29/8/21: Christian leaders in the UK, please take note!

During my recent stay in the UK one of the major things I was doing was downsizing my British affairs. So, I sold my car back to the dealership from which I’d bought it – but not before somebody had tried to scam me out of £700, full details on request.

When I left the UK last November I took out a storage unit near Basingstoke. When I discovered how much it was going to be costing me each month, I seriously considered getting rid of everything right there and then. Deciding to put stuff into storage was, in effect, an insurance policy against things not working out here in Uganda for any reason. But, as the months become years, storage of household goods really makes no sense, it is not long before the amount paid in rent exceeds even the cost of the items new let alone secondhand.

So, I went to the UK clear that I wanted to discontinue my storage unit. After a fair bit of sorting, I sent some stuff to join me here in UG – including my electronic piano, REALLY looking forward to being reunited with it! – gave some stuff to charities and people, and threw a fair bit of stuff away, which was a bit heart wrenching as you might imagine. And, finally to get to the point of this post, sold some stuff at two car boot sales.

At this point I need to say a huge thank you to my friend Kate Harvey for her enormous help in guiding me through car boot sales – sorting through my stuff with me, advising on what does and doesn’t sell, suggesting reasonable prices to set and many other things. I’m not sure I would have had the confidence to do this by myself. When it comes to the car boot itself a huge thank you to Bear, Kate’s shih tzu, who is hugely friendly, extremely popular with passers by of all ages, and really helps to draw people in. Thank you, Kate and Bear!

So, as I say, we did two carboot sales looking to sell stuff from my storage unit in Alton, Hampshire. I have to say I found the process really interesting. It starts extremely early on the Sunday morning, so buyers are already there by 7am., particularly dealers with specialists interests. There is a second wave of people at about 10am which is the after-breakfast brigade. And then the whole thing is over certainly by 12 noon if not sooner than that.

It fairly quickly became apparent that, alongside people there to buy for a variety of reasons there were also people who, as far as I could make out, had very little money to spend and more than anything else wanted to talk. Which you will appreciate, from a seller’s point of view, takes a bit of managing, I’m really sorry, much as I’d love to chat I really need to get on and try to sell things!

So, here’s the idea. Christian leaders of the UK, you have a huge opportunity for Christian ministry right on your door steps. Establish teams to have stands at car boot sales within your patches. The one thing you might consider selling which is quite useful in that environment is packing equipment – wrapping paper, bubble wrap, scissors, sellotape, boxes, etc. My best guess is that organisers would not allow you to sell or give away refreshments as that would conflict with their business. Then – have Bibles and some other Christian materials to sell, with a fair bit of stuff to give away, including fliers advertising church services and evangelistic tracts. And, more than anything else, people willing to listen.

Can’t promise anything, of course, but having seen car boot sales in operation I have a really good feeling about this idea. If people aren’t coming to churches then it’s up to us to go to where people are, car boot sales being one such place. Would really love to hear from anybody who is already doing this or takes on board the idea, meanwhile, thank you for reading! At all times and in all places, may the praise and glory go to our Almighty God.

22/8/21: ‘A minute a day to pray’

Some years ago I decided to start writing short prayers based around Bible verses. I suppose the reason for doing this was that I have always found prayer difficult, and thought that this could help to be a focus to praying on a regular basis.

It was over the Christmas period when time was weighing rather heavily on my hands – in Uganda during lockdown, had only been here for 6 weeks, including 2 weeks self-isolation, and was in a 4 week break when there were many restrictions on what I could do – that I came up with the idea of uploading videos of Bible readings and associated prayers on a daily basis, whole thing less than a minute. With some gaps – for a number of reasons I found this difficult to maintain whilst in the UK but have picked it up again now – I have been keeping this up since. Often the Bible readings are stand alone, I’ve had a number of series around the Easter period, going through the Lord’s prayer a verse at a time, currently going through Psalm 95, although aware there are some difficult verses ahead!

