It's a steal - in fact it's a piece of cake!

‘I don’t believe it’ (Victor Meldrew)




In Britain we’d heard of people stealing items of ‘intimate’ clothing from washing lines. This week, it happened to Malcolm. He’d only hung up a pair of socks and some underwear, and when he came back at lunch-time, someone had taken the socks! They had kindly left the clothes pegs. Irene thought that Malcolm had sensibly thrown the socks away as they had holes in. To some people here even old socks are worth taking (but clearly, not an old pair of Malcolm’s pants – surprise, surprise)

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday and the tradition here is that people take a branch of some sort to church to celebrate Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem. Most managed to find a palm leaf or banana tree leaf – all Malcolm could find were some large leaves from some sort of weed. At the correct point in the service the congregation stood to wave their branches (or in Irene’s case, weed).





Because of Easter it’s been a short working week for Malcolm. Irene however, was asked by the Diocese Secretary (the chief Administrator in the office) to arrange on the mornings of Thursday, Saturday and Easter Monday a basic computer skills course for some of the office staff. So, with the assistance of Ruth, one of the short term Volunteers currently at Potters Village, the short course began on Thursday. It went well (which means the almost daily power cut here happened in the afternoon once the training finished).




Malcolm continues to try and bake cakes. Readers may recall his previous failed attempts at coffee cake (see blog of 17th September 2010). This week he was a lot more successful, although it’s amazing what icing will cover up. The only problem is it was good enough to share, which means this time we only had one slice each rather than half a cake. Maybe in future he shouldn’t try so hard!

Riotous Living

On Thursday, the Riot Police came to the Cathedral. About 15 police complete with helmets, shields and batons lined up outside our offices. What had we done? Are Irene’s students revolting? Has Malcolm become violent over a missing paper clip? There has been violence in Kampala. Because of problems in Egypt, Yemen, Libya etc the Government has banned groups of people forming to protest. This has angered the opposition parties. They therefore arranged, on Monday and Thursday, a ‘Walk to Work’ day to protest about rising prices, such as petrol. The argument being that they are not breaking the law as they are not meeting but moving. However, the police have taken a firm line, including the use of rubber bullets, managing to ‘shoot’ the main opposition leader, Dr Besigye, in the hand. (Photo from Daily Monitor,Uganda).

So why Riot Police in Kisoro? Our guess is that because young people tend to support the opposition to the Government, the Police wanted to show the neighbouring (all girl) secondary school that they are prepared to take serious action if necessary.




The week had its own tragedy here. Sadly another baby died at Potters Village. Last week we mentioned that one of the babies may go for eye surgery in a month’s time. It would have actually been Moses, a 9 month old baby. However, he had been poorly and on Saturday he deteriorated rapidly and was diagnosed with a hole in the heart. He died that night. To make it even more traumatic for Jenny, when she took the body to a distant village for burial alongside his mother, the grandparents wanted to include pagan ritual within a Christian Service, which is not acceptable. As the child was legally in the care of the Potters Village eventually it was agreed that the pagan rituals would not be carried out. Meanwhile, we looked after her children, taking them out for lunch and then teaching Hannah how to play chess.

Malcolm made his last visit to audit Parish churches when he went to Kabindi, at the foot of the tallest nearby volcano, Muhabura (after which the Diocese is named) and next to the local secondary school. Irene set an end of year test for her computer students who have now gone home for Easter to recover.

PS. Readers will realise how deprived we are here in the wilds of darkest Africa, suffering hardships beyond description!!! We have become accustomed to daily eating fresh scones (which Malcolm makes) with clotted cream (which Irene skims from the top of our milk). No chance of losing weight then!!!

PPS We had a bit of excitement on Friday – 3 parcels from England. 2 were posted at the start of March, and 1 on 24th January – so that only took almost 3 months. Irene has received her Mother’s Day cards – and we have some Easter cards!!!!!

The High Life

Charity Ball at the British High Commission? Neil Diamond concert? That’s how some people enjoy themselves in Africa. For us, something a bit simpler (and cheaper).


Last weekend was birthday party weekend. On Saturday Jenny’s youngest, almost adopted, son JoJo had several of his friends round to celebrate his 5th birthday. We decided to arrive for the food (sausage in rolls, popcorn etc) and the candle-blowing out. Their favourite game seemed to be when the guests had a balloon tied to each of their ankles, and then had to try to burst everyone else’s by stamping on them whilst protecting your own. The winner being the last one with a balloon. JoJo quickly worked out that the best way to win was to hide in a bedroom and wait for everyone else to burst each others balloons. Bright these 5 year olds.


On Sunday we went out for lunch to celebrate Eve’s 20th birthday. She is staying at Jenny’s and helps with looking after the children.and babies. It in not usual to receive birthday presents in Uganda so she was even delighted with the bar of Cadbury’s chocolate we gave her.






On Monday Eve went with Jenny to take one of the baby twins born about 6 seeks ago to see a neuro-surgeon at Mbarara Hospital – about 125 miles away. The mother of ‘Squeak’ and ‘Grunt‘ (Emmanuel and Edson – pronounced Edison) died when giving birth about 6 weeks ago. (see blog of 4th March). Although Emmanuel is healthy, Grunt (sorry, Edson) is suffering with hydro encephalitis as his head started swelling, and he seems brain damaged and blind. Unfortunately there are no medical specialists on tap here, and it was only this week that one was visiting Mbarara Hospital, a days journey away. The prognosis was better than feared as the swelling appears to be decreasing of its own accord. Edson will need to go back for a check up in a month's time, when surgery on his eyes will also be considered.






Apart from that its been business as usual. Irene is continuing to give some very basic computer training and is speaking at 2 evening lent meetings at the Cathedral. Malcolm has met with the Treasurers of nearby churches including the cathedral to audit their financial records.

Matron!

It’s been a week of new experiences for Irene. Firstly, she’s begun to sort out the ‘new’ computers for the Vocational Training Centre (VTC). Well, ‘new’ if you regard 15 year old Pentium 2 computers with about 130kb of memory running Windows 98 (does anyone remember Windows 98?) and Microsoft Office 1997 as ‘new’. Still, they are better than no computers at all for a computer course and will at least give the students, who probably have never touched a computer before, a chance to use a ‘mouse’ and to see how a word processor works.

Secondly, she has been asked to be ‘matron’ to the teenage (16 years +) students, especially the 14 female boarders and 4 males. The rules are very strict – for example, the boarders have to be in their unlit dormitories by dusk, (7 pm or after they have been fed) and must not leave the grounds of the VTC at all. She has decided that if she is going to be matron she is going to ‘champion’ her boarders, and has already got agreement that the boys dorm, a tiny room with just enough room for a single bunk bed for 4 boys, is too small, even by African standards, and will need to be changed during the Easter holidays.

Thirdly, she was asked to speak at a quarterly Fellowship meeting at the Cathedral last Saturday on the text Rom 12:2 – a renewed mind. Most of the audience did not speak English so the Cathedral Vicar translated for her. She must have been appreciated because twice the congregation began spontaneously singing their favourite ‘revival’ chorus during her talk, indicating their pleasure at what she was saying.

As for Malcolm, he had another trip to one of the Parish Churches, this time Kabami, to audit the books of 4 of the neighbouring Parishes. One of the treats is that, as is the custom here, he was given a cooked lunch of plantain (green looking savoury bananas cooked like mashed potato), rice, greens, beef and ground nut sauce. This is as honour as normal meals for local people would just be rice and beans since meat is too expensive.

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?