Pray and toil
This is the motto of St Barnabas School and is written across the back of their school T-shirts. Under this is one of four different animals; yellow shirts have a zebra; red ones a rhino; green ones a lion and blue ones an elephant. The children also wear blue shorts with piping down the side and across the pockets to match the T-shirt – very smart.
When I got to St Barnabas last Friday I expected a day very similar to the previous week – but that’s the beauty of life in Uganda – it’s never what you expect! The school was nearing the end of the mid-term tests. Imagine the situation: banana class has 52 children, the majority boys. I mention this because most of you will realise that boys have an innate talent for mischief and being boisterous that girls don’t have! Girls tend to hop and skip out of the classroom to go for ‘soo soo’ (a pee); boys go like a bullet from a gun and return in a tumble with their friends.
The 52 children are in three groups, ‘baby’, ‘middle’ and ‘top’. Each child needs to do four tests: writing, drawing, maths and an oral to check their understanding of simple instruction, such as ‘Touch your nose’, ‘Jump five times’ and of simple questions, such as, ‘How many toes do you have?’, ‘Do you like posho and beans?’ (Oh Yes!!!) So that’s over 200 pieces of paper in three different ability levels. Tr Doreen had done most of them already, but I helped the baby group with their drawing. Three children at a time came and stood at the desk and copied a simple object and then coloured in another one. The middle group had to do their writing test and one boy had to do his maths test. Eventually they had finished, but just to be sure, Tr Doreen called out names of the children who had completed a particular test and they went outside and then she called the names for a different test and they came back in. This was done twice! Refer above to how they move in and out and you will appreciate why we both had headaches by 1.00pm!
After lunch I went to the slum school for reading. Generally Fridays are quiet as only P3 return for afternoon school – but today a medical team were there checking the children’s health, so the place was crowded! Not only the children from the school but their siblings which they had brought along with them. It is a brilliant idea, as children often have worms or sores or are malnourished and need vitamins etc and parents don’t have the money to pay. On Saturday the team were returning to hold a clinic for the community generally.
But for me Saturday meant reading club! Again it went well and was more structured as the cook came to do the porridge and consequently the children had it earlier and we were able to do more reading with them.
Afterwards I went to town intending to go to the theatre, but altho’ it was advertised as ‘The Heart Trick’ it was in Luganda! So I spent time and money in the bookshop and then went for a late lunch of chicken and cashew nuts with rice to the Great Wall and sat overlooking the dual carriageway on Kampala Road.
Public transport in Uganda is amazing. Only a very few people have cars and these tend to be 4WDs which do even more damage to the already pot-holed roads. The majority travel on matatus (minibus taxis), which are designed for fourteen passengers; two in front with the driver and twelve in the bus itself, in three rows of four. The thing is the end seats of each row are fold down ones so that people at the back can get off. Often up to four people have to systematically get off the matatu before a backseat passenger can alight and then they have to get on again! The bus boy sits on the fold up seat nearest the door and ideally he should be the only person on that seat, but for maximum income and minimum safety he often virtually sits on a passenger’s lap! This is of course illegal, so he needs to keep a look out for the traffic police! Not only does the bus boy take the fares, he also spots prospective customers, by the way they are walking along the road or approaching down a lane from a nearby settlement. This is accompanied by constant peeping of the horn as the driver is also keeping a look out on the other side of the road while driving along and attracting the attention of any likely passengers. But the most important role of the bus boy is ensuring a quick exit from the taxi park often by blocking the way of another matatu and directing traffic at the exit when necessary. All this coupled with a chaotic road system makes for an exciting journey!
Boda-bodas (unlicensed motor bikes) are a cheaper and quicker way to get around. They weave in and out of the traffic but the vast majority of A & E victims are boda-boda riders or passengers. Not wanting to add to the casualty list I have no qualms about resisting ‘Mazungu, we go?’ You have to admire the nerve of some people tho’ who balance on the back of a boda-boda with a TV under their arm or their two children in front of them and the baby on their lap!
