It’s been a busy week in Jinja. As my birthday fell on a working day, Chloe suggested that we have a trip out on Sunday to celebrate, perhaps by having a swim and leisurely meal at one of the posh local hotels. However, I was rather keen on the idea of an exploratory visit to Mabira Forest Reserve.  In the event, we managed to do both.

The Mabira Forest Reserve is only about 20km from Jinja.  It is easy to access as, unfortunately, the Kampala-Jinja highway runs right through it.  When Mabira’s boundaries were drawn up back in 1932, it was the largest forest in Uganda.  However, in the 1970s, Idi Amin encouraged locals to settle there, resulting in significant deforestation. The people were evicted again in the late 1980s allowing considerable self-regeneration to occur and now it is regarded as the second largest forest.

We left the apartment in glorious sunshine ready to attempt our first bus trip.  We weren’t quite sure how things would work out.  If you walk all the way into town to catch a bus from the centre, you have to wait until it is full before it leaves.  However, this also means that the buses are generally bursting by the time they reach us in Magwa.  We decided to take a chance and just stroll down to the main road.  As luck would have it, a bus arrived within seconds with just two empty seats. 

In reality, a ‘bus’ is a minibus that is able to hold comfortably a driver, ‘conductor’ and about sixteen passengers and can potentially stop at any point to pick up passengers if there is space.  The conductor is responsible for organising the seating as well as taking the money.  Despite seemingly being full, we stopped again shortly afterwards and another couple of passengers squeezed on, and to say that we were squashed would be an understatement.  However, when we stopped again to let somebody off, the conductor seemed to think that a full-scale reorganisation was in order.  Chloe and I were directed to the back of the bus where there was more space but that then meant that several people had to get out to allow us off as we alighted soon afterwards at Najjembe. 

A customary greeting here in Ugandan is ‘Hello, how are you?’ and complete strangers frequently say it to us.  I am under the impression that many Ugandan children rarely come across white people and the very young ones appear utterly fascinated by us and sometimes reach out to touch us.   As we walked down the track towards the tourist centre, there were lots of children out playing and several called out ‘Hello, how are you, mzungu?, which literally means ‘white person’.

At the centre, a young man by the name of Ones greeted us. We ascertained the type of tours on offer and were pleasantly surprised to find that, in terms of tariffs, we were considered to be non-Ugandans currently residing in Jinja rather than plain tourists. We made the necessary arrangements for the afternoon and then headed off for the Rain Forest Lodge where we had pre-booked for lunch.  I may be more than twice Chloe’s age but I think it fair to say that I was far less stressed by the hot walk up the hill. 

The lodge has been designed to be as eco-friendly as possible and architecturally it is very sympathetic to its surroundings. The accommodation takes the form of log cabins and it’s very pricey.  However, we were able to enjoy a swim in the little outdoor pool and a delicious four-course lunch for just 50 UGX (less than £12.50).  Red-tailed monkeys swung through the nearby trees as we dined. I was delighted to discover that the ‘pyramid of fruit’ contained no bananas, but the waiter misunderstanding the reason for my question offered to add some! We were the only people in the restaurant and the site seemed almost deserted. Uganda does not seem to attract many tourists and we are also currently in low season.

As we were running short of time, I consented to a boda-boda ride back down the hill.  Ones was there to greet us again and to be our guide. Originally, we had arranged to have a three-hour walk with the idea of perhaps returning another day for some early morning bird watching or a cycle tour.  Ones seemed concerned that we might not complete the route in the light and I think he also mistook my cautiousness negotiating some of the more slippery descents as a lack of fitness.  However, for the most part, he seemed determined to march through the forest at break neck speed although he was forced to linger when I was completely captivated by a group of monkeys. He’s recently graduated with a degree in tourism and I don’t think that he is much of a naturalist although he did stop to tell us some interesting facts about a few plants. However, he was most courteous. I’d like to go another time with somebody more knowledgeable regarding the amazing butterflies. Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Ironically, we arrived back about an hour before it got dark.

Before leaving, we stopped off at a café above a large lay-by, which could be described as a service station.  We’d arranged to take a taxi back as we’ve already learnt that being out in the dark and rain can be exceedingly unpleasant. Ones insisted on waiting with us until the driver arrived. There was a large group of people in the lay-by wearing blue tops bearing numbers.  They were carrying various food items such as bananas, pineapple, bottled water, chicken on a stick, often on their head.  The minute a vehicle pulled up, they would all race to be the first to thrust their wares through the window.  I’m told that it is properly organized and regulated and that people can make a reasonable amount of money this way. It was quite a sight to behold.

Birthday celebrations actually continued on Monday with lunch out and a chocolate birthday cake. We were amused and surprised when young Susan asked me my age. When she found out she spent the rest of the afternoon saying ‘too many’ and calling me Baby Audrey. We didn’t ask her to explain!

