Day 197 - 203
Sleeping location: Liz and Paul’s apartment, Kampala, Uganda
Distance (km today/total): 6 / 13658
Estimated climb (m today/total): 0 / 103200
Rebeccas: 0
Distance (km today/total): 6 / 13658
Estimated climb (m today/total): 0 / 103200
Rebeccas: 0
Day in three words: Kampala week 1
The first of two weeks spent helping at LTCH* and living the high(er) life. It was lovely to have a base and enjoy things like cooking in a proper kitchen and having time to properly sort Maggie out. We were generally at the hearing clinic between roughly 9.30 and 4 and I quickly settled into a daily work/admin/relax routine. Life in Kampala seems to involve a lot of driving, and the traffic is often terrible so an hour or more each day would be lost to sitting in cars. There are traffic lights but at busy periods they’re superseded by traffic police, who often make one side wait for as long as 10 minutes. Everywhere are swarms of motorbike taxis (“boda bodas”) that slip into tiny spaces that may or may not exist and generally cause havoc. Cycling here long term must be incredibly dangerous. Rebecca spent the week heading towards Kampala after leaving her volunteering at the “fish farm” because it was weird and unfriendly**.
At the clinic I was mostly helping with technical stuff ie computers and spreadsheets (ie my jam). I also got to sit in on the various types of work that are done here, which gave me a greater understanding of what LTCH is doing, and much more appreciation of how vital they are. There is nobody else in Uganda doing this kind of work; the audiologist Jojo is the only children’s audiologist in the entire country and had to be UK-trained. Without LTCH these children would simply not get their hearing issues fixed, and many would suffer huge decreases in their development and general quality of life.
Blog-wise I’m going to squeeze a week into one post because there’s less than usual to write about:
Saturday - woke slightly hungover after subjecting my body to a combination of wine and dehydration. Went on first explore of Kampala, to a mall with a Carrefour supermarket which was the fanciest since probably Italy. The luxuries were untold and I even managed to find the ingredients for the first Negroni (my favourite cocktail) in six months. I also bought a mini speaker, to replace the lost/stolen one, which is actually way better for bike touring (ie much smaller) so that cloud has shown its silver lining. In the evening we met one of Liz and Paul’s friends for drinks at a very very very fancy hotel high up on a hill with amazing views. On the way home we got proper takeaway pizza. This is almost like being back in the UK.
Sunday - day of admin and relaxing. Deliberately washed camping pillow, which turned out to be a mistake as the inside didn’t dry properly and got smelly, and accidentally washed Bluetooth headphones, which turned out to be a very terminal mistake for the headphones.
Monday - first day at LTCH. There was an unexpected welcome party from all the staff and some children they’d roped in, who were seemingly confused as to why they were holding up a sign that said “You are most welcome Kevin”. There was even a cake. It was all very lovely and I got a bit flustered about being the centre of attention. Later on I sat in on some hearing aid fittings for three different children. One, Bashir, hadn’t got his fitted until he was 6 which had severely delayed his language development and he basically couldn’t speak at all. The speech centre of the brain closes off at about 4yo if not used, after which it’s very hard to learn to talk. He was very happy and a bit hyper and we spent some time playing toy cars whilst the grown ups talked about his progress.
Tuesday - in the morning I went to see the school screening, but our driver Paddy didn’t know where the school was and we went on a bit of a wild goose chase trying to find it. Once there I saw a screening of an older girl with definite hearing problems, then breaktime (during which it’s too loud to test) with crowds of kids excited by the ambulance/mzungu combination, then screening of three younger children. The testing involved wearing headphones and dropping a letter in the jar when you heard a noise. One of the younger children was too small to understand the test and kept dropping letters in the jar at random.
Back at the clinic I saw some speech therapy with Patience, a girl of 9 who’d recently had hearing aids fitted. She was finding the learning difficult but was enthusiastic and had a lot of...Patience. We take for granted how instinctive speaking is, but she had to individually learn each sound and how you make it with your mouth. One of the sounds was “Ni” so maybe the Knights from Monty Python were actually speech therapists.