It’s your worst nightmare – a mossie inside the net with you, unwilling to get out. I saw one before I went to bed last night and thought I’d got it out, but the devious little bugger lay in wait! It whined past my head at 2.30am. Out of bed! Light on! Eventually I flattened it between my hand and mobile phone and was relieved to see that the splat wasn’t red! It obviously hadn’t had a midnight feast at my expense! This was the first, and hopefully the last, time this has happened.
I’m away for the weekend- more about where I’m going in the next posting. Suffice to say – remember to pray and toil!
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Thursday, 23 October 2008
Rain, rain, go away – my tan is fading!
Busy morning on Saturday. The welder arrived to put the door and windows in the container; 30 white plastic chairs were delivered about 10.00am and thirty one children turned up for reading club, some of whom were already there when I arrived at 8.30am. We let them in about 9.00am and they spent the next hour and a half doing jigsaw puzzles! Great pre-reading activity. They then did some colouring and looked at books while the porridge cooked. I actually mixed the maize flour with water and cooked it on the charcoal stove. Those of you who have been paying attention will realise that these are the same ingredients as for posho – you just use less flour for porridge! Actually it tastes quite good, especially if you put a bit of sugar in it! I read them stories while they had bread and porridge and then the children washed up and swept and tidied and went home. It was a really enjoyable morning and we’re going to do it all again next Saturday with a different group of kids!
Kampala is built on hills – originally 7 now 20 as the city has grown. Luckily they are not as steep as those in Rwanda! Where I am staying about half way up a hill and so I walk down to Nursery. From there I walk down to the project school crossing the railway line. On one side of the railway housing is legitimate and the government takes responsibility for services; if you pay, rubbish is collected and there are cess pits and water is piped to taps etc.
The land on the other side of the railway line is not recognised by the government and the people are effectively squatters. There are very few facilities. When it rains heavily, rain runs down the hillside, over the railway line and right into the huts, some of which don’t have doors, only curtains to afford some privacy. The area where the school is built is also swamp land, so when it rains, water runs down and comes up – a double whammy – which makes the school inaccessible and if you’re not careful and escape in time, you could be cut off for a while!
This is why on Monday we ran back to the offices, which are on the right side of the tracks, before the heavy rains came. Some children came as well for reading. Juliet and Melissa are both sick at the moment and Melissa has to rest for 2 weeks, so it’s just me for reading!
It has rained every day this week, usually just over lunchtime, but that has made the way to the slum school very slippery! Thing is it probably isn’t just mud (I’ll leave it to your imagination!).
The head teacher at the slum school is James, who has been there for 14 years and must be close to retirement age. The teachers who have classes in the afternoon go home for lunch and are supposed to return at 2.00pm. A couple of times I have been waiting nearly half an hour for James as he has the key to the office where the books are kept. Today he had misplaced the key and hoped I wouldn’t turn up as it was raining! To be honest he was really embarrassed and I felt sorry for him.
However when reading does happen, I think the children are making progress. Some of them struggle with phonics, but they enjoy the books and when they move up a level and get a star they beam! James is fascinated. He stood watching them the other day and said proudly ‘My pupils are reading!’ I just need to convince him or someone to carry on when I have left!
Another gem from the local press: A certain district in Uganda was trying to encourage the community to build pit latrines. Women were being urged to withhold sex so that the ensuing discomfort would encourage their men to get building (as if!) and what’s more any woman disobeying would be arrested! I kid you not!
I’m going to the theatre on Saturday afternoon – can’t beat a bit of culture! Just hope it’s in English and not Luganda. Bye for now!
Busy morning on Saturday. The welder arrived to put the door and windows in the container; 30 white plastic chairs were delivered about 10.00am and thirty one children turned up for reading club, some of whom were already there when I arrived at 8.30am. We let them in about 9.00am and they spent the next hour and a half doing jigsaw puzzles! Great pre-reading activity. They then did some colouring and looked at books while the porridge cooked. I actually mixed the maize flour with water and cooked it on the charcoal stove. Those of you who have been paying attention will realise that these are the same ingredients as for posho – you just use less flour for porridge! Actually it tastes quite good, especially if you put a bit of sugar in it! I read them stories while they had bread and porridge and then the children washed up and swept and tidied and went home. It was a really enjoyable morning and we’re going to do it all again next Saturday with a different group of kids!
