SAYING GOODBYE...

My five weeks of time in Uganda are coming to an end and I've been saying goodbye to many good friends.  I have had a very full time and I've accomplished soooo much.  And now I feel ready to return to Victoria.  I've had time here to process what knowledge I have gained and will continue to process the new experiences so that I can put it all to good use for JNFC.

Monday the staff had a lunch for me which was very nice and they all said a few words so I felt very special.  Here are a few pics to wrap up my time here.

I received a few mats as gifts made by the jajja's.

Mattress store...on the street.  We bought one of these.

This is a water collection system being built by the guest house at the school.

And lastly, here are some friends:

UGANDAN WEDDING DAY

Yesterday, Friday, was Eunice's wedding day.  Eunice is Jolly & George's daughter and she married Ronnie.  Just like a Canadian wedding, there was a lot of activity leading up to the big day.  There were four maids, and one matron of honour, and an assistant to the matron.  There were two little boys and a flower girl with the best man and groomsman.  The girls all slept over the night before so there was lots of laughter and joy in the house.

Early in the morning on the wedding day, everyone seemed to be awake and busy by 5:30 making breakfast which consisted of a maize porridge and African tea, plus Kotongo which is a favourite for breakfast.  It consists of the matoke bananas, some vegetables like onion, carrot, garlic and others, as well as some small pieces of beef or chicken, mixed with some water and Royco spice.  Royco is used in all soups and stews and is similar to bouillon cubes.  I have to say that it is very good and is my favourite way to eat matoke.

Then at 6:30 Ronnie's representatives came to "take Eunice away".  This is part of the custom whereby the bride to be is removed from her family home to get ready for the wedding.  She will never return to live with her parents.  So now there were five additional people sitting in the house and we all had some food together.  Then the girls all went to have their hair and make-up done.

The ceremony was scheduled for 12:00 noon and people gathered from everywhere all dressed in their finest.  It was a joyous day.

Church ceremony

Me with friends at reception

Reception held at the Mandella Stadium in the garden

Stage for the bridal party

Set-up in the garden where the bridal party will be escorted by the traditional dancers on the white carpet.

Wedding Cakes in the centre:  the tradition is that at the cake cutting ceremony the bride feeds the groom cake.  It is a bigger  ceremony than we do, and the bride and groom serve the parent's tables with small pieces of cut cake.  The bride's family sit on one side of the garden, and the groom's family sit on the other.  There are usually many cakes - 11 here I think - and the bride and groom deliver one whole cake to certain people who have supported them.  So cakes go to the families and other important people who helped and supported the bride and groom.

The entertainment were Traditional Dancers that "escorted" the bridal party into the reception.  

Traditional Dancers waiting for the bride & groom.  This part of the ceremony was vibrant, exciting, colourful, entertaining and quite magical.   I loved every moment of this and thought how special it made the bride & groom feel

Ronnie & Eunice finally enter...dancing all the way!  The happy parents below join them in the centre.

THE TRADITIONAL MUSICIANS & DANCERS called 'THE CRANE PERFORMERS'


There are large and small drums, shakers made out of gourds,
drums made out of very large gourds,
Adongu's  which look like an ancient harp - sizes small right up to the large base adongu in the last photo.
The music was fabulous, very rich and accompanied by the brightly coloured dancers.
I loved every minute of it.  I have great video of this event so stay tuned.

The Ugandans love to celebrate and everyone does it.  They celebrate any important occasion - weddings, births, graduations, deaths, birthdays, anniversaries and anything else that matters.  You are surrounded by ALL your family, friends, local community, village where you came from and everyone else in-between.  This is a wonderful custom!

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CANADIAN FOOD & MATOKE

Today I went to a mall to find a few gifts for home.  I always want to bring my grandsons something.  They are 6 and 3 and I have been missing them a lot.  Hi Liam and Sam :)  These pictures are for you.

Exotic goats at the Jolly Children's Education Centre.
They are very cute...don't you think?

I visited the school again yesterday and here are some children waiting to have their picture taken.
They love it when I have my camera and take pictures.
They all line up to see themselves and laugh at their friends, and I love this part.
When I look at all these beautiful children I feel convinced that giving them an education
is absolutely essential.  Please, if you want to help us, get in touch.

The baby cow at the school.   I think you would like to see these animals Sam & Liam.
 The school is trying to generate income
 by raising goats - both local and exotic, and they have cows, and pigs.
 The chickens all died from disease that swept through the whole community
 so they are waiting to re-establish the chicken coop.

There are several very good malls and in past years we have spent time at the Garden City Mall.  There you can find anything you need:  food, a toy store, book store, restaurants, mobile services, furniture, crafts, banks and much more.

This trip I found a new mall that I haven't spent much time at.  It has a store called ShopRite - a South African grocery store.  And it has all the similar stores to Garden City Mall plus...a fabulous coffee shop / restaurant.  It is called the Good African Coffee.  The menu had local foods as well as western foods!!  I have eaten local food for over a month now and I didn't realize how much I was craving something familiar.  I had a BLT which was superb.  The coffee was great and I had strawberry ice cream for dessert.   A little bit of heaven...  I sat for a long time enjoying the ambiance.

My BLT with a very fresh salad that I thoroughly enjoyed!

Then I called my wonderful driver, Hosea, to pick me up and take me home.  Today I actually had a ride in another vehicle but I want to show you the little red truck.  Action For Children has two vehicles which drive staff all over the country to visit programs.  Roads can be very hard on vehicles having huge pot holes which eventually wear out the suspension and tires and other parts of the vehicles.  And the traffic in the cities is quite frightening.  Remember the boda boda's and taxi's I showed you?  Well, there are bicycles and people walking everywhere....a nightmare.  And parking can be very tricky.  So most organizations have drivers who are trained to navigate it all.  Not for the faint of heart!  