In my more optimistic moments I had visualised the idea going viral across the English speaking world – reading the Bible and praying each day may be a tough discipline, but you can’t reasonably tell me that Christians can’t spare a minute for doing so! But it hasn’t, or any where close. It’s a rare day when the downloads get into double figures. So why do I persist?

Number of reasons. It helps give me a focus in my prayer life to be doing this, I continue to find individual prayer hard but believe so strongly that it is important in our Christian lives. I’ve had some great encouragement from people who find what I do helpful, RG, thank you for your lovely messages of support, I find them really motivating!

There are a number of other people I need to thank. JZ, I do try to smile at the beginning of the recordings! And also have experimented with having a separate picture as the thumb nail to give an encouragement to come and pray.

And LS, thank you for your points about the quality of the videos, until the last 2 days I’ve been using the camera on my laptop which is not very good quality, I’ve now brought a camera back from the UK and worked out how to hook it up, so can make videos of a rather higher quality, at least in picture if not in sound. I have to be honest, it’s much, much easier just to use my laptop, but if better quality pictures will encourage people to come, happy to commit to that!

So, any other comments gratefully received! Can’t promise to act on all of them, but really like the idea of daily videos incorporating a Bible reading and prayer encouraging all Christians in their walk with God. Very much hope that we are working towards a point where we spend rather more than 1 minute a day to read the Bible and pray – but, if this is the starting point, or a supplement to other things, fantastic!

So, not sure in my own mind whether this is a viable long term project. If you’ve subscribed but do not come each day, would be really helpful if you could unsubscribe and tell me why. If you think this is a good idea then please vote with your feet. At all times, in all things, to God be the glory!

13/8/21: so sorry we couldn’t save you, Rex

In my very first blog post on this platform I mentioned Pass and Rex, the compound dogs where I live. Their job is as guard dogs, so they are kept in their kennel for a good bit of the day so that they are only dozing at night, ready to start barking at huge volume if anything unexpected happens locally. Notwithstanding this, I quite unashamedly treat them like pets, from my point of view, best case scenario – I’m not responsible for looking after them but play with them first thing in the morning and in the early evening. They are always pleased to see me which is lovely, even if the expression of their pleasure at times can get a bit much.

I arrived back in Uganda yesterday, all travelling very smooth, and arrived at the Fourplex (as the group of 4 houses in which I live is called) at about 9am. To be told that Rex, the younger dog, had died. Oh no, says I, at first assuming that this had happened at some point in the middle of my time away. But no, he had only just died, his body is over there awaiting collection. I went to pay my respects to find – he’s not dead. His breathing maybe slow and laboured, but his chest is quite clearly going up and down. He may be too ill to stop ants crawling over his mouth, but his eyes are twitching.

We’ve got to get a vet, says I. If he is dying then he may well be in pain, the vet can give him something to ease his passing. But if he’s not dying then we’ve got to help him! A couple of hours later the vet arrived and concluded he had a severe chest infection. The vet gave Rex an injection and asked for some slightly warmed milk which he gave him through a syringe. Right before our eyes Rex went from being almost completely comatose to showing very definite signs of life. Mixed feelings when he started to resist the milk being poured down his throat, well done Rex for showing something of your normal fighting spirit!

The vet left instructions feed Rex every two hours with 80ml of slightly warmed milk and a promise that he would return at about mid day the following day. Emma, short for Emmanuel who is one of our askari (security guards) and I maintained the two hourly feeds through the afternoon, by the end of which Rex was clearly wanting to stand up although unable to do so when we tried to help him. I signed off early evening to go to bed having spent the previous night travelling back here.

This morning I went to put some clothes into the washing machine to find a bin liner next to it which I didn’t recall being there before. I looked inside, much to my horror I found Rex, this time there was no doubt that he’d gone to the great kennel in the sky. Not sure exactly what happened but he’d passed away at some time during the night.

So I’m left feeling really sad about this. Sad first and foremost for Rex, so much love still to show, so many flies still left to chase. And for Pass, his play mate and rival, who will need to come to terms with life alone. And, let’s be honest, sorry for myself, I feel I’ve lost a friend who so clearly loved the attention I gave him.