Kampala is built on hills – originally 7 now 20 as the city has grown. Luckily they are not as steep as those in Rwanda! Where I am staying about half way up a hill and so I walk down to Nursery. From there I walk down to the project school crossing the railway line. On one side of the railway housing is legitimate and the government takes responsibility for services; if you pay, rubbish is collected and there are cess pits and water is piped to taps etc.
The land on the other side of the railway line is not recognised by the government and the people are effectively squatters. There are very few facilities. When it rains heavily, rain runs down the hillside, over the railway line and right into the huts, some of which don’t have doors, only curtains to afford some privacy. The area where the school is built is also swamp land, so when it rains, water runs down and comes up – a double whammy – which makes the school inaccessible and if you’re not careful and escape in time, you could be cut off for a while!
This is why on Monday we ran back to the offices, which are on the right side of the tracks, before the heavy rains came. Some children came as well for reading. Juliet and Melissa are both sick at the moment and Melissa has to rest for 2 weeks, so it’s just me for reading!
It has rained every day this week, usually just over lunchtime, but that has made the way to the slum school very slippery! Thing is it probably isn’t just mud (I’ll leave it to your imagination!).
The head teacher at the slum school is James, who has been there for 14 years and must be close to retirement age. The teachers who have classes in the afternoon go home for lunch and are supposed to return at 2.00pm. A couple of times I have been waiting nearly half an hour for James as he has the key to the office where the books are kept. Today he had misplaced the key and hoped I wouldn’t turn up as it was raining! To be honest he was really embarrassed and I felt sorry for him.
However when reading does happen, I think the children are making progress. Some of them struggle with phonics, but they enjoy the books and when they move up a level and get a star they beam! James is fascinated. He stood watching them the other day and said proudly ‘My pupils are reading!’ I just need to convince him or someone to carry on when I have left!
Another gem from the local press: A certain district in Uganda was trying to encourage the community to build pit latrines. Women were being urged to withhold sex so that the ensuing discomfort would encourage their men to get building (as if!) and what’s more any woman disobeying would be arrested! I kid you not!
I’m going to the theatre on Saturday afternoon – can’t beat a bit of culture! Just hope it’s in English and not Luganda. Bye for now!
Friday, 17 October 2008
Books, books and more books!
When I came to Uganda this time I brought an extra bag full of books for the reading sessions I was intending to do at the slum school and some story books for the reading club. The school where my sister works in Leeds donated the reading scheme books and the others were what friends had given me. In addition I have four big boxes of books at home waiting to be shipped out! I have been waiting two years now, although BA pilots have offered, no-one seems to have got round to the finer details. These books are for ‘the library’!
The library will be a community resource and not attached to a particular school. Just because the people in the slum are refugees from troubled areas of Uganda and surrounding countries, doesn’t mean to say they’re uneducated. If you had to flee in danger of your life with your children, would you really stop to pack books? Even though I love my books, I certainly wouldn’t. The thought that parents and children could enjoy the books together appealed to me.
After discussions with Joe, the project leader at the Nursery, we decided to buy a container, put in windows and a door, electricity and equip it with shelves etc and put it where the parents would be able to use it and any children who needed somewhere to do their homework. If the librarian could also support them in this and in the future, with a few computers teach the parents the basics of word processing ……………… the dream of a community resource is slowly taking form!
The container we bought last week in the rain was delivered on Monday afternoon, so when I arrived on Tuesday morning, there it was, but in the wrong place! Not an easy job to move it I thought and get it on the wheel rims, but lo and behold, by Wednesday morning it was in position! Evidently the movers had to be paid extra, the gates of the Nursery had to be removed I order to swing it round the corner ……… but it is now ready for Nathan to clean and begin to paint and the door and windows may be fitted over the weekend! Great!