Geoff, Jill and I have very fond memories of this little red truck.  It has usually been our transportation when in Uganda and it has taken us all over the country, a Toyota tough truck.

Hosea, one of two drivers.

When I got back to the house, Beatrice was preparing to cook Matoke which is a staple food here in Uganda, and it is served at every meal.  I believe I have mentioned it before.   It is green bananas and here is how you prepare it for steaming:

STEP 1:  Place a pot of water with old banana leaves in it.
Put fresh banana leaves  layered on top.
Peel the bananas and set on top the banana leaves.

STEP 2:  Fold the banana leaves to create a pocket over the bananas.

STEP 3:  Continue folding each layer of banana leaf over the  bananas.

STEP 4:  Tuck in the edges of the banana leaves.

STEP 5:  Ready to steam.

STEP 6:  Put a layer of old leaves,  soaked in water,  over the bundle.

STEP 7:  Ready to steam on the fire in the outdoor kitchen.
This will have to cook for about 4 hours.
Then you mash and eat.
 Matoke has a similar consistency and taste to potatoes.


Are you hungry?

MUSIC

Sunday afternoon we went to a music festival / celebration.  It was held in a large community church and George, Jolly's husband was the guest of honour.  We were seated right in the front with a table in front of us.  There were soft drinks in glass bottles on the table which is the favourite drink to serve when you have a special occasion, and half way through we were served a light meal of spicy beef and chipatis.

As the evening began, three young men took turns singing a few songs.  Then a 50 voice choir sang several great songs with beautiful choreography.  They were celebrating 18 years of singing together as a choir and it was a great evening.

Word in Action Gospel Singers

Today I visited another community called Kyanja (pronounced Chan-ja) Community Centre where Action For Children has an Early Childhood Development Centre. It is run by the local community with support from Action For Children.  There are gardens to train parents, a large play area outside for the children and the buildings.  Once a month there is an HIV Aids clinic at the centre where people can be tested.

Children playing with the toys that are hand made.
Letters are cut from coloured foam, and dolls are made of banana leaves.

One of the buildings on this property is the original "container" which Jolly used to start Action For Children in 1995.  This container is now used for a young man who makes honey and some other preserves.   Another part of this Centre is a vocational school with classes in hair dressing, sewing and jewelry making, all supported by Action For Children.  I was told that all the students who graduate from this program are able to find work and support themselves.

The lady in green makes this beautiful beaded jewelry and teaches students.
I purchased several pieces of her designs to bring back to Victoria,
and she was grateful for the support.

Hairdressing student doing braids on a model.  I discovered that African women use oil
 in their hair and on their scalp. And I saw one of their secrets to beautiful hair
 - Olive Oil in a spray can especially for hairdressing.

This sewing student is making a traditional dress.  Two of the students displayed
a number of dresses they have been learning how to make.

Driving around Kampala you see such interesting sights that I certainly don't see in Victoria.

This is a car wash.  There is a very large rain barrel on the left in black to store water
 and a lot of yellow gerri cans filled with water.
 I could see the person washing cars had pressure to use a spray nozzle.
These car washes are quite common.

Here are some different sayings that I have had to get used to:

"Extend here" - move over here
"Now now" - right now as opposed to now which could mean any time
"Shifting" - moving your house or office to a new location
"We move" - Let's go now
"Talking wall" - posters on a wall
"Meat party" - eating a lot of meat.  We might call this a bbq but people here don't eat a lot of meat.

FRESH LOCAL FOOD

I have learned how to make fresh passion fruit juice which Beatrice makes every day.  This is something I want to make when I return home so I hope I can find passion fruits!

Recipe for Fresh Passion Fruit Juice:

Ingredients:

16 or 17 passions fruits 
5 oranges
Approximately 1 cup of sugar
1 full jug of water (drinking water is boiled first)

Method:

1. Cut the passion fruits in half and scrape out the pulp and seeds into a sieve with bowl underneath.
2. Sprinkle about 1/3 cup of the sugar on the pulp.
3. Stir this with a spoon to extract juice.
4. Pour about 1/3 of the water into the pulp to extract all the juice.
5. Continue this process two more times until the sugar and water has been used.
6. Cut the oranges in half and add squeezed juice to the passion fruit juice.
7. Enjoy!

If you try this out please let me know how it works.

Passion Fruits

Straining pulp with sugar

Fruits are small

Oranges are green on the outside when used

Beatrice and me making juice!

The finished product!

Earlier in this blog I showed Beatrice roasting fresh g nuts - ground nuts (peanuts).  Yesterday she made fresh peanut butter....the very best I have ever tasted!  She fries the nuts and blends them.  This is the tub she produced and I hope I can learn how to make this as well.

Fresh peanut butter

This is jack fruit which are absolutely huge and weigh about 10 lbs. each.  They are sticky and have many large seeds in them, and most people here love them.  In Victoria you can find them occasionally at The Root Cellar but cut into chunks, and they might be in China Town as well.

Jack Fruit Tree

Presented with jack fruit last year

We came across these local bee hives as we were visiting some of the homes of the children.  I could see the bees buzzing around and tried to take a movie.

Local bee hives

Many of the local rural farmers grow coffee bushes.  So as we are walking around the rural community near the school you will find coffee bushes everywhere.  As we pass homes you will find coffee beans drying on the ground of many compounds.

Fresh picked coffee beans 

Dried coffee beans