March 24th Thursday
The expected rain did not arrive. Another warm night. Last night we only had Tom and Dick, Harry must have found a new home.
Off to Mulago this morning with our taxi man Hassan. He was telling us all about the motor bike men called “boda bodas”. They weave in and out of the traffic making up the road rules as they go along. They can appear from anywhere, ignoring traffic lights and like the matatus if there is a traffic jam they will go on to the pavement to get to their destination. We have seen whole families on a boda bodas and it is quite common to see at least 3 people (including the driver) travelling round on them. Hassan told us that they are not a safe mode of transport and there are many accidents every year as not many of them wears a helmet. Most Ugandans we have spoken to know of someone who has had an accident and many of them are serious head injuries. When we walk back from the supermarket which is only 10 minutes away both the matatus and the boda bodas shout and wave and beep their horns to get us to use the transport.
Our taxi drivers have been great but the rules of the road are that people just cut you up all the time and it’s like a game of chicken as you force your way in and out of the traffic! Lorraine says if we ever get used to it, it is definitely time to come home.
Today we had a whole day on Downs Syndrome led by Lorraine. We had some great video to show them of children playing and eating and we had an interesting discussion about the place of Down’s syndrome people in society: sometimes agreeing to disagree.
As we have said we have defined roles and responsibilities. Lorraine irons and Julie cooks. We have two rings on a calor gas system. We never quite know what we are going to have as Julie has to make up a meal from what’s there without the usual store cupboard ingredients. So last night we had stir fry. Doesn’t sound very remarkable, necessity being the mother of invention, this is what was cooked:
Pan roasted Cashew nuts, then added one sweet potato (not like ours but white and not so soft but takes up flavours well), one orange pepper, some onion, garlic, a few green beans for some colour, and fried them off for a while and then a little later added a slightly under ripe avocado. When they had fried for a while I added soy sauce and some tropical juice out of the fridge for a sauce. So when it was served and Lorraine said it was ok then I asked her what she thought the secret ingredient was. I used a big spoonful of marmalade to give it some sweetness and made the sauce nice and syrupy.
Lorraine has enjoyed Julie’s cooking and has encouraged her to post some more "Brown Flat 2 ring recipes" in the Blog. So watch this space.
Later that night the power went off for 2 ½ hours and we had to work by kerosene lamp and torch light. The trouble with the power going off is that the fans go off and the kerosene lamp puts out heat so we were sweating and cooking whilst we worked on the computer by torch light. We were very pleased to hear from both of our husbands that night. Julie was relieved to hear about her mum who went in for surgery on Monday. She hasn’t been too well or comfortable in the last few days but there are signs of improvement. She will be staying in hospital until next week although it is quite hard being out here and not being able to see her. I know the rest of the family are looking after her very well.
Lorraine is teaching tomorrow on Epilepsy.
March 25th Friday
We had 5 out of 6 students this morning and two of the students knew a lot about epilepsy and we had a productive sharing of information. It was a very lively session and we appreciated the contributions that the students made. The second part of the morning was looking at case histories of children with a learning disability. There was real evidence from the students that they were beginning to understand the multi-faceted approach of being an SLT and how to problem solve with the information from a case history. We really felt that we had had a major breakthrough in their understanding. There is a real mutual understanding between us and we are sharing humour and jokes! All in all a very good morning.
We had agreed that we would have the afternoon off as they have lots of work to do and we wanted some prep time before our weekend away in Jinja. We are really looking forward to some well-deserved R&R.