I’ve just been distracted, as I sit on our back balcony, by a group of at least twenty goats, which broke rank whilst being herded along the railway line.  They made straight for a plot of land that has just been newly planted out.  I’m impressed with the speed with which the man managed to avert disaster and restore order. Incidentally, I don’t think I’ve yet mentioned the freight trains that run just yards from our apartment.  It can be quite scary when they pass by at night and literally make the apartment shake.  Sadly, there are no longer any passenger trains in Uganda.

There has been a lot to do on the work front. On Tuesday morning I was collected from the apartment by ‘our driver’ just before 7am by which time it was properly light.  Richard was recommended to us by one of the team and it’s proving a great success as he is clearly ‘sweet’ on Chloe and so charges us very reasonable prices.  Emily, our director, is very pleased! In general we have had to learn to bargain, as now that we have a feel for prices we are often aware that we are being charged a mzungu price.  It would be possible to take a bus to Kampala but it’s inadvisable to do this when trying to arrive in time for a scheduled morning meeting. On this occasion, the rush hour traffic was kind to us and the journey only took about two and a quarter hours.  

The National Menstrual Health Management Steering Group Meeting was being held at the Ministry of Education and Sports in Parliamentary Avenue. It’s the first time that I have been somewhere in Uganda that in anyway resembles a European city.  The building itself was not worlds apart from some of the older Department of Health venues I used to visit in London.   I have to say that the meeting itself also had much in common with many of the large multi-agency groups that I used to attend, notably in terms of getting any kind of firm agreement or actually making concrete arrangements.  There were some interesting differences too. The meeting started with a prayer about half an hour late when the chair of the group arrived, by which time a reasonable number of people were also present although others continued to turn up throughout the next couple of hours. Ugandans are really very polite and jovial and proceedings were interrupted every time somebody entered the room in order to give each person an opportunity to introduce himself or herself. The boardroom wasn’t actually anything like large enough to hold everybody and so once all the chairs had been taken at the table a second row was formed behind them.  People also broke into spontaneous applause whenever they particularly liked something that was said or somebody actually offered to complete a task.  Part way through the proceedings everybody was given a package containing a samosa and little cake.

I had to stop writing again just now as I heard a commotion coming from the kitchen. The neighbour’s cat had somehow managed to jump up and poke his head and front paws through the little circular panel on the front door, which is about a metre off the ground, such that he was just dangling in mid air….

Anyway, the other ‘notable’ work event of the week took place yesterday.  The Irise educators run community as well as school sessions and so Susan had arranged for me to observe one on the site of an army/police barracks, which we can see in the distance from our apartment. There is a clinic there where HIV positive patients visit early in the morning for a check up and to receive anti-virals, and the intention was to run a session for some of these people. We’d agreed a place to meet the educators at 7.30 am in order to be able to start the session at 8am.  Having got up early, we weren’t surprised or best pleased when the educators delayed the departure time by thirty minutes.  We went on foot up the hill to the entrance that Susan had used before.  A lone guard informed us that, for security reasons, we couldn’t come through and would have to walk some considerable distance round to the main gate.    I should stress that there are open fields surrounding the barracks and no perimeter fence.  A number of other people were just wandering through.  Neither Susan’s best diplomatic skills nor a phone call to her contact on site could resolve the issue and so we set off again in the very hot sunshine. This time when we arrived, we were greeted by a guard who initially spoke to Susan in English but then told her that he would only continue speaking in Swahili, which is not a language any of us are able to speak.  Through an intermediary we were told that we needed to arrange for someone to come and collect us and if they didn’t arrive in twenty minutes, we would be sent away.  Eventually, a very apologetic young man was able to lead us into the barracks without even a check of our bags.

Inevitably, we were so late arriving that the clinic attendees had nearly all left. It was then decided that we could work with a group of police cadets instead, but that they had just gone off to have their breakfast. Finally, we were led behind a building where a group of about thirty cadets, the majority of whom were men, were sitting on a small patch of grass. They didn’t seem too impressed when Susan introduced the session. However, an energiser in the form of singing and dancing seemed to transform their attitude. Once a prayer had been said, they enthusiastically started working in groups on a quiz. At that point, Susan was summoned into an office by a police chief who informed her that we were disrupting the planned activities of the police cadets as well as being too noisy, and should leave.  Amazingly, the police cadets were very upset. One said that there clearly couldn’t be a god, as he would have answered the group’s prayer for a successful session! We have promised to return.

A lot of work has gone into preparing for the Entebbe training course and we are heading there tomorrow morning. We suspect that the facilities and accommodation will be very basic but just hope that we can keep our IT equipment charged up.