One Saturday Afternoon
Picture of the week-The moon, one day after the Mid-autumn Festival, when it is at its roundest.
Saturday, 4 September 2010
An One-Off Improvisation on the Keyboard This Morning
Some exotic flavours again here. I played freely on the keyboard this morning(how much I hoped it was on a piano). It was an one-off performance. I had to listen to it several times after it was recorded to figure out its meaning. Please don't take the noise in the background as the drumming, it was someone digging the road outside the centre! There were also lots of kids in the centre at that time who contributed to the extra sound in the piece. At the moment, I call the piece 'One Saturday Morning', please feel free to tell me if you have better names!
One Saturday Afternoon
One Saturday Afternoon
The Story Continues Here...With Video!!!!
I am sorry about not putting the photos up yesterday. Our internet subscription was expired and may not be renewed for a while due to the lack of funding. The stories in Kazo, however, were not consequently stopped. Life goes on as usual with more surprises suppose. I am now hiding in the Bota Bota bar on top of Garden City, the big shopping complex in Kampala. The bar is quite western style in which a great number of African elements were integrated. The most important thing about this bar is that it has wireless internet. During the days without internet connections in the centre, I have to come here to carry on my writing.
OK, let's get to the topic for today: Timothy's shopping day in Garden City for his next term in school. A big thank you to his sponsor Orna who gives his the opportunity to enjoy a normal child's life(quite a good one in fact, I'm a little bit jealous sometimes. Only sometimes!!) I have uploaded several photos with this post and perhaps a video, depending on the speed of the internet here.
OK, let's get to the topic for today: Timothy's shopping day in Garden City for his next term in school. A big thank you to his sponsor Orna who gives his the opportunity to enjoy a normal child's life(quite a good one in fact, I'm a little bit jealous sometimes. Only sometimes!!) I have uploaded several photos with this post and perhaps a video, depending on the speed of the internet here.
Friday, 3 September 2010
Attention, Timmy Fans! Shopping Is in the Air!
Mac and I will take Timothy, one of our sponsored children, to do some shopping in Garden City for his next term. We will set off at four this afternoon! Feel free to catch us there where I will offer you a cup of coffee in Cafe Papa, a Cafe store offering fantastic cappuccinos. Apart from friends in America, Asia and Oceania, time is still in abundance if you book a last-minute flight ticket! Upon the request from his sponsor in Israel, all things have to be purchase in Garden City, the best shopping mall in Uganda, since, first, she wants Timothy to enjoy a life she could have given to any of her own children and, second, that is the only place where receipt can be given.
Since Timothy is in a boarding school, lots of things are required by the school, such as a certain number of pencils, coloured pencils, black socks and socks with stripes, five big exercise books and six small ones . The lack of any of them will result in temporary expulsion from the school. However, the strictness of the rules differ between schools. That is why in the future I want to start a school where the welfare and education of the children is put as the only priority. And please mark my words!
I will definitely post the photos taken during the trip this afternoon later this evening. If you cannot come on time to join us, I strongly recommend you to wait for the photos which will be posted tonight!
Since Timothy is in a boarding school, lots of things are required by the school, such as a certain number of pencils, coloured pencils, black socks and socks with stripes, five big exercise books and six small ones . The lack of any of them will result in temporary expulsion from the school. However, the strictness of the rules differ between schools. That is why in the future I want to start a school where the welfare and education of the children is put as the only priority. And please mark my words!
I will definitely post the photos taken during the trip this afternoon later this evening. If you cannot come on time to join us, I strongly recommend you to wait for the photos which will be posted tonight!
Thursday, 2 September 2010
A Bitter-Sweet Moment
It has become a daily routine for John and I to have one rollex, a local spring roll consisting fried eggs, cabbages and a half of a tiny local tomato. The taste is good, in the middle of being the fast food and Michelin-three-star cuisine. We then would sit in a small local pub across the dusty street, having couple of sodas. Occasionally, Mac would pop up surprisingly from the street and join us for a while before his figure diminish into the darkness of the street which is lighted up by Matatus' dim front lights.
