At home with snakes!

No thank goodness, I don't mean that I had snakes in my house (a few at work though, but they get rid of them VERY quickly). Once every few months a trade fair comes to town. At this one my fellow volunteers after some time convinced me to go to the snake show. I thought I coped remarkably well until they took the python out of the cage and put it on the floor! Then the man tried to stop me escaping, in his words “stay, feel at home”!!! I left of course!

 

 

A traditional Ugandan Marriage

I was recently privileged to be invited to a Ugandan traditional marriage in a village a good 40 minutes on a motorbike out of Lira in one of the villages – note to self not to wear the outfit that I plan to wear for the event on a journey like that again - I was orange from the dusty road by the time I got there. Anyway, I hadn’t been there long when I was requested to put on a traditional dress and asked if I would help to greet the visitors on arrival. Then, I was asked to be part of the march – not really knowing what was involved I politely agreed. So, the tradition is that groups of women march around and then they kneel in front of the groom as he searches for his wife amongst the women. I was in the third and last group along with the bride. At the last minute I was told that I was to lead the march and the worst thing was that they didn’t just mean march – NO, they meant dance!!! I am not the most musical of people as it is, I am wearing an outfit I can hardly move in, the ground is uneven so I am paranoid I am going to fall, everyone of course is looking at me as the only muzungu at the event….I tried my best is all I can say! My colleague who took me to the event encouraged me to get a traditional dress made for the next one (the one with the pointy shoulders higher than shoulder pads worn by Joan Collins in the 80s!). Dress is now made…am waiting for the next event now so hopefully an entry will follow on this in the near future!

My colleague's mother in law just before the event.

Colleague's family

 Traditional dances

 

 

 

 Groom looking for his bride

 Bride in red above

My colleague Susan with me in traditional dress

The Piki Piki

So, now I officially I have my Ugandan motorbike driving license! I am much more used to the bike now and have even taken a few brave passengers. I am used to dodging through chickens, cows, goats etc. Unfortnately, the pictures below don't really illustrate how challenging some of the roads can be that I have to take (must remember to take pics in the next rainy season)...

 

 

Lost Chicken

Somehow, I ended up buying a chicken on a recent field trip, whilst accompanying some German Funders to meet a Federation of women, which CEASOP helped to establish (the first one set up in Uganda to support women self-help groups in the area). The plan was to buy for the school so that they could provide me with nice eggs but also generate income for the school. A man tried to sell me one which created a lot of discussion amongst the women as my chicken was passed around whilst they checked the weight to decide whether the man was trying to rip me off or not. In the end they decided that I was not to buy the chicken, but soon after the man lowered the price so we took it home with us. The idea was to take it straight to the school but as it was late when we got back (some terrible roads on the way) I realised that somehow I was going to have to take the chicken home with me on my piki piki (motorbike). Thankfully, my colleagues could see that I wasn’t very comfortable with the idea of riding with a live chicken tied upside down on my handlebars so they took pity on me and followed me home with it. Of course I hadn’t had time to go buying food for the chicken so after consulting google to see which of the foods in my house I could give the chicken I decided on a menu of tomato, pumpkin and apple (it seemed to especially like the tomato). My colleague was horrified that I fed the chicken some apple and insisted next time I give her the apple rather than the chicken. Next morning I was woken nice an early by my new personal alarm clock with a very loud cock-a-doodle-doo as it strutted its stuff around my compound. It was the next morning when I realised that something was wrong when I woke up naturally – only to discover that my chicken had escaped! I had a search party out looking for my chicken but sadly he was nowhere to be found. Next time I have the bright idea to buy chickens - they are going straight to the school!

 

Neighbourhood

I live in an area called Junior Quarters, a nice neighbourhood, shared with lots of NGOs. There is a lovely community atmosphere, where even at the local market, a priest leads those that work there in a service twice a week - it took me a while to work that out that is why everyone was singing at the market (will try to follow up with a video next time)! This is my very sweet new friend near the market (Hilda)…

 

There isn't a lot to do in the area but somehow we manage to keep ourselves entertained. We do however, have badminton at a local bar...

Other common sites in the neighbourhood are chapattis being made on most streets and people collecting water from the borehole pump...

