RIIIINGG THE ALARMMMMM

Right so I've posted a load of stuff on facebook but some of you won't read it. Basically you've all heard the news about the bombs in Kampala. I've told this story a lot but here it goes again - short version but hopefully you'll get the picture.

The weekend was strange before any of this stuff happened...and by strange i mean i'd just been out of hospital with malaria and a few days later in the reggae bar that i love and all of my best friends work or relax there I met a guy i thought I knew. The reason I knew him was that he has been in the papers. I don't want to say much here but let's just say he's on parole for being accused of raping and murdering a girl. He is on parole because the police said go ahead we can bury the girl and the girls' family have said they are not happy with the evidence and want a full post mortem. Strange...yes...earlier in the week I had also found Herbert (my placement partner) in his room shivering, feverish, unable to talk, certainly unable to walk and with joint pains and headache - serious malaria. He had been to the local clinic. They gave him painkillers. Think about it...you have malaria, they 'treat' it with pain killers. You feel fine for three days because there's no pain, but malaria builds up in your body and is just waiting to wipe you out. Worried, I rushed to get him to hospital. No transport at 22h on a week night from the village to a hospital. So I decide that given that Edgar knows the people who drive the Taxis (Matatus..more like packed mini vans) I will pay anything to the Driver to get my friend to hospital before it gets worse. So Edgar agrees and runs off to find the taxi man whilst I get Herbert out of the house, on to a bike, walk him to the meeting point where the taxis always stop and sit and wait for Edgar to come. I call about 5 times to make sure Edgar is actually doing what I asked him to because although I thoroughly trusted him, this is Uganda, people with the best intentions will get the job done but given cultural norms and they're genuine similarity to the Irish Edgar may have met a stranger and gone for a chat :) not the time though...not the time! So while Edgar went off I was with Herbert, Nico (from school..) and Marta (his girlfriend .. they both turned up in Uganda and were visiting that day). We were sat waiting for the transport and a woman had her sick baby with her. Given that it was late and the place where she was sitting we figured she might want to get to Jinja too. She did so we offered her to join us as we were going to hospital too. Worried but happy about the offer, she agreed. Edgar sorted out transport as quickly as humanly possible in Uganda and he told me he was now on his way, the guy agreed to come and transport was on the way 5 minutes. As that happened the woman started to weep and the wail. Her baby died in her arms before she could even get to Jinja. That kind of stuff happens all the time - i write on the blog every four weeks but everyday stories like this happen..this place is real. So, having offered to take her we all travel to Jinja - The woman and her baby, Nico and Marta, Malaria ridden Herbert, life saver Edgar, the irish eejit with the sunburn and a load of drunk people who decided theyd hope in the taxi to go to Jinja. Most of those lads fall asleep. In the end we sorted everything and Herbert was grand. Two days later I was Herberts equivalen - I worked too hard, had a headache and a tummy bug and was grand until I stopped working and tried to eat. Went weak, started vomiting and felt really bad, couldnt do anything but lie down. Edgar found me and did the same again - he got me to hospital quicker this time maybe after his last experience he wanted to make sure it'd be as quick as possible. SPW staff were brilliant (SORRY, not SPW< the names changed now we're RESTLESS DEVELOPMENT as of 5th July!! ). So staff sorted it all out and I was grand...two days later I'm feeling great and looking forward to seeing all the volunteers for a big weekend in Kampala, World Cup Final and a reunion with two Canadian army boys who were there on my Brithday weekend (WHAT A WEEKEND, best birthday I could have hope for. In fact a lot better than that and I owe that all the the other volunteers who maade my birthday amazing complete with rafting, good cake, a while lot of beer, the funniest chats ever and just generally one of the best times I've ever had in my life..so thank you, let me just add here that the Canadians are absolutely awesome and we fell in love with them, some of us loved them..what, who said that? are those my feet? .. and they're two of the coolest, best guys I've met out here - and that says A LOT!). So everything was set for a great weekend. Then we went to Kampala...... Kampala is a great city. I love Mexico it's a great country, Kampala makes Mexico great (love doing that). And for those of you who don't know Kampala, it's right in the middle of Mexico which is near an ocean called Europe (yes I did study Geography, yes I did do well in the test..but then I spent time with Americans...and yes, I'm having a great 7months so far here in Mexico. Ha! ) Anyhow, we get to Kampala and for a group of volunteers who I no longer actually consider as friends but as genuine family and I wouldn't put a word against them, things seemed strange. For a group that got on really well, we had some weird tension going on but because we were ready to have a good time and the Canadians were leaving on Sunday afternoon (before World Cup) we thought we'd celebrate and just try to ignore the weirdness. I then met a rapist and murderer, thought that given that I didn't stop talking for about 72 hours the girls had had enough of me and didn't really want to spend any more time with me, and generally everyone misunderstood or didn't understand why everything was weird that weekend. We had a lot of fun including getting into a pool the size of a bathtub and me trying to get the world's largest pig (owned by red chili) to swim with us (i got scared and he chased me back into the pool!), we saw the new Twilight movie and created a 'wolfpack' I hit the Casino with Ed and Keven the Canadians and we blew a lot of money (well here, probly only like 30 quid) but Ed decided that anything he won went in a win pile and that was bar money. He lost all his money but confusingly enough he had chips left. 90,000 shillings - 30euro...enough to fuel the EPIC night ahead which involved me crying from laughter because an English Rugby crew were hilariously funny. So funny that I had tummy cramps, I cried, Megan had the same and decided she might die of laughter and had to leave the conversation and then from a quick conversation with the manage (Nigel) the funny Rugby crew were given free t-shirts. Nigel then decided ah feck it I might aswell hand out free t-shirts to everyone and free drinks and shots to go with it and then play some republican tunes loud in a bar full of drunk english rugby players. They were either so drunk that they didn't care or, most probably, the nicest bunch of people around and just decided to take the free drinks and sing along to all the tunes! So all in all a great time with the weirdest stuff happening at the same time. I have actually forgotten why I started writing this...i'll try to cut to the chase now, but I've no idea what 'the chase' is...so I'll tell you about why we are all safe and alive. (I've chatted like this without knowing where any of my sentences are going since about 10th January, i'm just happy chatting about anything...brilliant). So here we go... Everyone I talked to in Jinja, Kampala, people who'd been to Kampala, Ugandans...EVERYONE, told us the Rugby Club was the place to go. It'd be full, great craic and there's a big screen. Imagine a small town rugby club with a few pitches and a grotty little bar that's loved by everyone because instead of being grotty and gross, it's great. For the 1970 REPREZENT Wezembeekois all I have to say is I've never been there but I'm pretty sure Jean-Claude owns it and it's the 'Le Madelon' of Uganda - Les wezembeekois savent pourquoi!!!! So we were all set to go to the club. Well, the girls didn't mind as long as they could get tipsy and giggle and not watch football but chat about tea and biscuits (no wonder I love these guys!! ) and I wanted to bring them to the Rugby club because it was the place to be for everyone. We even invited other African Venture (gap yah...but lovely people...a gap year organization who have some cool volunteers that we get on with) volunteers to join us. They had plans but were willing to change them and were gutted that they didn't come with us to the Rugby Club. So everyone wanted to go there. (slight tangent coming up...) Given that Ugandans love chatting and I seem to have turned into my father