Well we are now the proud possessor of three large planters. We wanted to brighten up our courtyard, which is just plain concrete – very secure and private but very boring - and asked the next door hotel staff for some empty paint pots, which is what the locals use for flowers. To our amazement they carried in these huge planters – it took three people to carry them. The escari –night watchman – then got the soil from the roadside which he carried in a washing up bowl. Altogether it took 18 loads to fill them up. As it is now the dry season we are carefully watering them with waste water. The flowers and cuttings are all doing well.
On Monday Geoff went out to visit a couple of nearby schools with the district inspector, Willy. All very well, except that he had to go on the back of Willy’s motor bike – the first time he had been on one in Uganda. He met Willy clutching his brand new white helmet and put it on – much to Willy’s annoyance. He seemed to take it as an insult to his driving ability! Geoff had to explain that VSO insisted on volunteers wearing helmets on motor bikes and only then was Willy happy.
On Thursday Sabrina attended a school assembly to hear the HIV/AIDS message put over by pupils. The messages are very direct for our ears, although it must be remembered that a lot of the pupils at primary schools are teenagers as they move up to the next year when they are ready and not by age. It was very entertaining and there were some brilliant actors. The highlight for Sabrina was when the male star came out standing on a pair of sticks held horizontally by two scouts, like a stretcher without the fabric in the middle. They stood still and moved the sticks backward and forward and the actor moved his legs with the sticks so that it looked as though he was walking despite not moving! Even more amazing he remembered his lines all the time his legs were moving back and forth!
This weekend we went for a walk around a local environmental area, the Bogodi Wetland
When we were filling up with petrol the day before, we mentioned to the attendant that we were going to see monkeys; he said “Do you have monkeys in England?” When we said no, he asked if we had chimps, then hippos, then lions, then giraffes and then elephants. On being told no to all of them, he said, “Well what animals do you have?” All we could think of was foxes, which we felt did not really compare with any of the above so we just kept quiet! Fortunately another vehicle wanted fuel so we could escape without having to think of what in the UK compares with the animals here.
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