That was the that was!

What a week I have just experienced

Sunday
The first rain for many months, great, at 5am the sound of rain of is so unusual it woke me up. Unfortunately the rain must have knocked the power transformer out with the result no power until Tuesday night at 8pm. so much for the food in the freezer, fortunately only dog food and 2 chickens, the dogs did well this week with their diet as I do not trust any food that has been defrosted in such a manner.

Monday
No power

Tuesday
No power until 8pm
The computer was corrupted therefore out came the old flip charts.Had to take the hard drive to be cleaned.

Wednesday
My assistant received news from home that was upsetting, this is a problem when we are so far away from
our relatives, it makes us feel helpless that we cannot be with our loved ones in their hour of need.

Thursday
My day guard told me he wants to go part time, three days for the same money as full time!.He left once before to set up his own business which his wife now manages. It is very difficult to find someone to take over as day guard, with being away regularly up country I need to have peace of mind of their honesty and reliability.

Friday
Puppy my big dog was injured, whilst out walking with the day guard he must have stood on a large piece of glass which sliced one of his pads on his foot, blood everywhere. The vet came and, as is the procedure in Uganda, Puppy was operated on at home. The vet did not have a sedative with him so when he gave him an anaesthetic the dog howled, was awful. He is a very strong dog but he needed tlc for the rest of the day.

Went to bed at night only to be awoken at 3am by the sound of gunfire, there are more than the usual number of robberies at the moment, in fact I have had to alter the office in my garage so that I can use the garage for its original purpose and put my car away each night. Apparently there are thieves watching cars during the day, following the drivers to their home and then in the early hours of the morning getting into the compound, tying up the guards, and stripping the cars.

Saturday
The TV would not work, rang customer service to be told to take the box into the shop, anyway I managed to get it working again myself. Being here has made me that I am now not frightened of pressing the wrong button on electronic devises.

So much for that week, this week Monday,  my assistant rang to say her husband was very sick, fortunately now he has improved, my day guard rang to say that he had been knocked of his bike so would not be coming to work, not heard from him since, not answering my messages. I was going up country but have managed to communicate by phone to the relevant people and can go next week. Am arranging the training in partnership with World Vision.

Such is life in Uganda.

To end on a lighter note see my 2 dogs that keep me sane

Take care and God Bless
Pat

Training in the villages

Good morning everyone,
Hope you are all coping with the terrible weather you are all experiencing.

I've just arrived back home from the training in Kayango Village. As usual it was a very interesting visit! It is always exciting to see how many people will return from the first training. In Uganda many organisations give money for transport and "sitting allowance". As we do not do this it is encouraging that two thirds of the participants returned.

There are many organisations here that focus primarily on development of women and income generating projects for them. This is great but many times these women can not put into practice what they learn because their husbands or male relatives do not understand what they are doing. We encourage men to come to the training so they can support their wives and relatives in their new ventures. It is new  for us to invite married couples to our training so that they can learn together, Three couples came and they all returned to the 2nd training.

We concentrate on teaching parents how to care for their children. Unfortunately these people are not blessed with the health education that we have in the west so it is our privilege to bring that information to them. It is always a pleasure to teach these people as they are so receptive to learn basic health practices that in the west we take for granted e.g. the importance of personal hygiene.

Water is a valuable commodity therefore using it for personal hygiene is low on their priorities. The tippy-tap is an economical way of using water for washing hands.

My Ugandan trainers taught the people the second module of the Three Stones Preventative Health Programme which concentrates on teaching how using the Three Stones Approach (safe water, proper hygiene/sanitation, and balanced diet) can reduce the risk of contracting Malaria, TB and HIV, if already HIV infected it teaches them how to live a more healthy lifestyle.

Changing mindset is a slow process. The participants work in groups as this method is interactive giving the people opportunities to think through problems and come up with their own practical solutions. A challenge for the trainers is guiding them through this process. It is great to see them working together as a team.

During this visit to Kayango, Bugiri my team and I met with representatives from World Vision to discuss with them future training together in more villages.

Will keep you posted on developments.

Love and God Bless

Pat

Latest news from Pat

Good morning everyone, am back on line now after some time. What is happening in Uganda at this time?
The city is still on red alert after the threats from Al Shabab, ( Somalia ) when we go shopping the car is searched each time, different guards have different methods, some search the car thoroughly, others get to know you so wave you through, handbags are searched when going into shops, hotels, restaurants etc.

The traffic is even more chaotic, if that is possible, as the amount of cars increases in this very small city. I read in the paper recently that there are 250,000 boda bodas ( passenger bikes) in the city who have even less regard for the rules of the road than the car drivers. They come in front of you to go right and last night I was turning right and 2 overtook me.

This is me driving in town on Christmas Eve, I was in a straight line of cars waiting for the traffic lights to change when the car on the right decided to change lanes and came in front of me ( it is not good to leave any space between yourself and the car in front!!) the car are my left decided he could push into that space from a side road then the car I was originally behind decided that he would change lanes, in all this chaos a Karimojong mother  and baby was begging.

I realised I was in Africa yesterday when I almost ran over a monkey near home, at first I thought it was a cat and then I realised it was a monkey.

