Seven weeks in
on Hoggs in Uganda (Uganda), 07/Nov/2009 07:14, 34 days ago
Rhona -During the water and power cuts a couple of weeks ago, while we heated the water from the jerry can on the two burner gas stove, it did occur to me that I could be sitting in Edinburgh with all mod cons, reading the Saturday Scotsman, drinking real coffee, and looking forward to a night out at the Lyceum with friends, perhaps followed by a trip to the Sheraton, the main attraction for me at the moment being the idea of the beautifully appointed and sparkling clean ladies room! I have stopped complaining about having no hot water as having no water at all is unpleasant, especially when you don't know when it is coming back on. We now have a large stock of jerry cans, in different colours, and the landlord’s father lives nearby but his water supply comes straight off a hill and he rarely has cuts, so we have a back-up plan.However, the magic of Africa and the Ugandans does make up for the "challenges" and we are really enjoying what is a big adventure. Work is really busy for both of us, and contrary to the advice we have had to takethings slowly and spend the first few months observing etc, the organisation have a clear idea of what they want from us and realise that we are here for a year and we need to get going. Bobby has come at avery opportune time, as they are installing a new computer system  and has become everyone's new best friend. He is busy working with an IT consultant, and has had to go straight from retirement to high-pressure working.Although there have been research studies going on in Reach Out, they have not had it co-ordinated, and so have created a research section (me) and a research capacity group (me and a few others, who don'treally know much about research). The organisation are very go-ahead, and people are very bright and committed. However, time management is an issue, meetings start very late, and I have noticed that nobody wears a watch, there are no clocks and no-one had a diary. Also there are few phones, which rarely ring, and there never seems to be any mail. Everything is very ad-hoc and important meetings seem to happen without any warning or preparation. But they are so nice and courteous, and ask about all your family and care about people as individuals. They have very soft, gentle voices and even in an open-plan office it is very quiet, with the odd person singing (mainly hymns) as they work at their computer. Sometimes after lunch it all get a bit soporific. People don't really have leisure activities, apart from following football, if you ask them what they are doing at the weekend they don't seem to get it, though most go to church on Sunday. Many are studying in their spare time. Nor do they go on holiday as we do, they just rest. But a lot of what surprises us is really how people lived in Scotland two generations ago, people toiled and rested, and lived in verybasic accommodation.Last week I went to a meeting for discordant couples (where one is HIV +ve and the other–ve). I just went along to meet them, as they are taking part in a  research study, they were very welcoming and the staff were as usual really kind and warm. We got  a matutu (a minibus taxi) part of the way and then walking a nice route the rest. We were delayed by heavy rain and hailstones, of course we thought it was all normal, but in fact our verandah roof has holes in it, and some houses were damaged.We have Hamish and Morven arriving on 23rd December, the best Christmas present I can imagine (unless they arrived with David and Kelli in tow). Allison and Alison are planning on coming at the end of January and Donald and David in mid-February. There are a few other provisional bookings and tentative enquiries. So this weekend we are sorting out the second bedroom and going shopping for bedding in the market, which sounds good, but my haggling is so bad it would probably be as cheap to get an order from John Lewis. There are 3,000 US to a£., but we reckon that Ugandan salaries are about a third of ours in the UK, so for example, wine which is considered expensive here is 18,000 US for a very ordinary bottle, which is £6 to us, but probably to a Ugandan is equivalent to £18 to us.We are enjoying having our vehicle, it makes life more convenient and gives us freedom at weekends. We bought it from Danny and Annie, VSO volunteers who have just returned to Dunoon after two years in Mbarara, upcountry, and who we met briefly after we arrived and before they left. I found their very good blog really helpful when we were getting ready to come, and hence we decided that we should do the same.We have discovered a short walk up the hill to back of the house. This picture is the view from the top over to Lake Victoria.