Making a home for ourselves in Uganda
Rob & I have been put up in a lovely wee house, called Wendy House, amongst the other volunteer’s houses, approximately a two minute walk from the hospital, which makes for a great communte. The done thing for working people to do here is to hire a “house boy/ girl” to do your cooking & cleaning. Initially I wasn’t sure about essentially having a servant, but my guilt was eased when it was explained to me that it is a good way of giving employment to a local person. And so, jointly with our neighbours, Sophie & Gordon, we have hired the lovely Annet, who I think I will now struggle to live without when we return home. Most of the hospital staff live within a similar proximity to the hospital as we do, & it seams that for many people here, their life is their work, I think in the long-term I quite like being able to leave my work behind when I finish.
There’s a good group of volunteers out in Kisiizi at the moment, it’s really sociable & thankfully we all get on really well; it’s nice to have people to travel with, & to share experiences with, & sometimes just to be like, “isn’t it weird how they do this here?!”. And we’ve spent many hours playing various games, of which Bananagrams & the card game, ‘farmer’s bridge’ are some of our favourites.
The hospital runs a keep fit class that we’ve been going to, to keep in shape. Before we first went we were expecting a nice gentle work out, but we got a bit of a shock when we found out they were doing a Joe Wick’s HIIT work out, which will keep us fit while we’re here. We’ve also been doing some running, which has been pretty challenging, being in the bottom of a valley, basically any run you do involves a steep climb, & this is combined with the uneven roads, altitude (we’re at ~1700 metres above sea level), dust & the fumes makes breathing difficult! However, the altitude does mean that the climate here is very pleasant for running …& just for living in general. Although Uganda is the home of the men’s Olympic marathon champion, going for a run is not a “normal” thing to do here, so we get a lot of attention when we run, most of it well meaning, however, the friendliness of my response can be variable depending on how exhausted I’m feeling! We have also had a few locals joining us for parts of our runs, usually wearing flip flops, & barely breaking a sweat as we struggle to keep up, so they obviously have good running genes. We have signed up to do the Running the Rift half marathon in Uganda in November so we’d better get training. There are also lots of beautiful walks around here, but similarly to the running they all involve a steep climb, but the views at the top make it worth it. Every evening after work the locals meet on the school pitches to play various sports, including football, volleyball, netball, badminton & touch rugby. Rob’s been getting involved in the football; they play with skins (no t-shirt) versus shirts, & from what I’m told teamwork is lacking, with everyone just chasing after the ball. I’ve had a wee go at touch rugby. I’ve also been teaching Rob some yoga, & he’s been getting pretty good at the old downward facing dog.
With the strong Christian faith of Kisiizi community, we’re told that any alcohol consumption is generally frowned upon, so we’re having to (largely) hold off for when we travel outside of Kisiizi, so we’re undergoing a bit of an enforced detox, which I’m feeling pretty good for.
We have discovered that the Ugandan’s love of speeches extends beyond chapel. We attended a leaving party for a member of staff at Kisiizi Hospital. We weren’t sure what to expect before we went, but the night essentially consisted of all attendees giving speeches about their departing colleague, with the finale being a speech by the departee himself. And we have to say they give a pretty good speech. I think if I’m ever going to be cured of my phobia of public speaking, then this will be the time!
You can get the bascis in Kisiizi, but we take a trip to the nearest town of Kabale, which is about one & a half hours drive away, about once a month, in order to do a supermarket shop. The supermarkets are not what we’re used to at home, & are very cramped & chaotic in comparison, with only a limited, & often randon, selection. The drive to Kabale is beautiful, & it’s nice to get away for a bit every now & then. Rob was also delighted to discover both that there is a golf course in Kabale, & that he had a fellow golfer in Gordon, & so on our first vitist to Kabale, they enjoyed a round of golf whilst us girls enjoyed a nice cocktail in a bar with a beautiful view. Although I think the game was only tolerated in the end, as apparently they’re not as particular as we are at home about keeping their greens trimmed, & they had negotiate the resident goats.
There’s lots of beautiful brightly coloured, patterned material on sale here & skilled tailors who will make it into pretty much anything you want, you just draw them a picture & they will make it for you. So far I’ve got a skirt & a dress made, & I’m planning what to get made next.
We were invited to dinner with the family of one of Sophie’s teacher friends, who lives about a half an hours drive from Kisiizi. It started with a slightly hair rising taxi journey along a dirt track, in the pouring rain. We paid slightly more for the taxi not to be ‘overloaded’, & so only 10 of us piled into one car, including 2 people in the driver’s seat. There was almost no visibility, & the driver smelling strongly of alcohol, but with an apparent passion for speed. There were a couple of near misses, but we were all relieved to make it to our destination in one piece. And we were rewarded with the warmest welcome, & a delicious feast of traditional Ugandan food; it was really touching to see the effort that the family had gone to with the meal, & how much our visit meant to them.
Two months in Robert was badly in need of a haircut, so with trepidation we ventured down to the little shack down the road, with the sign, “Hair salon & shoe repairs”. Our friendly hairdresser, also called Robert, was as nervous as my Robert, as he set out cutting his strange “mzungo hair”, but there was not need to fear as he created a very nice short, back & sides that any trendy Finnieston barber would be proud of, & all for the equivalent of just 50p.
Robert celebrated his 32nd birthday in Uganda. With only limited birthday present options, I was forced to get creative, & lucky Robert was the recipient of a random collection of handmade gifts from me. I also asked a local lady to make a birthday cake for him, which was decorated with the lovely message, “happy day to you”. Birthdays aren’t really a big deal here, in fact lots of our patients don’t even know their date of birthday or age, so they wouldn’t even know what they were celebrating, & when to do it. We celebrated Robert’s birthday with a little party with some of our new friends in Kisiizi.