But perhaps the hardest aspect of this is the nagging doubt that had there been more help sooner, he would still be with us. I’ve been aware many times of the difficulties many people face in meeting medical bills in a country with no National Health Service. Paying for a vet for a sick animal may very well seem like an unimaginable extravagance. Perhaps it’s a mistake in becoming attached to animals – but it really doesn’t feel as if it is. Find myself trying, not terribly successfully, to process a variety of conflicting emotions both directly and indirectly attached to Rex’s passing. Good bye, Rex, great to know you, I’ll spend a bit more time with Pass as he looks around in vain for you to play with and boss around and help him to come to terms with his loss.

30/6/21: out of isolation!

Pleased to say I’ve now completed my 10 days isolation, have the negative COVID test so I’m out and about! Which is great. So, first thing on the agenda – walk into Oxford along the Thames:

starting from the Swinford Toll bridge towards the left of the map above:

Number of reasons for this, it’s close to here, easy to do without a car – so take one bus to the starting point and another from the finish – very nice walking:

Was also wanting to do a bit of shopping in Oxford, also there’s the tourist trail which I may well return to in a later blog.

The other reason for choosing this walk as the first out of isolation is because even somebody as clueless as me can follow the towpath of a river without getting lost. So long, of course, as I’m facing in the right direction in the first place. Occasionally you see a sign which helps here:

But the general rule seems to be signs which helpfully tell you, just in case it isn’t obvious that this is a footpath:

This is a river:

But then give identical signs pointing left / right / forwards / backwards:

I’d love to understand why it is considered a good use of money to put up signs which state the obvious but leave out the one thing which might actually be helpful. Possibly there are other walkers out there who understand left and right better than I do but appreciate being told that they’re on a footpath next to a river? I feel a sermon illustration coming on – these signs seem to be a metaphor for life – but very aware that it is bad practice to find your illustration first and then work out the point the illustration is illustrating. Nevertheless…..

Anyway, I did manage to get myself pointed in the correct direction and much enjoyed the exercise, slightly suffering for it today but that’s fine, no problem! Looking forward to being back in touch soon, meanwhile, any insights into the mystery which is footpath signage gratefully received.

24/6/21: let your yes be yes…

Greetings from the UK! A very great pleasure to be here for the next few weeks, some of the specific reasons will become apparent in future blog posts. With all the paperwork in place, including a negative COVID test before setting out, Passenger Locator Form for both UK and Belgium (albeit I didn’t leave the transit area), ordering a COVID kit for day two and day 8, the travelling itself was pretty straightforward. Although – slightly disconcerting to be sharing the Brussels airport transit lounge with people wearing full HAZMAT suits, do they know something I don’t?

So currently self-isolating, knew this was going to happen, slightly surprised to be getting ‘phone calls at least once a day to be checking I am complying, on pain of a £10 000 fine. Taking the opportunity to get ahead with some schoolwork so taking the pressure off the beginning of next term. Many thanks to Mum and Dad for putting up with me!

But there’s one niggle I’d like to tell you about. When I ordered the UK testing kit I got an email headed, “REQUIRED – ACTIVATE YOUR TEST”. The email itself included, “Once you receive your test kit, you will need to activate it on the online portal using the barcode on the test tube. The link is provided below.” And then concludes, “PLEASE ENSURE YOU ACTIVATE THE CORRECT BARCODE FOR THE TEST YOU ARE SENDING.” All of which is perfectly clear, isn’t it? With capital letters to help me just in case I’m misunderstanding anything.

So, day 2 – last Sunday – arrives, the day for the first test. So, obedient chap that I am, I follow the link to register the code number for the test tube in which I will be sending the swab back. To get the error message, “We don’t recognise that serial number, please check you have entered the serial number correctly and that the kit hasn’t expired, if so please phone for help.” I try various different combinations of zeroes and the letter O, different spacing, nothing works.

