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.
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.
Today (14th July 2014) wasn’t really just another day but it was pretty eventful for several reasons.
Firstly is was my first day working at the Mulago hospital child malnutrition unit – Mwanamugimu. I was expecting the hospital to be pretty bad. I have heard several Ugandans describe it as a “morgue” and on first impressions this could be believable.
I arrived at the malnutrition unit and was pleasantly surprised. The walls were painted with animals, there were people cleaning floors, there were staff looking like they knew what they were doing. I meet the paediatrician in charge and we headed to her office.
The office was in a different building so we walked across the green outside space into a dark building filled to the ceiling with UNICEF donated Plumpy nut (peanut based food for feeding malnourished children). We chatted about what I might like to do at the unit. She seemed to think as I am a nutritionist I would be able to train her staff to work better. I quickly informed her the challenges I am used to are slightly different to the ones faced in Uganda. It might take me a few weeks of shadowing and observing until I have an idea about what the job involves, let alone be able to train other people! I was also pleased to hear she thought the most important work was that of the community nutritionists, preventing the children ending up in the unit in the first place.
As with most things in Africa there was some paperwork to be done. I needed to be introduced to the Director of the Hospital. I have to write a letter and get my CV printed to send to her. This took quite a lot of the morning. We also went on a tour of the unit and to see many of the patients.
The first place we went was the critical care unit – first observation was the lack of space. The doctor seemed worried because they had a higher number of children with breathing problems this morning. One particular child was looking very sick and as the doctor checked temperature and heart rate the baby passed away in front of us. It said on his file he was nearly 3 years old he looked less than one to me and was a skeleton. The staff seemed shocked and concerned but quickly moved on to the next child. I’m not sure how often this happens but by the look of several other children in that room, fairly regularly.
We moved on to the wards where children were in a less critical state. Still SAM (Severe acute malnutrition) cases but on the road to recovery. Some were sitting up and smiling, some motionless under blankets to keep them from hypothermia. Many have oedema, one child in particular with generalised oedema was in a very bad way but also smiley and chatty. The doctor was slightly concerned because the oedema didn’t seem to be subsiding as quickly as she would expect but she said sometimes it takes time. Several children had signs of micronutrient deficiencies, almost textbook cases and very easy to spot.
They are also running a double blind control trial on the use of probiotics on malnutrition recovery rates which involved taking extra readings.
I witnessed a conversation about one child needing an antibiotic that they didn’t have so “we’ll try her on this one instead and hopefully that will work”
A few things I noticed How small the parents were – sign of generations of stunting through malnutrition. How committed and friendly the staff were. How well kept the wards were. The mention of cholera – I thought cholera was a rare case but it seems it does happen on a fairly regular basis and for a small malnourished child is the difference between life and death.
Recovery rates in wards such as here are between 80-90% so there is a lot of hope for these children once they arrive at the unit but I don’t like to imagine what it is like for them before they get here or for the ones that don’t make it.
Anyway, I will be spending many hours in the next few weeks and years here so hopefully I’ll be able to add something useful.
Mike also had an interesting day. He was in his lab at Makerere university helping one of the PhD students with some maths, in the AI lab, while outside there was a noisy protest. Student fees have gone up and they are no longer providing meals to students in halls. Students from a poor background often have scholarships to pay fees but because there is no space for farming in the city getting food is difficult. The PhD student continued explaining the intricacies of the mathematics as the protest moved closer. The chanting and vuvuzella became so loud the student had to raise his voice to make himself heard. At that moment the caretaker came in and asked for the keys to lock the door. Mike went to lock the office, and before he’d sat down again with the student, people were looking in through the door window and bashing at the door with sticks (apparently recruiting students for the protest). Mike had trouble following the student’s explanation as the noise continued. Outside riot police trundled past in their pick-up trucks. There were a lot of police on campus (truck loads, all with guns). The protest finished after a couple of hours peacefully – no teargas etc.
We thought it was about time for an update, especially as we’ve had a little holiday.
Climbing Mgahinga
Last Friday, John, Sophie, Chris, Mike and I hired a car and headed to Mgahinga national park on the DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda border. The national park is famous for gorilla (although not the best place in Uganda to see them as they spend a lot of their time across the border in the adjoining parks). We were there because we were interested in heading up the hills.
We left in the early morning, to miss Kampala’s terrible traffic, and it took us all day to get to the park, including some pretty rough road driving in the dark. Mike and I had our first experience of driving in Uganda (and our first experience of driving an automatic).
Looking East along the ridge of extinct volcanos
We arrived at Mgahinga Community Camp in the dark and were greeted with a meal of warm stew, chapati, potato (you always get a lot (or too much) carbohydrate here and a selection of Rwandan beer. We discussed what the plans were for the following day and learnt it was to be a very early start.
In the morning we headed into the national park, organised a guide and set off. The going was smooth at first and we went through an old bamboo forest, then it started to get steeper. Towards the top there were acacia trees and lots of ladders. The air was starting to get quite a bit thinner and we were all starting to feel it.
The ancient Acacia forests
Once we were pretty high the view opened out and we could see right across into Rwanda and the DRC. As we climbed up onto the ridge we were surprised to hear the sound of distant gunfire, across the border we could hear the war in the DRC in progress. The heavy guns punctuated by the occasional boom of artillery. Soon we could see smoke rising. A very sobering thing to witness. Our guide said it had been going on for the last couple of weeks. It was probably less than 10km across the border. We’ve not been able to find any news about this particular skirmish, but it could be the DRC army combatting remnants of the M23.
