Uganda : my first impressions
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| Taxi journey home |
I have to admit that a lot has changed from my first day in
Uganda to now having been here 2 months (can't believe it was a month when I first started writing this post!) So far I have written a lot about the Smile projects and the people we are working with. Since we have now had time to settle into being in Nansana in Kampala, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on my
first impressions of Uganda.
I hope that it will give you an insight into what life is like here. We are loving 'the pearl of Africa' more and more and Kampala is fast becoming our second home.
My favourite thing
about Uganda so far….
The people! From the Smile volunteers I am working with and
friends at church to the children and teachers I have met, everyone is so
friendly and welcoming. The children have stolen my heart and always make me
smile because they just love being with and playing with you despite the language
barrier. It is such a blessing to spend time with them and get to know each of them as individuals.
I am so grateful to the people
who have supported me to be here to share this time with them and I am trying to make the most of every day.
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| Good friends at church |
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| Children at kids club at FBC |
What I am finding the
most challenging….
Sometimes I find it hard to be in such a big and busy city
because I am used to living in a quieter neighbourhood but I’m getting used to
it. It’s not that I don’t like cities, as I’ll happily go to London for the day
at home, but the constant buzz was quite overwhelming at first. In the first
week especially, I had to remind myself that Kampala was exactly where God was
calling me to be and trained myself to see the beauty of the fact that God
loves every person in the city.
Last week we walked up a hill to see the city from above and it really was a beautiful view.
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| Hill walk |
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Enjoying the view
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| At the top of the hill with our friend Georgie |
It is a strange experience to be across the world in a
different country when I have just finished school! I miss my family and friends
at home and sometimes it seems like I’m living in a parallel world. However, I’ve
learnt to rely on God for so much because I wouldn’t be able to do it on my
own. Phillipians 4:13 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me' has been a verse that has really encouraged us and that we have prayed over ourselves.
I have started to
settle in more now and am a lot more comfortable in the city. I now feel
comfortable getting the hour taxi to church in the day if Lois and Kate are
staying in and am grateful to friends who make sure I get home safely.
I am really appreciative of encouraging friends- it makes such
a difference to hear from people back home.
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| What typical street in downtown Kampala looks like |
It is also a real challenge to see the great needs amongst the families and children we are working with as we have seen a lot of poverty whilst we have been here, particularly during community outreach. This is something we have been praying about as a team and I have been drafting a post about it.
The weather…
The weather isn’t as hot as I was expecting all the time,
which I’m glad of as we are very active. However, it’s still t-shirt weather
and I have only had to pack a cardigan or jumper a few times so far. October
and November are part of the rainy season, which explains why it has been
cooler. When we reach the dry season, it will be a lot hotter!
When it rains, it really pours! 'Raining cats and dogs' doesn't really cover it- it's more like 'raining bears and elephants.' Everyone runs for cover and
rain is a legitimate excuse for being late to somewhere. In fact, if you power
on through the rain to get somewhere, you’ll probably find you’re the only one
and it the event will start late anyway. I've also found it interesting that it seems to rain at the same time on a particular day every week because I'm so used to the randomness of English rain.
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| Black skies and sun at the same time |
The currency…
The exchange rate between Ugandan shillings and Great
British Pounds is around 5000 shillings to £1 so it feels like you have a lot of money in
your purse even when you only have 10p in English money. We are getting used to
what is a reasonable amount to charge for different products. Sometimes people
try to charge us more because they know we’re not locals e.g. for boda rides to
school but once they see we know the correct price, they agree to it.
The food…
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| Kate serving food at school |
The food here is delicious! I am enjoying the local
favourite of a chapatti, which is a flatbread of Indian origins, which has
become very popular in Uganda. We have chapattis for lunch most days at Ruth Mother Care School, where it is
usually served with rice and beans.
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| Chaptti |
Other foods we eat here:
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Cassava, which is basically like a parsnip but
not as sweet. Cassava chips are my favourite!
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Yam
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Posho- it looks like mashed potato but is a
flour paste thickened up. I haven't tried making it but a friend here has promised to teach me :).
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Goat
- Rolex- a chapatti filled with vegetables a chapati filled with eggs, onions, cabbage or kale, and tomatoes,
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Matoke- a kind of stewed banana.
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A small fried doughnut, which we eat with
samosas for breakfast at school
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The fruit here is amazing, especially papaya and
mango!
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African tea- I’m not the greatest fan of English
tea and never drink it but I like the tea here because it’s
much sweeter.
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| Making chapattis |
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| Lois and Gabit making chapattis at our house |
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| Anna and I rolling out chapattis on graduation day at school |
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| When we made lasagne for our friends |
Church and friends….
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| The outside of KBC |
Kampala Baptist Church (or KBC as it is abbreviated to most
of the time) is so friendly. We have made lots of friends and everyone always comes to greet us. As I am writing, this is the
first evening I haven’t been at church for six days, which should give a good
idea of how much I love being there.
It is a really social place so even if you aren't involved in a ministry there for that evening, there's always someone to chat to. I am so thankful for the friendships we have been able to build quickly as it is such an encouragement and support in a new place and it is always good to have people to cheer you up and make you smile when it hasn't been so easy.
Kate and I have joined the Christmas and
youth choir, which has been good for getting to know more people. I am looking forward to the Christmas cantata performance next month. We get to dress up in floor length dresses whilst the men men in suits, so it should be a fun formal occasion and a great way to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Kate and I have been practising learning the songs in Luganda together to make sure we get the words right.