Then to look at the wording on the leaflet with the kit more carefully. “Your test kit has already been activated by the company you purchased the kit from. No online test kit activation is required by you.” Oh, really? Meanwhile, alongside the error message, I see the following text: “If you have purchased your test kit via one of our sales partners your test kit may have already been activated. Therefore, if you try to activate your test kit via this page, you will receive an error message. In which case, you do not need to submit your test kit barcode as it has already been activated. Please do not contact customer services for help. Please proceed to follow the instructions provided with your test kit on how to take the sample and return to the laboratory. Thank you.”

By this time, I’m thoroughly confused. Do I need to register the sample or not? Do I phone for help – as I’m told in one place – or not – as I’m told in another? Given the wording of the error message, how can I be sure that my test tube has already been registered and that I’m not making some mistake? It had become apparent that I have bought the kit from a distributor, even though I’m trying to fill in the code number from the manufacturer into the manufacturer’s website, they’re nevertheless insisting that I contact the distributor for any help I might need. Which doesn’t open on Sundays. Meanwhile, I’m required to submit a test on the Sunday on pain of a £10 000 fine.

Whilst I was still pondering this somebody called me from ‘Track and trace’ to reassure me that the right thing to do was take and send in the test without further registration. Some days then went by without hearing the results of the test, so, concerned that the test tube may not be linked back to me, I finally ‘phoned the distributor to be told my test had been activated, and what I needed to understand is that the same email telling people that they needed to activate the test is sent to everyone irrespective as to whether they need to activate it or not.

I do make every effort in these situations to be polite to the person I’m speaking to, but I’m afraid I may not have been entirely successful on this occasion. I mean, really? You are seriously telling me I should be happy to be told that I need to activate my test when in fact I don’t need to – in fact, am not able to – because other people do need to? Do you genuinely suppose, after that explanation, I’m going to say, “Oh, right! Yes, that makes sense! Of course you should tell me to activate the kit because other people need to!”

Time to finish the rant and reflect a bit. I understand that this is all very new, so it is not surprising that communication errors of this nature are being made. I also understand that defending oneself is a very natural reaction, not just in humans, of course, which can then get generalised to one’s employer.

But in the face of clear evidence of contradictory instructions being given, surely the response should be, yes, you’re right, that shouldn’t have happened, let me check that out for you. Why the need to try to justify ourselves long after it is clear that, in effect, we are trying to argue that black is white? What is that expression about holes and not digging further?

This isn’t, of course, the first time that I’ve met this kind of thing. When I was in Dar es Salaam I on one occasion had a pair of glasses sent to me from the UK which got stuck in customs, in the end I had to pay a considerable fee to get them out. In the period when they were in an office in DSM before I could get them, the shipping company tracking was saying that they had been delivered. But they hadn’t. Tracking was wrong. It’s that simple. So why, when I queried this, did I have to listen to long complicated explanations trying to reconcile the tracking information with the lack of my glasses in my hot sweaty hand (or on my hot sweaty head, I suppose)? Again, surely this is trying to argue that black is white?

Jesus Christ taught (Matthew 5:37), ‘Let your yes be yes.’ Don’t let things get complicated, keep things simple. If necessary, apologise. It is often the case, as a school teacher, that what matters is not so much what happens in the first instance – teachers understand that it is the nature of the job that we need to deal with minor bits of disruption here and there – but what the reaction is in the aftermath.

This point is taken up by Ajith Fernando in his wonderful commentary on the Acts of the Apostles for the New International Version Application Commentary series. As the Sri Lanka director for Youth for Christ, he frequently worked with young converts to Christianity from Buddhism bursting to tell people about Jesus. One part of his training particularly struck me. We understand, he would tell his raw recruits, that you are going to mess up. It is going to happen, we can deal with it when it happens. But never, never, NEVER try to lie your way out of trouble.

Which is good advice, isn’t it? Keep things simple. If you mess up, own up. Accept the consequences, move on. Quite possibly to discover – as St Peter did after he repented following his denial of Jesus in the run up to His crucifixion – that after repentance your standing is actually higher than it was before.

