Early birthday treat

Afriart Gallery had an opening on Friday and I picked out an early birthday present for myself ... well let's face it, it will probably be way after my birthday in April that I actually finish paying for it!The artist David Kigozi, paints various scenes of Ugandan life and has series of different animals from cockerels and cows to guinea fowl. I had my eye on this one for a while - I love the colours and I also love guinea fowl because of the funny way I wall. So here it is - I will have to content myself with the online version until I get to take it home!

The Post post

I have been feeling a little guilty for my lack of genuine correspondence with friends recently. By genuine correspondence, I mean a long email to only one recipient at very least, or even better, a proper, handwritten letter. One liners on Facebook don't count, however busy we all proclaim to be these days! This post is a very public thank you to everybody who remembered me this year and a big red-faced sorry for being so utterly useless at returning the favour ... but after reading this, you may understand why!

After returning from the Christmas holidays, I was delighted to find over ten cards sent all the way to Uganda for me and several parcels. The blatant hint on my profile page obviously hit home! Receiving a card or a letter from a friend puts a smile on my face and I like to stick them on my fridge as a reminder of home. I have been meaning to get to the Post Office ever since I got back, but with just the one in the centre of town, which closes at 5pm, it's not as easy as you would think. Imagine my annoyance, when I was told that I was not allowed to send anything to Canada until at least the middle of February, as the US and Canada have put on a temporary ban of receiving goods from Uganda until after the General Election! What can you do?

I think one of my questions for my next international job will be 'how many post offices are there and how far away are they?' Kampala is one up from Bogota, as in my two years there, I never managed to find a single post office or anybody else who knew how to post stuff from there. If you do have even a rudimentary understanding of the Colombian postal service, do fill me in! On the rare occasion that I did send anything from Bogota, I handed the parcel over to the school secretary who was obviously in on the secret!

PO Boxes

I know that people complain about the demise of the Royal Mail, but I really miss having my post dropped through my letterbox in the morning. We have a PO Box number and have to wait in line and show ID just to get our post.

If you ever needed any proof of how antiquated the postal system of Uganda is, then take a look at these photos. Proudly displayed in a case entitled 'Stamp News' are stamps celebrating Prince William's 21st birthday and Princess Diana's visit to Uganda!

I think they had better start thinking about producing the stamps for Prince W's silver wedding anniversary!

Look at the haircuts - not even Princess Diana in her latter days!

Actually, I am being a little unfair. They had totally sold out of the Michael Jackson commemorative stamps today and below is a face from more recent times:

Positive Thinking

Today is a public holiday in Uganda and, as always, a trip out of the city lifted my spirits. Team Kili headed out to Mabira Forest for a long practise walk. Very specific instructions were given to the guide before we set off - we all plan to climb Kili and we need at least a 4 hour walk and no, we do not want to be told about the medicinal values of this plant and the Latin name of that tree, thank you very much! We got what we asked for - walking 9km through the villages and another 9km back through the forest. We filled the time by discussing important matters, such as whether we should dress as pirates or fairies on summit day (this from the teenagers!) and whether we should make a group playlist to motivate us to get to the top, or have a silent disco instead. And there was me, worrying about totally nonsensical things, like the fact that I don't have any thermals ...

Positively marching through Mabira!

I read somewhere, that it is a good idea to visualise success. Here are a few positive thoughts I have had:

1.  We live in the tropics already - the first day of the trek takes you through a tropical forest. Having trained in the middle of the day here, we should not have any surprises!
2. We live at an altitude higher than the starting point of Kili, in fact training in Kampala is similar to taking a run on the peak of Snowdon
3. We all have strong stomachs and immune systems from living here, so should not be so easily struck down by the usual travellers' tummies

Umuganda in Uganda?

With just three and a half weeks until Kili, it’s really time to step things up a gear. Even though I have done something almost every day, I am driving myself slightly mental with worries over the training. If I go for a walk, then I panic about whether it will get me fit enough to get up the mountain, but if I go for a swim or a bike ride, then I start worrying about whether my boots will be broken in sufficiently for the super long walk.

One thing about walking is that you have more time to take in your surroundings than when you run or bike past.  While it’s great to see daily life up close, it’s not always a bed of roses. The amount of litter and the way rubbish is dealt with here in Uganda is disgusting me. TIA is not an excuse – Nairobi city centre has litter bins AND people actually use them. Rwanda has something called Umuganda, which is a monthly community service where every adult resident is expected to make some sort of contribution, including taking to the streets and picking up litter. There is a now notorious story of when our secondary school kids went to Bukoto market to clean up some of the rubbish and found … wait for it … a rotting, dead dog! Yesterday, we literally held our noses and ran as we passed a stinking tip of burning rubbish. I pay 10 000 Shillings a month for my refuse collection, but have no idea what happens to it afterwards. I have a sneaking suspicion that it is loaded onto the truck and just dumped on one of the numerous tips in and around the city.