Wednesday - took Maggie to a good bike shop so they could fix various niggles much better and easier than I could. When I arrived I explained what I potentially wanted and how it was cost-dependent; the guy nodded and started doing things, and it took me 10 minutes to realise he was actually just doing the work there and then. Went off to another fancy supermarket, a Shoprite, which is a South African brand that I expect (hope) we’ll be seeing more of as we head south. Sadly this will also mean hearing their terrible and insanely catchy theme song. Two hours later I picked up a smoothly running Maggie and some useful components for the next leg. In the evening I made a massive (and, I must say, delicious) chilli with all the trimmings. It was wonderful to be able to cook an elaborate meal.
Thursday - In the evening I finished off cleaning and sorting Maggie and fitted her new tyres and saddle/bar bags, helpfully brought out here by Liz and Paul. Aside from the broken saddle tension bolt, which is being brought out by their friend just before we leave Kampala, she’s good to go. I was sad/worried to say goodbye to the old tyres, which have done 13,650km with no issues and no punctures. What if the new ones aren’t as invincible?
Friday - drove to a hospital where LTCH are setting up a new outpost for newborn screening. On the way saw a sticker on a car which said “Onumana Ruhanga is NOT a cult leader, but is a real God” and the HQ of the Uganda Albino Association. At the hospital we saw two tiny premature babies being tested, which is done by attaching little electrodes to their heads and measuring brain activity when sounds are played in the ear. Premature babies are much more at risk of hearing problems so the idea is that all of them born in this hospital (and hopefully more hospitals in future) will be tested. One of the babies was incredibly small and frail, but the mother said his name was Trevor, which seemed entirely wrong because a) he was not a 50yo builder from Romford, and b) ”Little Trev” doesn’t really work as a nickname.
In the evening we went for some very tasty Indian food at a fancy place by the lake. On the way we saw a sign at a sugar cane stand extolling the health benefits of sugar cane juice, which genuinely included “healthy teeth” and “good for diabetes”. Paddy also insisted we drove to Idi Amin’s son’s house, which was enormous. I’m not sure which son, because according to Wikipedia “Sources differ widely on the number of children Amin fathered, with assertions ranging from 32 to 54”, but according to Paddy he works in the government and is actually quite popular. Huh.
*Let The Children Hear, formerly IHCC, the charity I am fundraising for (obviously)
**For details (it involves polygamy) check out her podcast on Spotify, called Imagination Island.
The first of two weeks spent helping at LTCH* and living the high(er) life. It was lovely to have a base and enjoy things like cooking in a proper kitchen and having time to properly sort Maggie out. We were generally at the hearing clinic between roughly 9.30 and 4 and I quickly settled into a daily work/admin/relax routine. Life in Kampala seems to involve a lot of driving, and the traffic is often terrible so an hour or more each day would be lost to sitting in cars. There are traffic lights but at busy periods they’re superseded by traffic police, who often make one side wait for as long as 10 minutes. Everywhere are swarms of motorbike taxis (“boda bodas”) that slip into tiny spaces that may or may not exist and generally cause havoc. Cycling here long term must be incredibly dangerous. Rebecca spent the week heading towards Kampala after leaving her volunteering at the “fish farm” because it was weird and unfriendly**.
At the clinic I was mostly helping with technical stuff ie computers and spreadsheets (ie my jam). I also got to sit in on the various types of work that are done here, which gave me a greater understanding of what LTCH is doing, and much more appreciation of how vital they are. There is nobody else in Uganda doing this kind of work; the audiologist Jojo is the only children’s audiologist in the entire country and had to be UK-trained. Without LTCH these children would simply not get their hearing issues fixed, and many would suffer huge decreases in their development and general quality of life.
Blog-wise I’m going to squeeze a week into one post because there’s less than usual to write about:
Saturday - woke slightly hungover after subjecting my body to a combination of wine and dehydration. Went on first explore of Kampala, to a mall with a Carrefour supermarket which was the fanciest since probably Italy. The luxuries were untold and I even managed to find the ingredients for the first Negroni (my favourite cocktail) in six months. I also bought a mini speaker, to replace the lost/stolen one, which is actually way better for bike touring (ie much smaller) so that cloud has shown its silver lining. In the evening we met one of Liz and Paul’s friends for drinks at a very very very fancy hotel high up on a hill with amazing views. On the way home we got proper takeaway pizza. This is almost like being back in the UK.