As things stand I’m still waiting for the day 2 COVID results, with the day 8 test due on Saturday, looking forward to being able to get out and about. Some feedback to give to track and trace etc. when the time is right. But in the meantime my plea – keep things simple, this is the path of wisdom. I’ll finish here, thank you for reading!

9/6/21: guest blog by Justin from Goma, DRC

It gives me great pleasure to introduce this blog post by Justin Dunia from Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo which shares a border with Uganda. I met Justin through our mutual friend Ludger who is a fellow supporter of the Kampala Christian Orphanage. It was an extraordinary privilege to be in touch with Justin during the aftermath of the recent volcanic eruption which, of course, was headline news across the world, and to get firsthand information from somebody actually there. Anyway, enough from me! Let me hand over to Justin to tell you a bit about himself, the beautiful city of Goma and his wonderful work there.

Hello, I’m Dunia Karimbogo Justin, a teacher of English from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kinshasa, North Kivu Province, Masisi Territory, Goma Town. DRC is in Central Africa:

With Goma to the East, close to the border with Rwanda:

It’s a beautiful part of the world where we have wonderful landscapes, mountains, parks as you can see:

With its temperate climate, it is like the Europe of Africa.

I was born in Masisi Territory in North Kivu Province in the East part of DRC. My family left for studies, the we moved to Goma Town where we studied at primary school, then for a degree at Goma College. I graduated as an English teacher in 2013, although I don’t currently have a teaching post.

Clearly, you have heard about us due to the recent volcanic eruption. What was that all about? It is Nyiragongo Volcano located in Rutshuru Territory, close to Goma Town. In normal times it is a beautiful part of our local landscape:

The volcano erupted on 22nd May 2021, causing devastation all around:

We were forced to leave the city as people died, children were separated from their parents, with many buildings destroyed or damaged. Many people are currently in a displacement camp because their houses were destroyed by the eruption. There is no food, clean water, or shelter, with many people becoming ill as a result.

So, we are looking to pick up our lives again as soon as we can. For many years now I have been involved with youthwork through our organisation Youth Initiatives for Sustainable Development. Why did we form this organisation? Because we come from a country with many troubles due to many armed groups, with continual fighting between themselves and also with Government forces. Many innocent people get caught in the crossfire, with citizens killed, leaving behind many orphans and marginalised children living in poverty.

We are working to help relieve poverty, including medical treatment, education and creating sporting opportunities:

We organise meetings and discussion groups, bringing together people from different tribes as we look to live in peace and harmony:

So, please help us! We need financial support and also help as move towards NGO status and formal registration in the DRC. If you can help, or would like further information, please contact me directly:
Justin Dunia, email duniajust@gmail.com , WhatsApp: +243 978 327 614.

Thank you for reading from us all!

6/6/21: thank you, Ranelagh School!

When I returned to school in September 2019 after I visited Kampala Christian Orphanage, I found myself on the 6th form assembly rota when the theme was, “Give us today our daily bread.” So I based the assembly around my visit, and served up my version of posho and beans, the staple meal here, the main ingredient of posho being ground maize. I permitted myself a bit of a rant at one stage, along the lines of, “Do you understand how fortunate we are to live in a country where health care is free at the point of delivery, education is free to the age of 18, where we continue to paid at least something even if we’re unemployed?” It seemed appropriate at the time.

A week or so later a sixth form student whom I did not teach, Dan, came to find me to offer to organise a sponsored football match to raise money for the orphanage. Of course I was absolutely delighted. The football match itself did not go ahead because of COVID 19 restrictions, but the appeal nevertheless raised a substantial amount of money, a large chunk of what was necessary to build and equip a much needed kitchen.

I then moved here to Uganda and have kept in touch with Dan, having become Geoff rather than Mr Tennant / Dr Tennant / sir as previously as I no longer teach at the school. Dan then contacted me to offer to organise a second fund raiser, this time around a game of rounders. Absolutely fantastic! And succeeded in raising a huge amount which will massively help the orphanage going into the future.

