According to my role out line office hours are 8.30am – 5pm, so with some trepidation I set my alarm for 7.30am thinking that should be OK for me to get to the office for 8.30am. Thankfully it was.
The previous evening I retired early in order to organise my belongings in to an easier to use and neater manner, to make the next few weeks a bit more organised, that done I watched a bit of TV and tried to go to sleep. The walls at the hostel are paper thin and technically I don’t have a window to my room. I have a hole in the wall with meshing and bars. Still despite the on-going noise of the other residents I was tired enough to quickly drift off without bothering with ear plugs or passive aggressive requests to shut up.
I was awoken earlier than I would have liked at around 6.30pm to the noise of two female humans trying to pack quietly in the aforementioned hallway area. To be fair they were obviously trying their best to be quite, but the walls must surely be made of just paper as I could still hear the entire conversation. It wasn’t exciting enough for me to comment on.
I then proceeded to the bathroom block to have a shower and make myself presentable for work. I’ve showered in dumps and I’ve showered in luxury, this is definitely toward the bottom end of the scale and, quelle surprise, no hot water. Thankfully because of the temperature it’s not the same as cold water back in the UK. That said you don’t want to hang around in it.
Ablutions complete I got dressed just as the heavens opened, so on with the waterproofs and out of the exit on to the road, helmet in hand to wave down a boda.
Didn’t have to wait long and after a quick debate on the end location we were on our way. This was as you expect an interesting journey as the bodas weave in and out of the rest of the traffic using whichever sides of the larger vehicles to pass that they can, all in all a fairly exhilarating 15 min journey that was marred by my not agreeing a price before hand and then getting fleeced at the end. Still it was chucking it down and I was in one piece at my destination at the right time with no issues, so I guess he earned that extra pound.
Following some signposts I went down some dirt tracks past a few shacks, then some houses and finally around another corner to the VAD compound of two buildings. Not clear which of these I should venture to, I went in one and introduced myself to the receptionist who responded with blank looks and advised me to go to the other reception.
I duly did and received equally blank looks from this receptionist, but she did her best to find out what was going on. We went to one of the Directors offices in the first building, blank looks all round then to one of the team leaders who twigged and told the receptionists where I needed to be. Back to the second building for the second time and I was finally introduced to Daniel who I have had some correspondence with previously.
Daniel explained the mix-up as John, my supervisor, mistakenly thought I was arriving today, not the previous day. When Hope arrived (another volunteer) she did say that she went through it all on Friday. Still all sorted out now had a brief intro with a number of people whose names I quickly forgot, a chat about what goes on here, expectations and timetable for the next few days. I’ll be in a meeting on Weds lunchtime with a potential partner NGO, then heading out to Buwama in the Mpigi district for a couple of days to see some ceremony for the completion of fitting some solar panels I think. Will tell you more after the event. Plus they’d like me to look at their budgeting and strategic planning overall and specifically for their microfinance programmes, which should be interesting. Apparently what they have now is rubbish and 5 years old, how hard can it be to improve!
Anyway one throwback to the gravy train years at RI that I have in Uganda are free lunches. These are likely to be pretty much the same every day with minor variation on the meat involved (beef or chicken), but they are a good social occasion where everyone gets together for lunch.
Today’s lunch comprised of the Ugandan staple matoke (boiled and mashed green banana), sweet potatoes (not like the ones we get), some white stodgy thing that I think was a plant, rice and beans and today was beef. As the strange new muzungu, I think I got preferable treatment with a large chunk of tasty beef, I could see the other odds and ends floating around that thankfully didn’t end up on my plate. So it was carbs, carbs, carbs, carbs, veggie protein and a small amount of animal protein.
The matoke is different, will give it a few more tries to see if I acquire the taste. Either way I’ll be stuck eating this staple at many points in the next 12 months. Sweet potatoes were good, but white / yellow and texture was closer to a chesnut than a sweet potato. It was almost as confusing as that aubergine nonsense in South East Asia. White stodgy plant thing was exactly that. Rice was white, beans were pinto sans tomato sauce, beef was stewed.
So my first authentic Ugandan meal and whilst there was nothing bad with it, it was distinctly bland. Why didn’t I bring some hot sauce, I need to get to a supermarket asap to see if anything like that is available here. If not, SEND HOT SAUCE!!!
2.5 out of 5, going to have to reduce the carbs though, I’m about to fall asleep whilst writing this in an office with no internet (as the bill hadn’t been paid) and no leccy (don’t know why, probably someone trying to repair something nearby). Think I’ll have a skinny burger for dinner with no chips, or might head down the road to one of the markets to try a Rolex (omelette in a chapati).
P.S. Got a boda back, only took 10 minutes and didn't get fleeced in the slightest.
P.P.S. The white stodgy plant thing is Ugali apparently, maize flour mixed with water to form a porridge and then white flour added to roll it into a big ball.
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