Kampala revisited

Tuesday we are scheduled to visit Kampala.  I am very disappointed in the performance of the wifi hot spot device purchased the day before.  Internet seemed slow and it quit working altogether after about 3 hours.  I talk Simon into running me quickly into the Airtel shop at Victoria Mall, so I can deal with the folks there and perhaps purchase a different unit in Kampala if not satisfied.  The unit powers up fine after the clerk pulls then re-inserts the SIM card & battery, so, shaking my head doubtfully, I agree to take it again and give it a try.  Things have been good since (touch wood).

Lynette is to be dropped to her new boarding school, St. Ritah’s, which is in Kisubi. on our way to Kampala, and we are impressed by the appearance of the school grounds and buildings.  There is a nice lake view from the property.  Lynette seems anxious, but Jackie stays behind to get her registered and settled.  It seems a little sad to give her a hug good-bye.

property is sometimes sold by non-owners, hence the notice

the clan of the travelling pants

Simon, our careful driver

There are several chores to be accomplished in Kampala and, of course, they each involve visiting a different section of the city.  Kind-hearted Carly wants to purchase office supplies for each of the BKU staff.  I booked a visit to Murchison Falls National Park, and we were advised to visit the booking agents’ offices which are in an industrial part of the busy city.  Rose and I need to get to the wholesale pharmacy for clinic supplies, Victoria needs to make a couple of stops for her own business, and Sue wishes to visit a grocers for supplies.

Carly negotiating with the stationary clerk

Before reaching our first destination, we encounter the first of many traffic gridlocks and are stuck standing still in the hot sun for about 20 minutes.  It becomes apparent that we are unlikely to accomplish all we hope unless we split up at some point. Simon becomes momentarily disoriented and turns the wrong way onto a one-way street. He quickly turns around, but a policewoman calls him over to the rickety roadside police stand, where he and Rose negotiate for a few minutes. The police want to fine him $100,000 UGS but, of course, if he doesn't require a receipt, they will let him off for 10,000 UGS. I pay the bribe and we're off again.

A truck is ticketed for illegal parking

Constable boards the truck, presumably to accept payment.

Victoria & Sue are dropped at a bank, Carly & Richard go to an electronics place to purchase a printer, and Rose and I re-visit the pharmacy.  The pharmacist remembers us from previous visits, and is very friendly.  Carly catches up with us and we venture off to do a bit of street photography.  We are greeted by a fellow who proudly shows us an airline-size bottle of liquor which smells like very strong gin, sits himself down & happily guzzles the contents.

Watching the traffic, I am amazed at how all the vehicles fight for every scrap of real estate, and motorcycles weave in between cars with less than an inch to spare.  Watching the chaos, I would not be surprised to see a collision every 15 minutes, but magically that rarely seems to happen.

There is an older gent with a shoe-shine stand right outside the pharmacy.  I hire him to wash my flip-flops, and he does a very good job.  We finally have our chores completed (with the exception of the grocery run), and are all tired & hungry.  We treat ourselves to dinner at the Speke Hotel, a very upscale establishment which would not look at all out of place in Toronto or Chicago.  Sue has a steak which is quite good and Carly & I share an Indian feast of goat curry, chicken spring roles, and a few other treats.

Nocturnal street venders in the city

On the way out of Kampala we are again stuck in standstill traffic for a good half hour before finally making progress once more.  Sue estimates that, of the 11 hours on this trip, we probably spent 3 or 4 standing still in traffic jams.

Exhaused, we will have no problems sleeping tonight.

Dog days

Apologies now - I'm not being quite as faithful with the blog as I would wish - the upside is I'm sleeping quite well and keeping busy so less time for the keyboard.

Monday Susan and I both sleep in until about 9:30, so it's late morning by the time we make our way to BKU.  We bring a bag of toys and drop it off at the little ones' dorm, but the treats are quickly devoured, nobody seems too polite, and they seem unable to share the toys, so much crying and wailing ensues.  We hand the toys in to auntie, apologize, and leave, looking back to survey our wake of chaos.

Obama - for Simone

budding models

I meet with Rose for awhile and assess Saleh, who has a few lesions on his penis which appear to be a low-grade fungal infection.  We start him on some cream and Rose agrees to take inventory and make up a clinic stock list for the next day's trip to Kampala.

Carly, Sue, Abraham, Victoria & I head off to Entebbe in the BKU van.  First order of business is a stop enroute at the Barclay's Bank branch where Carly has success withdrawing funds using her debit card.  Such a feat was impossible two years ago.  I also make a withdrawal and we arrive at the new and very westernized Victoria Mall.  Simon and I head for the cell phone store while the girls go to the supermarket.

I have brought along my old Blackberry Tour phone which we were successful unlocking before leaving Canada.  In theory, the purchase of a SIM card and buying minutes should allow use in Uganda.  Unfortunately the battery is dead and we are unable to test the theory in practice (poor planning on my part).

On one of our previous trips Lou allowed me to connect to a portable wifi hotspot device he had purchased elsewhere in Africa.  I was impressed at the ease of use and speed of the unit.  I inquired and was sold a similar unit for use on the AirTel network.  125,000 UG shillings (about $55 CAD) bought me 12.5 GB use over 3 months.

Lunch at KFC is not too far off the original thing at home.

We discuss one of the dogs who hang about BKU and has been suffering worsening inflammation of his genitals for several weeks now.  He has a permanent erection and the skin is almost completely denuded from him chewing at the area.  He often yelps in pain and is getting more irritable.

