I don’t usually remember dreams and if I do, I wouldn’t normally confess the strange workings of my mind to the world but thought last nights was worth sharing!

I dreamt we met up with a new family working with our unit (which covers South Uganda and Rwanda), but this family’s assignment was slightly different as they were working on the moon. We met with them in their home and I was having a serious conversation with the kids about how they explained to their school teacher that they lived on the moon. I went on to enquire how they got internet and they explained that AIM International had the given them the code to change the direction of one of the satellites.

Hmm. Not sure what this says about how far away I am feeling at the moment or whether I just need to watch this Ugandan food!

Mordecai has flown. Or at least we hope he has. We decided that he was a drama queen and was possibly faking some of his incapacity. This proved true when we accidently left the shed door open for a couple of hours and came back to find him gone. No sign of feathers or a fat looking dog so our conclusion is that he taught himself to fly and was quite happy to give up the rotton meat we were offering him – good for him!

So I’m back to having Harry the Rooster for company (he is currently sat next to me – snoring!) and will oblige you with some chicken photos instead!

Spot the chicken!

Harry

Mordecai

Over the last few weeks my little apartment has been home to baby rabbits, rats, geckos and an over friendly rooster (called Harry) but now we have a new friend – Mordecai the Hawk. My neighbours are a great couple called John & Lydia who are out here for 6 months. Lydia is a veterinary nurse and so was informed of some kids seen playing with a distressed young hawk. We went to see and it turned out that Mordecai’s mother had been responsible for killing young chicks belonging to this household so one of the boys had climbed the tree and pushed Mordecai out of the nest. When we found him, he was being manhandled, was looking very stressed and we feared internal bleeding as he had blood in his saliva. The options that we had were to leave him as he was (to be manhandled to death), to kill him immediately (but he is a very beautiful bird), to instruct him to be left at the bottom of the tree (but there are many dogs and cats around the area), to climb the tree and put him back (and face having eyes punctured or neck severed by a very angry mother hawk) or take him home!

So… Mordecai is currently living in our outdoor shed and appears to have made a good recovery. If we are in sight then he plays the poorly patient but when we are out of sight, he will stand up and hop around. He has had a good meal of three baby rats (unfortunately we had spent a day hand feeding these rats and named them Roland, Ronald and Raymond, so we felt just slightly cruel placing them directly in front of Mordecai’s sharp beak!). We are not sure what the next meal will be but have our eye on the geckos and intend to keep Harry well out of the way!

But now we have to teach him to fly!! We spent this morning in a local field throwing him up in the air, whilst ensuring our hands were well protected in a pair of jeans! He can fly a few metres, but hasn’t quite sussed either going up or the landing bit! If anyone happens to have experience in wild bird flight tuition then we would love to hear from you!!

Flight practice

I went to the hospital and university today! This was just a first introductory meeting, as I explained in my last post it is going to be a little while before I start working there. However it was great (and just a little daunting) to see where I will be working. I haven’t time to write much now and to be honest I think it may take me a while to really get a proper view of what the situation is. But for now here is a picture of me standing outside the physio department (for a 600+ bed hospital)!

Standing outside the Mbarara hospital physio department

If you are wondering why I still haven’t started work at the hospital the answer is that I am first concentrating on trying to learn the basics of the local language.

I don’t actually need Runyankore to survive here in Mbarara. English is widely spoken in Uganda – it is one of the national languages and is the language of the education system! This means that the majority of people in town can speak English and if they can’t there is always someone to translate. However there are many motivations to learn the local language:

-People’s default is to speak the local language so therefore any social conversations tend to happen in Runyankore.

- Many of my patients in the hospital may come from the villages or be uneducated and therefore I will need a translator- I am frustrated just thinking about it!! A lot of my job in UK involved talking to people and spending time finding out how I could best help them. Even the practical side of my job, I would be talking to encourage people to move in a certain way.

- Many songs in church and some church services (depending what church you go to) are in Runyankore.

- The reaction of people when you can even greet them in their own language is amazing – they obviously appreciate you speaking even a little Runyankore.

- When shopping you are frequently given a “mzungu” (white person) price. The prices are often lower if you speak in Runyankore!

- People often talk about you when you are next to them – I am curious to know what they say!

- A person’s first language can be called their “heart language”. If I want to build relationships with local people (which obviously I do!) then it will be easier to do this in Runyankore!