Sunday - day of admin and relaxing. Deliberately washed camping pillow, which turned out to be a mistake as the inside didn’t dry properly and got smelly, and accidentally washed Bluetooth headphones, which turned out to be a very terminal mistake for the headphones.
Monday - first day at LTCH. There was an unexpected welcome party from all the staff and some children they’d roped in, who were seemingly confused as to why they were holding up a sign that said “You are most welcome Kevin”. There was even a cake. It was all very lovely and I got a bit flustered about being the centre of attention. Later on I sat in on some hearing aid fittings for three different children. One, Bashir, hadn’t got his fitted until he was 6 which had severely delayed his language development and he basically couldn’t speak at all. The speech centre of the brain closes off at about 4yo if not used, after which it’s very hard to learn to talk. He was very happy and a bit hyper and we spent some time playing toy cars whilst the grown ups talked about his progress.
Tuesday - in the morning I went to see the school screening, but our driver Paddy didn’t know where the school was and we went on a bit of a wild goose chase trying to find it. Once there I saw a screening of an older girl with definite hearing problems, then breaktime (during which it’s too loud to test) with crowds of kids excited by the ambulance/mzungu combination, then screening of three younger children. The testing involved wearing headphones and dropping a letter in the jar when you heard a noise. One of the younger children was too small to understand the test and kept dropping letters in the jar at random.
Back at the clinic I saw some speech therapy with Patience, a girl of 9 who’d recently had hearing aids fitted. She was finding the learning difficult but was enthusiastic and had a lot of...Patience. We take for granted how instinctive speaking is, but she had to individually learn each sound and how you make it with your mouth. One of the sounds was “Ni” so maybe the Knights from Monty Python were actually speech therapists.
Wednesday - took Maggie to a good bike shop so they could fix various niggles much better and easier than I could. When I arrived I explained what I potentially wanted and how it was cost-dependent; the guy nodded and started doing things, and it took me 10 minutes to realise he was actually just doing the work there and then. Went off to another fancy supermarket, a Shoprite, which is a South African brand that I expect (hope) we’ll be seeing more of as we head south. Sadly this will also mean hearing their terrible and insanely catchy theme song. Two hours later I picked up a smoothly running Maggie and some useful components for the next leg. In the evening I made a massive (and, I must say, delicious) chilli with all the trimmings. It was wonderful to be able to cook an elaborate meal.
Thursday - In the evening I finished off cleaning and sorting Maggie and fitted her new tyres and saddle/bar bags, helpfully brought out here by Liz and Paul. Aside from the broken saddle tension bolt, which is being brought out by their friend just before we leave Kampala, she’s good to go. I was sad/worried to say goodbye to the old tyres, which have done 13,650km with no issues and no punctures. What if the new ones aren’t as invincible?
Friday - drove to a hospital where LTCH are setting up a new outpost for newborn screening. On the way saw a sticker on a car which said “Onumana Ruhanga is NOT a cult leader, but is a real God” and the HQ of the Uganda Albino Association. At the hospital we saw two tiny premature babies being tested, which is done by attaching little electrodes to their heads and measuring brain activity when sounds are played in the ear. Premature babies are much more at risk of hearing problems so the idea is that all of them born in this hospital (and hopefully more hospitals in future) will be tested. One of the babies was incredibly small and frail, but the mother said his name was Trevor, which seemed entirely wrong because a) he was not a 50yo builder from Romford, and b) ”Little Trev” doesn’t really work as a nickname.
In the evening we went for some very tasty Indian food at a fancy place by the lake. On the way we saw a sign at a sugar cane stand extolling the health benefits of sugar cane juice, which genuinely included “healthy teeth” and “good for diabetes”. Paddy also insisted we drove to Idi Amin’s son’s house, which was enormous. I’m not sure which son, because according to Wikipedia “Sources differ widely on the number of children Amin fathered, with assertions ranging from 32 to 54”, but according to Paddy he works in the government and is actually quite popular. Huh.
*Let The Children Hear, formerly IHCC, the charity I am fundraising for (obviously)
**For details (it involves polygamy) check out her podcast on Spotify, called Imagination Island.
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