Fresh fish

Moses is a fishmonger who has been selling fish to EMI, to Shanthi and to me for many years now. On most of his weekly visits, he has fresh tilapia from Lake Victoria. Last week he came with a huge catfish. For 10,000/= shillings, about $5, I had 1 to 1.5 kg of fresh catfish, one of the best tasting fish around.

This fish cooks up well in a stew, no bones and has a texture almost like meat. As Moses describes it ..."so de-li-ci-ous". It is his favorite of all the fish that he sells.

African daily routine

Here, if one has some kind of home or shelter, the first daily activity is cleaning. This may involve just sweeping the dirt floor of the hut and the compound/yard area in front of the house.

If there are cement or tile floors, then sweeping is following by hand moping and general cleanup. After this then a fire is made and tea or other breakfast items started.

Keeping the home neat, tidy and ready to receive visitors at any time is the expectation and the norm. In Africa, visitors come without invitation and stay as long as they like, hours or days, depending on the depth of the connection and relationship with the host.

This is likely one area where I will continue my western ways: make an appt if you want to visit and hospitality is limited unless planned in advance. Also, as long as there are people around who like to clean, or clearly don't mind it, I am likely to find other activities to engage my time and energy.

A day with Chesna 3

 
 
Chesna and I ate at the Horsestable Restaurant and sat so she could watch the horses. She ordered pizza, one of her favorites and Mirinda fruity (like a grape drink). Once we finished arrived back home she wanted to see the movie all the others were talking about - Cat in the Hat. We still had some time when it was over, so made a box into a bed for her Barbie doll, complete with mattress, pillow and blanket. She is determined to finish up the bedclothes next time she is over.
 

A day with Chesna 2

 
 
 
 

From the tea party, near my favorite bakery, we walked about 1.5 km to a beauty shop for a surprise "do" for our nails. Chesna picked sparkely blue for hers and light purple for mine.
Once the nails were finished, we called Nasser to pick us up. He had to take us to the bank and help operate the ATM, etc as our nails weren't dry enough for all the abrasions with getting into and out of a purse, coin purse, backpack.

Then we were off to Speke Resort, about 5 km away for horseback riding. The riding instructors had just gone for their 2 hour lunch, so Chesna agreed to a pony ride on a gelding named Casanova.

A Day with Chesna

 

 

 

 

Chesna had every minute of her time with me scheduled. She wanted cheese fondue with apples, ham and bread. It was dinner for two, as everyone else was away. I had planned a chocolate fondue for dessert, but she wasn't feeling well. She had fallen from her top bunk bed the prior night and had an upset stomach most of the day. So she went to bed early 8 pm and slept really well.

In the morning all was better and we had coffee cake muffins with juice. After a game of cards, we packed up for the day, with the next event being a tea party next to a local bakery.

A Day with Miriam 2

 
 
 By the time we were finished it was almost 11 am. Miriam was quick to put on her swim suit and get us out the door. She really wanted to go horseback riding and swimming, at Speke. By the time we arrived, it was clear she could do one or the other, but not both if she wanted to go to Didi's World. She opted for the swimming. After an hour in the cool pool, diving for coins, under an overcast sky, she was ready to leave. Robert came back and took us home by boda for a lunch of left over posho.

Miriam had agreed previously to take Moses with us to Didi's today. She didn't mind sharing that with him and their mom agreed. So we got Moses and off to the “Disneyland” of Uganda. They rode every ride that was open and that would let them get on. The park wasn't terribly crowded, so the wait in the lines was maybe 5 minutes. They went for the big bumper cars, the caterpillar roller coaster, the truck convoy, and many others. The only upset was when they got onto the octopus, a ride for 12 and up. Moses came off scared and shakey. Miriam wanted to go again. I said I would take them and we got on, strapped in. Then the attendant noticed I didn't have the required wrist band that riders have. I managed to convince him that the boy and I needed to do this ride again as he had been so frightened. We did make it through the ride, with both little ones getting scared at different times. But it wasn't traumatizing.

When that part of the day was over, we called for our boda, went home. Miriam brought out the Bible bingo game, which Moses handily won. The end of another great day.
 

