Wednesday and Thursday, June 1-2 – Had a couple of lazy days here, laying under a tree with a book, or taking a few photos as opportunities presented themselves and other idle time wasting activities. A bit about our accomodation, we are staying with Marita, a fellow Aussie here in Buliisa. Marita is the founder of Amari Community Development Centre, www.amari.org.au, and she is building a primary school there – so the children (nursery only for this year) are in one room and the living quarters and office and kitchen etc are in the other room. There are a few other co-inhabitants as well, a Ugandan couple in another small side room, but in our room, as well as ourselves and Marita there are 2 lovely dogs, a few bats, frogs, gecko’s, lizards and of course – the mosquitoes. We all live comfortably together (coff coff) enjoying chapatis for breakfast, and for lunch, chapatis with beans, and for supper – guess what????
I have also been teaching Dan, an employee of Marita how to drive on some of the days we have been there, on this trip and previous ones and he is doing very well. On impulse, I casually asked a couple of female teachers would they like to have a try……..of course they answered yes. (Actually, I do believe it is a safety issue for everyone – everyone should be able to have some basic driving skills in cases of emergencies – Buliisa is 320 kilometres from Kampala – or a good 6 hours drive on the difficult roads for experienced drivers). Anyway, the 2 teachers enjoyed their opportunity and I discovered a few more grey hairs much to my chagrin!!!
Another couple of highlights of these days were the enjoying (coff coff) the fragrant odours of the outside pit toilets when was obliged to visit and secondly, showering under the open sky, especially at night. Most nights the sky is clear with the odd occasional burst of lightning far off in the distance. The clear nights without any moon allowed us to look up and see the brilliance of the heavenlies and the shimmering reflection of the Milky Way in all its splendour and glory. The shower block has no roof, no permanent door, no running water, no sink, no bath and no shower. One gets a jerry can of water, tips it in a basin and goes from there. There is a curtain made from reeds but it continually has a mind of its own and decides to fall down at some most inappropriate times despite all the ingenious attempts to make it secure.
I really dont understand why more people dont want more adventures like these in conditions like these!!!
Have also had some great times trying to teach some of the local boys a thing or two about Aussie Rules, one young boy is actually quite good, he can kick, mark and hand pass with a great deal of accuracy but just cannot work out how to run and bounce the ball at the same time. The other boys have just plainly given up and resorted to using it as a soccer ball.
Painted a blackboard on a concrete wall today too.