and will chat to anyone willing to listen to me or ignore me or actually just because I'm now my dad and I love to chat even if it's to a car wheel, a tree or whatever, I have made a lot of seriously good friends around. ( KAZIM if you are reading this, Ivory, your Ugandan twin showed me the tune...I told you he was you...so in a funny way your Ugandan twin (who is actually you) saved my life, cheers buddy ;) RIIINNG THE ALARM! ) So I was with my best friends all weekend playing tunes in the reggae bar. I spent 3 or 4 days in there from the moment I woke (around 10am until at least 3 am...every day) in my favourite place of all time with my best ugandan friends. There was no music one day so they brought out the computer for me (i asked them to) and made me DJ. I spent 3 days as a DJ and made jokes about how I was the new DJ and all of that.......this'll make sense later. So we wanted to go to the Rugby Club and the game was starting soon. The girls and especially Joyce didn't want to miss the game. I didn't mind missing the first half and going to join them with my friend Ivory. I was in safe hands, having a great time playing pool and dancing to the tunes and just having chats with great, lovely people. Megan came to get me and said the girls were on their way. I said I don't mind going but I'd prefer to stay give me 5minutes...when I say that here in Africa I mean I'll probably take 3 hours...Megan knows that as much as every other volunteer. So she said we're leaving pretty much now you can come or not but if you don't give us a call and we'll see you later. She walked out and I finished the game of pool (two balls left so it was almost over). After finishing I kept my word to Megan and told Ivory we should leave so I said bye to everyone. The barman, manager and good friend Brian had already left to the rugby club. Half time was 20 mins away, we'd get there for half time, enjoy the atmosphere, get a drink and watch the game there with everyone in the Reggae bar (all ready to go), the SPW volunteers (who were 'at the rugby club'......) and the 20 or so Rugby boys we'd met the other night (who were actually pretty much definitely at the rugby club, i still havnt heard from them but rumour has it they're safe). At that moment Ivory goes up to the computer as I'm ready to leave and says, listen to this tune!! He plays Busy Signal - One More Night and everyone in the bar looooves the tune. We start dancing and then I ask him to play it a few more times before we leave...after all it's coming up to half time we might aswell leave during half time and catch the end of the final for Dutch celebration (well i thought they'd win but as the germans always say .. 'trust the octopus'! ). We dance and then finally leave (me and ivory). The other boys stay behind because they werent too bothered about the footy and prefered to listen to tunes all night. Luckily I phoned Megan or they phoned me or somehow I found out (memory is a little blurred from excessive chatting and a few drinks too many) that Joyce had asked the manager of the Hostel where to watch the game. He said Rugby club is good but if you're supporting Holland then there's a Dutch bar called Iguanas, it's not far from Rugby Club so you could go there and if Holland wins it'll be a big party, if Spain win or if it takes ur fancy you could always go to the Rugb y thing after...or words to that effect. Well, we're lucky that she had done that. Joyce was the one who was backing Holland most (she lived in The Hague for a long time) and she was really looking forward to the Final and wanted to celebrate with the Dutch. I stayed back because of the music and reggae bar and Joyce wanted to go to Iguanas to meet Dutch people. So now Joyce was in charge of where we all went...I found out they were there and given that they're brilliant I wanted to watch the game with them. So me and Ivory went to Iguanas. Thanks to the reggae tune, Joyce and maybe other small coincidences or chance we didn't go to the Rugby Club after all. We went to Iguanas. The tune I loved, Joyce, and the fact that we didnt know that a Ugandan artist called Bebe Cool (who we saw in Jinja and fell in love with) was performing at half time all came together to mean that we ended up in Iguanas. And thank your lucky stars we did. I've been writing for a long time and I'm tired because I was a little sick, it's been a looong weekend, a lot has happened this month and I need to get back to the village soon so I won't go into detail about the bombs and explosions. 1 bomb in a busy neighbourhood across town exploded around 10pm. 2 bombs went off around the time that Spain scored about 11pm-ish. We were lucky we didnt go. The manager of the reggae bar, Brian, got to Rugby club at 10.30pm. The next morning he told me it was so packed and you had to pay to get in so he went to meet a friend. He survived and missed the bombs. The boys at the Reggae bar were probably still rocking to the very same tune that saved me and Ivory and the girls. Their friends however were in the grounds and so were many of the Rugby boys. As far as I know from the 5 or 6 best friends I have at the Reggae Bar one lost 5 of his best friends, another lost 2...the list goes on....but just remember that many more people escaped the attack that people who were killed or injured. That's important and that's positive despite the shock and the chaos caused by this attack. So Joyce, thank you and Busy Signal, thank you. I truly believe that your actions and this tune saved my life. Not only that but I reckon a good 40 people that we know didn't make it because of this tune and other small decisions that were made. I have played this tune about 100 times in the last 2 days. It's on repeat constantly and I show it to everyone. There are more stories about this weekend which I'm sure will be told in time but for the moment listen to this tune and remember a few things - 1) The reason I came to Uganda is that I started 'SHPOPS' - a music project to connect musicians. I sold the CD to fundraise for Uganda. My song was called 'Music is Life' (Music is love and love is life). I believe that truly, that's why I love the song and music is the reason I came and got to Uganda. And I still like the song...that's a good sign! 2) A friend of mine passed away when I was in 1st year of university. She was a close friend of all of ours and the way I coped was to spend time with my friends, write a song, sing it for her at the funeral and also, I was shown a song by Matt Pippett (my friend at university) which says 'Everyday is good because of being alive....if tomorrow I should die, I know that today is good because I am alive' - Patrice. So friends and reggae music saved me then. Maybe not from dying but it certainly helped me to change my outlook and live positively and look on the bright side. ( I even started to appreciate the fact that if I missed the world's greatest event Maedhbh (my big sis) would probably say, 'ah sure feck it Cathal it's the little things. I've done nothing but had 20 cups of tea all day and that's brilliant'). So from Matt teaching about how to cope with things and through the music I started to believe that beauty is in the little things. Yes, cups of tea are great (and Micheal is brilliant for having Barrys tea sent regularly to Utrecht)...no wonder Utrecht was the best year ever! We had tea all the time haha! 3) The morning after the Kampala bombs I was set to leave. I met my friends at the very same reggae bar and as usual all was bliss there. Sun was out, tunes were on and people were chatting waiting on news from friends. I was ready to leave, packed my bags and saying goodbye. A guy called Charlie ( english name for Cathal) came in and he had just been with his friend who survived the attack. Injured, visibly shocked and still wearing bloody clothes from the night before his friend said that there was rumour of a bomb in Kampala Taxi park (new taxi park). That's the park i needed to go to to get home so I decided to stay in El Gazel (reggae bar to you...heaven to me) and I spent the afternoon listening to music and waiting for the all clear to get out of Kampala. The bomb scare was just a rumour but I wanted to be safe. Many of the boys now in the bar were getting calls that the very friends we were set to meet had actually passed away or were injured, shocked and unwell. But given the nature of my friends there they remembered their friends through music, staying positive and enjoying the present moment. 4) On Sunday night in Kampala this tune saved my life and the life of many others. Listen to it and enjoy it the way I do. If you don't like the tune you'll probably find yourself humming it in a year or two and you'll realize then ;) I've listened to it over 100 times since Sunday. Busy Signal - One More Night