I did not take soda as usual. Neither did John take any soda at all. I chose Tusker, a local beer, instead. I was introduced to it several days ago when I was busy drinking different brands of beers in which I completely lost my sense of time, direction and everything else. John and I talked as always. In the middle of our daily conversation, he asked me in a tone sounding rather like a statement, "how I'm going to live after you go back," he was in his usual way of projecting his voice while staring at the TV set, few metres from where we sit, on it a woman was singing about her love in Luganda in front of lots of vegetables, "I am going to be really bored"
The hand of mine holding a cigarette unconsciously stopped in the middle of moving closer to my mouth. My feeling was mixed. One could call that a real bitter-sweet moment. It was the first time in life anyone whom I knew had ever said that kind of simple statement to me. I felt more proud than receiving any of my past academic or social achievements and felt more bitterer than any solemn goodbyes I had ever been given. The statement he gave was too simple to be insincere. After a short hesitation, I replied in a mischievous way, 'John, your life sucks!'. We both laughed. I then recalled the past years I spent in China, the UK and several countries, where physical and spiritual goods were in abundance, where individuals' lives were too complicated to make daily sense, where nearly everything could be substituted by something else, and where the value of simple words were badly diminished by everyone's ambitions in life.
I thank John for giving me the moment of retrospect, of warmness and of comforting bitterness. I already started to realise that this place is changing the way I look at life. Maybe, the place is just helping me find the way I should look at life.
"...We don't create them, we discover"
I did not take soda as usual. Neither did John take any soda at all. I chose Tusker, a local beer, instead. I was introduced to it several days ago when I was busy drinking different brands of beers in which I completely lost my sense of time, direction and everything else. John and I talked as always. In the middle of our daily conversation, he asked me in a tone sounding rather like a statement, "how I'm going to live after you go back," he was in his usual way of projecting his voice while staring at the TV set, few metres from where we sit, on it a woman was singing about her love in Luganda in front of lots of vegetables, "I am going to be really bored"
The hand of mine holding a cigarette unconsciously stopped in the middle of moving closer to my mouth. My feeling was mixed. One could call that a real bitter-sweet moment. It was the first time in life anyone whom I knew had ever said that kind of simple statement to me. I felt more proud than receiving any of my past academic or social achievements and felt more bitterer than any solemn goodbyes I had ever been given. The statement he gave was too simple to be insincere. After a short hesitation, I replied in a mischievous way, 'John, your life sucks!'. We both laughed. I then recalled the past years I spent in China, the UK and several countries, where physical and spiritual goods were in abundance, where individuals' lives were too complicated to make daily sense, where nearly everything could be substituted by something else, and where the value of simple words were badly diminished by everyone's ambitions in life.
I thank John for giving me the moment of retrospect, of warmness and of comforting bitterness. I already started to realise that this place is changing the way I look at life. Maybe, the place is just helping me find the way I should look at life.
"...We don't create them, we discover"
Beyond the Surface
This small article is from another blog of mine. I believe people love reading things about KICVOP, so I put here something most people have no interests to read in order to mix some exotic flavour into this blog.
Rather than saying 'below the surface', I would say 'beyond the surface' to make more music sense. The word 'beyond', in an abstract way, is something requires a gradual action to be achieved. And one can possibly feel the process of intellectual inquiry into what is beyond the reach of our everyday vision. I can barely find a word in Chinese which can substitute the word 'beyond'. 'Below the surface' in Chinese makes more sense if one wants to express the similar kind of meaning of going beyond. From a scientific conception, 'below the surface' is what actually happens physically in the reality. What cannot be seen from the surface is therefore hidden and has to be below the surface. From a more metaphysical way of thinking, however, what cannot be seen is usually more than what we can physically reach and intellectually think about and therefore should be beyond the surface.
I has always been in agreement with the superiority of Chinese words in expressing abstract feelings, but I defected to English this time. The word 'beyond' is in itself a music note which conveys a flowing and circular life. The visualisation of the abstract action of 'beyond the surface' requires both a scientific attitude and a romantic vision. Perhaps this is why the survival of classical music as a whole was made possible.
Rather than saying 'below the surface', I would say 'beyond the surface' to make more music sense. The word 'beyond', in an abstract way, is something requires a gradual action to be achieved. And one can possibly feel the process of intellectual inquiry into what is beyond the reach of our everyday vision. I can barely find a word in Chinese which can substitute the word 'beyond'. 'Below the surface' in Chinese makes more sense if one wants to express the similar kind of meaning of going beyond. From a scientific conception, 'below the surface' is what actually happens physically in the reality. What cannot be seen from the surface is therefore hidden and has to be below the surface. From a more metaphysical way of thinking, however, what cannot be seen is usually more than what we can physically reach and intellectually think about and therefore should be beyond the surface.
