Thought I would write a quick post as something struck me very clearly today.
Yet another parent in the hospital couldn’t afford new bandages for her child’s burns. They cost 50p.
I went for a coffee in a cafe near the university with Mike. Iced latte (one of the best I’ve ever had) cost 9,000ugx (£2). So by Edinburgh prices on the “not too bad side” but still a lot.
My bike is broken, so to get home I got a minibus. It is about 2km and cost me 500ugx(12p) (fuel here is only very slightly cheaper than the UK)
I went to the shop to buy some bread (that isn’t full of sugar or salt) a baguette cost me 4000 (93p). More than Tesco?
I bought an avocado (about twice the size of the ones in the UK and about 10 times as nice) from a nice lady on the street (she probably has 6 children and lives in an informal settlement without basic services) she had about 20 in her basket, it cost 700ugx(16p).
I walk up the hill home and outside one of the posh houses I see two men planting individual grass plants (yes that’s right grass plants). Insane.
So what do I make of all this? We could give all of our money away and it would go a long way. Or we could spend it and make our lives more comfortable and therefore we are able to live here and have some escape from the general crapness that goes on, and therefore maintain some level of good mental health and maybe help a few things get better for a few people along the way. Either way it’s difficult not to feel guilty.
I’m not very good at haggling the price of my vegetables down! They can have that 2p – or is that patronising?! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Been having problems with the bikes we’ve bought here. We’ve not had punctures yet, but I’ve been struggling to pump them up. I bought a normal pump (compatible with the two types of valve I’m used to: Presta and Schrader [spelling?]). But the pump isn’t very compatible with the type on our bikes. They’re all fairly similar (although there’s a few small differences) but they’re two that have problems. The one photographed doesn’t hold air (it just leaks out fairly quickly) and another one barely lets any air in. I’ve also noticed that occasionally when I’ve nearly got it full something fails in any of the valves and all the air leaks out. Really annoying.
Anyway, the question is… what is this valve type called, and how do I pump it up? Can I replace just the valve (the long-bit in the photo)? And where in Kampala can I get this?
Someone on facebook said it’s just like car-tyre valves… maybe they’re different here?
After Mike had completed 4 intense weeks of teaching we decided to take the opportunity to have a tour of western Uganda for a week. So we hired a friends car and set off.
Day 1
We left quite early (Lyndsey had to do an early-morning web-interview before we left! — Mike) and drove to Masaka for lunch. We found a nice little cafe on the outskirts of town run by a Danish family. Mike had a very nice meal but unfortunately I was once again coming down with stomach issues! Before we left the town we stocked up on rehydration sachets and cash and headed to Lake Mburo national park.
By about 3pm we reached the park gate and I was starting to feel a lot better. We managed to get the park rangers to agree we were Ugandan residents (even though we only had a copy of the work visa not our actual passports). This saved us about $50.
We headed into the park and got some amazing views of zebra and were surprised about how many warthog there were.
African Wattled LapwingWe think a Burchell’s zebra (who knew Zebra weren’t just Zebra?!)African Grey HornbillBaboonWarthogsImpala?Antelope on a mound. Not sure what type.
By the time we got to the campsite I was feeling bad again and so spent the rest of the day in the tent with regular visits to the toilet block! Mike set up the tent so at least I could see the view!
Mike had some dinner and sat in the bar and watched the sunset.
Sunset over Lake MburoThe eyes of Impala and warthog in our campsite
Day 2
In the morning I was feeling a lot better and so we got up early and headed out into the park to see what we could find. We made our way up to the top of the hill and could see an amazing view across the lake. The highlight for me was seeing a hippo walking about out of the water near one of the water holes.
Lake MburoZebraCool milliped thingBuffalo with accessory finchCooling down in the mudHippo that has been in a fightKingfisher – of some sort!View across Lake Mburo National Park
For lunch we stopped just outside Mbarara in a very strange place that was clearly designed for tour groups in their way to QE NP or Bwindi to see the gorillas.
Weird restaurant place we stopped at for lunch
From here we drove along a very nice tarmac road to Queen Elizabeth National Park. Just as we got close to the park the road deteriorated dramatically into something reminiscent of the moon. Mike was driving and did a very good job of navigating a very windy path through the crators. We eventually arrived at Queen Elizabeth Bush Camp before dark.
Baboons patrolling the potholed road.
Queen Elizabeth Bush Camp was lovely. We had a tent right on the water with loads of birds. We were greeted with a damp face towel and a glass of juice.