Mamma Betty has been in touch and has offered to cook me lunch and supper! This is a bit difficult as I usually eat with my colleagues at lunch-time and don’t always want two meals in a day. However she wants to cook for me at her home, so I went to see where it is. It’s actually nearer to where I’m staying than anywhere else I go to in Namuwongo, so I can collect supper in a plastic container from her on my way home and eat it with my glass of wine. For my first meal I ordered rice and g-nut sauce – I’d forgotten how good it tasted! (G-nut is ground nut, what we call peanuts!) Tonight I’ve had deep fried tilapia (local fish) and sweet potatoes – delicious!
Reading has gone really well his week. Between us, Melissa, Juliette and I have heard over 100 primary children read and have managed to sort them into different levels; some children can read reasonably well, but some still don’t really know their letter sounds and have problems remembering words – so it will be a challenge. We have made lots of resources and will try to get the use of a blackboard next week. The children are very enthusiastic and even those who aren’t in afternoon school come back after lunch and wait a couple of hours until the lessons are nearly over and then sneak in and sit avidly reading!!
Unfortunately some of the Nursery children have been ill this week with malaria. They are still brought to Nursery as their parents have to work, so we lay them on inflated mattresses and let them sleep. They are very lethargic and have no appetite.
Some of the others have been really naughty – maybe it’s the atmosphere – very thundery at the moment with short, heavy downpours. Or it may just be that as some are now 5years old, they are ready for ‘big school’ in January (the new school years starts in January in the southern hemisphere).
Newspapers are delivered to the guest house each morning about 7.00am, so I usually have time to read at least one of them before I leave for the Nursery at about 7.30am. They have limited international news except for football of course, but are a source of great amusement. One job advert recently required, among other things, for the applicant ‘to be saved and a member of a church’. I’m not sure how the former could be satisfied unless God could send an e-mail confirming that a place had been reserved in heaven!
Remember new thoughts are good for you and a sense of humour helps!
When I came to Uganda this time I brought an extra bag full of books for the reading sessions I was intending to do at the slum school and some story books for the reading club. The school where my sister works in Leeds donated the reading scheme books and the others were what friends had given me. In addition I have four big boxes of books at home waiting to be shipped out! I have been waiting two years now, although BA pilots have offered, no-one seems to have got round to the finer details. These books are for ‘the library’!
The library will be a community resource and not attached to a particular school. Just because the people in the slum are refugees from troubled areas of Uganda and surrounding countries, doesn’t mean to say they’re uneducated. If you had to flee in danger of your life with your children, would you really stop to pack books? Even though I love my books, I certainly wouldn’t. The thought that parents and children could enjoy the books together appealed to me.
After discussions with Joe, the project leader at the Nursery, we decided to buy a container, put in windows and a door, electricity and equip it with shelves etc and put it where the parents would be able to use it and any children who needed somewhere to do their homework. If the librarian could also support them in this and in the future, with a few computers teach the parents the basics of word processing ……………… the dream of a community resource is slowly taking form!
The container we bought last week in the rain was delivered on Monday afternoon, so when I arrived on Tuesday morning, there it was, but in the wrong place! Not an easy job to move it I thought and get it on the wheel rims, but lo and behold, by Wednesday morning it was in position! Evidently the movers had to be paid extra, the gates of the Nursery had to be removed I order to swing it round the corner ……… but it is now ready for Nathan to clean and begin to paint and the door and windows may be fitted over the weekend! Great!
Mamma Betty has been in touch and has offered to cook me lunch and supper! This is a bit difficult as I usually eat with my colleagues at lunch-time and don’t always want two meals in a day. However she wants to cook for me at her home, so I went to see where it is. It’s actually nearer to where I’m staying than anywhere else I go to in Namuwongo, so I can collect supper in a plastic container from her on my way home and eat it with my glass of wine. For my first meal I ordered rice and g-nut sauce – I’d forgotten how good it tasted! (G-nut is ground nut, what we call peanuts!) Tonight I’ve had deep fried tilapia (local fish) and sweet potatoes – delicious!