A Day with Miriam

 
 
 
 

Miss Miriam was more than ready when I showed up. But I was detained working out the last details for Easter Sunday dinner with her mom. We finally left and went home to dinner of beans and rice, her favorites, even though she had had the same thing for lunch at EMI. She set the table and then we waited for Miss Janet to come and join us for dinner. Miriam kept watch from our gate and let us know the minute Janet came into view.
After dinner, Miriam chose a movie....yeah, Cat in the Hat. She had a backup picked just in case it didn't work or something. She watched most of it with big Miriam. By the end, she was well past her usual bedtime and went straight away to bed, spending some time trying coax Oreo, their used-to-be cat into the bed with her. Oreo was more concerned with keeping the other cat out of the bedroom.

In the morning, posho porridge was the order of the day, topped with brown sugar or golden syrup. This hot cereal is made with milk, and is much like cream of wheat. Since this was Good Friday, we went down to church for the service, including communion. We had a quick snack of coffee cake, left from Nate's breakfast yesterday.

A day with Nathan 3

 
 

Nathan played on the arcade games until all his tokens were finished. He beat me at air hockey too, as one of his games. When we were all finished, we called Nasser to come and pick us up at the nearest round about and then take us home. Ruth had a snack of zucchini bread waiting. Nasser and Nate were enjoying a piece in this last photo.

A day with Nathan 2

We called Nasser to go pay some bills and he was able to play Game Boy while he waited.  
Then for his surprise we went to Garden City, to the bookstore. He read 2 books while we were there and bought 3 other ones to take home. Lunch was at the food court, with a mix of Lebanese foods and indian curry, with a pizza for follow up. He managed to finish 1 of the small books we'd bought.  
Then off to the bowling alley. On the way he showed me his dad's favorite Natural Food Store, which sells Kraft mac and cheese, Campbell chicken soup and Mrs. Butterworth's syrup. All that along with many vitamin supplements, skin care products and such. At the bowling alley, we had to wait a bit for them to open and then clean the place. When we finally got to bowl, Nathan beat me handily the first game, something like 96 to 68. He even got a strike and 2 or 3 spares. (They had to put up the guide rails for us as we both were throwing gutter balls at the beginning.) The second game I beat Nate, but only by 5 pins! He is pretty good.



 
 

A Day with Nathan

 
 
 
 

Nathan was almost ready to go when I showed up 15 minutes early. He finished packing his backpack and we were off, so that he could make – you guessed it – macaroni and cheese from scratch with sausages cooked in it. Nathan brought a bunch of card games that he was sure he could beat me at. And he did. 6 games of 8 that evening and 12 of 19 the next morning. It didn't matter if the game was Uno, Bombo or what. He is gooood. He capped off the night with the Cat in the Hat movie.

The next morning he was up and ready early to fix the coffee cake with bananas. It was very good.
We then played more card games. Nathan really likes to win, and did the dance when he beat me, yet again. He was so sweet, kept making sure if I needed a nap.

A Day with Moses 2

When lunch came he cleaned his plate and got ice cream for dessert.

Another boda driver,Martin, picked us up and took us home, where he had a second movie until it was time to take him home. 
 
 
 

A Day with Moses

 
 
 
 

When Moses spent 24 hours with me, he had definate ideas about what he wanted to eat, where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do. Some of the things he had heard about from his siblings I'm sure, but he could add his own touches just the same. He didn't have sneakers so we had to nix the horseback riding, but he didn't seem too upset.

At 5 pm he was ready to leave home and come help fix macaroni-and-cheese-with-corn-from-scratch, with pan fried sausages as an extra. After dinner, it was time for the first movie – Cat In the Hat. When he finally went to bed he was asleep pretty quickly, having played with his siblings all day.

At 7 he was up and ready to flip the french toast we had for breakfast. He could hardly wait to get going. First we went by boda to Speke Resort, the pool he insisted on going to. He was convinced there would be other children there to swim with, as that is where his school class went swimming this last term. When we arrived, it was overcast, not a soul in sight and he was still eager. He jumped right in!!
After a bit of showing off his different strokes, he was ready to dive for coins. He got to keep the ones he found to spend later. After an hour or so, he was finished and ready to.