After a quick shower and a rest we went for our 4 course dinner under the stars with the sounds of the national park around us. We had been told that we should not walk around the camp without a guard due to the risk of hippos.
At about 11pm once we were safely back in our tent we could hear a hippo just the other side of the canvas, chewing. We were surrounded by 3 of them and and we could see one through the mosquito net about three yards away. It was massive. A few minutes lately a campsite guard noticed them and shone a torch directly at them which made them head back down to the water.
Our cosy tent
Day 3
The next morning we decided to stay at the camp. We sat on the veranda and watched the birds and wildlife, before having a nice lunch. We saw a bull elephant having a swim in the water just below the camp and some sort of pig on the opposite bank.
Pin-tailed Whydah bird – possibly my favourite bird!Red-billed firefinchPosh Pigeon?Big Lizard on dining tent wallView from tentBull Elephant having a swimSnorkling!
After lunch we set off to a little-explored nature reserve just outside the park. We were hoping to see flamingos but sadly we only saw elephants.
After another 4 course dinner, this time in the dining tent with a bat flying about and the biggest spider we’ve seen in Uganda we had another very good nights sleep.
Since term has started there have been countless strikes – by both the students and the lecturers. Working here is a continuing lesson in how not to conduct industrial relations…
Today’s notice
One interesting feature of the student strikes is that most students are physically coerced into it by the organisers…
I’ve been at the office when some have happened, the most difficult being having to sneak via the undergrowth around a riot. I’ve managed to avoid the days when the police used tear-gas or, live-ammunition which was used last week. Definitely will try to avoid strike-days if I can help it.
We hadn’t left Kampala for two months, and with some prospect of Mike getting paid, it felt like time to head out of the city to relax. We found a little house to stay in on the banks of the Nile just north of Jinja.
It was bliss. We were the only ones there. From our cottage we had a lovely view, across the pool to the Nile below, and a lot of birds and wildlife.
To get there we got the post bus from the main post office early in the morning. This is supposed to be the safest mode of transport in the country and it follows a timetable!
Getting off the post bus with the post in Jinja
There isn’t really a lot to say about the trip, other than it was exactly what we needed. We were there for two nights and we the morning and evening wildlife viewing by the river, we swam a couple of times a day in the lovely warm and refreshing water of the pool, we read books, ate nice food and planned out next escape from Kampala!
We have promised ourselves we will be back here on more than one occasion!
Rather than try to describe the place, here are some photos.
The little bay where we saw otters and a swimming monitor lizard as well as a lot of birds
The bay with a view to the dam at Jinja
The garden leading down to the river where we sat in the morning and evening
In the evening we watched lots of Cormorants and Egrets fly up the river to roost in the trees on small islandsBreakfast on the veranda and the view down to the pool and riverThe swimming pool 🙂Red tailed monkeyAfrican pygmy kingfisherEgretPied kingfishersWe think this might be a GoshawkWe thought we’d leave this for you to figure out!
I thought it was about time to write a post about food. Especially as lots of people have asked me “so what do you eat, can you get everything?” And I suppose the simple answer that is our diet is pretty similar to that in the UK and yes we can get just about anything.
This doesn’t quite answer the question though, because yes, we can get everything but it doesn’t mean it is the best thing to buy. I’ll go through a few examples.
Branded items we can get here – don’t ask way we have so much Nutella!
Avocado – AMAZING! Huge, creamy and so cheap – in our local shop they are 700 shillings (16p!). We eat them several times a week.
Passion fruit – yummy and cheap (5000shs (£1.17) for about 20) – I have two for breakfast most mornings Mike has 2 small bananas. Bananas are 2000shs 46p for a bunch of about 10.
Lettuce – we love a green salad and when we realised lettuce was not so easy to come by we were fairly disappointed, but we have found a pretty good source 3500shs (81p) for a bag that does for 3 meals for the 2 of us. So we are happy, we have also started to grow some in the garden although this seems to be taking a very long time.
Most fruit and veg is cheap (even compared to Edinburgh Community Food prices!) and in general it is nice and sweet, juicy etc but the quality is variable so you have to have your wits about you. The only vegetable that we used to eat regularly in the UK that we have not had since we left is mushrooms. I have seen them in the market but they are not widely available. I don’t really understand why mushrooms aren’t around because I’m sure they would grow well here.
