half way there, near the top of a mountain we stopped at the point where we understand Winston Churchill in 1907 declared that Uganda must be the ‘Pearl of Africa’ because of the beauty of its mountains, valleys and lakes. No doubt the view has changed since then with many trees and bamboo being cut down, and new roads and buildings but it was still a spectacular view.

We have both been busy this week. Irene has continued to meet with students to discuss their career plans, and also showed Jenny’s daughter Hannah and Izzie how to sew dresses for their dolls.

Malcolm spent a couple of days at Potter’s Village helping the administrator with the monthly finance return. He was also persuaded to help Irene with her Business Training course at the Training Centre by taking the 2 hour session on Financial Management. All we can say is that he (and the students) survived.

The nest outside our office is still there, with one of the birds spending time on the nest. We are not experts but we guess we are about half way to any eggs hatching.



The sign this week was spotted on the mud flap of a lorry we overtook on the way back from Rwamashenyi.



You know you live in Africa when….

… when you are crawling around your attic you see in the torch-light a large green grasshopper which decides to jump at your face
…you proudly unpack your new gas cooker which boasts ‘thermostatic control’ for the oven to discover there are no markings to show which knob controls which burner, let alone the temperature of the oven