Mr Busy Signal gave me one more night...a million more nights!!

5) If the mother and father hadn't backed us the whole way through school to stick with the music 'Practice will pay off'...I would not be here today and I would not have the enjoyable, happy and great life that I have had. All of my friends who know me as a musician or that I met through music wouldn't have met me and I wouldn't have met them. I would have played counter strike all day online against Norman, Erik, Kevin and .... Kiely.... HAHAHA!!! No seriously, I think you're great lads...but you all get what I mean. Thanks is all I'll say on this public forum because this is getting very emotional and american ! But seriously, thank you.

Peace out,

Caddy!! Alive, happy and positive :D!


p.s. Extra Note Entitled: Blame Canada... :D

Just heard news from Afghanistan that the Canadian boys have been posted to a very volatile area. They returned to find that some friends had been sent home injured maybe some died...Ed's reaction: 'don't be sorry, they got cool wounds (chicks love scars), medical insurance (tonnes of pesos..that's what they use in Canada right? ) etc...'

You see why we love these guys..? Unfortunately Keven I didn't understand Ed's message for one great reason ' NO HABLO '!!

So from all the crew here and I'm sure everyone who sees this here's the message:

we'll see you when your back, have a few beers and probably have a real trip to the real Mexico...I know we're all already there but I have heard that Germany is a great City and afterall we've had fun out here in Mexico.. it's a great place...but hopefully we're going to Paris. I hear Mexico is beautiful ! Ha! Listen to the tune..it might save you and Mr Busy Signal...just give them one more night..a million more nights....in Mexico ;)!!! RIIIIING THE ALLAAAARRRMMMM !

Quick Update

Had the day free so I came to Kamuli to get some messages sent out. The main one was to a guy we met when Dad and Cian were over. Stevo from Dublin. Absolute legend who had a bunch of fotty jerseys his nephew donated and needs somewhere for them to go. We'd long chats and many beers that day in May so although I remembered all about the jerseys which, for some reason are in Kampala, I'd lost his email...good job! Found it yesterday though so all is back on track just a few weeks late...Africa Time!!

Last week was extreeemmmeeellly heavy for many reasons which we best not go into. Let's just say we'd problems coming up in the community, with a friend out in town and a lot of work. Just as Anna reassured me ' Well the week can't get much worse really can it? ' I had a call from Edgar to say that two of our students passed away. They were out at a netball competition the school had gone to and despite not being allowed to go, they went under their own steam. On arrival everybody was warned not to swim. It's a notoriously dangerous spot because of the way the fishermen dug the river bed it get very deep as soon as you step in. Still, they decided to swim..So Nawanyago has been a little under and the school is finding it difficult to cope with their loss. Two great kids, good students and good friends to the school and to SPW Volunteers. It's a real pity. Take care Henri & Magidhu.