Dairy products – milk is cheap and everywhere which is a relief – maybe a commonwealth influence? We have really missed milk when we have been in countries where you can’t get hold of it. The milk comes in bags so we have got a milk bottle to decant it into. We can buy nice plain yoghurt which I use in the place of all the other things like that….. sour cream, crème frache etc etc. Although they are available at a price. I think Peter Smith you will be pleased to hear there is actually no need for all these different versions of pretty much the same thing!
Our milk bottle!
Cheese – as many of you will know cheese has been a very important part of my diet since the Jeroboams days. Cheese here is upsetting. You can get cheddar that almost has a flavour (it costs about £3 for 200g and it is made in Ireland?! Why?!), and you can get blue cheese, as long as you don’t mind drinking a couple of litres of water with it to get over the amount of salt you have also eaten. There are a fairly wide range of cheese available that are made in Kampala. They say inviting things on the label like mozzarella, feta, cheddar but I’m afraid the resemblance is limited! You can get some pretty nice, if not slightly salty, feta from South Africa. So what do we do? We don’t eat very much cheese, and when we do I just spend the money to get something nice ish. At the very least this will be having a positive impact on our hearts!
Meat– there is a wide range available and it’s pretty cheap. Along with the meats we are used to there is also a lot of goat and rabbit. I tend to buy fresh meat bearing food hygiene in mind (with the power cuts I don’t trust the frozen stuff to have not defrosted 3 times!). In the UK we ate meat rarely, less than once per week. Here I would say our consumption has gone up slightly. The reasons for this are mostly because it’s easier. Frying a steak or chicken breast takes less equipment and thought than a varied vegetarian diet. We have a fairly limited amount of equipment in the kitchen.
Fish – Shoprite (local South African supermarket chain) does have a “fresh fish” counter, I’m too scared to try it after all the power cuts. We have had some nice tilapia from lake Victoria but when you hear the stories and think about where the waste from Kampala goes in kinda puts you off. For our omega 3 we can buy tins of sardines with the MSC award from our local shop – I think it’s about the same price as the UK.
Carbohydrates – we can get the full range except for wholegrain pasta that we used to eat at home. The bread available here is very cheap but also very sweet or very salty. You either choose sweet or salt – neither, thanks very much! Luckily we have a bakery nearby that caters for the expats and we can get a loaf that is more to our taste for 3000shs (70p), so expensive in Ugandan terms but acceptable to us. We do now always buy white as the brown is double that price. For some reason here potatoes are all “irish potatoes” I’m still waiting to hear of a different variety but none so far! I can even have Weetabix every morning! It’s made in Kenya under licence of Weetabix, UK. When I first had it I thought the texture was not quite right and it went soggy really quickly – after eating it for 4 months I now don’t notice and wonder whether Weetabix in the UK is going to taste weird.
Snacks and cakes etc can be bought in the supermarkets but they are pretty expensive often similar to UK prices but poor quality. Mike has decided to eat tomato “flavour” crisps made in Kenya, goodness knows what is in them – I keep expecting to see him change colour.
Mike’s favourite crisps – really someone needs to have a word with him.
I have bought a loaf tin and made the occasional cake. And oh yes crumpets – if you have never made crumpets at home try, they were so yummy! Especially nice with Ugandan honey!
Water out the tap is not drinkable (at a recent public health conference I was at there was a study saying 90% of Kampala’s tap water is contaminated with human faeces!). We buy water in returnable 25litre bottles – it’s very cheap and have a simple pump system to dispense it.
So where do we do the food shopping?
We can get everything locally. We have our favourite supermarket. It’s called Millennium and is Indian owned which is great for getting lots of spices and pulses and things. It sell everything except for a few things.
Millenium – our favourite supermarket
Bread we get from the bakery mentioned earlier, meat we get from the counter at Nakumatt (a Kenyan supermarket chain) as well as cheese (but we definitely don’t get this from the counter as the deli shares the scales with the meat counter!).
When we first arrived in Kampala we ventured out to the markets. They are everywhere but unfortunately none of the really good food markets are very close to our house. However, we are very lucky that a group of people bring fruit and veg up from the market and sell it in the car park outside Millennium everyday so on a fairly regular basis I will go for a wander round the carpark to find my favourite fruit and veg man. He always gives me a fair price and produce is good quality. There is also a man that sells various fresh beans (kidney beans, etc). I still need to boil them for a while to get them to be soft. I’ve not quite figured out whether I am at risk of poisoning us if I don’t boil them for long enough.
Eating out
Eating out is good. There are some really nice cafes and restaurants many that we are only starting to get to know. And eating out even in the nicest places is pretty cheap. I’ll do a post on this at some point.
