Come good rain

After a long electioneering period fraught with police patrols, yellow shirts, holidays for voting, finger pointing, interesting ballots , accusations, the big man is back to make it an even thirty years, and calm prevails…..

Now.  Well, here we are.

 Waiting for the rainy season, which we are told changes many things, especially the roads and ease of transport.    Can’t imagine how small transport trucks will manage.  I saw one of these a couple of days ago.  It was a regular sized pickup with large full sacks up to the sides of the box and piled into a pyramid.  On top were seated 21 adults (I counted ) plus a few live chickens and a piece of baggage or two.   The driver says it’s not a problem, but those big lorries which combine goats and cows with people sure are…..

The other day a very large Coke truck overturned cascading bottles on the bank. Lots of willing hands helped to remove the mess.  Timely in this thirsty weather!

With rain creepy crawlies and critters will emerge they say.

 Everywhere in Uganda, but especially here in the rural areas, the roads are now deeply potholed and consist of several inches of red dust.

Trucks fly past engulfed in thick clouds of the stuff, coating everything in their path.  Rod and his motocycle included…..

When is that rain coming……

Everyday dawns bright and hot. Like the Okanagan hottest summer days, dry, and hot. Meanwhile, it’s –minus 21 degrees celcius in Calgary.

At the moment there is a significantly delayed start to the rain, and a dire warning for everyone to expect and prepare for famine.   People are busily digging up remaining crops of cassava, peeling, slicing and drying it in the sun in preparation.

Daily food for many Ugandans is beans and posho, that is, ground cooked cassava….which looks and tastes a lot like thick cold cream of wheat to me.  You just make a ball of posho in the palm of your hand,  push in a little hole with your thumb….. presto, you have a handy dandy scoop for the beans.  Why would anyone want cutlery?

Right now, lots of food is available, but the crops are usually planted by about the middle of February with the rains, and no one has anything planted yet.

Just another hurdle for everyday existence….  No gain without sweat as they say here.

Carol has been busy driving “deep”….  (that is to say, the driver is. She just sits there.)    Aiming to visit many schools before the onslaught of mud, and water….   Everyday the driver carefully washes the vehicle after our return, only to coat it in red dust the next day.

Schools are eye opening, interesting, unbelievable……   imagine 800 pairs of curious eyes, all those minds wondering, does that skin colour rub off?   Some tiny ones  shriek and run at the sight of such ghostly creatures !

Uganda has a policy of universal primary education for all.  This means schools around every corner, exploding with children bent on a better future through education.  Small children are in the largest classes, and most unlikely to have desks.

The sight of a white face and everyone is immediately on their feet, crying “welcome, our visitor!”

You’ve got to love the spontaneous singing of hundreds of African children…

Often those basic brick and concrete rooms contain 5 times the number of children in a Canadian classroom, one teacher at the helm.

Unfortunately there is little money to support the schools…… with the result being overcrowded classrooms, missing teachers, little children sitting on floors, formal methods …. Chalk and chalkboard is the only supply many have.  And tests.  Tests.

So, my job, to observe, think, smile, collect the facts, talk with head teachers and teachers about ways to improve basic school systems and offer support to the Coordinating Tutors whose job it is to encourage change.

 Sharing ways to make teaching reading and writing interesting and child friendly is easy, but never thought I’d be explaining the need to keep the goats and pigs away!  Domestic animals are intruders in schools….

Rod……..running, repairing a motorcycle, hanging the washing, whacking down the grass with a panga, wearing a motorcycle helmet, putting flowers behind his ears to entertain the children, pothole rider… oops, dropping pineapples off his bike….

 Western men are just plain weird!    Sometimes even domestic.

He’s ferreting out ways to help out, making management plans for a borehole drilling ngo, talking with disabled people at their youth employment workshop, talking to forestry people who need help but have no money for programs, talking to universities who need a lecturer but have no money for programs…. So it goes. 

