A better week
on Mangos, Monkeys and Maggie (Uganda), 12/May/2009 18:30, 34 days ago
Uganda does have a lot of compensations. Two week ends ago we went to Lake Albert to stay in a safari lodge overlooking the lake. The lodge is on a cliff and you can look down on the Lake and see the mountains of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the other side. The setting is superb and the sun setting over the lake was a wonderful sight. There were lots of new birds for Maggie to tick off on her list as well as some beautiful butterflies.This last week end we stayed at home and entertained friends. Maggie produced wonderful meals including ice cream. She managed to make it out of tinned cream and dried coconut milk. The time it took in preparation was more than it would have taken to drive to Kampala and back but it was really good and every one thought it was worth her effort. On the Sunday morning we had brunch complete with kedgeree. Smoked tilapia off the market made a good substitute for haddock.After all Maggie’s hard work I had to wash up but its not a bad job here when you can watch Paradise and African blue fly catchers outside your kitchen window. The bird life in our garden has increased with the rains, they are all displaying and building nests. It is easy to spend an hour just sitting and watching. The monkeys have not been around for several weeks. I hope the building work has not frightened them off. Hopefully the mangoes that are just ripening will attract them back.We are due the first of our visitors from England this week. We should have a string of people coming until September. It is good to have them as they make you look again at Uganda and is an excuse to visit more places.At work we are celebrating because we finally have a supply of TB drugs. Unfortunately it looks like we may run out of ARVs for HIV next week. Nationally Uganda appears to have no ARVs in the national stores. By using the muzungos network and making lots of phone calls and e mails we have a promise that drugs will be supplied next week. I hope that happens as the consequences of stopping drugs can be serious.