The Weekend..

It has been good to have a couple of days to reflect on the week - it has been pretty full on since leaving the UK, practically, emotionally and culturally.  I've started both days with a walk into town before the heat builds - it's about 15 minutes from the guesthouse.  It's a nice walk - through the back and up a slight hill so you get a perspective across the lush, green countryside and into the mountains in the distance.  There's always plenty of people doing the same - all keen to say hello, especially the children who think it's hilarious when you speak!  You pass plenty of homes with people sitting outside, cooking, washing, cleaning...plenty of goats, chickens, and cows just grazing around the place.   And, so many butterflies and birds of prey, including a vulcher which was hanging around the meat market in town.

There's not huge amounts to say about Kitgum town - it's small and so easy to find your way around.  You can find most things here - and it's what you'd expect from a rural Ugandan town.  There are eating and drinking establishments but I've tended to stay clear of these apart from the one I've eaten lunch in during the week.  No-one hassles you here - they just want to talk and ask you questions which is nice.  I had a panic on Saturday - I used the local internet place to log in to my work e-mail because the orange modem won't allow me through their server.  I stupidly used my memory stick and left it in the computer - only realised when I got back to the guesthouse.  All my work for the assignment was on there and my only back up was in the UK.  I managed to get a lift back into town from a Norfolk man who has been here for years!!  Thankfully the guy who ran the internet place had kept it aside for me.  That was a huge relief.  I was so hot by that point I decided to get a boda boda back to the guesthouse - a motorbike one.  That was good!

On Sunday, I had a wander around the food market - lots of dried fish and vegetables.  Very buzzy and colourful - took a couple of photos.  One of the market women was very keen to have her photo taken and hugely amused when she saw her picture!

I've been back at the guesthouse in the afternoons - just relaxing, chatting with the guys who run it, having a siesta and then working for a bit.  I've been the only guest this weekend so it's very quiet.  They have some pretty intense discussions about life, politics, religion and NGOs so it's never dull!

I've obviously been reflecting quite a bit on my first week at KICWA.  I think the layers were slowly being removed towards the end of last week, revealing some weaknesses in the systems there which weren't immediately apparent during my first few days.  The challenge for me is where to prioritise and focus my attention during the coming week.  I think one of the main areas of weakness likes in the structure of the bank and cash books and lack of reconciliation with bank and cash at hand.  This needs to be reviewed, restructured and completed and I don't know yet the extent of work which this will require.  I also want to check through the supporting records in more depth before I then continue with the Quickbooks training. 

The power has continued to be a major issue - it went at around 4pm yesterday afternoon and has been off ever since.  The generator only goes on for an hour in the morning and then is off until around 7pm before going off again around 9ish.  So it's a wind up torch if I want to stay up beyond 9 and a fiercely hot night in my room without a fan.  Tonight (Sunday), I've had an infestation of mosquitoes in the room - from where I don't know but it seems to be dependent on the weather and humidity.  I still don't know how they've got in but I was madly spraying the room before I went for dinner.  They are tough though and seem to take ages to drop!  And what has really freaked me this evening is that I've found two inside my net despite this having been down all day - they must have crept in when I lifted it to get in to bed.  I hope I've just killed the last one..