Because the fund raising was based around a game of rounders, Dan and the organisers were keen that children at KCO also should play the game. So, on Thursday – a public holiday – I set out to buy the equipment on behalf of the appeal, not as easy as it sounds as rounders doesn’t seem to happen here, so substituted a small cricket bat and cricket stumps, hope that’s OK! And then off to the orphanage yesterday (Saturday) with as much equipment as I could carry on the back of a motorcycle, thank you Vicent (Michael is away at the moment) for your help both with the shopping and also getting me to the beginning of the taxi (inter-city small bus) journey.

So we played rounders! Those of you who know me well will be raising an eyebrow at the prospect of Idiot Features Tennant teaching children how to play sport, well, I tried!

Here we are practising basic skills:

Organising the teams is not easy!

Please admire the athleticism as I try to teach the concept of rounder:

Afraid I don’t have a video showing us putting it all together, but believe you me, we gave it a good go. Looking forward to finding a proper rounders bat and trying this again soon.

Meanwhile, really pleased to be able to take a couple of much needed footballs:

Some hard wearing skipping ropes:

And two basketball rings and a ball:

So, lots of stuff for the children really to enjoy, once again, thank you, Dan and the whole school community for making this possible.

But this is just the beginning! The appeal is able to pay for the completion of the kitchen which is already underway, here is what it looked like yesterday:

Compared with the last time I came:

Not sure how clear it is from these pictures, the brickwork is complete, windows and door in place, there is also a servery, the floors have been finished so that the store room to the left can now be used a such. Few things to finish then the kitchen is done, ready to serve children for many years to come.

And more to come which I look forward to writing about in due course. Meanwhile, thank you, thank you, thank you, Dan, Mr Griffith the head teacher, and all students and staff at Ranelagh School for their amazing and generous support. Let me finish with a clip as I lead the children in sending their thanks. It’s a bit rough and ready, particularly, it starts after we’ve already said thank you to Dan (sorry, Dan!) but please believe me when I say that it comes straight from the heart. Thank you.

23/5/21: introducing Stanley the artist!

During a normal working week I walk to and from school, churches, supermarkets etc., to some extent passing the same people on a regular basis. I really like the sense of getting to know people, even if that only means, for example, that I exchange greetings with the security guard outside a block of flats close to school, I don’t know his name, he doesn’t know mine, but we see each other several times a week. I’ve also got to know Margaret and Doreen who sell fruit and vegetables close to where I live. I buy from them quite frequently, on days when I don’t we exchange waves as I walk past. There are a number of reasons why I make a point of greeting people I pass, and thanking boda riders who offer me rides which I then decline. All people in any classification we can come up with – ethnicity, gender, social class, economic status, etc. etc. – are loved by God who knows every detail on us, and it is important to me to respect all people I come into contact with in this light. From a more pragmatic – selfish? – point of view, I know many people who know the wonderful country of Uganda far, far better than I do, spending time with them means they are happy to share their knowledge with me, which is invaluable for travelling and many other purposes. Also, I very much like the idea that in the highly unlikely but not impossible scenario that I am the victim of mugging, that there are many people around who would come to my aid just as I would come to theirs.

Which brings me to Stanley! Stanley is a highly talented young artist who often exhibits his work opposite one of the supermarkets I frequent. I really like his work! The picture above shows a portrait of me which is a gift for Mum and Dad’s 60th wedding anniversary – for which many, many congratulations, more on this later – let me show you Stanley’s introductory video on his YouTube channel designed to demonstrate how to paint African style:

Let me show you some more of Stanley’s work:

I’m aware that the resolution of these pictures is not brilliant, hope that doesn’t detract from the quality of the pictures here.

Whilst I’m keen to celebrate the quality of what Stanley is doing, there is a sense of sadness here. It embarrasses me to tell you how much I pay for Stanley’s work, I estimate that it’s about 1/10 of what I would pay in the UK for work of similar quality. Once the cost of materials is taken care of, the price Stanley puts on his time is way, way below the UK minimum wage. This sense of talent which does not have adequate opportunity to be showcased – and remunerated – is a recurring theme here, my PE teacher colleague says much the same in the context of sport. Meanwhile, at least I can do a little something. I’ve bought some of Stanley’s work which I will be bringing back to the UK as presents, expecting to be flying on June 17th albeit with a period of isolation required. If you are interested in having some of his work, please let me know. Thank you for reading!

