This week we have been pleased to be back in Jinja enjoying the relative luxury of our apartment.  Having had a relatively intense time in Garuga, Emily and Calum decided that we should all take a day off on Monday, which coincided with the Bank Holiday in England.

Two young volunteer research assistants, Amelia and Marina, who have been working down in Ishaka have come to join us in Jinja for a couple of weeks and so Chloe and I have been spending some of our free time with them.  On Monday, we decided to take a short boat trip to the site of an underwater spring, which is considered by locals to be the true source of the Nile and isn’t far from the official Site of the Nile Memorial.  Having been here for a while now, we’ve discovered that it isn’t necessary to use the expensive tourist companies. We wandered down to a local fish landing in the glorious sunshine and were immediately greeted by a group of lads, all seemingly from one family. I just love the friendly and courteous manner of most Ugandans. They all like to think that Chloe is my daughter and, on this occasion, my family had clearly extended to three daughters! We were kitted out in life jackets and boarded a simple wooden, motorised boat. It was an idyllic trip.  We spotted a water snake, a huge lizard as well as a range of birds. When we arrived at the site we were all invited to step out of the boat and stand on the designated stones.  Walking home we came across a whole family of vervet monkeys just sitting beside the road making a perfect end to the trip.

In the office we have been finishing off bits and pieces related to the training course and I have started to turn my attention to producing an outline strategy for the education component of the charity’s work.  The education programme has been running for less than a year and some very good work has been done. However, given that the charity is entirely dependent on one-off grants, there is a need to move to a more efficient and sustainable model. Once the Boards have given the go-ahead to the broad direction of travel, we can then add in the detail and start to see how it can be practically implemented.

As I mentioned last week, many of the Ugandans that we see out and about tend to dress smartly.  The women nearly always wear skirts and dresses, which normally cover the knees at the very least.   Chloe and I have only once gone out in shorts. Men are often seen in shirts and smart trousers or even suits and the school children always look well dressed. We sometimes see women just wandering around in dresses that would steal the show at any Cambridge Voices concert. However, it is difficult to work out how people manage to stay looking so clean and tidy.  The orange dust and mud seems to get everywhere and I have restricted my already limited wardrobe in order to ensure that all my clothes don’t end up stained. It may explain why there are so many adverts for washing powder about the place.

We have experienced little rain during the day here in Jinja and there have only been three or four mornings when the overnight rain has continued into the morning rush hour. We were intrigued to discover how Ugandans would dress for this type of weather but were very surprised to find the streets around our apartment almost devoid of pedestrian or vehicles even during modest rainfall. We did spot a few people with umbrellas including a woman elegantly riding sidesaddle on a boda-boda and one or two cyclists with waterproof capes or coats. On such days, Susan has arrived at the office once the rain has stopped!

When we moved into the apartment, we were asked if we would like to continue employing the person who had cleaned and washed for the previous occupants. Initially, we thought it sounded rather decadent as we have plenty of free time for household tasks. However, on reflection, we decided that we wouldn’t want to deny somebody an income. At the same time, Mike, who runs the social enterprise producing reusable sanitary pads, introduced us to a young girl for the same purpose. That left us with a real dilemma. It soon became apparent that there is nothing resembling a launderette in Jinja and we were not making a great job of hand washing or keeping the place clean. So we decided to ask both women to come once a week, on separate days. We had both naively thought that Miria and Monica would collect the clothes and return them washed and dried.  However, on her first visit, Miria arrived armed with an enormous bar of soap and used our washing up bowl in Chloe’s bathroom.  We hastily found some string and rigged up another washing line in the apartment.  Monica works in a similar way and they both perform wonders in terms of ridding us of most of the dreaded orange grime.

Normally our evening entertainment is confined to the curry and film on a Wednesday night but all that changed this week with the arrival of DOADOA 2015. This is a joint initiative between a number of leading creative entrepreneurs in East Africa, who have joined forces to develop the market for performing arts in the area.  There has been a conference and workshops in Kampala but, more importantly for us, show case bands have been playing at an open-air venue in the centre of Jinja on three consecutive evenings.  

Every night we have gone back into town on a boda-boda to hear some of the four or five bands that have each been given an hour slot, and to enjoy an alcopop.    Most of the groups seem to fuse modern styles and instruments with some more traditional elements.  We particularly liked the Octave Band from Kenya, who donned hard hats.  However, International Xylophone from Uganda stole the show.  There were about eight men seated on the floor around a huge xylophone, which they all played together, and this was combined with a male vocalist as well as a rather menacing traditional male African dancer. It really was something to behold.

With an entry fee of 5000 UGX (just over £1) we thought it would draw quite a large audience.  However, this didn’t really prove to be the case and it was noticeable that there was a disproportionate number of expats present.  It’s the first opportunity I’ve had to experience live music of this kind and, talking to Susan we don’t get the impression that Ugandans are used to this sort of entertainment, which I guess is the whole point of the event.

Last night Emily and Calum had gone off to a venue just around the corner, where some expats were hosting a charity night. I’d have happily stayed at the music event but Chloe is still very keen to tap into the expat community even though, on the whole, they seem a strangely distant and unfriendly bunch. Anyway, we wandered over and purchased four raffle tickets between us and amazingly came away with an African carving, a voucher for a free meal for two at Moti Mahal and a voucher for bed and breakfast for two at a posh hotel just a short distance from here.  A great end to the week!