We caught a taxi/matatu and came back to Kansanga, debarking at Didi's World, the adventure ride land that was tops on his list. Unfortunately, the place isn't open until the following Friday. We walked along, discussing what we could do next. He opted first to buy some gum with his coins, then suggested going to Wacky Wood House, a restaurant/kids playground. We took a different boda there. Moses rode the zip line, the small “cars” and used all of the play equipment one way or another.

Plans to Travel

Last December I was able to visit in Florence's home village in the east of Uganda near Mbale. Her family were so welcoming and wonderful. While talking with Margaret, her sister-in-law, I learned that Margaret was from Kenya and hadn't been back to her village there in more than 5 years. One thing led to another and now we are all planning to go visit there in August.

The traveling party will be Margaret and her family of 5, Florence and myself. There may be one or two more, as everyone who heard about it wanted to go along. Now I just have to work out the travel arrangements. Margaret and James will handle all the gifts to family, arrangements with her parents for our lodging, meals, etc. I am blessed to be able to experience life in a small village in Kenya thanks to the generosity of this family connected to Florence.

One option, the cheapest, would be for us to take a small bus from Kampala to Mbale, then a special hire (taxi) to their village. The next day we could take the special hire to the border of Kenya and catch a bigger bus to take us near to the village and then a special hire from the junction out to Margaret's family's place. The travel each way would take almost 20 hours. The large buses are not known for their safety on the roads, at least in Uganda. Seats on the small buses are minimally padded and often 4 people sit on seats made for 3.

Another, top of the line, option is to rent a tour vehicle designed to hold 7 plus a driver and leave Kampala, taking the same route as above. We would have lots more comfort and be able to go where ever we chose. The price tag with vehicle, driver, insurance: about $2200!!! Lots more than I was hoping to pay out for the trip.

We are exploring another option of hiring a small bus with driver to take us there. Then getting one in Kenya to take us back to Mbale. Florence and I could take the taxi/small bus back to Kampala.

Don't know exactly what will work out in the end. But just the logistics of planning this simple trip put me in awe of Shanthi and Chad who are working out all the details and options for leaving here, taking a 3 day holiday in England, going to Colorado and driving to CA. Then they have to have a place to live, retrieve the things from storage and get on with finding a job, starting home schooling, etc. All of this with 4 kids, 6-12 check through bags and 6 carry ons. They are truly remarkable people.

Visa Approved

In order to visit or stay in a country not your own, a visa is needed. These are easy to obtain for traveling, holidays, etc. But when one decides to remain in the country, there is a more stringent level of screening and requirements to meet.

In Uganda, there are several classifications or categories of visa applications: student, medical treatment, new business, dependent of someone with an approved visa, and employee. There is no category for “retired and living here”.

Thanks to EMI EA and Semei, the office administrator, I now have in my possession the new 3 year visa that was approved in March. The process began last November after I had updated my US passport. There is no way to begin a visa application with a passport that will expire within the next 12 months, especially since I wanted a 3 year visa. Then, there were the supporting letters from EMI, the application form itself and weekly visits by Semei to the Uganda Immigration Office downtown.

When the application was approved in early March, we paid the fee of 750,000/=UGS and waited. I fully expected the permit to be back dated to last November when the other one expired. But, thanks be to God, the new visa began in March and lasts until March 2012.

Only 6 ½ more years here and I'll qualify for a permanent visa and won't have to go through this nerve wracking process. Now I will be able to go visit other African countries too.

Oh, one of the wonderful things about Uganda: you only pay the fee once the application is approved. Unlike our embassy which charges $100 for someone just to apply and does not refund the money if the application is denied. Go figure....

End of farm life

Well, I'll be moving into a new house likely in early July. It is wonderful, about 200 yards from here, but has no compound (yard). So...one of my friends and his wife will be taking all the poultry, goats, flowers and bananas to their property. They will have use of all of that.

When/if I buy land and have the space, I will get some of the animals and plants back to begin again. Don't know when that will be as I want to buy a couple of acres out of Kampala and maybe even build a house too.