So, What is it Really Like?

I've now been here 10 months, yes really! Sometimes the time passes very quickly and other times it seems to go very slowly.

Day to Day Living
We've been very lucky and have been given a lovely flat in a pleasant area of Kampala. I've always wanted to have a view and here we've got the most amazing view out over Kampala. We enjoy sitting out in the evening watching the sunset, with a G&T of course!

We have a 2 ring calor gas stove for cooking and bought ourselves a fridge. All types of food are readily available in Kampala, but imported foods are very expensive. Eating out is cheap by UK standards but still makes a significant hole in the volunteer's living allowance I get from VSO. The allowance is equivalent to a reasonable local wage and the accommodation is provided on top. But it doesn't go very far and most volunteers supplement their income with savings or pensions etc. It certainly wouldn't be possible to run a car or go on holidays without extra funds.

Power cuts are a part of the experience, as is living without the appliances we are used to at home, such as a dishwasher, washing machine, microwave, oven etc. We have a small freezing compartment in the fridge but with the frequent power cuts we don't cook extra portions and freeze the left overs as we would at home.

Most people agree that it is easier to live without power than without water! We are lucky and have a large tank that is just for our apartment so when the water goes off we can survive several days especially if we are careful. It's amazing how much we rely on running water and it's only when it's taken away that you really appreciate it.

We know we are very lucky and many volunteers, especially those that live in remote rural areas, have a much more difficult experience with day to day living than we do. In some places water is more off than on, power is only available for 7 hours a day, there is very little privacy and no opportunities to go to a supermarket or meet up with other volunteers for a meal out.

Work
I'm in Uganda as an accountant to share my skills and experience, particularly with small, local organisations. Again I'm very lucky and have a very supportive placement where I feel I can make a real contribution. I'm very busy and often work at the weekend preparing for the following week. It can be very frustrating when you go into work with a deadline to finish a piece of work and the power goes off or the internet won't work!

I also get to travel all over Uganda working with local organisations in places like Gulu, Lira and Soroti. This gives me an opportunity to see different parts of the country, meet lots of people, understand different issues in the various areas and meet up with other volunteers who are based away from Kampala.

I enjoy the work and it's great when someone finally understands how to do a bank reconciliation, or I go out to meet people in a village who have been given a water pump and they can grow vegetables even during the dry season. It's amazing to see the outcomes that can be achieved for relatively little input from funders. Although the work I do is not directly benefiting the villages I know that the funding would cease to be available if the funders couldn't see where their money was going and how it was being spent.

And where in the UK do you have a commute to work where there is a better than 50% chance of seeing an elephant!

Weather
Well what can I say! With the lovely summer in the UK before we came out to Uganda I haven't worn winter clothes for about 15 months! It's the 'cold' season here at the moment but that just means it's a very pleasant temperature. I never tire of the outdoor lifestyle where you can eat outside for breakfast, lunch and dinner all year around.

Family and Friends
I think the hardest part is being over 4000 miles away from our family and friends in the UK. It is especially hard when there are special events such as the weekend the Tour de France came to Yorkshire, our son being the best man at a friend's wedding and birthdays. Wouldn't it be lovely to have a transporter to just go home for the weekend!

But we all go through the same emotions and the VSO volunteers become your new family. You help each other through the hard times and celebrate the good times together. It feels very empty in Kampala at the moment as so many people have gone home recently, but we now have friends all over the UK and the world and will meet up again.

High Days and Holidays
The hidden bonus of a VSO placement! There are lots of interesting day trips such as the wildlife park or botanical gardens at Entebbe, the equator, the source of the Nile at Jinja, tropical forest reserves and the Mabamba swamp where we went last Sunday. At least 2 of the National Parks are within reach for a long weekend and there are many more parks, waterfalls, mountains and lakes within the boundaries of Uganda for a longer break. There is no shortage of wildlife and we have already seen most of the big 8, elephants, buffalo, lions, giraffe, hippos and zebra plus rhino in the wildlife park as they are locally extinct in Uganda. We love the warthogs with their endearing habit of trotting away with tails in the air and the strange but also endearing shoebill.

Then there is the rest of Africa! Uganda borders Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya and there are flights from Entebbe to lots of interesting places. Now we both have our visas in order and the car registration documents sorted the whole of Africa is there to be explored.

So overall, despite occasional wobbles and busy patches when I can't seem to escape from work, I'm glad we decided to do something different and worthwhile and I'm sure when we get back to the normal routine of UK life we will look back very fondly on our time in Uganda.

In Search of a Shoebill

The Shoebill looks almost prehistoric with it's large clog-shaped bill. It is a very large bird standing around 4 to 5 feet tall. The bill is around 20cm long and almost as wide, the largest among all living bird species.  It is classified as threatened and is only found in the East Africa, mainly in Sudan and Tanzania, although the easiest places to see them in the wild are in Uganda.