That evening we enjoyed a well earnt meal and a few drinks as well as being able to see our little huts in the light! Chris in a previous life had been a water engineer and was excitedly telling us about the VIPs he used to build, we
A well earned lunch in Kisoro
each had one outside our hut (for those of you not in the know, a VIP is a ventilated improved pit latrine!).
Yoga for birds
The following morning after breakfast and coffee on the veranda we went on a village walk. We saw lots of different crops growing. For me the most striking was the amount of barley being grown for alcohol and the number of children with signs of malnutrition, but in other respects had a lot more than the children I worked with in Malawi; e.g. most of them were wearing shoes and the houses were in a much better state of repair. We bought a basket (for laundry) from a family making them in the village.
For lunch we headed to Kisoro before heading off to Lake Bunyonyi to find a place to stay right by the water. We found an excellent spot complete with platform over looking the water for a G+T!
The following morning the four of us (John decided to read his book and swim) went on a boat trip. We visited a couple of islands, saw a lot of birds and the local market.
Relaxing at Lake Bunyonyi
We had lunch at a lodge high on a hill with a spectacular view of the lake’s many islands. Then started the long drive back to Kampala.
Setting off to explore the islands
We didn’t get all the way, I can only assume Mike and my luck with cars rubbed off and combined with the very rough road, caused the steering fluid to leak out and the rear diff to come loose. We spent the night in a comfortable hotel in Mbarara and set off early to Kampala.
Once in Kampala we left John behind to go back to work and the car hire company swapped our car for a functioning one. The four of us set off on the long drive to Fort Portal. It was to take 5 hours and unfortunately the last hour was in the dark.
Crowned Cranes
I did the driving and I will do a lot to avoid ever having to do it again! Potholes and drivers with their lights up, combined with hundreds of people milling about makes it a bad idea! Anyway we made it safely to the excellent Rwenzori View Guest house run by a British man in a very friendly and comfortable way. We were presented with a delicious meal of soup, salad, stew, and cake. Probably the best meal we’ve had in Uganda so far.
A sunbird (not sure which one…)
The following morning we dropped Sophie at the botanical gardens to go plant hunting and Mike, Chris and I set off to go for a walk around a crater lake. We stopped off on the way for a walk up to the “Top of the World” an impressive view across three lakes, where apparently a lone hippo lives, although no one ever seems to know where he is exactly! Lots more birds seen!
For lunch we headed to the very posh Ndali Lodge (run by a man who used to run the Cumberland bar and Blind Poet for you Edinburgh people). We had a lovely lunch with an amazing view (with more birds and lizards) across another crater lake. We then went for another wander (this time with the owners dogs who invited themselves) down to the edge of the lake where we found a ram pump that Mike and, to a certain extent, Chris got very excited about.
Boubou (???)
On the way back we had to intervene to stop the dogs biting chunks out of each other and Chris was nearly knocked into the lake by the Great Dane pup with all the size and all of the energy you can imagine.
In the evening we went to the Mountains of the Moon hotel for dinner, apparently it’s where Clarkson and crew from Top Gear (really) stayed when they were filming in Uganda.
One of the crater lakes
The following day Chris went on a Chimpanzee trek. Mike and I decided to give it a miss this time. Instead we went for a walk at a nearby swamp and saw an amazing number of birds and various different types of monkey. Our guide was very knowledgeable which was very useful.
Onions in transit
We picked up Chris who had seen chimps in the trees and seemed pretty pleased. We went for some lunch, this time we had a nice view but lunch was less successful. We were dubious when we realised the ‘chef’ had popped out to buy tomatoes. Mike was even more doubtful when he returned with about 6. After the long wait we each got a tiny amount of tomato soup.
That afternoon we relaxed at the guest house and chatted to several other people staying there. They were mostly working on projects in the area.
The next day we headed back to Kampala for dinner and drinks with John and Sophie before Chris got his flight back to the UK.
The rest of life is going well. We have a house and most of the essentials to live here. Mike’s job is going well although isn’t officially on pay roll until 1st August so finances are a bit tight. I have been applying for jobs, although none have particularly caught my imagination. I have a few leads with nutrition work on a voluntary basis – on a survey in the east and west Uganda – 24 hour dietary recall mostly. Working in the child malnutrition unit at the main hospital in Kampala and lecturing at Makerere. I will probably end up doing a combination of these to get some really good experience so then I can then persuade someone to pay me to do it!
Us at the real equator
We are in the process of joining the Uganda Mountain club. They do loads of cool outdoorsy stuff up mountains, on river rapids, on cliffs etc across the country. It’ll be a good way to meet people too.
We went to a couple of things as part of a writing festival, the best being an open mic poetry night. There were some pretty good performances – better than we’ve seen in Edinburgh and definitely more gritty topics. We’ve also been trying out the huge range of restaurants – Japanese, Indian, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Italian etc etc. Quality has been good. We are yet to try out the Mexican which some of you will know is my favourite.
I am also getting back into the swing of cooking (having lived with parents, in hotels and out of a Land rover for the last year I’ve not done much). Getting used to the vegetables available has been fun. Most are familiar but sometimes you can’t always get what you want so have to be creative. We have started a bit of tropical gardening to supplement our diets too.
I officially no longer work at Edinburgh Community Food! It was sad to hand my notice in as I learnt a lot there, but as most of you will realise working overseas is something we have both wanted to do for sometime. So we might as well give it our best shot while we have the chance!
Hope all is going well back in the UK. Remember to send us updates about what you are all up to. We have flights booked back for a visit in December/January so hopefully catch up with a few of you then!
Mike and Lyndsey's African Adventures 