That cut short a visit to Buwaya (Emily's placement) which is a lot more rural than my own but they can't complain!! They're put up in an outhouse to a boarding school where they've a brand new computer lab, electricity aaand Emily's just waiting for them to install wireless...village life ey ? ;) ! It was good fun though. All of us headed out there and Megs n Em had baked a cake & cookies for our arrival.

Otherwise we're picking up well work-wise. Been working so so hard over the last month mainly with help from Edgar and we've hit our targets early. Just over hitting now. I set up a Music competition where the kids compose a song in any language/style about 'problems facing the youth'. Poems are allowed and I've been told that a Primary 6 kid is coming over to recite his poem today! cuuuuuuuuuuuute! We've got a lot of interest and frankly a lot of wasted talent so it should be good fun hearing and recording the entries at next weeks Talent Show which we've also set up at the school!! Music, Dance and Drama and as it will be on my birthday I think we'll get some visitors tooo!! Then I've also set up an Art competition for the kids interested in Art. We'll pin up the winners in our Youth Resource Corner (where kids come to chat/relax/learn about health etc...) Entries are based on three topics chosen by the teachers:

(1) Something for Something Love - giving sex for phones/money/school fees etc..
(2) Cross Generational Sex - a huge problem inUganda in general but the teachers say it's rife in our community.
(3) Teenage Pregnancy - also causes a lot of problems out here with children dropping out of school and not having the knowledge, money, time to care for a child or go back to school etc...

They can design a poster, paint, draw...whatever they want. We're hoping for entries and we'll see how it all goes down. Winners of the music competition should appear on the next 'Shpops Uganda edition CD'..For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about basically my fundraising to come out here was done by making a CD with a load of friends (all styles, languages...) and I'm hoping to raise more funds by creating a Ugandan edition of the same types of project. All the art work, design, music, promo etc is done by young people and all free of charge to get maximum profits to donate back to a worthwhile project. It was a lot of work but great fun so I hope the Ugandan CD will be up to scratch! I've recorded quite a bit so far and Thursday should bring some good tracks too!!

Hope you are all well back home. Give us a call if you're ever feeling that way! WARNING: When you call you'll hear music (ugandan music)...that means it's ringing through! Instead of hearing a dialtone you now hear music - one of the many fantastic pointless Ugandan inventions. Love it! It'll either be Bebe Cool - Bogola Ko or Chameleon - Basiimo Ogenze. Enjoy! +256 785 899 485

World Cup craic is savage in the videohall! I spend my time in a wooden, bin bag lined shack sweating from the heat and general smells of other men's sweat, rubbish and farts. But the craic is mighty and we're all backing the African teams. Portugal got lucky to take the draw I reckon...Good to see France getting nowhere to, I wish them all the worst this year :) Off to watch Spain tonight I think and I'd better be getting back to hear some little cute kid's poem! Can't wait!!

All the best!

The end of an era...and plenty of news

Been away from the internet for quite a long while now despite not having been stuck in the village. I've just finished my 2week holiday, mid-placement top up training and had a great weekend and am now ready to head back to the village and try to get looooaaadds of work done within the next few months. I've had the best time over the last few weeks..so much has happened that I won't be able to sum it all up here in one post but highlights have included :
- Dad & Cian coming out for a brilliant 10 day break!! They arrived in Entebbe & I picked them up in true Ugandan fashion, 3 of us on the back of the same bike. Both were in flying form and we headed to the Botanical Gardens & Wildlife Centre along with some of the other volunteers - Joyce, Christy, Herbert and Edgar. Megan's sisters were around too so we all met up and I got Sharon & Allen and a few other up to the backpackers for a meal so they could meet my family. Everyone was reaaally excited to meet Liamo - they'd heard so much - and of course, Da's chat didn't disappoint! We had a really great night.

The next day we headed out to Bwindi to start our Gorilla Trek! It was incredible!! I'll stick some photos up but there's no real way of describing it, just soo cool it's unreal!! An added extra was the fact that our guide, James, had been a coach at the special olympics in Ireland - he wore his Ireland T-Shirt for us - and had met Westlife & Arnold Schwarzenegger and also like to burst into random bouts of Irish dancing every now and then. For those of you volunteering out here it looked like a version of Joel's erection impression mixed with mental footwork. Needless to say, James was a legend! After Gorilla trekking we visit pygmys and had an aul dance with the little people. A little like Darby O'Gill except in real life...no seriously, it was quite sad to see how they're treated and outcast by society at large. They live in probably the worst poverty I've seen. The guide we went with had been working with them for a long time and was forming a group to support them financially and lobby for rights for pygmy communities - they were kicked out of the forest when tourism & logging started and are now total outcasts.

The day after Gorillas we got back to Jinja & had a great meal for Megan's birthday - Happy Birthday again! Cian couldn't join us but we'd already pre-ordered steaks so we picked a lucky random drunk from the bar nxt door to come and eat the steak. His name was Steve, from Dublin. He was hilariiiiiiouuuss!! We'd great chats & dad, despite having done a huge gorilla trek, travelled from Europe and been lugged around on bikes in the blazing heat stayed up with the youth drinking until about 4am.
We'd 2 or 3 hours sleep and then I woke the lads up to come and visit Nawanyago. We packed in visits to my school, my neighbours, George Kinosa the farmer (who both Dad & Cian agreed lived up to his legendary status), bought a chicken for my neighbour, visited Igumyamoyo farmer's group, ate at Herbert's house, sang tunes with some of the kids I'm doing the music project with and greeted the entire trading centre!! AAAAaaaalll done with a crew of about 30 very needy, cute, energetic, playful, crying 4-6 years olds!! It was a little wearing but again, we had the best day and headed back to Jinja that night suitably tired ready for bed in our awesome hotel & ready to fly to Tanzania the next day!!

