It has been an eventful week here in Uganda.

Although I am never averse to a little luxury and happily embrace some aspects of modern technology, I was very much attracted to the idea of being able to live a simpler life in Africa. It seems to me that although human beings can be very inventive, they are rarely clever enough to predict or deal with the frequently unintended consequences of their actions.

I certainly hadn’t contemplated the idea of coming into contact with the more affluent side of Ugandan life. In fact, there are a number of smart hotels in this area charging relatively high prices, normally in dollars. Our raffle ticket price took us to the mid-priced Nile Village Hotel and Spa last Saturday, just ten minutes from our apartment, where we had attended the jazz evening shortly after our arrival in Jinja. Bed and breakfast for two would have cost 260 000 Ugandan shillings (around £60).  This certainly wasn’t the frugal lifestyle that I had envisaged adopting here but the place was utterly charming.  Our accommodation was upstairs in one of the little ‘cottages’ and accessed by a spiral staircase.  The bedroom was well furnished and had a variety of luxuries including a hanging space for clothes, free wi-fi, a television, air conditioning, and an ensuite bathroom with a proper shower unit.

It was a joy being able to dispense with a mosquito net.  When I first arrived in Jinja, the odd mosquito seemed to find its way inside the net.  Therefore, I would wear pyjamas with the bottoms tucked into socks, cocoon myself in a sheet sleeping bag laid between the sheets and spray any exposed skin with insect repellent, such that I sweltered.  I have been able to relax the regime a little now that I am more successful at keeping out the mosquitoes although when we stayed in Entebbe, I had to plug the holes in the net with toilet paper.

At the hotel there were sun loungers and parasols dotted around the pool. When leaving England, it hadn’t occurred to me to pack a swimming costume or bikini as swimming is not recommended in the fresh water here due to the risk of Bilharzia and it had never occurred to me that I would have access to swimming pools. However, early on we managed to find a sports shop in the centre of Jinja.  The assistant kept giggling as she produced a number of swimming costumes and looked in turn at me and then at the rather more ample bottoms of the costumes.  Finally, she found something very much smaller, which I could just about squeeze into and later I discovered a label showing ‘Next age 11-12’!  Incidentally, a lot of the mannequins in the shops are very shapely too.  Having not learnt to swim until I was in my mid twenties, I have never been particularly confident in deep water.  However, I feel quite competent in the company of both Ugandan Africans and Indians, as some clearly cannot swim at all.  Apparently, there is a public swimming bath somewhere in Jinja although we haven’t yet come across it.

Amelia and Marina came over to join us at the hotel and we spent a very relaxing afternoon swimming and reading by the pool before enjoying a fine meal.  I cannot over emphasise the quality of the service that we have experienced everywhere in Uganda. Staff are friendly, helpful and attentive in a way seldom seen in England.

It is difficult to get a good night’s sleep in our apartment.  People seem to come and go at all hours and it just isn’t possible to bolt the metal front doors quietly.  The car drivers also beep their horns to alert the security guard of their arrival.  This then seems to cause all the local dogs to start barking. The freight train may pass behind the apartment at any time of night, there is the early morning traffic on the main road, and, of course, there are the thunderstorms.  Just after 5.30am comes the call to prayer from the mosque just down the road and occasionally there is loud music from the church next door. The hotel, on the other hand, had none of these disturbances and it was bliss.

Breakfast was an amazing affair and seemed to cater for every taste: cereals, pastries, omelettes, Indian breakfast potatoes, sausages, baked beans…… Chloe and I then retired to the poolside and later relaxed with a cocktail before returning home mid afternoon.

Since arriving in Jinja I have realised just how much I am a teacher at heart and I have been itching to gain a better insight into the Ugandan education system.  The modern office life of the charity with all the usual technological trappings and its particular way of working did not entirely suit me although I have valued the experience.  However, I felt that I was not really seeing life on the ground, which is of such interest to me. Having done some research, I discovered a local primary school that takes on volunteers in a variety of roles.   It was a difficult decision to make, but having come to a natural break in the work and feeling that further progress was going to be quite difficult, I decided that it was time to move on.