As you know I train trainers in health education with an emphasis on environmental issues, last week I was invited to a workshop investigating a new stove that does not create any smoke, so many villagers suffer from the effects of smoke from cooking in a closed environment in their thatched houses. I have been investigating an alternative to using charcoal for cooking, this particular stove uses wood and pellets        made from sawdust, paper and a small amount of flour as a binding agent. The amazing by product of using this fuel is char which the villagers can either burn or use as a fertiliser. I am trying this stove at home and also one of my trainers is carrying out a trail on it in his community. It always exciting to see new innovations that will improve the peoples health.

Will sign off now ,

will write soon

Love and God Bless

Pat

Today in town.

Good evening everyone,

Missionary Ventures GB conferences are next week so today I went to post the new brochures for the programme, the shopping mall I went to was extremely quiet as people are staying away from the malls as Kampala is on red alert due to the threat of a terrorist attack after the attack in Kenya a few weeks ago. . The staff in the shops are all at work and the police are out in force, the guards at the shopping malls are diligent in searching cars and people entering any public place, we pray for peace and safety for everyone in Kampala.

Pat

Good afternoon everyone, Not been in touch for a while, been busy travelling into the villages training. It  has been an interesting time as I have taken muzungus with me on the training course which I do not do very often. It is good to have different pairs of eyes and ears to evaluate the work and get a different perspective. The travelling into the villages was quite scary as it is the rainy season and one road was impassable so we had to go a longer way round from the town to the village, the road of which I must say was not AI. My visitor took a video of me getting stuck in a rut in the road which will be posted soon on U Tube, watch this space!

When I start a new training I always meet the officials of the town, the pastor of the church, my trainers in that area on a preparation visit. I took a muzungu, David, with me and we were invited to my trainers
 ( Charles) home for a meal. Charles has been a volunteer working with me for 7 years, amazing.With it being David's first visit to a village home he was asking lots of questions of Charles and it was very interesting that when he asked Charles why he was still working with me as a volunteer Charles replied that 'as I had never given him any money the programme continued' To understand this statement I need to explain that in Uganda many projects and training programmes are started, the people are paid to attend and all is well until the money runs out, if that happens the people stop taking part in the programme so it all folds, because I had not given the trainers any money in the first place, the situation of it running out has not occurred therefore the programme has continued.What a statement !!

The programme teaches people hygiene and sanitation practices in their homes and it was so gratifying for me to be shown an animal shelter that Charles was building, hens and goats had been kept in the family home at night but now would have their own 'home' The danger there is the snakes coming at night to eat the animals, each situation has its own hazards.

Charles also showed us a bush he had planted next to his latrine ( toilet) which is now used as toilet paper, The very soft leaves of these particular bush is an improvement on the use of hands which reduces the danger of contracting Cholera, Typhoid to name just two.

On a lighter note when driving to Charles home we came to a field David was astonished when I drove across it but that is what you do when travelling in the bush!.

Life here is SO different to life in the UK I hope I am giving you a flavour of life here particularly in the villages. There is so much variety of life styles in Uganda, life is never boring, sometimes very frustrating, you have to learn the art of patience but there is always something different  happening.

Thank you for reading this blog.

May you have a peaceful weekend,

Pat

Good morning everyone,

On Saturday I had two Ugandan families for tea which we all enjoyed and they were on Muzungu time!

One Sunday I once invited a family to lunch after church, they told me 5 people would be coming at 2pm. I left church early to prepare the meal then waited for them to arrive, and waited, and waited. At 5pm a pickup came through the gate with 9 people on board Ugandan time! I had to quickly cook more rice, cut the chicken pieces in half etc. This is life in Uganda. When you are invited to a Ugandan home for a meal many times the host will only start cooking when everyone arrives as they never know how people will turn up so you have always to be prepared for a long wait, however the host will feed you snacks whilst you wait, sometimes you think they give you so much that you can think that is your meal. I have learnt to sit back, have plenty of time to spare and just enjoy the event. Ugandans are very hospitable people and give high importance on how they look after visitors and many times I have been told that I do not eat enough when with them but I just cannot physically eat all that they serve. I always remember being in a village where a small child in rags came up to me to give me a passion fruit, that is the nature of these people.

Ugandans eat a very high carbohydrate diet, little meat and practically no vegetables. The soil is so fertile here that greens grow wild, the culture has grown up believing that if you eat greens you are poor as they are so plentiful and nobody wants to be labelled poor. The meal will consist of more than 2 different types of carbohydrates sometimes 5 /6, I cooked 2 types for my Ugandan visitors at the weekend and realised that my tiny kitchen is totally inadequate for cooking a varied menu. I went on the hunt for some form of work surface to put on my kitchen verandah to ease the burden of where to place all the crockery needed for such a meal, yes I have a verandah outside my kitchen, the space would be more effective inside the kitchen.  Ugandans mainly cook outside on charcoal stoves so when they build houses to rent to Muzungus kitchen space is not a high priority.

As I have mentioned I went on the hunt for extra work surface to put on the verandah, nothing is that straight forward in  Uganda but that is a story for another time. Have a good day.

Pat

Sad news today,

Our thoughts and prayers are with our neigbours in Kenya as they try to resolve the terrorist attack on the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, our prayers are with the relatives of the people who have died, those injured and those people still held as hostage.We pray also for the security forces as they deal with this attack and the hospital staff caring for all the injured.