I has always been in agreement with the superiority of Chinese words in expressing abstract feelings, but I defected to English this time. The word 'beyond' is in itself a music note which conveys a flowing and circular life. The visualisation of the abstract action of 'beyond the surface' requires both a scientific attitude and a romantic vision. Perhaps this is why the survival of classical music as a whole was made possible.
Afternoon Updates
I am terribly sorry about not posting the photos of the local food. I was busy eating though I did bring my camera with me. In compensation, I will post some photos of the products which are made by our women group. I hope the battery left in my laptop will allow me to uploading all the photos. The power has been cut again in Kazo.
Daily struggle!
We are going to tidy up the garage in preparation for the little broilers. There are still lots of furniture to be moved out from the garage. So I am still thinking if I should take a shower at half past twelve in the afternoon. Do not be surprised, I usually take shower in the afternoon since the water, after receiving heat from the sun for the whole morning, is warmer than in the morning. However, today has not been a sunny day. The chill air has made me reluctant to put off my clothes, but the reality of not taking a shower during the day is something morally wrong to me!
I will also fulfill my promise today if possible. I will take some photos of the local food here and post them later today here.
I have made up my mind to embrace some terribly cold water! Wish me luck!
I will also fulfill my promise today if possible. I will take some photos of the local food here and post them later today here.
I have made up my mind to embrace some terribly cold water! Wish me luck!
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
About Smoking!
The taste of the cigarettes here are terrible. The best brand here is Dunhill, but each pack I got tasted differently. I assume it was because they took long to be sold so the flavour already altered by the time I got them. So if anyone preparing coming to Uganda, please do bring your own cigarettes with you! I have kept my hope alive of finding the perfect cigs here, but was disappointed each time by the new pack. The place I live is around twenty minutes' walking distance from the nearest place where I can get Dunhill. Otherwise, I have to live on Sportsman, a so-called luxury Ugandan brand and Rex. What is paradoxical is that whenever I was forced by laziness or unexpected incidence in life to smoke Sportsman, I had always need to smoke each cig with great disgust.
It's all about the sympathetic life of a smoker. Some of my colleagues told me to give up smoking, but whenever they saw me dropping an unfinished cigarette(what I mean by unfinished is not smoking to the very end of the cigarette), I was always told to finish it instead of wasting the money. I then argued that which one they cared the most-my life or the money I paid for the cigarette? I told them dropping an unfinished cig is by all means a positive act towards my life and lives of others. This has been an argument which would never end in Kazo.
I'm so so hungry now(using double adverbs is a habit of the locals here, especially John! For instance, "this is So So sweet" and "it has been So So nice")! Because of getting late, breakfast cannot be found on the street. A typical Ugandan breakfast consist of Posho and Wrangles(the spelling of this word is not confirmed though I consulted with John who was not sure either. As soon as he saw me writing down his name here, he was too upset, so he wanted to look up this work in an dictionary. The problem is the word for a local food here will never be found in Oxford Dictionary) and possibly some other things. I have got used to having them each morning, though the combination of foods have rarely been changed. They are quite tasty when you are hungry! I'll post some photos of the local food here in the next day or two!
It's all about the sympathetic life of a smoker. Some of my colleagues told me to give up smoking, but whenever they saw me dropping an unfinished cigarette(what I mean by unfinished is not smoking to the very end of the cigarette), I was always told to finish it instead of wasting the money. I then argued that which one they cared the most-my life or the money I paid for the cigarette? I told them dropping an unfinished cig is by all means a positive act towards my life and lives of others. This has been an argument which would never end in Kazo.
I'm so so hungry now(using double adverbs is a habit of the locals here, especially John! For instance, "this is So So sweet" and "it has been So So nice")! Because of getting late, breakfast cannot be found on the street. A typical Ugandan breakfast consist of Posho and Wrangles(the spelling of this word is not confirmed though I consulted with John who was not sure either. As soon as he saw me writing down his name here, he was too upset, so he wanted to look up this work in an dictionary. The problem is the word for a local food here will never be found in Oxford Dictionary) and possibly some other things. I have got used to having them each morning, though the combination of foods have rarely been changed. They are quite tasty when you are hungry! I'll post some photos of the local food here in the next day or two!
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