Day 6 Mon 19th

We awoke to the sound of the iPhone pre-set alarm. Within a few seconds of ceremonially stopping the noise we had a whistling echo from outside our window. It seemed strange but at nothing o'clock almost anything goes doesn't it? After a few minutes snooze, the alarm tone disturbed our slumber once again. During the short break between repeated interruptions we were once again serenaded with a whistler outside our window. Apparently it is what wild parrots do. How cool is that?

After a simple breakfast on the verandah as we watched Kampala City waking up we had the most hilarious lesson in how to play a Ugandan game like draughts??? We had a demonstration of the game in Ugandan English and roared with laughter as the game made no sense to us whatsoever. The game board has many small dents each filled with seeds and the idea is to win. Please don't ask us how to play we were just observers and even though we expressed a desire to learn were no clearer at the end of the game than at the beginning. 

We set out for Crest Tanks where we purchased 2 water tanks for rain harvesting. After a persuasive request for a better price the saleswoman caved in and gave something like 15% off. Paul and James, our builder, said there was no chance of a reduction but we managed a great deal for us. A school in Suffolk and a Yoga club have bought the tanks and they will be thrilled when they are fully installed later this week. Whilst there, we were treated to a demonstration of a new product. I want one. It is an extractor of methane from fermenting cow dung. It not only produces a quality fertiliser but 3 hours of methane at a time that can provide cooking gas or camping type lamps. It would be a superb product for several situations that we work with here. I am quite sure that we will buy some in the future. The cost was £1000? Free gas and fertiliser for 30 years - the lifetime of the unit. Oh yes! and a cow is needed also. 

We then travelled to Malangata with me at the wheel and Sarah in the rear quite nervous of the speed that I apparently drive on the highway. What is more frightening about this is, that at times as I am driving, I am overtaken by an inter city coach hurtling past us on the wrong side of the road with a taxi bus racing towards us at the same time with horn blaring, flashers flashing and headlamps flashing furiously. African driving is quite something that no end of explanations could help describe, You just have to experience it to believe it.

At Malangata the access road is excellent. It makes the whole project so useable and we took loads of photos up and down the road to watch how the site has developed over time. We are calling the engineer back as he has missed some of the work that we asked to be completed. 

We had a lunch of water dry bread roll and soggy crisps and then had a meeting with a neighbour who had a grievance with us over the road installation. She was one of the few villagers who didn't attend the meeting on Sarurday. The leveller machine had uprooted three old coffee plants and she was very angry and wanted compensation. She doesn't want the plants replaced because she's too old to to be bothered with tending them but nonetheless wants compensation anyway. To the tune of 100,000 Shillings. A month's wage for many workers here in Ugandar. We made it clear we would not pay such a figure. She was still angry but I told her that we would consult and make some enquiries and make her a very fair offer. So if anyone can find out the yearly yield of an old coffee plant it might be useful. In my enquiries I discovered that coffee beans are sold at approx. .60p a kilo here. Wow! someone somewhere makes a killing on coffee beans as at the end of the chain in Tesco a kilo of coffee beans costs almost £13 Useful information, as I try to appease the disgruntled neighbour. 100,000 Shillings is probably the price for the colour of my skin.