Bread and Pineapple

One of the projects set up by Stuart, the Canadian volunteer who recently left, was bread making. It is designed to provide extra income for widows and single mothers, and is run by a group of women who are associated with the Cathedral in Kamwenge. Stuart researched and built a ‘rocket oven’, so-called because when it is fired up and working it sounds like a rocket! It is designed to generate a lot of heat whilst using less firewood than usual cooking methods. It is certainly an impressive piece of kit, as can be seen from the picture.



But the best thing about it, from our point of view, is that Stuart taught the women to make bread that we like, rather than Ugandan bread, which is much heavier than our taste. So we buy some brown bread flour from the nearest large town, give it to the baker and order a loaf every 2–3 days. Sabrina has also made some marmalade from local oranges, so we have toast and marmalade for breakfast and feel very English!

On a lighter note we are very excited that one of our pineapple suckers, planted over a year ago in the tubs in our compound, has started to produce a little pineapple – small but perfectly formed, as you can see from the picture. Never mind about potatoes, tomatoes, and cucumbers and other temperate crops – growing a pineapple is the business!

5 little ducks went swimming one day . . .

We have had a very busy time since our last blog entry (don’t we always say that).

Geoff’s maths workshop went really well and the teachers particularly enjoyed learning number rhymes and songs that they could use to teach the younger children mathematical concepts. As with all workshops, we wonder what impact they will have on pupil learning. We were thrilled a week later, when walking home one day, to hear some young children sitting outside their house and singing one of the songs we had taught at the workshop – ‘5 little ducks went swimming’ in case you’re interested! He also taught how to use number lines and followed it up with classroom visits.



Heather, daughter of our good friends, Brian and Ellen, visited us for 3 weeks and helped in the special needs unit at the local school. She is able to use British sign language and communicated with the deaf children, even though Ugandan sign language is slightly different from the British version. The pupils took great delight in teaching her the differences. We showed her the work we have done in some of our other schools and she was able to appreciate the joys of travelling on murram roads!



At the end of her stay we went on safari and saw, among other animals, 9 elephants drinking from the water, twin baby hippos, a huge crocodile and 12 lions (from a distance).




A jigger is a sand flea that lives in the dust of classrooms without proper floors and is a problem for pupils who go to school in bare feet. Stop reading now if you are eating. It burrows into the toes or feet and then lays its eggs under the skin. These hatch out a few days later and cause much pain and itchiness. It is usually OK if you wear sandals, however Sabrina found one in the end of her toe. Fortunately we were on our way to Kampala and so were able to get a volunteer doctor friend to remove it, on Saturday morning on her balcony, with an admiring audience of children and adults looking on. Thanks Alison. Sabrina and toe are recovering nicely.



On the way back from dropping Heather at the airport, we went to Masindi to visit Bollus, the headteacher who visited us in Bicknacre and who hosted Geoff when he first came to Uganda. We had a lovely time catching up on family news. His daughter, Bridget, a 15 year year old secondary student, came back to Kamwenge with us for a short visit. She was a delight, washing all her own clothes daily and telling us how she could kill, cut up and cook a goat for her family. So unlike a 15 year old girl in the UK! She was thrilled to be able to use our computer as she has very little opportunity to use one in her school. We were able to let her practise some of the things she had learnt theoretically at school.




Bollus, his wife Margaret and their 2 new grandchildren, Joylin and Comred Rooney.