Life on Bushara

Woodpecker Cottage

sunrise

Catching tadpole in shower water, before heating on the stove.

Filling the shower bag

Hoisting the shower bag...man these captions are lame!

six pineapples = 2000 ugandan shillings or $1.25 cdn

mangoes, bananas, avocados, tomatoes $2.50 cdn

that thing in front? pumpkin - go figure!

we bleach then filter our water before transferring it to our drinking water...tank/holder?

water still tastes bad...like lake...mixed with bleach...mmm, so we drink a lot of tang

rice is available with or without rocks. at the start we were cheap and bought the rock variety, which involved about half an hour of 'sorting' before cooking...we now buy the marginallly more expensive kind...and eat rice more often!

before joel tried to fix our oven, we enjoyed baking. this involved a pole wedged between the oven and cupboard across the doorway to the kitchen to hold the gas knob in. temperature regulation? opening and closing the oven door...keeping a close watch on the thermometer.

mail wall! and yes, you too can be on it (again even)!! we were shocked to discover that mail takes less than two weeks from Canada!!

we live with many friends. bry kept finding these friends in bed...we thought maybe it was the same one, but no - five carcasses proved otherwise!

a nasty discovery one morning when bry went to put on her skirt. she wore the green one instead.

other friends?? wagtails. they come and go as they please - sometimes surprising us in the kitchen which results in a lot of sqeaking and flying at your head. happily they eat the centipedes we step on in the house.

laundry. ahhh - is that rain? run run run...madly taking laundry off the line. then we attempt to fit it all on this indoor contraption...where it never dries and drips onto the floor, causing hazardous puddles - sometimes we remember to wring it out periodically.

last thursday we ran out of gas. no big deal, we would pick more up in town the next day. only...Kabale had no gas - and still has no gas. luckily we are experienced wilderness campy people and took matters into our own hands in collecting this large pile of leaves (and wood...but mostly dry leaves)

desperate for a warm shower, we tried to get some of the wood burning and failed miserably due to the fact that it's rained almost everyday since November...and all the wood is wet. So we burned leaves! A little labour intensive, and a bit of a raging inferno, but hot showers were had. We've had cold ones since...

no gas has meant a lot of chocolate peanut butter

Going to town

We meet the restaurant staff at 8:30am and load up the boat with empty jerry cans, bottles and boxes.

Rosette (restaurant manager), Edith (office manager), Enos (maintenance manager)

the boat ride is about ten minutes to Rutindo, where we pick up the truck.

We go into town Mondays and Fridays, which are market days at Rutindo. People come in dugouts from all over the lake to buy and sell goods.

only 1000 shillings to get into town in the back of one of these

coming back from town, we unload everything at the dock - jerry cans of gas and milk, sodas, beer, boxes and bags of produce, meat, bread and other supplies. we then load up the truck with kids for the ride up to the parking lot

walking back to the boat. the kids speak rukiga to us, we speak english to them, we don't understand each other but it doesn't seem to matter.

Work

one of the best things about community visits is walking through banana groves - it's like 'honey i shrunk the kids'!

we're always amazed at the views of the lake from communities

sometimes we work from home. nice to avoid the two minute trek to the office...

our most recent project - testing out recipes for a nutrition workshop. Took advantage of a sunny day to prep outside!