In school, we have a constant battle to get the kids to pick up their litter responsibly. Little wonder they leave a trail of snack wrappers behind them when they see adults throw their litter on the street or out of matatu taxi windows on a daily basis.

The other day I heard an interview on the radio with a politician and they were discussing the subject of litter bins in the city. The politician seemed to think that Ugandans wouldn’t bother using them, even if they were there. When is Uganda going to wake up to the fact that this litter is not just unattractive, but harmful to the environment and health of the people?

Holiday memories

I can't believe I've only been back for a week and a half! Life is as hectic as usual here in Kampala - Kili training, inpromtu nights out, book clubs, birthday parties and so forth. Memories of my holiday in South Africa are fading almost as quickly as my tan! Here are a few more of my favourite holiday snaps ...

Lovely sunset over Knysna

A protea - the national flower of South Africa in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

Statue of a wood spirit in Kirstenbosch

On top of Table Mountain with Mum

A nature walk in Knysna - shame about the clouds!

Mum and Dad being very British, enjoying the beach in Plettenburg, inspite of the howling winds!

If it wasn't for this coke crate Santa I would've forgotten it was Christmas!

Mum at Cape Point

Onwards and upwards!

Booted up and ready to go!

This year I am challenging myself to climb the highest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro. At the moment, even looking at the statistics is quite daunting. The hike will take five days, plus one day of rest before we head off to the summit, which stands at a towering 5, 895 metres above sea level or 19, 341 feet in old money. The start of the hike though tropical forest will be hot and steamy, then as we ascend through moorland, then up to a sparse alpine desert the temperature will drop considerably, down as low as minus ten degrees at night. In total, we will notch up around 80kms up and downhill. What's more, there is no backing out now, as our head teacher dragged all of us ambitious mountaineers-to-be up in assembly in front of the whole school and told the children what the climb entails. Whenever there was a quiet moment in class on Friday, one of the kids would say '3,895 metres, Miss!'.

This familiar hill has been biked, run and now hiked!

Over the next five weeks or so I will be trying to build up my fitness and stamina levels so I am ready to walk for about eight hours a day. To be honest, that is the least of my worries, as I know I can train and prepare my body for the physical onslaught. What is more worrying is the fact that I could get altitude sickness and the whole trip could be in vain. Altitude sickness is unpredictable. It doesn't matter how old you are, how fit you are or whether you have had it before. The only cure is to drop down to a lower altitude and let your body recover. And then there's the cold. These days I reach for a cardie on chilly Kampala days of around 22 degrees so I wonder how I am going to deal with negative temperatures.

View of The Baha'i Temple - the only one on the African continent!

I started my training this week. I am trying to do something each day, keeping my usual bike rides, swims and runs, but also adding in some long walks. We are quite fortunate that we live on the edge of the city, so we can just step out the the house and access hills and country roads to practise walking. I need to break my boots in, but am still not sure that I will follow my colleague's advice of wearing my hiking boots to school every day until we go. Putting on the fleecy hiking socks in these tropical temperatures is pure torture, plus I wouldn't like to be mistaken for one of the God squad who all seem to wear hiking clothes when in the city. I will never understand why converting people to religion should require multi-pocketed clothes and bum bags - perhaps they keep their Bibles in the pockets! The other day, my training buddy and I thought it would be a great idea to grab a bite to eat straight after our walk. Big mistake! The restaurant was jam packed and there was some sort of formal function involving women wearing satin dresses and high heels. I was mortified when I went to the bathroom to wash off the orange dust as I was surrounded by glamorous ladies preening their hair and applying make-up!

In order to make today's walk extra difficult I decided to drink more than a couple of glasses of wine at a party last night. This may sound a little unconventional, but listen to this. I needed an iron will to make myself even set off on the 18km walk today and it took sheer determination not to jump on a boda half way through. I felt weary, but I pushed myself through and got there in the end. I imagine I will experience similar levels of exhaustion and muscle aches on the actual trip. It makes perfect sense ... but I plan on using this tactic only once!

So to sum up the training so far -2 bike rides, 1 run and 2 walks, clocking up around 30km. Not bad!

Banana break to refuel!