- Tanzania involved a 4 day safari which was absolutely mindblowingly great, and, to put it in the words of the great Gap Yah poms, I chundered everywhere on the plains of the serengeti - have that nature! 40 degree fever and cold sweats, great craic! But we saw cheetahs, leopards, lions, giraffes, wildbeast, zebras....you name it, we dsaw millions of them!! We also met up with Nico who's working out there and his family were visiting too so we had an awesome trip. On the last night we were back at Maama Makari's house where Cian volunteered a few years ago in Arusha - we were well looked after!!

- Back in Entebbe I went to chill at a pool with Megan, her sisters, Emily and none other than Colonel Gadafi...yes, the mental Libyan. He turned up (or at least him or his brother) turned up at a hotel they own, so I made sure he watched me dive from the massive diving board. He was proud of me, I saw it in his beady eyes. He actually looked like a film star...a mental one, but a film star nonetheless..!!

We then had a few nights out, crazy ugandan club style. Fantastic! I was dancing away and out of nowhere this huuuuuuuuge woman starts trying to grind me.I was pretty wasted so i kept dancing at which stage she turns and goes ' I am veerrry fat..but verrryy flexible' HAHAHA Epic! Only in Uganda!

After our big night & a gig by Radio & Weasel (two big names in uganda) we went biking in the Mabira forest...it was more like Mountaineering in a tropical rain forest covered in safari ants (which reaaally bite hard) with a mountain bike on my back!! Probably the best thing I've done in Uganda so far..although I don't know if Emily and Megs would agree given the state of their hangovers that day!! I got a weird infected ankle after it all what with the wading through mud, sticks, rivers and whatever the feck lives in that forest!!

We also saw Bebe Cool & Chameleon, two of Uganda's hottest superstars...the gig started with a gorgeous woman dancing and singing as the warm up act. Out of nowhere a little midget ran on stage and starts properly going at it, dancing his heart out, clinging to her thighs, caressing her knees and all sorts! It was so surreal!! He'd be hired by the band to dance for the entire gig!!
Bebe Cool, who was recently shot in both legs by police, came out to rock Jinja in his wheelchair. It was soooo ghetto!! Brilliant!! Chameleon was bad either, he was in red suit pants, a red tux, white shirt & a dickee bow! Grand shtuff!!!


Since all of that I've had 4 days of training most of which I spent in bed recovering from the TZ fever. It was great to see everyone again and get back into the mood of SPW work before heading back to the village & starting work again. We also took the ugandans out which was hilarious. It was like being twelve again. In the club they were all soooo gone they were just falling about the dance floor taking half the crowd with them...great times!! I went back for a day and then I requested permission to get back to Jinja to send off an American friend of mine - Lansing....

... for the occassion, I cut myself a mullet!! Played a charity crazy golf with the mullet and then went for beers with Lansing. Last night up at backpackers, where it all began, we set up a table with decorations and had waaaaaaay toooooo much fun drinking & chatting all night. Great craic!! I'm really sad to see him leave but with the 4 cheesy valentine's day cards we gave him at random intervals I'm sure he'll be safe & sounds back in the States. Hopefully I'll see him in Vegas at some stage...'The Hangover' style!!! Take it easy Mr Lancelot, it's been a pleasure having you around and I know you'll be sorely missed...or you'll miss those sores...?! what...?! WHO ARE YOU>?!!

Rightio, well I'm off back to the village...ooooooooooohhhh I almost forgot..I went to a reggae night & met Kaz, my flatmate from Leeds...well, his Ugandan counterpart!! We got into a Uganda music video too, which i'll post once it's out!! AAAAnnnnd I also met a girl who babysat me in Wezembeek-Oppem when I was about 4 years old!! She lives in Congo now but grew up a few doors down from us at home!! Mental.......oooooooooh, aaaannndd please please check out my Dutch friend's project (Kees & Arthur - two great guys ) - School in a Can. I think you can google it. THey're setting up school made from Cargo containers and they are absolutely incredible at what they do! Best of luck lads,!!

Right, that really is it...i need to get back to my posho & beans, pit latrine, newly born baby rats on my floor and bucket showering...aaahh the joys of village life!! Take care!! Tschuuuusss!!!!

Indians & Crocodiles, Easter Pigs & Lovely People

I can’t quite remember when I was last in Jinja and what’s been going on since but the main event of the past few weeks was getting a long weekend off for Easter & heading out to Murchison Falls National Park. I had drunkenly agreed to go along on a trip to Murchison Falls with random American dude, Lansing Lee. We bonded over the fact that we had weird names, anchor man, excitement at meeting Peter Griffin at Bujugali Falls and far too many beers. A few days after that night out I got a call from Lansing seeing if I was still up for the trip. Having no real recollection of who he was but remembering the night was pretty good and he seemed cool, I agreed to head out with him. My bank card expired on the 31^st March so I had to head up to Kamuli to withdraw cash for the last time. I left class promptly and headed up nervous of whether I’d get any cash out, thinking the machine might just swallow my card and then I’d be, well…fecked! I got in to Kamuli on the matatu and went straight to the ATM. There was a queue of about 20 people because it was pay day for teachers and they were all withdrawing cash for the Easter break. The queue got longer, nobody got any closer to the cash machine...the only ATM in town was broken – Technical Problem, please wait while we get this fixed. Everyone was pretty confident it would be fixed, just nobody knew when – 10 minutes or 5 hours, ‘You wait!!’. I ended up going to the internet café where I’m pretty good friends with one of the guys working there. He told me it’d work in a few hours but that the teachers would all be there queuing for hours so best wait til eight-ish. I did just that and just as I left the café a huuuuuge storm broke out! Bad weather – power cut..power cut – no ATM…no ATM – no Murchison falls & no money! I ran off with Edgar to get shelter where we met a crazy homeless, shirtless scruffy man with a gun. He wanted to start boxing with us so we swiftly left him behind and sheltered at the bank. Once the rain stopped power came back and the machine started working so all the teachers started to withdraw money. As the line got shorter I was about to get to the machine…second power cut…! “Don’t worry, you wait, you wait. It will come.” “Are you suuuurree it will come back because I have to get home tonight and it’s late, taxis won’t be around all night.” “Somehow yes. Oh but you are right, it is late, but maybe you will possibly get a taxi. But it is late mister, it is late”. I gambled and waited. Power came back and I got my turn at the machine. Stuck in my card, pressed in my pin and bingo I got my cash. I turned around to leave and then got the bright idea of trying my Fortis card for money. Popped the card in, and then the screen froze as I was pressing my pin in. 10 people waiting behind me and the bank was shut!! My card was in there with the pin pressed so I wasn’t going anywhere. To cut a loooooong story short, after several conversations which went absolutely nowhere some guy turned up who knew the manager. Luckily he wasn’t far away so he came to the bank. “Come back on Monday..” I couldn’t so I chatted for ages and convinced him to go inside for 2 minutes, walk about 3 metres and get my card back to me – pretty tough to do out here! A taxi came, I had my cash & Murchison was back on!!

