Yesterday (Sunday) was a relaxing day. I managed to actually do some sunbathing, though I kept getting far too hot and having to jump in the pool for a minute to cool down. I also did eventually surrender to sitting and reading in the shade after a while, it's so humid here you just spend all your time sweating! Then I had a text from Julie inviting me to the 'Belated KMS Staff Xmas Party' and that she/Ben (a piano/singing teacher) could pick me up at 4 (5 Uganda time..). So I got ready and waited for them. We went to a pork joint which had the best bbq pork I think I've ever tasted! It was really good. And we were eating Ugandan style with our hands. It was a very fun evening and nice to start getting to know more people from the school.

Today I was actually woken up by rain. It's the first time it's rained since I've been here. As a result it was really quite a cold start to he morning. I wore jeans! But it warmed up which was good. Sam and I didnt have much to do at school today. We sorted through 3 big boxes of CD's and put them in categories of Orchestral, Choral, Chamber, Solo etc. It was great fun. Sam then came back to our house to check his emails and I had a long chat with Lamin (the daddy of the house) about transport for when the driver is not available. Its kind of complicated but I think we've worked it out. I then had my first 'taxi' experience. The taxi's here are like small buses which have crazy drivers and you can basically jump in and out anywhere you like. They're pretty scary! And there was sooo much traffic on the way to school/orchestra this evening we ended up jumping out and walking. Luckily Badru, the gardener, was told to accompany us becuase otherwise we would have been so lost! Senious orchestra was actually quite good. We are playing the Coronation Mass in the anniversary mass in March with a combination of chiors from the area which should be good. Today was a good turn out apparently - 3 violins, 2 cellos (me and Sam), 2 oboes, 1 clarinet, 2 trombones, 2 trumpets and a horn. It was sounding pretty good and they're all very hard working so I'm sure it's only going to get better!

Just to give you all a bit of a better idea about the school - it's quite small, with only 8 practise rooms so it's quite a challenge getting hold of one! All the rooms have pianos and there are quite a lot of insruments available to borrow. The biggest/main room is where orchestral rehearsals take place. The students are mostly teenagers. I'm not sure if they go to school as well, lots of them seem to hang around the school most of the day so I'm not sure they do. They are all very enthusiastic and most play 2 or 3 instruments. It's our musicianship class tomorrow, so hopefully lots of people will turn up to that.

Bye for now! Xxx