Friday 5 August 2005-08-26 Kisinga, nr Kabale, SW Uganda (Ed: Post from Uganda is a little slow!!)
I've got a bit of spare time today, so I thought I'd write a letter home and let you know a little bit about how things are here.
We've been here in the village of Chisinga (actually spelt Kisinga) for a week and I'm still not much wiser about what we're actually doing! This is such a remote part of Uganda, but incredibly beautiful. It is very mountainous, lush and green in most parts with banana groves covering the rolling hills almost as far as the eye can see. It's very hot - it's 10.00am now and hitting 30oC.
There is usually a fairly strong hot wind which blows the find red dust everywhere. Everything here is covered in it, especially us! Our perceived tan fades enormously every time we wash, so I've decided to give up on the washing nonsense!! We've got a shower cubicle out the back of our house which has a run-off, and works well when we fill up our solar showers. The sun is so strong though that the water in them heats so much that the showers are often far too hot and become more of an ordeal than the please we'd hoped for. Thankfully, we only have enough water for two showers a day (for the whole team, that is).
We get our water from a protected spring which is down the hill about 500m. Going down is OK, but I'm far too weak to get the 20 litre cans back up the hill once they are filled. As a result I've taken on permanent breakfast duty in exchange for the boys carrying the water. It's a reasonable compromise, except that I have to light the charcoal at 7.00am EVERY morning. (Dad, you'd be so proud of me!). The water has to be boiled before we can use it for cooking and drinking.
Uganda is supposed to be the most expensive country in East Africa. I've not seen much of that - this morning we bought 30 eggs for 3,200 Uganda shillings, ie approximately £1.00 Stg. We buy most of our food in the market and supermarket in Kabale. The boys went shopping yesterday and brought back two FROZEN chickens. Sadly they were not oven ready, but one of the local girls gutted them for us. Then I produced a feast of incredible proportions for our dinner. The roast chicken, roast carrots, spinach, gravy and potato wedges with pepper and chilli, was by far the best and most filling meal we've had, even if I do say so, myself. So much hard work though. It was our first attempt at cooking meat in this situation which is not exactly equipped with one's every need. If there is a slow or difficult way to do it, we'll find it. I love technology. I also love pineapples!!!
Work began on Tuesday, after a bit of a false start on Monday. We are working at the church, up the hill about 100m - building a 3,000 litre water reservoir tank. It will take four weeks from start to finish including the time it takes to let the concrete harden. Today we are working on the foundations - filling them in with concrete. The worst part of the work is the heat, which zaps all our energy very quickly. Keeping everyone hydrated is also a challenge because we need to be constantly boiling water and cooling it. There are many locals, particularly women, helping with the work on the tank. Women seem to do most of the work around here! We will also be doing some schools work and wetting up a gravity flow scheme and some tap stands in the village nearby.
Our house is pretty cool. When we arrived in Kabale we were taken to see it before we came to stay the following day. It is a bricks and mortar construction with a tin roof and is in a small fenced compound; the fencing is entirely dried reeds and is an awesome windbreak. We've got four rooms - 2 small and 23 large. The large rooms and dorms and one small room is a store with the other serving as living space. It is not a very secure, bug-free environment and is certainly not vermin free. A rat did attempt to befriend our food stores, but its weakness for milk and potato lured it to its demise in our trap. There are loads of beasties about here. Enormous ants, massive spiders (honestly, huge!!) and unrecognisable, and probably deadly, bugs. We've also got a chicken and six chicks about here and next door is some bizarre goat-breeding programme from which we have the occasional escapee.
We have been fighting off more than beasties though. On leaving London Tearfund supplied each of us with a course of antibiotics in case of problems and after one week here, only three of us have not needed to use them. Yes, we have been scourged by some nasty bug which has caused diarrhoea, stomach cramps and light-headedness. Most people are on the road to recovery now and somehow I've managed to avoid it. Even more miraculous is that I've become the insatiable appetite of the group - permanently hungry and always able to eat more. I'm not sure that I would have 2 fried eggs, 2 bacon butties and 4 pieces of toast for breakfast at home. It just washes down so well with pineapple - what can I say?! That was this morning and signified the end of the meat until this time next week. Budget also stipulates that next week it comes caged, not frozen! Perhaps that will curb my appetite….
Next weekend, 12 - 14 August, we are splitting the team. The boys, and an American guy we have befriended, are going to climb Muhabura in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. At 4,127m this volcano is Uganda's highest peak. This national park is where tourists flock to see the famous mountain gorillas. The volcano will take 9 hours to climb. This was a little too much like hard work for us girls, we - and one of the boys - are going to stay at Bushara Island which is a Church of Uganda owned island camp in the middle of Lake Bunyoni. We'll be staying in tended accommodation - though very plush, I'm told - and will spend the weekend chilling out, hiking, canoeing and eating. Yum!
The following weekend is the Kabale Convention so we will be attending that as guests of the Ugandan Church. I'm not sure what that will be like …..
We're visiting Queen Elizabeth National Park the following weekend, which will be our safari. I'm told that we should definitely see some stock, and lions are common. Then we have one weekend in Kisinga before leaving for home. Oh, and in between our holidays, we'll be digging holes.
I'm not sure what else I have to tell you. I think I have given you a reasonable flavour of life here!
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Sarah's Preparation Work
Photos From The Trip - coming soon!
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