Dining with scientists

Feb. 15:  Day +2

After the travel day, some of us have not slept very well given the unfamiliar bed, heat, and the noises of animals, birds, and raucous music.  We are grateful to look forward to a quiet day at Banana Village.

Breakfast consists of fried egg and chapattis, but the Ugandan coffee is a welcome treat.  Jamie and Alan decide to go on a walking adventure in the nearby village.  The locals are largely fascinated by Alan’s GoPro, and Jamie has tons of questions about the local businesses and traffic.  They navigate the dusty rutted paths to reach the busy, congested paved road, then make their way to the small supermarket, “Coinworth”.  There they pick up some Coca Cola for Susan, Bailey’s, and a Ugandan energy drink for Jamie to sample.

They stop to speak with a carpenter busy at work and a fellow making bricks.  He applies water to make a red mud from the Ugandan soil, tamps it into a form, then lays the bricks out in neat rows to dry in the sun.

The lads pick up 3 nice fresh mangos at the request of Bonnie, then make their way home.  The entire group enjoys mango sliced by the BV kitchen staff.

 

The monkeys are as bold and fun to watch as ever

Susan and Bonnie discuss the day ahead while Jackie watches

Later on, Jamie accompanies Carly and Scott back to the village in search of inexpensive Ugandan cigarettes.  Carly knows many of the locals from the 3 months she spent here, and they introduce Jamie to some of their new friends.

Serious discussion at the internet cafe

 

Arrangements had been made for Davis, the driver, to come with 4 of his 5 children for an afternoon of swimming then dinner.  Unfortunately, Davis had to work, so the nanny, Kennedy, showed up with the 4 precious kids in tow:  Alexandra, Einstein, Tesla, and Kepler.  It was wonderful for us to see how they have grown.  Quickly recovering from their initial shyness, the children greatly enjoyed the water, refusing to come out until they were shivering with lips slightly blue.  Kepler entertained us all by repeatedly running on the deck at maximum speed to jump to Kennedy in the water.

Jamie & Alicia enjoy a quiet moment

Davis' kids enjoy the equipment

 

Maggie, the mother of Ian who is now 8 years old, has had significant health issues and lives close to Entebbe, so we had invited her over to visit while we were at BV.  She arrived late, but just in time for dinner, and we were thrilled to meet her 1 year old baby, Herman.  Just as Ian was when he was small, Herman was initially quite upset by the attention from all the Caucasian adults, but he did acclimatize somewhat over the course of the evening.

Maggie & Herman

 

The buffet dinner consisted of chicken, rice, matoke (plantain), cooked cabbage, brown beans, g-nuts and sauce.  The kids all had great appetites after swimming, with Alexandra finishing off two heaping plates. 

Maggie & family

Ian is exceptionally good with his little brother

Kids enjoying the buffet

 

Davis arrived just as dinner was finishing, and eagerly dug in himself after introducing us to his youngest daughter, Arabella.  He had brought along the safari van which we admired and mused about how all our luggage would fit. 

Carly had burned out a fuse in their power converter, and these are not readily available in Uganda.  The ever resourceful Davis called a buddy a couple of kilometres away who is an electrician.  Alan, Jamie, Carly and Scott piled in to the van for a road trip.  Issac raced across the busy main street to meet us roadside and assessed the converter unit and fuses, taking things back to his little shop.  The folks continued into Entebbe to visit Victoria Mall for an ATM stop, then picked up more water, pops, beers, and some milk for Herman.  On the way back, they stopped and ventured into Issac’s very rudimentary shop, where he proudly displayed 4 replacement fuses that he had built from scratch, all for the price of 20,000 shillings (less than CAD $10) as an emergency on a Saturday night!

The Canadians settled up their accounts with Malaika at BV then gathered on the internet café for a lively discussion of plans for hosting the Kulikayo kids at Jinja, the activities and discussions (including the dreaded sex ed talk) that needed to be covered.

Planning for the 7 AM departure, everyone settled in for an early bedtime, serenaded by a talented choir at a nearby congregation.  Unfortunately, the songs were punctuated by coarse loud chanting.