I was going to leave in the morning on Thursday but I got a panicked phone call from Herbert while I was teaching “Eeeemmm Cathal, I need you to come to the sub-county now, there are visitors.” I was teaching and not really in the mood to dash off to the sub-count HQ so I waited til class ended before I made my way over. Nawanyago was buzzing, the kids were going crazy and I found out why. Dance 4 Life, The Netherlands office had come over for a visit. They had brought a class of school kids from Sitard wo fundraised a load of money last year and won a trip to see D4L & SPWs work in Uganda. There was a bus load full of Dutch teenagers, one of which was projectile vomiting on to a random Ugandan’s lawn. I bet she loves the white kids now ey! The kids went off and I was in a taxi with a bunch of Dutch people. One or two from the D4L office and others making a documentary for D4L publicity etc. t was pretty cool and apart from being a good 4 hours late and delaying the whole trip to Murchison by a while I really enjoyed it! I met a killer photographer. I think he’s pretty famous. He’d been taking photos all over the place for around 15 years now and has worked in some crazy projects. He took the South Africa pictures for the exhibition when Nelson Mandela visited The Netherlands. We all ate out, free dinner and free beer with Dutch people – I couldn’t refuse!! There was a power cut in the restaurant so dinner was delayed. I hadn’t eaten and was pretty starving but food was coming out. After a 2h wait the Dutch got their food…I still hadn’t got mine..another 2 hours later, when everybody had finished and was leaving, I finally got my food! Worth the wait!! They dropped me off at a petrol station and I headed off to Kampala to meet Lansing ready for the Murchison trip.

We set off in the morning. It’s a fair drive from Kampala but we had a cool crew of people in the car. A Dutch couple from Amsterdam who were working in an orphanage in Torroro in the East, Lansing (who turned out to be just as awesome as he was at bujugali), Rupter Rana (an Indian LEGEND!!) and a couple of Americans who live in Cairo (the girl was half Egyptian) and study there. The American guy was from Alaska. We chatted loads and had a great trip up and then I realized i'd forgotten my socks and a hat so I grabbed a few pairs quickly & bought killer hat which makes you feel like bill&ben the flowerpot men, good times!

Murchison was aamaaaaaaaazing!!I went with Red Chili on a standard tour - see the falls, game drive, boat ride etc..We saw elephants, antelope, Uganda Kob, warthogs, crocs, hippos, hippo being eaten by a croc, giraffes, jacksons hartbeest, baboons, a lioness...sooo much cool stuff. I though it would be a little touristy and feel very fake, a little like visiting a zoo again or something but it was amazing. It's incredible to drive along a path and out of nowhere a huuuuge elephant bull just walks out from the bush. You really do feel like you're visiting animal territory. The hippos sometimes even wander up to the campsite at night, warthogs will come into your tent and eat food if you're not careful, and while chatting up late an african wild cat just strutted straight through the camp. It's pretty incredible to think that given any reason to, any of these animals could kill you. It was awesome though!! We had a great crew. Within about 30 seconds of crossing the Nile to where the game drive starts Rupter left the van for a pee. On his way back the baboon cut him off from getting back to the van. Instead of slowly making his way back to the van Rupter decided to go as close as he could to the angry baboon, sit and mimic his every move whilst SCREAMING 'TAKE A PHOTO, TAKE A PHOTO' (in the best indian accent ever). It was hilarious!! Obviously the baboon wasnt too happy and chased Rupter for a while narrowly missing a swipe at his legs!! In our close encounter with the croc, Rupter got over excited when trying to get his camera and knocked his glasses into the river. We were about 1m from the croc, the glasses in between us and the croc. The crocodile was chilling out and the guide told us to be reaaaally quiet..so what does Rupter do?? He was persuaded the croc was dead because he wasnt moving much so he yelled 'It's dead, It's dead!!!' At which stage he tried to get his glasses...bad move!! The croc turned his head pretty casually and showed Rupter his set of teeth! He freaked hahaha, ran off going, 'It is ok, no problem crrrroc, no problems, I vill sacrifice dose glasses for mister crrroc!! ' Needless to say he provided us all with a lot of entertainment!!

There were a group of cool american students there who are studying in Mukono for a semester so we chilled out with them a little and in the morning we all headed up to the Falls. They're pretty powerful!! Not a full drop but broken into 2 or 3 smaller drops but it's really cool when you get up close and see how powerful the waterfall is! I wouldn't like to get stuck in there..it's making me realize how crazy the white water rafting will get!!!