It's hunting method is to stand stationary for long periods, sometimes several hours, waiting for it's prey come within catching distance. Then it suddenly lunges down to catch the prey in it's large bill.

As one of the best places to see the Shoebill in the wild is the Mabamba swamp near Entebbe we decided to spend today in search of a Shoebill. It is remarkable how quickly you get away from the busy Kampala - Entebbe corridor and escape onto murram roads and beautiful countryside.

There is a lack of signposts or detailed maps so we got lost a couple of times but eventually found our way to Mabamba and found a boat and a guide to take us out into the swamp.

As we came around a corner there it was

Of course the Shoebill isn't the only bird in the swamp and as we moved around in the boat we saw lots of other birds and also beautiful waterlilies.

African Jacana

A lovely way to spend a Sunday. 

Exploring Karamoja!

On Tuesday I attended a Land Platform meeting in Kotido, which is in the heart of the Karamoja region in the North East of Uganda, bordering onto Kenya. It is a hot, dry, remote area known as one of the poorest in Uganda. It is a 500km drive from Kampala, which took a full day. We went via Lira so 300km on tarmac roads and 200km on murram.

We went through spectacular mountain scenery in Abim county.

Then onto the flat lands around Kotido.

You can just see the man in traditional dress carrying a long stick in the corner of the picture. Traditionally the Karamojong carry long spears and wear a feather in their headress. I saw several of these traditional headdresses and one person with a spear.

The Karamojong are known throughout Uganda for their love of cattle. They are pastoralists who travel around in search of grazing. We travelled in the rainy season, and if fact arrived during a heavy storm, so the area around Kotido was quite green. But there are long dry periods, especially when the rains arrive late, when both food and grazing are scarce. The region experienced a famine earlier this year and there were reports in the Ugandan papers of agencies distributing food and numbers dying from hunger.

As well as the problems caused by the seasons and rainfall, or lack of it, the Karamoja region is rich in minerals including gold, marble, limestone and iron ore. This should be a cause for celebration with the population being lifted out of poverty from the proceeds of the mineral wealth under their feet. However, it's not that simple. The land is mostly communal land with a tribal group using their land for their homes and grazing. Shared resources such as streams and water holes are used communally between tribal groups by negotiation and agreement.

Exploration licences to determine the quantity and quality of the minerals have been granted to large scale mining groups with little consultation with the local population who are often unaware of what is happening. Levels of literacy are low so posting a notice, especially in English, is unlikely to elicit a response. If an economic level of mineral wealth is found who gets the licence to mine it? Probably not the local people who may have been mining the area on a small scale for years to provide some income for their families.

By law 3% of the royalties from mineral extraction is passed to the land owner. Firstly 3% is a depressingly low figure. Secondly with no obvious land owner and no written title to the land to prove ownership very often the people who rely on the land for their livelihood are left out of the distribution.

Overall an eye opening conference. We had speakers giving the background to the area and the issues, including those described above, a speaker describing the situation across the border in the Turkana Region of Kenya and a representative from a mining consortium working hand in hand with an international NGO to try and give a fairer share to the local people.

The local people must have wondered whatever was happening! 90 people descending on a small town smaller than Poppleton, taking over every hotel room in the place and driving around in their big 4*4 NGO branded vehicles. At least we must have brought some money into the town for food, drink and accommodation. And we gave the local representatives and NGO workers a chance to participate in a conference they would normally have to travel to Lira or Kampala to attend, so hopefully we did some good.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is exactly one year since my first blog post. Then I had just handed in my notice at work and we were starting to let friends and family know that we would be travelling to live and work in Uganda for 2 years.

The blog has covered the year and my impressions. There are 45 posts, not quite the 1 per week I aimed for but not far off. There have been nearly 2000 page views from all over the world. Not surprisingly over 50% from the UK but also lots of views from USA and more recently Uganda. The most popular post was about 'Contrasts' posted on 3rd June followed by the Christmas Eve visit to the Equator and a Day out in Entebbe on 28th October. The least popular post is about the Land Platform meeting in Lira on 5th March with just 2 page views!!

A lot has happened in the last year. Looking back it was a very exciting and extremely busy time. I was working my notice and handing over work, doing VSO training, fundraising, shopping and packing, preparing the house for rental and travelling around the UK to visit people before we flew out. I lived and worked in York and was surrounded by the beautiful old buildings for which York is famous.

Kampala is very different, much more chaotic and noisy but colourful and vibrant

We've had some amazing experiences and the opportunity to travel around the country and see animals in the parks and beautiful scenery.

We have a lovely apartment on the outskirts of Kampala and a group of VSO volunteers who have become very close friends. We both now have volunteering roles keeping us busy but they are enjoyable and worthwhile.