However being realistic – learning a language is a huge and slow task (I have always had so much respect for people have learnt more than their own language). The language I am trying to learn makes it a little more fun (although not as fun as those who are learning a tonal language – I admire you!!). With so many people speaking English, I do not have total immersion. It is simpler to communicate in English and therefore will have to make a concerted effort to speak Runyankore. Also the language has many vowels (many words both start and finish in a vowel) and the Ankole have much difficulty differentiating between “r” and “l” i.e. they will interchange them regularly. Makes it fun especially when they have lots of words with lots of “r”s in them, some of which are complete tongue twisters. Try saying “irwariro” (it means “ hospital”!). One positive is that there are some words that cover several different meanings although these can be interesting – e.g. kuteera means “to kick”, “to beat”, “to clap” and “to draw”!!?? Although there are also extra words – e.g. in case you ever need it “ebishanku” is the word for “dry cowdung”.

Basically I have a few weeks now to concentrate on the basics but realise that it is likely to take me years rather than months to get anywhere near to the even the basic level that I want to and that is only if I keep motivated.

So how am I learning it? Well I am grateful to have friends like Eddie and Sue Arthur (www.kouya.net)who work with Wycliffe Bible Translators and are great at directing and motivating a language learning novice like me. Eddie pointed me to www.languageimpact.com which has loads of great resources (worth looking at if you are trying to learn a language – make sure you read the stuff by Greg Thomson).

Me in my duka seller role!

Rossete pretending to be a custormer

Most importantly I have found a wonderful language helper. She is a girl called Rossete who has recently left school and is waiting to go to university in the Autumn. We have a great laugh and she is swiftly becoming a friend which is fab! I spend most mornings visiting her in her “duka”. This is a tiny shop attached to her house. She teaches me some Runyankore words or phrases and then we practise them as practically as possible. (This morning she got me going to find the water in front of the house and take the matches into the kitchen!). She also makes me serve every customer who comes to the duka (as much as I can!). It means I am now very good at the word for cigarette!! I even know the brand and how much individual cigarettes are!! I’ll talk more about the duka at another time but it is a useful insight into the culture as well. At the end of the morning we have make tea together, speak to her mother (who cannot speak any English) and then walk back to the road via the local village while Rossete makes sure I greet everyone who I meet. In the afternoon I work on learning vocabulary (using a computer flash card programme) and am slowly becoming braver to practise what I know.

Tomorrow Rossete is away so I am not going to the duka but she has given me homework and told me she will draw me if I don’t do it – or maybe she meant something else?!!

This is the biggest question facing me at the moment (there are many others, but this is the most immediate!). I am currently living in temporary accommodation in the compound of a Ugandan family. It is perfectly adequate for what I need at the moment but isn’t a long term option. I therefore am keen to find a permanent place so that I can at last unpack fully for the first time in 6 months and hopefully start to settle!

But where do I live? One of the criteria I set before I came was that I wanted to live simply but that is not as easy as it first seemed…

• It appears that small rented accommodation is very limited. It is rare for people to live on their own.

• There is no such thing as letting agents here. There is one person who is the closest that can be found to a “realtor” (I’m learning American speak!) but she appears to have her own agenda that includes raising the price to increase her share and changing her advice according to what is most beneficial to her. Word of mouth appears to be the only way to find out what accommodation is available – literally stopping people on the street and asking them if they know anywhere – people see a white face and direct you to the largest property they know of.

• The pricing of properties is not very consistent. A large four bedroomed house with a separate house for a worker was minimally more than a one bedroomed apartment as part of a student hostel.

• Safety needs to be taken into consideration – as a single white female I could be a sitting target!

• Mental health is an important criteria. Being in a place where I am likely to have constant visitors could prove a problem if I am in need of a bit of own space!

• I may need office space as there is no guarantee that the hospital or university will give me any.

I have also been challenged by a number of people about the fact that the size of the house I have is going to have less of an impact on people’s impression of me than the colour of my skin. i.e. people are going to see me as rich no matter what.

So I still want to live simply but I may need to adjust what that looks like.

I have a couple of options at the moment. One is a property near to the university but it is a Duplex (another American term!) i.e. two houses together in one compound and there are some questions about the guy next door and the landlord. The other is a lovely (if a little dilapidated!) three bedroomed house (the cheapest house we have seen so far and complete with own dog and banana plantation!!!) very near to the rest of the AIM team members, however this is 5km away from the hospital/university. Both properties come with a on site workers house -which is just a single room- another tough thing to come to terms with.

Hmm??? What to do??? If you pray then please pray for me as I try to make a right decision on this one.

All this for just me?

Well at last I have reached Mbarara, it is good to eventually see the rough location where I will be living and to start to meet some people who I will be working with.

Mbarara is a medium sized town by UK standards although big in Ugandan standards and rumours have it that it will be upgraded to “city” status within the next year. The main high street through the town is busy but you can quickly get out to the backwaters of the town where there are dirt roads and plenty of banana trees! Mbarara is in a hilly area and while there aren’t “proper hills”, it does mean that there are frequent good views which makes me happy!