So on Monday when term restarted I headed out for Kyabirwa Primary School.  It takes about twenty minutes to reach the school by boda. The first part of the journey is quite chaotic as the road works force vehicles from both directions onto just one side of the road, which has a surface reminiscent of the Rwenzori Mountains.  A roundabout and service area also have to be negotiated but then we largely leave the traffic behind us as we head out into the countryside.  It is quite hilly terrain and many of the bodas struggle to make it up the slopes. As we enter the dry season, the roads are becoming increasingly dusty and the four-wheeled vehicles create a mini dust storm. For the last part of the journey we leave the main road and travel down a simple track.

The school is in a lovely spot and in some respects it reminds me of some of the rural schools that I used to visit in Suffolk. It essentially consists of three long buildings each divided into a number of rooms.  All the buildings have a sloping corrugated iron roof with exposed wooden supports on the inside. The walls and floor are of solid construction and the window cavities have metal bars and shutters. A school hall is currently being built but the walls are only about eighteen inches high at the moment. There are pit latrines and limited access to water but there is an electricity supply. Food is prepared over a charcoal fire.  The school has built some very simple teacher accommodation and hopes to find sufficient funds to enable more teachers to live on site.

Moses, an enterprising teacher, has also raised money to build a small accommodation block alongside his modest home a short walk from the school where he sometimes houses volunteers. The facilities include simple bedrooms plus good washing and toilet facilities and the volunteers pay to eat and essentially live with Moses’ family as well as assisting the school in a variety of ways. This provides revenue for the school whilst giving the volunteers a real insight into family life.  There are about nine children in the family, three of whom are adopted.  Chris is not yet two, Winnie, Isaac and Danny are all at Kyabirwa Primary whilst the others are away at secondary school or university and one is training to be a midwife.  Moses attended the primary school himself and has been teaching at the school for nineteen years. I have been able to experience a little of family life too as Moses takes me back there each day for a traditional lunch prepared by his wife, Florence. I have now eaten my first jackfruit, which has a rather interesting rubbery texture.

I had offered to assist the school in anyway that they felt appropriate. However, I was delighted that they initially invited me simply to observe lessons, get to know the children and see the teachers’ methods. They like to involve volunteers as they feel that it broadens the children’s horizons.  However, on my first morning, a teacher suddenly asked me if I had a red pen.  He then supplied me with one, requested that I mark the children’s work and left the room.  This was a little challenging, as it was quite an advanced geography lesson on Africa!  It transpired that an inspector had called at the school and wanted to meet with all the teachers.

We had the most stupendous thunderstorm in the early hours of Thursday morning and so I was hopeful that it would dampen down the dust on the roads.  This proved to be the case.  However, when the boda turned off the road and down the track, which eventually leads to the school, it started to slither and slide in the mud and it was obvious that the best solution would be to walk the last stretch.   Unfortunately, I was only wearing sandals and I struggled to make progress as they became more and more caked in mud. Fortunately, I was able to pick up another boda further down the track where it was less boggy.  However, I was still a real sight when I finally walked into the school grounds. Moses seemed very impressed that I had managed to arrive on time and simply instructed me to take off my sandals and gave two children the job of cleaning them! I was then invited to teach my first lesson, which was a mathematics class for primary seven (the equivalent of year 7 or the first year of secondary school in the UK).  I thoroughly enjoyed it and I shall tell you much more about life in a Ugandan classroom next week.

To change the subject completely, we have a new addition to our household.  Chloe has fostered a puppy, who was abandoned outside Jinja Backpackers and kindly taken in.  She is to be adopted by a family and taken to Kenya once she is allowed to travel across the border, which will be at the end of next month. So in the meantime she is living with us.  We have called her Kibibi, which is Swahili for ‘Little Lady’. She is only about six or seven weeks old and very sweet natured.  More about her next week too!