I've had a few wobbles where I would have happily climbed on a plane home, but overall I'm glad I was given the opportunity and had the courage to take it. Thank you VSO for a memorable year and I look forward to the rest of the placement.

A Little Bit of Luxury

I've been on my first visit outside Uganda this week with a Regional Finance team meeting in Nairobi. With the security situation in Nairobi it was touch and go whether or not we would actually have the meeting but luckily it went ahead and we had a very good week.

The Uganda team of three flew to Kenya early in the morning on Sunday and I had a wonderful view of the snow capped summit of Kilimanjaro peeping out from the clouds. I checked on google maps and Kilimanjaro is 330 kilometres from Nairobi, a future trip perhaps? Then as we circled the airport to land I could see trains and motorways!

I've really enjoyed my travels in Uganda and have always found that as long as I have a working shower (preferably hot!) and a comfortable bed that is all that I need. However, the place we stayed in Nairobi felt very luxurious. Everywhere was beautifully finished with lovely garden areas around the buildings. There was a lift within the hotel and tea and coffee making facilities in the room.

However, there were no opportunities to explore Nairobi. We were told to stay in the compound because of the security situation. So apart from the taxi rides to and from the airport I saw nothing of Nairobi.

The meeting was very enjoyable. It was good to meet colleagues from South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia and to share experiences and good practice in the different countries. Compared with some of the areas we can at least visit our partner organisations as the distances are not too great, the roads passable and the security situation stable. It was a very different story for some colleagues.

We returned to Uganda on Thursday reinvigorated and keen to continue our work supporting our partner organisations.

It's so sad to say 'Goodbye'!

We knew it would happen but it is very sad to be saying goodbye to so many of the friends we have made over the past 9 months! VSO volunteers tend to be mobile, are on different length contracts and start at different times so arrivals and departures is part of the experience. But we live and work so closely together it is a wrench when someone leaves. Also leaving tends to involve travelling to the other side of the world so there is no popping in for a cup of coffee and a chat!

In June and July there are so many leavers including many close friends, returning to Indonesia, Holland, the UK and India via Barcelona. So life is currently a string of goodbye parties and meals out and will be followed by a gaping hole in August when there will only be a few of us left in Kampala. Time to recruit some more volunteers for Uganda VSO.

Thank you all for your friendship and support and we are going to miss you. Safe travels wherever life takes you and we hope to meet up again sometime. I think we might do some globe-trotting when we get back to York at the end of 2015!

Travels in the South West

This blog has been sadly neglected for the past 3 weeks. Our two sons have been with us for a fortnight and we have been travelling. We had some time in Kampala and a week away to Fort Portal, Queen Elizabeth National Park and Lake Bunyoni in the South West of Uganda.

Fort Portal

Fort Portal town

Fort Portal is a little under 200 miles from Kampala, more or less due west. It is quite a lot higher than Kampala as it is the gateway to the Rwenzori mountain range so cooler especially at night. It was nice to sleep under a blanket again, but a bit cold getting out of bed in the morning!

Heading into the Rwenzori Mountains

We stayed at a lovely guest house with fabulous meals. An advantage of being part of a group of VSO volunteers is that we all share information about the best places to eat and stay around Uganda. This suits us as Smith family travels tend to revolve around the next place for a cup of coffee or something to eat!

Queen Elizabeth National Park
After 2 nights in Fort Portal we headed south to Queen Elizabeth National Park. At 6am on Friday 13th June we were heading into the park in a safari vehicle in the hope of spotting a leopard. However, it was Friday 13th so no lions or leopards were around. We did see some animals but disappointingly few for such an early start. After a late breakfast we went to the Mweya peninsula and joined a launch trip. This was more successful for game viewing with hippos, buffalo, elephants, a crocodile, a monitor lizard and numerous birds on view.

Lake Bunyoni
After two busy days in the Park what better than a relaxing weekend on an island in the middle one of the most beautiful and peaceful lakes anywhere, Lake Bunyoni in the far south west. We arrived tired on the Saturday evening, leaving the car on the mainland and climbing into to a motorboat for our 15 minute journey to the island.

Our cottage for the weekend looked like it was straight out of a fairy tale.

And the view from the restaurant was fantastic

The sunsets were amazing, but beyond the capability of my little point and shoot camera to do them justice, or beyond my photographic skills! On Sunday we had a walk, hired dug out canoes to explore the island from the water, had a family card games tournament, read and chatted.

Back to Kampala
Monday morning and we were on the road again. After a walk around the town and a coffee in Kabale we went onto Mbarara for an overnight stop.

Leaving Lake Bunyoni

We had one more treat on a drive towards Lake Mburo and a close encounter with a zebra.

Back in Kampala we completed our shopping for gifts to send home and our exploration of the various food choices available before the boys caught their flight home early on Saturday.