Week 4 in Kampala

Kampala, Week 4: Sunday Evening

I was forced out of my Sunday routine...it doesn’t take long. I had a great plan to spend it at school in order to catch up on paperwork at school. Instead, I rolled out of bed a little later than usual. Mornings can be on the chilly side...imagine that...so I snuggled under the duvet for a few minutes longer than usual. I needed to do a little errand and called Sybil (drama teacher and new friend) to get some information about distances and expected rates on a boda-boda. Then she decided she’d join me on the errand, but we ended up going with her Jeep. Instead of returning home, we trundled off to a pottery school which I understood to be around the corner. But Sybil has turned African in the sense of the concept of distances and directions! The place was a 40-minute drive outside of Kampala...on the way to Jinja, the source of the Nile. The pottery was quite spectacular, but the prices were European. The place is run by Swiss missionaries. Amazingly, I purchased nothing. But maybe that’s really because I only get my first pay cheque at the end of this month! On the way back into Kampala, I decided to show Sybil my apartment...and we ended up whiling the entire afternoon away on stories. I whipped up a yummy pumpkin soup, blended some cocktails with passionfruit, banana,  and rum.

The first week at school unfolded without too many glitches. I find the school day tiresome because we have no breaks between lessons. Monday to Wednesday are packed full, but things ease up on Thursday and Friday.  And we can leave at 3:15 on a Friday. Always welcome. The last two lessons on Friday – in my free time – we had a visit from three actors and the director of a controversial play, “The River and the Mountain” which has been running in Kampala for the past few weeks. The IB students all attended. We drummed up enough support to arrange a school bus to take 12 students to the show on Saturday evening. The show was held at “Mish-Mash” – a funky restaurant, gallery, and performance space run by an Australian couple. The place was buzzing. A beer company was shooting a commercial at the same time...so it was quite an evening out. The performance was pretty good, and some of the actors are very talented. The themes explored in the play should hold the students in good stead when they write some of their papers.  So, all-in-all, it’s been a pretty jam-packed week.  Wish I had spent a little more time on getting the paperwork done...but, what the hell!  Sybil was good company, and she knows lots of people in this city because she has been here for four full years. She is planning bi-weekly Thai cooking lessons with the husband of one of the primary teachers. I am in...so that should be a blast! That’s it for the week.

The students listen attentively to the words of the actors. It was a pretty inspiring session.

IB student, Winnie, shows off the two tickets she won after a quiz about the play. Here, she is posing with three of the actors who came to meet and speak to the students.