Looks like we weren't the only ones taking some exercise on a Sunday!

Light meals and an abundance of wine

It's been a while since I have written about food, so I think I can be excused for bringing it up again!
Secondly, food and wine certainly featured largely in the trip, so it would be rude not to mention it!

The first thing you should know about South African cuisine is that when you see 'Light Meals' on the menu it means nothing of the sort. I'm not sure what the difference between a 'Light Meal' and a standard meal is, as they both tend to come on plates the size of dustbin lids, except that there is perhaps a little more lettuce in the lighter option! I'm not quite sure why we never seemed to grasp this fact and spent most of the holiday feeling stuffed full, albeit of good, rich food.

Just a starter before the main feature!

Many of my friends here talk about how they miss McDonalds, but since the nearest 'Golden Arches' are over 3000 km away in Cairo, it's just a distant dream. As a veggy, I don't have these cravings, but that is not to say that I don't miss a few Western treats. My first port of call in Cape Town was not Table Mountain or Cape Point, but the Haagen-Dazs  cafe at the Waterfront!

 We all enjoyed more than our fair share of South African wine, sampling them along the way. I even enjoyed the day I was designated driver as this still did not stop me from drinking in the stunning mountainous scenery around Stellenbosch and Franschoek.

Hmmm not a bad vintage!

All gone!

Believe it or not this non-alcoholic!

Franschoek

Mum - you're supposed to sip it!

A good spot for a light lunch!

Vineyards

Lions and Tigers and Bears ha ha

Actually not lions and tigers and bears - rather cheetahs, elephants and penguins ha ha!

 Spier winery has a cheetah sanctuary where you can get up close and personal with the big cats. They're pretty docile most of the time ... although putting our lives in the hands of the spaced out gap year volunteer was probably the most worrying aspect. She had serious issues actually remembering what we should do when we went into the enclosure! These cheetahs were the runts of litters and never would have survived in the wild ... and they probably never will after being so mollycoddled!

Dad broke the habits of a lifetime and made a canine friend. Who would ever have thought that it would be a big slobbery Doberman? He still had issues with the sausage dog though!

Mum went ostrich mad over all the products. She wanted to spend 800 quid on an ostrich handbag, but in quite possibly THE quote of the holiday, she declared:
"It's not really worth buying one at my age as I wouldn't get the value for money. If I was your age I would definitely buy one!"
Errr right - do you have any plans of popping your clogs in the next while mother? Funnily enough, if I only had a short while to live I would max out every single credit card! Not so keen on the ostrich handbags though ...

Feeding the elephants at Knysna Elephant Park was much less tiring on the bum muscles than a 4 hour game drive over bumpy ground, but also not quite as magical. Still cute though!

It was so hot on the beach in Simonstown that I'm surprised these penguins hadn't turned pink and black! They waddled up to us without a care in the world - and best of all we sneaked onto the beach for free!

Christmas chaos

The other Llandudno!

Waiting for my parents to arrive in South Africa was like ... well literally was ... waiting for Christmas. As I turned up the fan in my room, I found it hard to believe that it could possibly be minus double figures in the UK. First there was the snow in Paris, then there was a laissez-faire attitude to rebooking the flight on behalf of the French airline. I was lucky a couple of friends from Kampala were in town as they kept me entertained. On Christmas Eve, I joined the throngs of local shoppers in the mad Christmas rush, buying ingredients for our first ever Christmas braii - several bottles of wine and bubbly, a Christmas cake, mince pies and I even made a good attempt of buying the meat!
On Christmas Eve I spoke to my parents as they were in transit in Dubai and we realised they had neglected to book a hotel for the overnight layover in Jo'burg. Armed with only a 2004 Lonely Planet, I contacted all the hotels and eventually found them some room at an inn. I then worried whether my Mum would survive a night in a guest house that the Lonely Planet only described as 'passable'! I contented myself with the thought that if the room was that bad, they could pitch the tent they had brought with them for me inside the room. This is not as improbable as it sounds, as my Mum was famous for bringing her own deckchair and cushion to sit on when she visited me in student houses, so afraid was she of catching something from the ancient brown velour sofas (my former housemates will testify this fact)!

On the way to Cape Point on Boxing Day

On Christmas Day I awoke to blue skies and a blazing sunshine over Llandudno, Cape Town. This Llandudno is far more beautiful and upscale than its namesake in North Wales. I collected two travel weary parents from the airport and we took a scenic drive along the coast to our temporary home. We ate, drank and made merry, preparing for the rest of the trip ... but that's another story!