Avoiding digestive issues!
All the fruit and veg that comes into our house is soaked in Milton for 15 minutes and then rinsed in safe water. So far so good!
So all in all I think we spend slightly less on food here but not a lot less than in the UK. Our diet is probably equally varied and probably healthier, the combination of the heat and the nice and cheap fruit and veg means we have both lost a bit of weight – trousers that were too small are now loose and Mike’s belt doesn’t have enough holes. Before we left we both had a bit it would be ok to lose (thanks to Loudons for all the cakes!) but in the long run we are going to have to be careful. I can already hear Mike rubbing his hands with glee, “does that mean you’ll be making more cakes in future!?”
A maribu stork collecting a twig for his nest. It’s funny watching them attempt to take off!
I’ve been lecturing here for a few weeks now, so it’s time to write down some impressions.
First; the environment: With a limited budget, the university decided against building purpose-made tiered lecture theatres, so instead the lectures are just in large rooms or halls. This works ok, although it does make the people at the back seem a long way away. The building is very noisy though, with the scraping of chairs and tables and the talking of hundreds of students in the corridors and stairs making being heard sometimes quite tricky. I also need to concentrate on speaking slower!
Sorry about the lack of photos of the lectures, but in the background of this photo (behind Lyndsey) you can see one of the two Computer Science buildings!
The building, although new, seems a bit dingy and grubby – the effect of five years of dusty air and countless students. Without the nightly scrubbing of all the floors and stairs I’m sure the place would be considerably worse. The lack of water to the toilets is however a more pressing need – a large tank and a bucket being the sanitation alternative. Once I find a source of cheap alcohol hand sanitiser I plan to install it by the sinks.
Second; the students: An incredible mix from across the country. With very different attitudes towards learning and towards their lecturer! Many are keen to learn, printing out practice papers already, but many are also quite lazy, as I was, halfway through my undergrad, too distracted by other aspects of student life to focus on search heuristics or other academic concerns. The official language of the university is English, but Ugandan English is very different from ‘our’ English – making lecturing a challenge. The ability of the students is also very mixed, with some following along in lectures and able to shout out answers, while others even seem to struggle with written English. Teaching many hundreds of students with this spread of ability feels like a real challenge.
Rose (my co-lecturer, who I take turns with), and I decided to give the students a short test on the first four weeks of term. Worryingly, many of them seem to have struggled with it – even though the answers are all in the notes online. The apparent willingness and keenness during lectures doesn’t seem to translate so completely to work outside the lecture theatre.
Had my first lecture during a power-cut the other night: But the students were able to combine their mobile-phone torches to illuminate the white-board.
Transport in Kampala is a bit of a challenge. Anyone you ever speak to knows about the traffic jams and they do exist. They are long, smelly and numerous. Luckily we live on a hill out of the pollution and not too far from the university. Deciding our way of getting around however has been complicated. In true Mike style we bring you the latest cartoon to illustrate the issue.
Travel Cartoon
Having concluded we need to use a variety of transports such as cycling to get to work, special hire in the evenings and when we have heavy things, walk when we need to go to the shop and buy more than easy to carry on a bike. Avoid bodas whenever possible, car would be nice to have to leave town when we have some money!
People are amazed we cycle to work – not just at home but also here. We get stared at by many here and stopped and asked about the way we get around. We thought we would use a series of photos to show you that our cycle to work is actually quite pleasant!
We keep our bikes behind the gate in front of the windows.
The drive from our house to the roadIt’s a bit steep here so we walk to look at the view. Our house is below on the right.Just in front the is US Ambassador’s residence. Mike is too scared to take a photo closer, there are a lot of police with guns!The Sudanese residence is a lot more friendly, they have goats and this week a baby one has appeared!The yellow building in front is Acacia mall the only fully air conditioned shopping mall in Uganda! It has nice cafes, a bakery, a bookshop cafe and a cinema!Acacia Avenue with the very posh Acacia mall on the right.Pot holes on Windsor loopBritish High commission – no photos please!This hole in the road is carefully identified by recent flooding having washed belongings down the hillGood illustration of the challenges of walking!We pass many NGOs on the way.Tropical gardensHospital groundsMain Entrance to the hospital. This is where Mike normally leaves me.Less easy to cycle as it gets busierAnother roadShopping area just outside uniBack Gate of MakerereOn to campusMike’s office
Mike and Lyndsey's African Adventures 