Comic Relief

We never expected to celebrate Red Nose Day.

On Saturday we went for a walk with two volunteers from Potters Village, Ruth and Ellie and a friend, Victor, a priest working at the Diocese. It was up the same nearest volcano that the Bishop took us to in January. Once again we were followed by a group of local children, amused at why these strange white people should want to walk up and then down the ‘fields’ where their parents grow food.

Unfortunately on the way down Irene fell and badly grazed her nose.



Malcolm was quite keen to include a photograph of her ‘red nose’ in this blog but has been strictly forbidden to, unless he donates £100 to the Vocational Training Centre (VTC) to buy material for the dress making course. Not wishing to embarrass his wife (and being mean) he has decided to resist the temptation. However, he is happy to report that there was no permanent damage and we all enjoyed ourselves at Victor’s place where we were treated to refreshments.




The reason material is needed for the dress making course is that there are not enough funds to buy material for the students to learn on, so instead they have to practice dressmaking by cutting up and sewing together paper bags. Similarly, a new computer course has started with 3 students enrolled, but the VTC has no computers – the second hand ones that were expected have been embargoed at Kigali as Rwanda now ban the import of second hand recycled goods.



Irene is now involved with the course. She first managed to persuade the University, who hold a weekend course at the Diocese, to allow the students to use the University Computers during the week. Then, her master stroke was to visit the local secondary school where she discovered they had just received brand new, state of the art computers, and so they were prepared to give their old ones to the VTC. Malcolm noticed from labels that most had been donated by his former company, ICL, which was ‘absorbed’ by Fujitsu in the mid 1990’s – which makes them about 20 years old (i.e. early Pentiums)!!!! Still, a computer course ought to have computers. All it needs now is a teacher. Irene!



Our culinary experiment this week was crayfish – a local delicacy from Lake Bunyoni. A large, football sized bag only costs about £1.50 (cheap enough to appeal to Malcolm) – but by the time Irene spent 3 or 4 hours removing the shells she was left with enough tails for 2 servings. She has decided, despite the cost, next time we want crayfish we will go to a restaurant and pay about £2 each for a meal and let someone else do the dirty work.

And how do you get rid of smelly old crayfish shells when there is no household rubbish collection?

PS. In keeping with tradition Malcolm’s computer crashed once again in Africa last weekend and now requires a new motherboard before he can use it again – shall it be taken 600km to Kampala or England to see a Dell engineer? And the good news is that the mobile Internet has been upgraded to faster 3G on Wednesday – which means that since then no-one has been able to use it as it doesn't work. This is Africa!

Consequences?

Last week we wrote how on Friday Malcolm plumbed in a new sink.

Saturday morning – no water.

Wednesday - no water anywhere in Kisoro for 24 hours.

It is said that the first time was because the house next door had a broken tap, and the water was turned off until the plumber came to fix it. The second time is said to be because a tree fell on the pumping station.

Coincidence? Or a consequence of Malcolm’s plumbing? You decide.

However, there was no shortage of water when Malcolm went to Gitovu, another remote village, to audit some Parish accounts. Apparently the rainy season has started, which is a bit of a surprise since it seems to have rained most days since we arrived in August. Buildings here have corrugated iron roofs, and when it rains it is impossible to hear your self think, let alone talk to someone because of the noise. This made asking treasurers questions in the church very difficult. The rain was so heavy that Malcolm was almost stranded in the vicar’s house after lunch with a moat of water outside and no paddling shoes! The vicar did suggest that rather than return to Kisoro immediately he should wait till the rain stops. Malcolm jokingly said that might not be for 10 hours!!! He was right as it rained heavily all night.

It has been an exciting week for church Lay Readers here.

Before Christmas the first Lay Readers for many years completed their training. They are important members of the Diocese as most churches do not have a vicar, and the Lay Readers (or Church Teachers) are responsible for the care of the congregations. Visitors from a church in Winchester, England, arrived on Friday and presented each Lay Reader with a new bicycle and a Bible commentary. One of the recipients was Benon, who we first met when we visited Mabungo, and is now a Lay Reader at Rutaka, Because of the bad roads here, and the cheap quality Chinese bicycles, all bikes have reinforcements on the front wheel to stop the forks buckling. Malcolm was driven to Rutaka a fortnight ago along some of the worst roads here, so he didn’t envy Benon the bicycle ride home – he will need all the reinforcement he can get and it will probably take 3 or 4 hours to cycle home – in his best suit!!!!

Changes continue to take place in Kisoro. Part of the remaining forest in the centre of town has been cleared and fenced off for a new bank to be built. There is only one tree left on this site, which appears dead but is now the home for the cranes that used to nest in the trees. Ironically, we think the new bank will be a branch of the Crane Bank. Coincidence?

Anyone for 'Squash'?