15/5/21: I had intended to learn some Luganda….

Map of Uganda showing regions

My attempts to learn languages over the years have met with varying success. The best was learning Indonesian when I was on short term missionary service when I was 18. Not long before I had been attending classes at school headed ‘French’, there is part of me which feels I owe the British tax payer a refund for that, particularly, I don’t think I ever got beyond the idea that a word translates to a single word. Actually being in Indonesia with a fair bit of time on my hands to study, it very quickly became apparent that words cannot meaningfully be translated singly, with very different grammars, concepts of being polite and many other differences. Indeed, the complex interplay between language and culture means that the thought may not have occurred in the first place.

By far my worst attempt to learn a language was Mandarin Chinese whilst working with some international students in Reading. When I tried to practice what I’d learnt in Chinese restaurants I was met with blank bemusement, having to explain that I was trying to speak their language rather defeated the point of doing so. If you’ve not been brought up speaking a tonal language it’s jolly difficult to adjust to a very different way of going about things in adult life, my goodness.

In the time I spent in Tanzania I learnt a certain amount of Swahili. I got the feeling that people appreciated the effort made to speak their own language. Beyond this, what one finds is that the further one is from conurbations the less English is spoken – and indeed, whilst Swahili is the first language for many Tanzanian people, in rural areas this is often not the case with local languages being spoken at home and children not starting to learn Swahili until they get to school. So when travelling away from Dar es Salaam a bit of Swahili was very useful, it was entirely normal to meet shop assistants with no English at all. Also, on one occasion I was in a meeting discussing an afternoon event when one of the participants suggested that something could happen at 9 o’clock. Knowing that in Swahili the numbering of hours starts at what in English we call 6 o’clock I guessed, correctly, that the participant meant saa tisa, literally, hour nine, therefore 3 o’clock. Because of this difference I was always very careful arranging taxis to the airport when one might well be travelling at strange hours of the night and mistakes may not be picked up in the same way.

So, here I am in Uganda. When I arrived I was fully intending to learn Luganda and got as far as buying a Bible with an English version in one column and Luganda and various study aids. But, if you’ll excuse me stating the obvious, there is a rather big difference between buying these things with the intention of using them on the one hand, and actually buckling down and using them to learn. Which I’m afraid I’ve not been doing. The big issue here is how widely Luganda is spoken, to a very large extent it’s restricted to the Central Region as shown on the map above, corresponding to the Kingdom of Buganda. Please note, when somebody says that they are Muganda they mean that they are from Buganda, or the Central Region, easy to assume they are saying that they are Ugandan which is not the case.

So, whilst Luganda is the predominant language in Central Region which includes Kampala, you don’t need to travel very far from here and it is not spoken. According to the Ethnologue website, Luganda is spoken by approximately 1/4 of Ugandan people. In addition to this, it is the nature of capital cities that many people live here for work purposes not having been brought up here, so it is entirely normal to hear Ugandan people speaking English amongst themselves, my experience of living in Dar es Salaam and also visiting Nairobi is that this does not happen in those cities in the same way.

So, from my point of view, learning Luganda living here in Kampala would be a great thing to do and I know would be appreciated by people I meet each day. But I have yet to feel that it would be useful in the same way that knowing a bit of Swahili in Tanzania was useful, everything I need to do, certainly professionally but also personally, can be done in English.

I feel a tinge of sadness writing this. But to speak Luganda at a level where it is easier to communicate in Luganda would take a considerable amount of effort over a sustained period of time. Beyond working at school this is effort I am currently putting into studying the Bible. So beyond a small number of greeting words, I’m not learning Luganda nor am I intending to do so. But if you’d like to try to persuade me that I should be doing so, please do let me know, I’d love you to succeed!