We are in Uganda!
Our last month in Africa will be spend here and we could not be more excited.
My friend Famke, who I had not seen for many years, helped us find an apartment for the month, above the school where she works.
The night we arrived, Jonathan, Famke's spiritual brother, picked us up from the airport. He brought us to our apartment in Mukono, where Solomon (next to John) welcomed us with open arms. Solomon is the caretaker of the school and apartment.
On our first day, Famke took us into the centre of Mukono, which is the town where she lives and works, and where we were settling in for the month. The town is about 22 km east of Kampala.
Famke introduced us to her friends at the market so that we would get a fair price next time we would be there without her. She also took us to the local supermarket and explained about the boda boda's (motorcycle taxis) that could take us around.
The view from our balcony was beautiful! We were very close to the mosque and five times a day the muezzin proclaimed the call to the daily prayer, which was a nice change from church bells in Europe :)
After four months of mainly washing our laundry by hand, I now had a washing machine. It felt like such a luxury, especially when seeing the dorm children wash their clothes by hand in a bucket.
The children were quite mesmerized by our visit; a mzungu family living above their school!
(Wiki: Muzungu is a Bantu word that means "wanderer" originally pertaining to spirits. The term is currently used in predominantly Swahili speaking nations to refer to white people.)
We had a 20 liter water jug, a Jibu, which we had to exchange every time it was empty. And when tap water is not drinkable, a Jibu is a necessity. John and Myron had great fun exchanging it. They would walk down to the store with the empty one and take a boda boda back with the heavy Jibu tied on the back of the motorcycle taxi.
John often did the grocery shopping on his own while we worked on school work. These wonky stairs took him down to the market. The woman at the veggie stand became his friend at the market. Whenever she did not have what we were looking for, she would leave her stand to find it at someone else's and sell it to John at her own stand a minute later.
On Sunday we took a small taxi bus down to church. The whole day was another big adventure. A taxi bus has 12 official seats and will leave when all seats are full. However, these 12 seats can easily fill up with 20 people. Every taxi bus has a driver and a designated conductor, who is responsible for rounding up as many passengers as possibly fit in the taxi. He would hang out of the window and use hand signals, so people would know where this taxi would be going.
The church service was held under these white tents. We went to the second service of the morning. The first was at 8am, the second at 10am, and the third at noon. They had to split it up in order to host all the 3000+ congregation members!
Right behind our apartment, a community band gathered every (!) evening to practice together. Myron heard them the first night and got so excited, he went down the next day to find the director. He was more than welcome to join! The director owned the property behind us and was trying to build up his community center for the arts again after the pandemic. He had a collection of instruments for the band members to use, and Myron could borrow a cornet, which he has been playing since he was seven! The first two nights he practiced on his own, just to get used to playing again after a year's break. The local kids were very excited to see a mzungu boy join the band and always came running up to him to listen.
Within a few days Myron joined the band, who played without sheet music. He enjoyed it so much and we were so proud of him. We could hear their music in our home and could watch him from a bedroom window. There were just a few banana trees in the way ;) The building in the second picture is that of the school and our apartment. We had the top right corner.
Myron played every night when we were at home. It was such a great experience for him. Talk about living among the locals!
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