Dogs in Uganda are regarded and treated quite differently than in Canada.  They are not kept as pets, but rather are tolerated to hang about a property unless they become too much of a nuisance.  The BKU dogs are not fed (except perhaps by Alicia and other visitors) and they are tolerated probably because they do provide some security warning for intruders at night.  Using the stretched BKU resources to obtain a veterinary consultation seems out of the question, yet watching the poor animal suffer and risk him getting aggressive enough to bite children seems inhumane.

potential veterinarian aids

obviously NOT the dog to which I refer

After discussion with Sue, Carly, Jackie and Victoria, we decided to attempt euthanizing the suffering creature in the next few days.  Searching the internet on the topic is surprisingly futile, but I did calculate a lethal dose estimate for phenobarbital, which can be administered orally, provided we are careful there are no collateral victims.

Some of the kids are keen to write notes to their sponsors for us to deliver, so Victoria helps with some English composition and art direction.

We treat Carly to pizza dinner at Banana Village (very good wood fired pizza), chat a bit then head to bed.  Hoping for a good rest before Kampala tomorrow.  The weather's been quite warm - 80 to 90 F highs but lows of 60 at night.  Enjoying the break from Canadian winter.

we have Jeffrey to blame for Moses' affinity for shades

finally peace ensues and Dan gets to make music on the new guitar

Lunch for 100

Editorial note:  Look for extra photos on another page entitled "Bonus Pics 2015".

After a smooth flight from Heathrow, transit through the Entebbe airport arrivals level is delayed due to medical screening for ebola and the fact that most passengers needed to purchase visas.  Realizing that having pre-purchased our visa did not afford us any expedited passage, and having experienced a scare with our passports nearly being lost by Canada Expresspost on return from the Uganda High Commission in Ottawa, Sue and I decide to simply purchase visas at Entebbe airport in future.

Uganda is many hundreds of miles away from the nearest ebola outbreak, but I am pleased to see they are taking precautions.

Victoria meets us at the airport along with Simon, her new driver, and Abraham, who is the oldest grandson.  Abraham proves to be a very polite and helpful young man, and we are growing to like him very much.  Carly apparently decided she was too worn out to make the trek and has promised to rise early to help with cooking the gala meal planned for Sunday.

The streets, villages, and people all now seem so familiar to me that it's getting tougher to recall the intense strangeness of it all two years ago.  We are happy to walk the paths of Banana Village once more but disappointed that Alex gave us the incorrect wireless internet password, so we are unable to connect with Alicia.  Our room is very nice.  I sleep quite well but Sue is up most of the night - jet lag and strain of the journey.

We awaken before sunrise, shower and sort out our clothing and goods that we brought for Victoria & the kids.  We decide to head out for a walk in the pale dawn light, and I strap on the GoPro chesty just for fun.  Lovely sunrise sky, and it is rather interesting seeing people and businesses starting up in the small village centre.  People are not shy about being photographed despite the GoPro and straps being in plain view, and I think there will be some interesting footage to post.  There are lots of families dressed up and apparently headed to church, and singing & chanting flavours the morning air.

Sue & Esther share a moment at the main house while Gloria looks away

Jovan eyes my hat again

Sanyu won't spend much time out of Sue's arms this fortnight

We later visit the little kids dorm and quickly reconnect with Dan, Jovan, Obama, Arnold, Sandra, and all the other little characters.  Lots of hugs and joking about.  Then off to visit the main house, reconnect with the staff and start preparations for the big lunch planned.  It's great to see the staff again - Jackie, Rose and Maggie all seem well.  Carly is very happy to find us at Banana village even before we head over to BKU.  She seems to be settling in very well.

food is covered or wrapped in banana leaves

church

There is a major cooking operation started, including wood fires to heat rice, matoke and Irish potatoes (normal white potatoes to Canadians), beef & chicken.  Carly gets busy at work learning the fine art of forming chapote's.  Shredded cooked cabbage will complete the menu.

It's wonderful (if not a bit overwhelming) to finally see all of the now 90+ bright kids in one place.  Very nice to meet some of the older ones for the first time, but I will never remember all the names.  Abraham grabs the GoPro and bounces off to snap stills of the events and a few videos.  I give my Sony mirrorless rig a workout.

Abraham looking cool

Moses, Gloria, Esther, Sue & Praise

Sue manages to get a laugh out of Victoria

The events are very informal with no big speeches, just lots of dancing & singing mainly directed by the kids themselves.  Everyone lines up very orderly to get their platefuls.  I stick to the African ways of eating with my hands.  All the food is delicious, and I cannot believe the amounts that even the little ones can tuck away.

Don's keeping his cuteness with aging

when will that darn food ever come?

patiently queuing for grub

Dan is not impressed but Shira sees the world thru rose-tinted lenses

I had printed off lots of photos of the kids, mainly from my last trip, so we tack those to the BKU wall and the young ones have a great time viewing them.  In the end, they are given to the kids who may only now for the first time have a printed photograph of themselves in their hands.

a feast fit for kings & queens

Sarah sings

the photo wall is a hit

dancing with the stars

Obama seems to have lost much of his anxiety

Sue is swarmed distributing skipping ropes

come fly with me

most of the kids sponsored by our friends and families in Ontario

This lunch feast is followed by a trip to the big kids's dorm with Victoria.  Incredible to see the dorm rooms completed and the children's bunks occupied.  The bathrooms still need completion along with the central offices and warden's room.  It is a most impressive, very large structure.

Washrooms close to being completed.  Sinks on the right, toilets on the left.

panorama interior girls' dorm

boys dorm room

remodeling the old girls' dorm

panorama view front side of the new dorm

Work has begun already to renovate the old girls' dorm which will become the little kids' sleep & play area.  We hope to do some painting & decorating before our two weeks here are finished.

We are actually hungry again after returning to Banana Village and joining Carly & Jackie who are involved in some earnest discussion. so Sue and I order a little spaghetti.  By the time we finish eating, our heads are both bobbing with fatigue, and we bid our friends good-night.