It's been a busy few days.

I decided to go to devotions on Friday morning, the majority of staff in the hospital attend - there are prayers in one form or another everyday.  Being located next to the spritiual centre I often hear the signing and drums every Wednesday and Friday. Everyone comes back to work quite happy so I thought I'd see what it was all about.  I turned up halfway through - just as the HR manager began his sermon(?)  Although based on passages in the Bible I thought that there was very much an HR/people theme.  It was essentially a bit of a pep talk about people having a vision (not necessarily a prophetic one), improving and challenging themselves and making the most of opportunites. Quite relevant!

Friday afternoon was the staff meeting where I presented the findings of my information mapping work and suggested some recommendations.  It was difficult to judge how it went, there was some discussion and some actions were agreed.  Now to help get as many of the actions progressed as far as possible before I leave in a few weeks.

Friday evening I met up with some Brits and an American and went for an Indian in Delicious Dishes.  Very delicious it was too, especially the paneer.  I am a cheese addict going through cold turkey at the moment so lots of paneer was ideal.  I also got to see Mbale town at night time - it was very busy with lots of people coming, going and hanging around.

A new guest has arrived at the house; the sixth housemate since my arrival. I showed him around the town in the morning.  In the afternoon we went swimming with one of the doctors from the hospital and his wife.  The pool was attached to a hotel where there were two weddings taking place. A marching band tromped past soon after we'd started swimming - that was good to see and hear.  The two bridal parties also had photos taken by the pool (with people splashing about in the background in their swimming costumes!!).  The brides had the usual white dresses, veils etc with brightly dressed bridesmaids.  Many of the women guests were dressed in the traditional dresses with the pointy shoulders. V smart outfits.


On Sunday we took a trip to Sipi Falls which is in the Mount Elgon national park. The park crosses over into neighbouring Kenya. Part of the mountainous area is visible from Mbale where I am staying.  Sipi was about 60km away along an amazingly good road. Someone told me that before it was resurfaced (or should that just be surfaced) it used to take a whole day to travel between the towns!!!

I've mentioned before about landslides in the mountains, there had previously been one across the road we'd travelled on - some small slips were also visible as we were walking around the falls area.  The area was very beautiful - green and bushy with lots of different trees etc.  There are 3 falls - we started with the 2nd one - my favourite, we then tromped up the mountain to look for the 3rd one.  I must say, living in Wales is good practice for steep muddy moutains!!



Coffee trees



On reaching the top of the 2nd waterfall we found local villagers washing their laundry at the edge of the falls with children playing close by.  A group of young boys acted as guides and showed us the way to the 3rd fall.  We walked through peoples plots and saw their homes and all the things that were being grown. Also saw coffee trees for the first time - including the sappy beans which are picked, split and then washed in the river.  These are then laid out to dry and roasted.  These are taken to the big coffee markets where they are sold to producers - and then end up in your coffee cups!  In addition to the crops every home seemed to have at least one goat and cow tied up in the yard.  There were also often plenty of chickens running about.

Photos are in no particular order and moving them about is a big faff, so just enjoy

 

Top of the 2nd fall - aka laundrette



approaching 3rd fall past plenty of banana trees

  





heading back up from the first falls - spot me in the middle lagging behind at this point!





   

Arriving at the falls - view from car park

Behind 2nd watefall - a bit wet!!



sea of cabbages.....


 After climbing back down from the 3rd falls to the car park where we started we had some much needed lunch!! A Ugandan style buffet - pasta, rice, cabbage, goat, pork, peanut sauce (mmm), peanut sauce with bitter tomatoes, chapattis and so on. Refuel over and we mooched along the road to the final fall (aka the 1st fall).  It wasn't possible to see the fall from the start and despite lunch energy levels were flagging.  Still - no point going all that way and wimping out at the last moment.  So we slid, scampered, climbed and trotted down the mountains stopping on the way down to have a run in with people who wanted us to pay again.  These falls had a drop of 90 odd meters - the others were slightly less.  I can't say I was relishing the climb back up - but evetually made it.  Approaching this fall was quite different to the others as we had to climb down into a valley - it was possible to get a good view and see how the fields were planned and the different types of produce planted.  On the way back up we met quite a few locals who were coming down with large, heavy looking bags balanced on their heads.  Quite a feat with many years of training I think.  The paths carved into the side of the valley were only one foot wide - a few times I wondered what would happen with one small slip...... (probably end up in a maize/sweetcorn crop part way down the mountain).  Got back very dirty and very tired but had a great day out.





At the 1st waterfall





Village homes and gardens between 2nd and 3rd falls




view across the valley of the differently planted plots - 1st falls