At this time, exactly a week from today, I will be in back home in
London... probably sipping a pint of Stella (don’t judge me), with a packet of
Twiglets, in The Three Compasses in
Hornsey. It’s really hard for me to get my head around the idea!
Unsurprisingly, now that my time here is coming to an end, I am enjoying life
in Kampala more than ever. Typical Ugandan situations that used to fill me with
dread - like being shoved around in the market, or dodging speeding lorries on a
boda-boda - now fill me with absolute euphoria. I’m sure everyone thinks I’m
the biggest weirdo, because I’ve been wandering around town grinning at
seemingly unremarkable sights and sometimes bursting in to laughter... Like when
I saw a farmer proudly letting his goats graze and excrete on the front lawn of
a posh international school, and today, when I passed a team of builders fast
asleep behind a big ‘Danger! Men at work’ sign. And I am pleased to say that the ‘only
in Uganda’ scenes go on at Kampala Music School too! When I went in to the
admin office recently, I found 50 chicks in a box under one of the ladies
desks, which she had spontaneously bought in her lunch break for her new
poultry farm...
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| Chasing chicks in the office... standard day at work |
So with my fast-approaching departure, along with the academic year
drawing to a close, it seems that a concert season is upon us. Recently M-Lisada
put on a fundraising concert, for which I taught my violin students to play the
Ugandan National Anthem in harmony; I think they really enjoyed the challenge,
and they performed so beautifully that I got a bit teary (I totally passed it
off as some dust in my eye though, thank goodness.) There was also a concert at
Kampala Music School to celebrate the strings department, plus I’ve been busy
preparing violin pupils at both the International School of Uganda and
Ambrosoli School for their end-of-term concerts. Next up is a goodbye concert
this Friday at the Kampala Music School; a chance for all my KMS pupils to
perform, and also for them to hear me! And lastly - the night before I fly home
- I will be playing a fundraising concert with Sam (wife of KMS director and
also a fabulous pianist) in Idi Amin’s old house!
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KMS children dressed in traditional gear for their Holiday Programme concert
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It’s not all work though, as I wrap up my life here in Kampala. I have
been lucky enough to receive yet another visitor from home – my uncle Richard (aka
Uncle Blobby) – with whom I have just returned from a 4-day safari to Queen
Elizabeth National Park. The trip was definitely one to remember, not only because
of the breathtaking scenery and animals, but largely because I couldn’t stop
laughing - sometimes with, sometimes at – Uncle Blobby.
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| Lunch stop at the equator line |
As well as trying to take photographs with his lens cap still on, I
really loved his continuous muddling of words... like that ‘Billywozit’ illness
you can get from swimming in the lakes (Bilharzia), and his talking to other
tourists about ‘Port Fortal’ instead of ‘Fort Portal’, complementing the chef
on the delicious ‘Tepioka’ fish (I can only assume he was talking about
the Tilapia), always asking for the Ugandan beer ‘Nile Extra’ (known by
everyone else as ‘Nile Special’), and – my favourite - pointing out all the ‘Hogwarts’
whilst on safari (Warthogs). Like me, our tour guide Moses also spent the whole
trip doubled over laughing and, predictably, he really warmed to Uncle Blobby. As
a result, Moses went above and beyond to make our trip very special. So thank
you Richard, you make a brilliant travelling companion (as well as uncle)!
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Moses and Richard, having a
beer with a Hogwart
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For me, the highlight of our safari
was trekking through a forest in the National Park, looking for Chimpanzees.
Essentially it was a giant version of hide and seek for grown-ups. We were
joined by another group of tourists from Europe, who immediately sent Uncle
Blobby in to panic as they emerged from their vehicle – 8 athletic-looking
trekkers dressed in khaki and carrying state-of-the-art cameras. (Joke was on
them later though, when he beat them over the log bridge!)
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Richard didn’t get the memo
about wearing colours that camouflage in the jungle
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Since the forest was in the National Park itself, and with no
boundaries, we were joined by a park ranger and a tourism policeman, both armed
‘in the unlikely event that dangerous animals confront us’. It turned out that this
‘unlikely event’ wasn’t so unlikely in the case of our trek, because a couple of fully-grown elephants, and a hippopotamus, also wanted to hide and seek that day. On 4 occasions, our group was sent sprinting back on ourselves
as we came face to face with gigantic wild beasts. The adrenaline rush was like
no other, particularly since the ranger – our armed protector – was always the
first to run away in fear...
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Named and shamed: Geoffrey
the runaway ranger (playing with someone's ridiculous camera)
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Incidentally, we found the chimps, and it was so lovely to watch them
in their natural habitat rather than the zoo...
