Matooke

Anyone who has been to Uganda will know that matooke (big green bananas that you have to cook) is one of the favourite dishes. There is a particular way to peel, prepare and cook it, and it is generally the ladies job to do the preparing. I have been allowed to help in the cooking process before, but there is normally some level of surprise that a mzungu (white man/lady) can manage this particular task. It is a bit of a treat so we don't generally have it here with the IYs...and its also a bit of a fiddle to prepare! Cathie was my teacher/instructor on this occasion.

Steve in a dress......

Last week Steve went to a Ugandan 'introduction' ...the first part of the wedding ceremony in traditional weddings. The dress he is wearing is called a kanzu. It is worn over trousers and with a jacket (just a little warm in this climate it has to be said!). The young man he is with is Silver - one of the IYs. Quite a sight I am sure you will agree!

Another school trip!

Silas has been doing a topic about cars in school (his suggestion!), so a trip to the mechanics was in order! We have (sadly), got to know this particular garage quite well since our move to Kampala, as our car has had to have some substantial work done on it. Silas had a great time though .....with lots of pointing at crucial car parts .....Steve on the other hand had a slightly more frustrating visit... : our car has been making a strange squeaking sound since its last 'fixing' and Steve was going to check it out. He took it in to have a test drive so they could listen and make a diagnosis. Trouble was, there was no sound at all from the car ..(just steve trying to re-create the high itched 'eeeeessskkkkk' sound himself). The car behaved perfectly until it got to within sniffing distance of our house here and then the squeaking returned!

Saturday Morning

A pretty normal saturday here in the IY household. We generally do cleaning and jobs in the morning - today we sanded down benches than needed a coat of varnish - heavy work..but there were plenty of us.

Juliet is catching up on here washing - all by hand so fairly time consuming,....

and the two girls Zam Zam and Fiona had been invited out to an end of term party at a school where they have previously worked on their placement...so they were all dolled up and ready to party - at 9.30 in the morning which was quite a challenge for both of them!

Silas was caught developing a new lego creation - also a very important job.

The teenagers we live with do work hard, sometimes needing gentle -or less subtle(!) - reminders to get going, but mostly they are willing and very helpful. All of them do their own clothes washing, we have rotas for washing up etc, and at the weekend they also cook and do some general household cleaning.

We have grown to know them more closely with living all in the same space, and they have made it fairly easy to share 'our space' ...

Rainbow Day

Today at Joel and Anyas School it was 'Rainbow Day' in the primary section- they celebrate the great diversity of cultures represented within the school ..over 60. Children dress up in the colours of their nations flag, and there are various activities plus food tasting related to the different continents. Thanks to a masterful outfit made by her mum Anya got to be in the parade! Kathryn got involved in painting Henna on childrens' palms in the Asia section.

The school that Anya and Joel go to is an international school teaching the British curriculum, but most of the children are from East Africa - Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Then there are many others from the other African nations, China, Russia, Canada, Germany, Wales etc etc... We are so grateful for the chance to send Joel and Anya to this school. They have made friends and so far have fitted in well.

Our Friend Judith.

We have a good friend here in Kampala - Judith - who has lived here in Uganda for over 30 years. She is a bit like an adopted granny for us out here. Well - she has recently bought and begun building on land near to Lake Victoria in Entebbe. We all went out to celebrate the work so far (feeble excuse for a bit of a picnic!). We ate under the little cook shelter and let off some chinese lanterns once it got dark. Anya even wrote a little poem to mark the occasion. There is still a long way to go as you can see - so time for plenty more celebratory picnics!!

On Saturday it was the boys on cooking lunch ...as you can see they really took the task to heart and made the most of their role serving us beautifully!! These two are James and Silver ..both are doing placements on construction sites. Where they got the ties from is anyones guess - certainly not Steves wardrobe! (the white stuff is the staple posho that we all eat a few times a week .... its kind of like stiff semolina!)