The day before yesterday Anna, Megan and Emily came over to Nawanyago for the night. They'd had Easter out at Megan's placement where Emily killed a chicken and they had a big meal with cakes , chicken and loads of cool stuff! They came by for the night to play Scrabble and relax and then the next morning we visited Herbert's pigs accompanied by aaaallll the kids in the village which was really cool!! They loved having visitors!! After that we all went to Jinja and stayed over. It's been a reaaallly good weekend again and I think there might be many more to come. April is exam time for most and runs up to the end of the term for lots of the classes so Im not sure how busy it will be compared to last month but I'm having a great time and looking forward to working & travelling!! Trying to upload photos to Facebook but it always fails so I'll give it a last shot and then I've got to run off!! Take care!! xx

Lariam

To avoid having to chat to eveerryone and letting you know why I was mental last time you saw me I thought I'd say something about the Lariam I had to take before heading out here. It's an anti-malarial a lot of people take when they travel. In Belgium, all the doctors I saw told me it'd be fine to take, first just to test it and see if things were alright. In the UK, most doctors don't prescribe it. Check out the side effects online - mental. I actually went insane! Thanks goes to the mammy for changing my prescription the morning before I left to Uganda! I was pretty depressed, nervous and scared off it but I thought it was just normal given that I was heading on a big trip. I also couldn't sleep much or make any decisions which was extremely irritating!! Some of the other weird and wonderful things it made me do was stress about packing my bag, bring a 90s see-through pink toiletries bag, bring a ski jacket with me (ye never know like, the weather and that...it does make a decent pillow though! ) and I didn't really chat to people because it felt really weird talking to people!

So, sorry about that ! All good since I came off it and changed medication! Oooh, and huuuuuuggggggeee thanks to Alicia, Claire, Laura, Ellie and all of the others who organized my 'leaving party'!! I was a little mental that day but it was reaaaaaaallly fun!! I was super happy to see all of you before leaving and I'll pay back the favour when I'm home! Hows about an African dinner & I can show you my photos n that, aaall 50682412 of them!! And I loved that video you all made..absolute wasters:)!!! byyyyyeee!!

Jinja - beer, burgers, psychos and good views

Last weekend was technically our weekend off but given that we worked uuuuuuber hard we all decided to take this weekend off instead. So myself and 5 of the internationals headed to Jinja. I think I wrote a little bit about this place before but basically Jinja is a town an hour away from my placement. It feels like a midwest town in the States. They have craaaazzzy looking birds straight out of Jurrasic Park!! Seriously scary looking things called Maribou Storks. I'll try to get a picture with one. They have big dangly skin that hangs from their necks, they're about a metre and a half tall and have maaasssiiivve beaks!! So we headed to Jinja. We're staying at a hostel, compfy beds, water, electricity, free internet, pool and goooooood food. It's 2euro50 a night for us...and the beer is under a euro...good times:)! I came down on Thursday night and met up with the others. I brought Herbert and Edgar along (the community volunteers in Nawanyago) dso everyone was really happy to see each other again and to chill out after what have been some really intense months in the community! The beer flew like wine ! After Herbert's "only" beer, I offered him a second one. Needless to say he happily accepted the offer and I could see he was loving it chilling with everyone again. He looked pretty upset about leaving so I convinced him to stay over with us!! We went out for a reaaaally good Chinese meal - Herbert's first EVER! The restaurant was really good too. So nice to have good meat again!! Shredded chili beef with veggie fried rice. It was deliiiishhhh. Then we headed back for beers and chats and stayed up for ages, way past our usual 10 o'clock bedtime!!! In Nawanyago once it gets dark there's not that much to do, especially at home without lights and we're usually knackered after a day of work and messing around with the kids so staying up late is pretty exciting! It's like being a kid again!

I had an exciting delivery! I got the package the parentes sent out! Thanks for that! Sun cream, vitamins, rehydrating salts, a few shpops cds, a mini disc & mic to try to record people (which I realized won't work with that particular mini disc player but I'll find someway of getting around it!! ) and sweets!! It was really nice to get a package, felt like a birthday present! Aaaaand I have it on good authority that the oral rehydration salts are killer hangover cures!! Cheers for that one Sims, I think you saved my life!! Which brings me on to last night....what . a . night!

We headed up to the second campsite up at a place called Bujugali Falls. The hostel overlooks the Nile and there are stunning panoramic views everywhere you look...except if you turn your attention to the stage where a Canadian dude whose having his 'leaving gig' is topless, wearing tight red leather trousers fancying himself as God's gift to live performance. God's gift to being an absolute sack! Haha, it was pretty awesome though. You have to understand that we havn't been out in about 3 months so getting to a hostel bar full of white people is really quite a scary experience. Not only is it scary under normal circumstances, but it's made that much more scary given that tonight is rock star themed fancy dress night and the Brits & South Africans have flocked in their dozens and made a huge effort! I chatted to The Edge, Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger (the eejit in the red pants), Janice Joplin annnd PETER GRIFFIN!! He wasn't in costume though. He's just a man from North London who IS Peter Griffin off Family Guy. He made my night! Anyway, in keeping with the rockstar theme the singer made an entry on the back of a motorbike driving through the bar to the terrace where the stage was set up. There were flares going off, bottles being broken in large quantities..mainly by Megan, who was incapable of being near a bottle without it falling and smashing! I brought my new friend along too. He's called Blazeon. I saw him walking around in town with a guitar so I started up a chat about music and where I could get guitars, how much and all of that. He's really nice. A Ugandan rastaman and he writes loads of tunes so I was talking about the Shpops project. He's really up for us recording and gigging if we can! I spent most of the night jamming with him and the other half chatting nonsensically to randomers. I think most of the SPW crew have lost the ability to chat about normal things. We live in the constant company of STIs, rape, teenage pregnancy, reproductive organs, HIV & AIDS. All of us except Christy that is who is a livelihoods volunteer and complains that her topics are boring - Micro Credit, Entrepreneurship, Poultry Keeping etc..to be fair, if I was to choose between a chat about Paedophilia with Peter Griffin or chatting micro credit lending with Tarquin Wilson-Myles I'd be with Griffin every time. What a man! So Christy joined in the STI banter and we were happy to have her! It was great catching up on all the news from other placements and getting a chance to kick back with everyone. We stayed up until 6 with a bunch of mental South Africans. Scarily mental..they didn't sleep, and when we woke at 10 or 11 they were still up drinking just about to start a round of centurion. I didn't feel bad at all though thnaks to my Rehydration magic sachets! Lads (Kiely and the birthday weekend crew), thanks for bringing that one up! They work a treat!!
Today was spent sitting around all day eating and relaxing and I don't think there are many better spots to do it in! We're also planning the white water rafting trip for next month! Should be really really really cooool!! I can't wait!