Photos to tell the tale ……

School borehole

Borehole line up

Teachers' huts & school bell

Staff room water source

P7 hanging out, outside their classroom

Creative motorcar maker

Roadside curious children

Matoke Truck

Lake Bunyoni in the far south of Uganda

Lake Bunyoni

Roadside symmetry

Basket makers

Playing in the cassava pail

Cassava drying

Easy rider

Good news; Bad news or Tempting the Mango Fly

Christmas It was a good Christmas and New Years here, albeit very quiet at the College when we were there.  We visited Graham’s and Laurie’s friend Joseph and his family over Christmas and then did the tourist thing in Murchison Falls National Park.  Joseph is a driver for an NGO in Northern Uganda.  He was one of the first wave of refugees into Uganda in the early 1990’s fleeing the Sudanese insurgency.  It is quite a story in itself. A person I could look up to ... literally & figuratively I think he hopes the upcoming Southern Sudan secession vote goes peacefully and the new country moves to normal relations with Northern Sudan so he and his family will have the option to return once the children have completed their education. Joseph is trying to support his children and extended family through schooling here but even though it is supposed to be free, there are hefty fees (many parents here will go hungry in order to send their children to school).  In Joseph’s case it is a little more difficult as he lost his wife in child birth a few years ago.  A month ago he also lost his eldest son to a lorry accident in Sudan.  People here are so resilient in the face of personal hardship! I think Joseph and his family appreciated a few laughs on the muzungus over Christmas.  We are rather confused by things here at times!  This family is certainly one I can look up to … I swear the teenagers are a foot taller than me.  We had enough battery life & internet airtime so the family could have a Skype video call with Laurie, Graham, and Arden.  They loved it as they hadn't seen each other for 4 or 5 years.  Needless to say we enjoyed seeing the Bostonians as well. At the "Palace" with a marabou stork (could be messy!) While visiting our friends we stayed in the Gracious Palace Hotel which was nice and affordable but alas, alcohol free.  A cold Nile Special, Bell, or Club is good on a hot afternoon.  Unfortunately for most Ugandans prices on everything especially bus fares go way up at Christmas just as people try to make it back to their home villages.  It really creates hardship for many as cash is generally in short supply. Lack of a cold beer versus not being able to visit your family once a year at Christmas puts things in perspective. New Years Over New Year we spent 3 nights in Murchison Falls Park, admiring the falls on the River Nile and the many, many animals.  The giant crocs at the base of the falls were impressive (sailing to the song … don’t rock the boat baby, don’t tip the boat over…) as were the elephants, hippos, and giraffe.  Unfortunately we didn’t see lions or the elusive shoebill stork favoured by many great white photo hunters.  At the risk of being anti-wildlife I don’t really see the fixation with this bird given the other species and mass of amazing sites and contradictions one sees in Uganda. The lodge we stayed in had good food and a very peaceful atmosphere.  They didn’t have any New Year’s Eve events so it was too quiet, at least until a Park Ranger said he would bring in the New Year with a couple of rounds from his AK 47.  We spent some time afterward listening (after the ringing in the ears subsided) to his stories of animal encounters and the funny things tourists do.  He was a great example of how friendly Ugandans are … no really!  The weapons are to protect tourists from animals and guard against armed poachers.  It has only been 4 years since this park was reopened following years of threat and attack by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Peek-a-boo!  Red becked oxpeckers? No. Cow egrets. Don't take a hissy fit! Murchison Falls, we climbed down to the bluff on the right. Electrifying (or not) return to the Gulu Primary Teachers College As we arrived home from our Murchison Falls trip we discovered that a  power outage we had before we left turned into a major lights-out event.  We are still without power and expect to be for a few more weeks.  Fortunately the college has a solar powered water pump so we have ample water but no ready means to charge phones or computers.  I think we can safely say we are coming a little bit closer to life in rural areas of Uganda but with many more frills than most of course. Good news, bad news So we come to the good news and the bad news.  First the bad news … there is no power and we will be more in the dark than usual.  The good news is we don’t have to iron hand washed clothes.  But don't go yet as there is more bad news ...  by not ironing clothes and sheets you risk the mango fly.  The mango fly has a nasty habit of laying eggs in laundry hanging out to dry.  The larva can hatch and burrow into your skin when next you wear the garments.  We are told it is not very pleasant … something about a wiggling sensation inside a skin boil.  Enough said. Laundry ... Mango tree Mango tree ... Laundry.  Calculating probabilities of attack! Normally the larvae are killed when you iron the laundry or leave it in the hot, hot sun.  You may well ask how do Ugandans living in power-less village areas around town or in outlying areas manage to escape the mango fly and look so neat, crisp, and clean as they walk or cycle to work, school, or church.  The answer in my mind is a further testament to the women of Africa.  Not only do they mind the children, tend the fields, cook meals, sweep the dirt around the huts or homes, sell produce at the trading centres, carry water from the nearest borehole, and wash the clothes but they also iron the family’s clothes …. with a charcoal heated iron!  Simply pop open the heavy steel iron, scoop in some burning coals from the brazier and bango --> 1 hot iron but not for the faint of heart or weak of limb.  Immediately after hearing about charcoal irons and seeing them in the market, I had a flashback to my early childhood and  my mom’s hot flat iron (before we bought our first Sunbeam steam iron) and frightening “safety” films of the hazards of fire when hot irons were left unattended on the ironing board.  I can also recall the general fear of scorching the Sunday white shirts. We have in actual fact seen one or two people here with strange looking marks or holes on the back of their shirts (shaped like the base of an iron) where conceivably the person ironing the shirt wanted to kill the mango flies dead, dead, and deader but slightly misjudged the heat.   Personally I am with them. I would rather wear holey or scorched underwear than risk facing the hot needle and pointy forceps needed to extract a larva! New Year Greeting We hope everyone had a good New Years!  We certainly did but remember … never smile at a crocodile, you can’t get friendly with a crocodile (or hippo).   In the next little while if you happen to think of us and are in a musical mood please hum or sing an electrifying song such as “this little light of mine, I’m going to make it shine” or if you are in a surly and rebellious mode, think of us and say “power to the people”!  All for now from temporarily darkest Africa. Future topics: Troop planes landing in Gulu - Sudan referendum? Travelling with the boys in yellow		draft		1/6/11	by Blue Canoe	Delete
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