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 !