I swapped my iPod with Anna (a volunteer in Busede) last week so I've been listening to BBC podcasts of 'Just A Minute' and 'I'm sorry I havn't a clue!'. It's been refreshing hearing jokes, wit, sarcasm and well spoken English again. Also, keep the link posts coming on my facebook. Thomas sent the funniest video I've ever seen! 'Gap Yah'. It took me an age to load but it was worth it. I almost wet my pants! Brought back the many memories of Leeds and yahs in general. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFjWR7X5dU

Not too sure what the plans are for tonight, taking it easier than last night, although that's not too hard to do!! Might watch a film. The girls have bought 'New Moon'. If it's anything as shite as Twilight it might be difficult to watch! Alternatively one of the guys in the hostel said he'd bring us out to town if we want so we'll see what happens. Having an absolute blast anyway!! Keep the texts, emails and video links coming! Tot ziens!!

More emails!! Paddy's day & events

Paddy's day wasn't the usual pub ritual I'm used to. I taught four classes on teenage pregnancy and was knee high in work organizing a big free Voluntary Counselling and Testing (HIV) for the community. I did wear green, told people about Paddy & the snakes and finished up having a warm beer from a shack whilst sat on a bench in a small mud road..! The first beer for a good month so needless to say it was well deserved!

I visited the Source of the Nile. It's just outside a town called Jinja, about an hour away from my village - Nawanyago. I don't know why a trip to the source sounds great...when you get there it dawns on you that it's just a load of water in a lake. Beautiful views though and Jinja is a great little town!! It looks like something out of a Clint Eastwood film only the cowboys have been swapped with Africans! Plenty of Indians around, just no cowboys..a few of the lads do walk around in cowboy hats alright though!

Having a well deserved break this weekend in Jinja so I'll get electricity, running water and a hot shower (the first in two months! can't wait! ) Luxury! I've been a slave to the aul bucket and sponge & paraffin lamp up until now. Getting used to it though, and I don't miss too much. I could do with a little bit of variety in food! Can't wait to get my hands on a good steak n vegetables. Doing alright for food but its the all carbs and all the same! Matoke (a banana mash type thing), rice, posho (stodge). We get beans and tomatoes but that's about all we eat.

We've been really busy these past few weeks. All the usual teaching in 3 schools (2 secondary and 1 primary) and some farmers groups, then we had a load of events on top of that. Started with the sports event We had five village football teams battle it out all day for the grand prize....a goat! I've never seen so much excitement over a goat! Screaming & shouting, 2 fights and people too happy to talk, instead they just ran all over the place flapping their arms about screaming! Great craic! I wonder if that'd go down well back home! We then had a video day in a village showing a DVD on HIV, domestic violence and all of that. Terrible, terrible acting but the lads loved it! We brought the TV, DVD and electricity generator for a 3 pm start. The first generator didn't work, nor did the second or third..and we're talking about a little place in the middle of nowhere. 5 hours later we tracked down another generator and got the gig going. 9pm start...African time..no one battered an eyelid! Hundreds of people showed up to our field in the middle of nowhere to watch the video. It went down really well!
We then had a big free HIV testing day. We got 265 people tested and counseled. Headed with our farmers groups to model farms to show them how to get things up and running. That was a great day out! Saw piggeries, poultry projects, banana and coffee plantations, mangoes, passion fruits...you name it! The man leading the visit also fancied himself as a bit of a farming preacher. He had decked out his barn with what can only be described as an alter , complete with fake flowers on it and purple, white and red satin in the backdrop. A makeshift St Anthony's! We didn't quite get the 7 deadly sins but he got a few of them in!! Father Vinny watch your back!

I've started to get to know many more people in the village and I spend my free time relaxing at the videohall watching the footy or Lusoga dubbed versions of Rambo, Snakeman or any other film the guys get their hands on! Power can be scarce but there's great craic to be had sitting in that bin bag lined wooden shack!

No real move on the music as yet - I've been so busy with other things but I should be starting that very soon. I've met a few keen youth and I'm planning to record The Aids Support Organization (TASO) who have a drama group who perform around Uganda. So I should get a few tunes done!!

All in all it's going well. It can drag a little when you're not up for teaching or when you're on time for a meeting and no one shows up at all...or even worse, they show up 5 hours late and all you can do is sit there, smile and wait for the next people to come. But you get used to it all somehow!!
Weather-wise it's been very hot. We're into the wet season now so we get a day or two of rain or a few hours a day but then it's hot again. I'm lucky with our community because they seem pretty welcoming of SPW and the work which is better than in some of the other placements!

Think I'm headed to Madrid when I get back to do a TEFL Course & find some work out there teaching English. Henri and Jeje will be out there too so it should be a great laugh! Don't think I'll make it to South Africa for the World Cup but now that Ireland aren't there I'd rather watch it from here! Looking forward to Dad and Cian coming over for a visit which includes a trip to see gorillas in the wild and a Safari in Tanzania! Got a close friend doing an internship out in Tanzania so I'll be able to meet up with him too!

In the meantime there's a load of teaching and looking forward to playing in the teacher vs. students football match! They're all keen to watch the Muzungu (white man) play!