Everybody Loves a Wedding

Last week Dr Mushin from Kiwoko Hospital married Dr Esther, who works in Kampala.

A large party from the Hospital attended the wedding which was held at the Namirembe Cathedral in Kampala.

Here are a selection of photos from the fun day.

 

 

This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Ghana: “Marriage is not palm wine to be tasted”

When is a Banana not a Banana?

When it’s Matoke (pronounced ma-toke-ay)

One of the national dishes of Uganda is Matoke. This is a type of savoury banana grown and eaten all over East Africa. To the novice it looks like an unripe, green  banana, but is even more popular here than the familiar sweet yellow banana.

 

 To cook Matoke the green skin has first to be peeled off with a knife to reveal the hard white centre.

The fruit is then wrapped in Banana leaves and steam cooked over a charcoal fire. The pans have to be regularly topped up with water as the cooking process takes about 7 hours.

 

Once soft the yellow pulp is mashed within the banana layer so that it looks like mashed potato or swedes.

 

For simple meals it is then served with a pink sauce made out of peanuts. For a better meal it is served with a range of vegetables, and for a luxury meal there is some meat!!!!

 

 This week, we had a luxury meal!

This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Liberia: “When bad luck calls your name, even a rotten banana can break your teeth”

Fighting for Survival

Just a couple of examples of life struggling to continue.

A few weeks ago we commented on how quickly a new road can be cut through the forest (May 4^th 2014 – ‘The Intrepid Explore’). This week we noticed that already the banana trees are re-establishing themselves as new shoots have broken through the previous destruction.

 

 
In the hospital a mission couple have recently fostered an abandoned baby. Lana was born at the end of January, at about 27 weeks old and weighing less than 2 pounds. Anywhere else in Uganda probably she would not have survived. Fortunately the hospital has a well equipped babies; intensive care unit and with love and attention she is now doing well.

 This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Uganda: “It is survival, not bravery that makes a man climb a thorny tree”

Just Football Crazy

‘Cry Liverpool’.

That was almost what was displayed on the big screen when Malcolm went to watch Crystal Palace play Liverpool live at our local cinema this week. 

Premier League football is very popular here, though most seem to support recent league champions such as Man City, Man United and Chelsea rather than Liverpool and ‘Crystal who?’.

 Two of the other UK mission  workers here support Liverpool so Malcolm, a Palace follower since a boy, went with them on Monday to see Liverpool try to get closer to becoming Premier League Champions. Liverpool were 3:0 up with just over 10 minutes to play, and then............

Cry 3 : 3 Liv

It’s sad seeing grown men cry.

At the end of the week Malcolm was asked to attend another football match as ‘Guest of Honour’. 

Dan, who is Laboratory manager at the hospital, had set up a football tournament as a way of encouraging boys and girls to take up a worth-while pastime rather than get into trouble through boredom. A team of professional coaches are visiting later in the year to teach the youngsters, and in preparation Dan and his friends arranged a local competition.

The ladies match ended in a 2:2 draw, with the girls beating the women 4:3 on penalties.

Seven teams took part in the boys’ competition with the finalists ‘The Bakers’ losing to ‘Trouble’ 4:0.

This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Zambia: “When your luck is out, even yesterday’s meal can burn you”

The Intrepid Explorer

When things happen here, they can happen very quickly.

Every day Irene goes from a walk in the countryside surrounding the hospital. Much of the land is heavily planted with trees interspersed with small cottages.

 Recently she went on her usual walk and discovered that overnight a new road had been cut through part of the forest.

The result was a new road, with a large number of trees that had been felled.

Many trees are used here as firewood. To be more efficient for cooking the wood is converted into charcoal. The process involves stacking the wood into a pile, covering this with earth and setting fire to the pile. This is then left for several days until the fire goes out. Because the fire is starved of oxygen, rather than burning the wood to ashes it is converted to charcoal which can then be used for cooking.

Returning to Irene, the explorer she also discovers other things on her walks. Like children....

...and animals.....

.... and birds. 

 

This week's bug is a giant grass-hopper that came to visit.

This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web-site: “You do not teach the paths of the forest to an old gorilla”