Sunday, 23rd September - All is calm

Sunday, 23 September

The State of the Nation

It’s 11:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. The Friday panic has died down, and the streets have resumed their normalcy. Frankly, by all reports, the news of impending riots appears to have been blown completely out of proportion. According to the news, there were no incidents whatsoever. But, who is to know?

Yesterday, I took a boda-boda to the well-known Owino market. I got myself a pair of second-hand Italian wellies…not quite designer, but getting there! Bright yellow, cut slightly above the ankle…well, considerably below the knee. George, the boda-boda driver was concerned about the safety of his motorcycle, so I did not dither. While there, I got a call from the bank to say that my cheque book and bank card were ready, so I left the bustling crowds of the African market, stopped by the bank downtown, and then headed back home. The exhaust fumes are still a force to be reckoned with and I was exhausted and out and of breath. Sybil, the drama teacher, decided to stop by for a visit, so we had a late lunch together. I threw together a concoction of the fresh veggies I had purchased from a vendor who passed by early in the morning, wagon loaded with produce of the day. For about seven dollars, give or take, I picked up a pumpkin, red spinach, sweet potatoes, peppers, a pineapple, cassava –which I tried cooking for the first time, egg plant, and carrots.

This morning, I am experimenting with sausage rolls, and a cream of wild mushroom/sweet potato soup. The soup is delish…the pastry for the rolls is not quite right. Can’t get used to the butter…it has a high water content. Think I might stick to the Norwegian butter which is more expensive, but more reliable.

Got a call to join a singing rehearsal for the Christmas pantomime, so I will head there this afternoon. I have joined KADS (Kampala Amateur Dramatic Society) – and I have been cast to play in a murder mystery at the end of next month. We had out first rehearsal last Thursday evening. It was good to get away from the school routine and I enjoyed meeting a whole new set of people. I will say more about the murder mystery in another blog. Should be fun! It is mostly improvised, in the context of a fashion show.

Didn’t really get a chance to tell about the experience in south western Uganda and the outdoor education trip. As expected from the pictures I had seen, and accounts I had heard, it is a spectacular place. Of course, some of the snotty rich students – who are only used to 5-star hotels…found it a bit to rudimentary! The air was clean, the views out of this world…birds galore…crawfish in the lake, a visit to a traditional medicine healer, canoeing, rope swinging into the lake, canoeing and hiking to another island which housed a school, using the premises of a former leper colony and hospital set up my British missionaries in the late 1800’s…and into the early 1900’s. So, history, tradition, culture galore. We got a little rained out on one of the days, but the reward was a view of a volcano in the distance which marks the border with Rwanda. The long bus trip was hard to take – 10 hours on return…with a 5 a.m. rising! Still, well worth it!

I am told that the rainy season has begun. Still wish I had some duckies….but my designer boots will do. Last week, a storm broke just 10 minutes before I was about to head out the door to school. I ended up wearing my crocs…and didn’t give a damn about the look. My feet were red from the mud, and I had to navigate through veritable torrents along the roads. A sight to behold, and a new experience. I now understand what a tropical downpour means!

Anyway, enough for today. I shall try one of the sausage rolls…maybe two…and then get ready for the rehearsal this afternoon.  But, let me upload this first!

School closed due to impending riots

Oh boy. We have just sent all the kids home...in anticipation of riots after noon-day prayers at the mosque.
The protests and riots around the world have finally reached Kampala. I will keep you informed of things. Fortunately, the Islamic community is small in Uganda...but one never knows with these things.
I have one student in class, with her little three-year-old sister, awaiting news from her mother who works at the US embassy. I need to wait until she leaves before I can leave. A bunch of teachers are getting together to huddle and deal with things.

Back in Kampala, but only just

Year 8 students check out the fabulous view of the islands in Lake Bunyonyi

A local fishermen sits in his lonely dug-out canoe on Lake Bunyonyi

I'll keep this brief for several reasons. I have three weeks of blogging to play catch-up. Damn.
My computer died three weeks ago. Anna Hecker, the food-tech teacher, has lent me her spare laptop...a teeny-weeny guy and my fingers are having a hard time navigating the keyboard. I also have three weeks worth of photographs from the Asciot Goat Races, my weekend away at Banana Village Resort  and the Botanical Gardens in Entebbe, and the week away in south-western Uganda, on Bushara Island, one of the 28 islands in Lake Bunyonyi.
On Tueday night, I was kept awake, not by noisy students, but a toothache! I went into denial for a day...because the offending tooth is the anchor on one of the bridges. Well, by Friday, I knew that I would have no choice but to visit a dentist once back in Kampala. So, I am back, and I spent the afternoon with Dr Tom at a dental clinic downtown. I got a long lecture on the reasons I need to floss...and that I would probably not have this problem if I had been diligent! Oh boy - I hung my head in shame, took it calmly, settled for Plan A... in the hope of solving the problem. But, no, I am still in pain from the exposed nerve and my only consolation is that it is stopping me from eating or drinking anything! I guess I will have to go back to the clinic during the week to settle for Plan B...drilling into the anchor tooth and getting a root canal treatment. That, my friends, is the state of the nation and it is clouding everything else.
I have looked through the 500 photos from the trip, and I need to do something with them, but my activities are being curtailed by the head sloping to one side, and my right hand glued to the cheek to dampen the pain.
Still, I had a great time with the students at Lake Bunyonyi and I will try to upload a few pics just to give you an idea of the place. It was hard to come to polluted Kampala, where poverty assaults every sense!
As for school tomorrow, that's another story. The week away has put me into a totally different rhythm. Yikes.