This entry could have had any of several titles. “If the foo shits” was a contender when one of the red-tailed monkeys took a dump from an overhanging tree and hit square on my helmet as we cruised through the forest. Or “I got gas” since we made the run to Masindi with two propane cylinders strapped to the bikes.
But we spent the evening at the Kinyara Sugar works as guest of Richard Goldsmith and Kara March and slept over. Not all muzungus in Uganda are volunteers or NGO employees. Some like Richard and Kara are professional ex-pats who find it more enjoyable to work outside of, in their case, the UK. Richard is an agriculture specialist who has worked in Papua New Guinea in coffee and tea and now adds sugar to the brew. He met Kara when they were VSO workers in Malawi. Their friends Chris and Rose are another interesting couple. He is British and she spent her first 30 years in Zimbabwe. They went back to the UK for a decade or more but are back on the circuit now. Most of the sugar works staff are from the UK with a high proportion of Scots. We think their colonial heritage makes it easier to settle in other parts of the world but it may just be a way to escape from a very small island.
Richard and Kara have a nice 3 BR/1 bath house with electricity, hot water, satellite TV, a nice kitchen and a yard. They have the Kinyara Country Club with pool, golf and tennis – a nice life. We enjoyed staying there but felt out of place, not like we were really in Africa. Richard says it is living in a bubble. Quite true. And again it was strange being among so many whites, drinking beer and wine and eating steak. Not that we would trade . . . these people have to go to work!
So it is Saturday. We turned down a tour of the sugar works, a rain check actually, so we could be here when Ben, Stuart and Moses arrived. We had a nice breakfast with Richard and Kara and love her homemade bread then had a pleasant ride home arriving before ten, about three hours before Ben and Co. So it was paint, paint, paint and will continue to be so all week since Ben and Stu are staying.
Connie dropped our sharp kitchen knife and it sliced her finger pretty good. It should probably get a stitch or two but we have taped it up and will keep an eye on it. It didn’t keep her from painting leaves on the mural though and I continued our “mock African” design on the exterior. 