I spent a week with a Ugandan family just outside Mbarara, the living was basic but still better than what I had when I lived in Kenya – there was some electricity and even couches!! They were a lovely family who made me feel very welcome and were quite happy to start teaching me the basics of Runyankole, the language of the area. I was properly introduced to the Ugandan fare. Same every lunch and dinner so feel very familiar with it now! Matoke (savoury bananas) steamed in Banana leaves is the main staple. May sound good but needs tasting before a full verdict is made!! The other common items were rice, irish potatos, beans, g-nut (peanut) sauce and meat stew. It was actually very edible but I faced the same problem as I remember from Kenya – I could never eat enough to satisfy my hosts. My stomach is just not that big!

Generous, the Maama of the family I was living with worked at a disabled childrens centre nearby, so I spent several days there. It was a fantastic place and one I expect to build links with once I start work as a physiotherapist. I spent most the time observing the OTs and OT students who was working there. They were doing a great job although I was rather amused on the afternoon when I joined in with a session to be taught basket weaving!! (As my OT friends will probably tell you this is one of the frequently used stereotypes of OT that isn’t the most appreciated!)

Will write more soon as I get my head round where I am. Here are a couple of photos for the meantime!

This is where I stayed for my homestay!

Matoke being cooked

Me and my homestay Maama

My homestay - view from the door

No blog about East Africa is complete without at least a couple of animal photos, so thought I’d get mine over and done with quickly…

Chameleon

Orphan elephant…

Very cute baby rhino (was born premature and still smaller than a normal newborn!)…

Friendly giraffe…

Very friendly giraffe…

At ABO we had a task to draw our life & journey to Africa in diagramatical form. Here is mine. I’ll leave to decipher the meanings!

ABO

I am writing again from Nairobi having now returned from my 3 weeks in Machakos. The “Africa Based Orientation” course has been good and I now feel much more orientated to America sorry Africa. There were about 35 of us on the course plus about a dozen kids. In addition to the predominating Americans (who were all lovely and kindly introduced me to Superbowl, fruit salad with your main course and various new terminology) there were people from Canada, 4(+2 kids) of us from the UK, 2 from Germany and one from Hong Kong. It was a great group, helpfully bonded by a bit of ‘dunkirk spirit’ as we coped with only one day off in the whole three weeks (including weekends) and lectures from 8.30 – 5.30pm most days. The best of the lectures were those given by the visiting African speakers. It was so helpful to be introduced to African culture from people who were obviously well qualified to talk about it and so willing to answer any questions fired at them! It did raise lots of queries for me too, the more I learn the more I realise I have yet to learn/ practice.

The safari treasure hunt turned out to be a trip into the local town with a list of information we needed to gain by talking to local people. Maybe not quite as exciting as hunting lions but I did find it a really valuable exercise. People here are so much more willing to chat (I can’t imagine going into a shop in Hedge End and asking someone about how they found their wife and how their parents felt about that!) and Machakos was similar to how I imagine Mbarara may be and so it was good to discover ways that I may be able to build relationships when I eventually get there. I may not however use the “find the most unusual thing on the menu and eat it with gusto!”

Off to see some animals

It has been fun to rediscover some of the different aspects of living in Africa that I remember from last time. Coca cola and associated sodas are still available from numerous little dukas (shops) even off the main beaten track. (My favourite remains Stoney Tangawizi – a type of ginger beer! ). I saw giraffe and zebra on my way to Machakos and then got to go on a game drive on our day off and saw warthog, oryx and wildebeest. The weather has generally been lovely (although bit gutted to miss the fun of the snow that the UK has been having), but I still remain the great british mindset of “oh look the sun is shining – I better make the most of it!”. There has been a bit of rain which is very unusual for this time of year. The country is in drought so it seems a good thing but those who farm are apparently unsure what to do as they don’t know whether this is the start of a rainy season or not.

There are things that are different too. Although matatus (the public transport system) still exist the restrictions on numbers of people are better enforced and so I have not yet had to sit with my nose in someone’s armpit – long may this last! There are also tuk tuks now (the 3 wheeled vehicles more associated with India) and some boda bodas (bicycles that you sit on the back of). The prevalence of mobile phones is also very evident (although camera phones don’t yet seem to have taken off in the same way as they had in Indonesia when I visited there last year), it does make booking your own personal tuk tuk much easier!

I got chance to visit some HIV &TB patients in the local hospital (on my birthday!) and also an amazing children’s home which had an inspirational manager involved in many different initiatives to improve life in the local community. I also got pushed out of my comfort zone a bit. Late one Saturday evening I was told I was needed to preach the next morning (I didn’t in the end, but had a late night preparing for it!) and then last Sunday ended up having to sing a solo with no music. Please pity the people who had to hear me – singing lessons should have been included in the En Route course I did last term!!

So I am now back in Nairobi and everyone is slowly dispersing to their different locations. I am the only one going to Uganda (on Monday), but I now have lots of friends spread around Africa.