We have been going to both the Saturday Bible study and youth service, which Kate and I sing at, as well as the Sunday morning service when we can. It has been lovely to meet up with Nikki, a friend from my home church on Sunday, who is also working in Kampala.
Everyone at church is full of such faith and joy, which is a real blessing for us.
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Youth and students at Thank God It's Friday
(I'm in the pink t shirt on the far right|) |
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| Good friends at church- Kate and I with Emma and Reagan |
Transport...
One of the things that I immediately found
was a shock to the system when I arrived in Uganda was the transport system. It
is one thing to be told of crazy driving and another thing to experience it.
Here in Kampala, there are two main types
of public transport: the taxi and the boda boda.
The
taxi is like what we would call a minibus in the UK but licensed to carry
fourteen passengers and a lot less serene. In the local language, it is called
a matatu. My first experience of a taxi was on the way to church on our second
day here and it was an interesting experience to say the least. At that point, I
still had my English mind set of ‘health and safety’ drummed into my mind. So you can imagine the thoughts
going through my mind when I realised shortly after getting in that the driver
was driving on the wrong side of the road to overtake about three other taxis
and then stopping to load on more passengers so there were over twenty of us
instead of the licensed fourteen. Poor Kate was even sat on! We have also
learnt how to manoeuver our way out of the taxi wearing skirts and learnt to be
patient when you have to get out of the taxi for the twentieth time on the same
journey to let other passengers out. I like to call them ‘work out’ journeys.
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| Taxi rank in Kampala |
The more unique form of transport is the
‘boda boda’, which is best described as a motorcycle taxi that you hail in the
same way as a taxi. There are thousands in Kampala because they are the
quickest and most direct way of transport around the city as they are able to
weave in and out of traffic jams and you can be driven straight to your
destination. It seems they can dodge any kind of obstacle in their way! Whereas,
in a taxi you have to pass the stops of all of the other passengers and then
perhaps have to walk a short way too.
Those of you who know me know that I’m not
the biggest fan of fast moving things like rollercoasters and I’d never been on
a motorbike before coming here so I was quite nervous about my first ‘boda boda’
ride. Thankfully, it was on the hill up the Smile house on the way back from
church rather than on the busy main roads so I’m surprised to say that I
actually quite liked it. Thank you to Anna Strain for sharing one with me and
going on the back so I wasn’t afraid of falling off the back. We have to get on
bodas to get to Ruth Mother Care School on Tuesday and Wednesday so I am slowly
getting used to the experience and have gone on one on my own. I’ve never held
onto anything so tightly as the back of the boda whilst going up a hill or down
a ditch but maybe by the end of my time here, I’ll be an expert boda passenger!!
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| Boda bodas |
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| Typical street in Kampala |
Unusual/interesting l
things I have noticed….
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The names of businesses have a personal feel to
them more so than anywhere else I’ve been and often attach some religious
identity to them, for example I have seen God Bless Salons and Immaculate Heart
Kindergarten. My favourite name for an organisation or business however has to be the Lion
King nursery.
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Similarly, the taxis also have a personal
identity as they each have a word or phrase painted on the front windscreen,
for example ‘God bless’, ‘Praise the Lord’ or ‘Manchester United’ and ‘Harry
Potter.’ I think it’s an original way to display something about yourself in
public.
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| Taxi windscreens |
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Power cuts aren’t so bad if you try to make them
fun! We are very lucky that the Smile house has a generator that we are
allowed to use sometimes but we have had a few power cuts in the evening.
They’ve involved learning to cook with a head torch and having deep chats over
hot chocolate in the dark because all our electrical devices have ran out of
battery.
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What I have heard about ‘African time’ is true.
It's teaching me to be patient because if you are told to be ready at a certain time,
you won’t necessarily be leaving then. In a way, it's quite freeing! You could be leaving a few hours later
or even earlier so please bear with me if you’re trying to organise a Skype
session time.
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If you like animals like goats and chickens,
here is the place to come! We encounter lots of roaming goats on the hill from
our house to the road and I shared a long taxi journey with a chicken on the seat next to me the other day. Lois even tried
to adopt a kitten the other day and Kate is determined to catch a chick at some
point.
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| Goats on the road |
Where we live
The Smile house where we are living is in a suburb of Kampala called Nansana. It is set back
from the main road up a hill, which gives it a more rural feel even though we are in the capital city as it is about a twenty minute walk. I love green spaces and am used to living in leafy Buckinghamshire so I am grateful for that. Walking up and down the hill everyday also makes me feel less guilty about all the amazing food I'm eating!!
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| On the way up the hill to the Smile house |
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| Kate and Gabit walking home |
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| We climbed through the hatch because we lost the key to the door |
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| The Smile courtyard |
Thank you for your continued prayers and support. It makes such a difference to us. Please pray for:
- Our health as Kate and I have had flu in the past week.
-The Christmas parties we will be running for the children at Family Believers and Blessed Word churches in the next few weeks.
-Our plans for the Christmas period as we wrap up our work on the projects for a few weeks.
-Safety in the Christmas season as we travel
Some people have been asking for my address, so I thought I'd put it on my blog so it's easy to find. Thank you to everyone who has asked! :
Smile Charity Uganda
PO BOX 5895
Kampala
Uganda