An update on some of last week’s blog.

Irene isn’t half glad Chris and Polly Barton were visiting Kisoro!

Chris is a British dentist who worked for many years in Kabale teaching dentistry, before returning to England. And their brief visit coincided with one of Irene’s teeth deciding enough was enough, and letting her know in a big way. Fortunately, before returning to England Chris and Polly were visiting their former base, Rugarama Hospital in Kabale which has a good dental clinic. Chris was therefore able to drive both of us the 45 miles to Kabale on Sunday and carry out the necessary ‘deed’ first thing Monday morning, to Irene’s relief.

The ‘highlights’ of the trip were:
- cost of extraction 84p, plus £1.70 for antibiotics (saving over £50 at NHS prices!)

- Sunday lunch in the smartest restaurant we have used here – Birdnest Hotel overlooking beautiful lake Bunyoni (excellent 3 course meal, £8)

- the return trip. We decided to try out the local ‘minibus taxis’, realising from our experience of these in Tanzania that the maximum capacity of 14 seats is just a starting point. Having paid our fare (£3.50 each) and waiting for about half an hour on the minibus, we were told that it had broken down and we needed to transfer to a 7 seater estate car. In total there were 15 of us travelling in the car over the mainly rough roads to Kisoro. It wasn’t so much the 4 of us in the middle 3 seats that sticks in our mind, or the 5 adults and 2 children crammed in the 2 seats behind us, but the 4 adults in the front seats, including 2 sharing the drivers seat! The journey along bendy mountain roads was hair rising as on the tarmaced sections the driver liked to drive as fast as possible, on the wrong side of the road even as we approached blind corners.

We are pleased to report, however, we arrived back safely.

Malcolm visited another remote part of the Diocese to audit the books of 2 parishes, Nyamiyaga and Rwamashenyi. Once again, following a long journey over rough mountain tracks with driver George, he had a warm welcome and met the two treasurers, Ferederiko and Justus.

As with last week his appearance also attracted the attention of groups of children. This time village kids, not in school uniforms, clustered around the car shouting ‘Mzungu! Mzungu!. Unlike last week, they were very suspicious about having their photo taken.

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Post, post script from the last 2 weeks items on Irene’s wedding anniversary present – the kitchen sink has been installed. Joy of joys, she no longer has to empty a washing up bowl by hand – but can ‘pull the plug out’. The wonders of modern technology! Now, where did Malcolm put the chain?

Celebrity! Celebrity?

Malcolm says he must be like David Beckham – or does he mean Posh Spice?

He’s never been any good at football, and doesn’t have the figure of a pop star (not a female one anyway). However, as a ‘celebrity’, wherever he went earlier this week all he could hear was children shouting ‘Mzungu, Mzungu’, waving and chasing after him!!

Before he gets too big headed we ought to say that he went by car to some of the remoter parts of the area to meet with some of the church treasurers to audit their financial records. The roads were some of the worst we have seen here, and it takes a very brave, skilled (or foolish) driver to arrive safely. Fortunately the Bishop’s driver, George, was driving. He is the only Ugandan driver we have seen so far who is so safety conscious he stops the car to answer his mobile phone!!!!!! Even motor cyclists here think it’s OK to answer their phone whilst driving over rough roads.

The area is so isolated it means white people are a bit of an oddity. Whenever the car passed children on the road, there would be surprised shouts of ‘Mzungu, Mzungu’ even from children in fields over 100yards away.

When Malcolm and George arrived at Rutaka, a remote village in the mountains, they had to walk up the steep, muddy path to the church. Malcolm noticed children coming out from the primary school to cluster around the car. ‘They must be car spotters’ he thought. He then realised, when they started to climb the hill after him, that their main interest was to have a closer look at the strange, white man. Celebrity? Or oddity? We’ll let you decide.

There are several new ‘Mzungus’ in Kisoro. Last week two new volunteers from England, Ruth and Ellie, arrived to help at Potter’s Village for a few months. Also, two ‘old timers’, Chris and Polly, have also stopped for a break. They worked for several years in the hospital in Kabale training dentists and have come back to Rwanda and Uganda for 3 weeks to see how things are going. Part of their tour is 3 days for a break in Kisoro.

It is just as well there are more workers at Potters Village as every week more babies are admitted. This week two 3 day old twins were brought to the Village. Unfortunately their mother died giving birth and with 5 other young children her husband andthe family are unable to care for the new borns. They are so young that they have not yet been giving names, and so are called ‘Squeak’ and ‘Grunt’, being the sounds they make when they try to cry.

Post script from last week.
Concerning the ‘wedding anniversary present’ that Malcolm said he had ordered for Irene, the ironing board has arrived. For those readers that have made comments we would like to make it clear that it wasn’t really a present for Irene – Malcolm had previously ordered a kitchen sink and chain for that!