 

Home Life in Uganda

After weeks of searching and viewing many houses, this one became my home – am sure it will be a pleasant surprise for those of you that thought I was going to be living in a mud hut! I am lucky in that the house is bigger than my flat in London, so plenty of room for visitors. There is a small garden with millions of lizards & geckos which I can just about cope with, however, the first few weeks living in the house were difficult after the discovery that I shared my new home with some furry friends and some big scary looking cockroaches but thank goodness VSO organised for the house to be fumigated – the problem seems to have been solved (fingers crossed!). I now feel quite at home there now…

The 291 Suites & Prince Charming

The 291 suites is where I have been living for the last month or so...apparently it is close to swamp land and with that comes frogs and lots of them. Some of them somehow manage to get into the apartments – see example below (frog who took a liking to the desk). Sadly, the one found in my apartment one evening, did not turn into Prince Charming!

 

 

Frogs aside, I have been fairly spoiled staying at the 291 suites. Sometimes there is wifi, most of the time there is water (sometimes it is warm), there is usually electricity and they often show movies in the garden. I guess I shall miss the place, as I am moving into a house this weekend. Not surprisingly, I didn’t choose the house which had pigs in the garden for the purpose of eating the snakes, so I am living in hope that this will be a peaceful home on the bug/creature front...and so begins a new chapter of life in Lira for Adongo...

 Apartments at The 291 Suites

 

Garden at 291

 



 My last weekend staying at 291

 

 

 Leaving do for Judith at The Prince Restaurant (I am moving into Judith's house)

 

 

 

Bugwatch – don’t look if you fear!

For those who mocked me for bringing my spider catchers...check out their multipurpose usage below...

Below is a typical aftermath following an attack of flying ants – they seem to come out to play when it is about to rain at night. They come on mass, fly around for a few hours, then seem to loose their wings, fall to the ground and leave a scene of devastation behind (see below). Photo’s show the morning after, but you will note, not so many bodies in the picture – this is because locals love to eat the flying ants...I tend to stay in doors, lights off (they like light) seeking refuge under the safety of my mosquito net on nights like this – but occasionally one sneaks into the apartment...easily solved by a quick catch in the spider catcher!

 

 

I have no idea what the bugs are in the picture below - but I know I'm not too fond of them. Fortunately, (touch wood), I haven’t seen too many of these in Lira, they tend to hang out in Gulu - as you can see from the picture, they also seem to be shortlived...

 

 

Again, not sure what this is but it took residence outside my hotel room for a few days...

 

 

 

The delightful moth below, luckily wasn’t in my room as it was far too big for the spider catcher (the size of a hand I would say). One or two of his smaller friends have successfully been caught in the spider catcher though.

 

So, still not very good friends with all of the above, but I am coping - the smaller the better as far as bugs are concerned. I even happily fish them out of my drinks from time to time now.

 

 

 

 

Scary “Muno” in the field...

This pic was taken in Otwall (Oyam District), during a visit to CEASOP’s outreach sites. If you look closely at the photo above, you will spot a child hiding in the photo – these were the brave children, the rest literally run away as apparently a white woman with a camera can be a very scary thing – very sorry children of Otwall!

CEASOP trains people in the community and encourages those trained to train others in their community. They can learn trades such as bakery, welding, brick laying & tailoring. CEASOP have proudly succeeded in engaging some women in male dominated courses like BCP and training men in some of the more female dominated courses. Many of those benefiting from the training have had little or no education because of 20years of conflict experienced in Northern Uganda.

 

 An outreach centre

 

Latrines (toilets) constructed by students

 



 The students are using paper to practice their stitching as it is cheaper than material

 

 Bakery class

 

Welding an oven

 

 

Alito outreach centre in the Kole District...

Vocational Training at the CEASOP VTI in Lira...

 

 

 

My new place of work...slight change from the Woolwich Centre...!

I love the peaceful location of the new office, surrounded by chickens, guinea foul, goats, sometimes cows...We have enjoyed many mango breaks under the tree here, sadly mango season is almost over. Still at least I will still get to eat beans every day for lunch – I don’t think that they ever go out of season...

 

 The new CEASOP Office

 

Tea break with some regular visitors

 

The new spacious office

 

 Diana preparing lunch

 

 Lunch is served

 

Rice and beans (no they are not Heinz!)

 

 My new office friends

 

 

The Principal's daughter, also a regular visitor to the office, Fay (8 months)