Coffee making, egg hunting and language learning....

 

I spent Easter weekend at Sipi Falls. In Eastern Uganda, on the footfalls of Mount Elgon, there are three waterfalls (imaginatively named "Sipi 1", "Sipi 2" and "Sipi 3") and some stunning views looking out across Uganda.

 

In theory, Sipi is a 4-5 hour drive from Kampala. However, travelling on Good Friday morning is a bit like travelling anywhere on a bank holiday in the UK, only slightly worse. We travelled by public bus, which was super cheap and totally fine (apart from some confusion in the morning when Gladys from the bus station called us at 6.30am to say that the 8.30am bus we were booked on was about to leave and so could she book us onto the next bus that was leaving at midday. We headed to the bus station regardless and got on a bus just before 8am.  Never quite worked out what was going on there...). However the roads were very busy and it was raining and not much works here when it rains. So it took us 3 hours to travel the first 30km....

 

We stayed at Moses campsite, which has brilliant views of Sipi and the surrounding landscapes:

 

 

The campsite's picnic benches!



 

 

Looking out across Uganda.

 

 

Sipi 1 (I think..!)

 

 

 

 

 

The campsite was a really great place to just relax, read a book and look at the views. It had a little bit of a Fawlty Towers feeling to it, mainly I think because Moses' brother who ran the site seemed to spend most of his time in the local village, drinking Waragi (the locally distilled brew here in Uganda). Once we had gotten over the initial challenge of there not being enough places for us all to sleep, it was all fine.

 

The other group on the campsite were VSO volunteers who were on placements across Uganda, mainly in the north. Two of them I had met before. Russ I had met in Kidepo (at the time, his brother was visiting. For Higham people - his brother lives in Milton Keynes, is a chemist and was friends with William Steele. Random). Ian I had met in Café Kawa, my local café that I have recently discovered joins up with the wine shop next to them on a Wednesday night and sells wine at 4000 Ugandan Shilling a glass (£1...!).  It was really interesting chatting to them and finding out what projects they're all working on. Four of them had taken voluntary redundancy or early retirement from local government before coming out here, including Greenwich.

 

We went on a four hour walk to view all three falls. It was really beautiful, if a little tricky at times (despite walking very slowly downhill and with a stick, I still managed to fall over...). Here are some pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baby chameleon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also took part in a coffee tour. Coffee is Ugandan's main export (for anyone that's interested, coffee is the main export at 55%, then fish, tea and tobacco) and the areas around Sipi sell locally and also export fantastic Arabic coffee. The tour took us through the whole process of making coffee. First the beans are picked:

 

 

 

 

and left out in the open to dry for around 3 weeks (this bit had obviously already been done by the time we arrived!). Then, the beans are shelled by pounding them: 

 

 

 



 

 

Then they are roasted:

 

 

 

until they look like this:

 

 

 

pounded again to make the powder:

 

 

 



 

 

and then boiled and simmered:

 

 



 

 

to make one of the best cups of coffee I've ever tasted!:

 

 



 

 

We also had a look round at what else was growing on the farm:

 

 

Matooke (like plantain, this a staple in the Ugandan diet (I eat it for lunch every day!))



 

 

Massive avocadoes  (I'm about to eat one of these for my lunch!) 

 

A chameleon (doing a bit or a rubbish job at camouflaging himself!)

 

We also had a little walk round Sipi town and ate there a couple of times (rice, beans, g-nut sauce and greens of course!). The "town", like lots of Uganda towns and villages is a street of small shops (all with mobile phone company branding), local food places, a church and a boda station! Plus plenty of cows, goats and street dogs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in Kampala, I have just started a course to learn Luganda. English is the official language in Uganda, but of the country's 33 indigenous languages, Luganda is the most widely spoken. I'm taking a course for two evenings a week for eight weeks at the Goethe-Zentrum institute (the German Cultural Centre). There are seven of us in the class and we're just learning the basics at the moment. I've so far learnt how to say my name, where I'm from, what I enjoy doing etc and I can count to ten. Isaac, our teacher, includes lots of games into the teaching (like bingo, speed dating...) so it's quite fun and we have homework after every lesson. Our last homework was to learn how to say our phone number in Luganda. This was a bit of a challenge given that I didn't actually know what my number was! I'm finding the pronunciation quite tricky though so we'll see how it goes.

 

 

At Hands for Hope, we've just finished our first term. We fundraised to run an Easter Egg hunt for the nursery kids and also some activities over the Easter holidays. Some staff from BA bought some crème eggs and mini eggs out with them from the UK. Thanks to everyone who donated. We held the hunt this week and it great fun. The children very rarely get to eat chocolate so this was a real treat for them. Here are some pics: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are about to start our holiday programme for all the children for two weeks before the second term starts. It is actually against the law in Uganda to run educational activities during the school holidays and we get special permission from the ministry to run the programme. The activities include lots of games, arts, dance etc as well as health talks and it's really important for the children as they continue to get two meals a days and are kept away from the dangers of the slum.

Before that, though, Hands for Hope is closed for a week and all the staff get a week off. I'm looking forward to spending it in the land of 1000 hills.....