Reading has gone really well his week. Between us, Melissa, Juliette and I have heard over 100 primary children read and have managed to sort them into different levels; some children can read reasonably well, but some still don’t really know their letter sounds and have problems remembering words – so it will be a challenge. We have made lots of resources and will try to get the use of a blackboard next week. The children are very enthusiastic and even those who aren’t in afternoon school come back after lunch and wait a couple of hours until the lessons are nearly over and then sneak in and sit avidly reading!!
Unfortunately some of the Nursery children have been ill this week with malaria. They are still brought to Nursery as their parents have to work, so we lay them on inflated mattresses and let them sleep. They are very lethargic and have no appetite.
Some of the others have been really naughty – maybe it’s the atmosphere – very thundery at the moment with short, heavy downpours. Or it may just be that as some are now 5years old, they are ready for ‘big school’ in January (the new school years starts in January in the southern hemisphere).
Newspapers are delivered to the guest house each morning about 7.00am, so I usually have time to read at least one of them before I leave for the Nursery at about 7.30am. They have limited international news except for football of course, but are a source of great amusement. One job advert recently required, among other things, for the applicant ‘to be saved and a member of a church’. I’m not sure how the former could be satisfied unless God could send an e-mail confirming that a place had been reserved in heaven!
Remember new thoughts are good for you and a sense of humour helps!
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
Rwanda – land of a thousand hills
Flew to Rwanda for the weekend in a little Dash 8 – 100 plane. Extravagant, I know – but the alternative is a 10-12 hour bus journey and flight didn’t cost as much as my malaria tablets for the two months. Rwanda is a lovely country with beautiful scenery and clean streets. In 2005, the country banned plastic bags, so unlike Uganda which is littered with the ubiquitous black bag in various stages of disintegration, there is no rubbish anywhere. Most roads are tar with NO potholes. As Rwanda was colonised by the Belgian they drive on the right side of the road, but the traffic is controlled by traffic lights and zebra crossings and there are road signs and roundabouts planted with shrubs and flowers and even fountains!
I chose Hotel Okapi as it has views over the city and is near the minibus-taxi (not matatus as in Uganda) park and the genocide memorial. However little did I realise that I would have to climb quite a few of those thousand hills to reach the hotel! It was worth it – the views were stunning! After lunch and a ‘small rains’ delay I set off for the genocide memorial Halfway down the hill I’d just climbed, along a bit and then up a few more hills on the other side of the valley.
There are no words to describe the feelings you get when you visit the memorial. The display is in a small building, which also houses an education centre and a research library and which is surrounded by memorial gardens. The rose garden is especially dedicated to the children who were slaughtered. A quarter of a million men, women and children were killed in Kigali and they are now buried in eight concrete crypts. The coffins do not necessarily contain whole people or even parts of the same person, as identification was often impossible, but are a symbol of the dignity afforded them. Bodies continue to be found in shallow graves around Kigali; they are exhumed and reburied at the genocide memorial.
Sunday I headed for the town centre and especially the book shops. Unfortunately not many places were open – Kampala is heaving on a Sunday and I expected Kigali to be the same. Maybe it’s because it is a predominantly Catholic country that shops are closed. However the bookshop was open, altho’ the VISA machine wasn’t working due to lack of computer links and the bank ATMs weren’t working for the same reason. I finally found a Forex that was open and changed my ‘emergency’ 20 euros in order to buy a book on the genocide memorial – strangely there were no books or leaflets at the memorial itself. On my way back I saw Hotel des Mille Collines, which is know as Hotel Rwanda in the film of the same name and St Famille Church where people sheltered from the interhamwe; in most cases unsuccessfully. In total about one million people in the whole country were killed in just a hundred days.
On a lighter note – I had goat skewer on Sunday night. I always imagined goat would taste something like lamb, but it is more like beef. It was a bit tough, but then it was ‘goat’ and not ‘kid’! The tilapia (fish) skewer I had the previous night was delicious!
I returned to Uganda on Monday and was glad to be back! Rwandans deserve our respect and admiration for the way they have survived, are dealing with the aftermath of the genocide and have turned their country around, but I can’t say I felt as relaxed as I do in Uganda and the people overall aren’t as friendly and welcoming. Altho’ maybe that’s to be expected.
We are in the short rainy season and twice last week I was caught in torrential rain with thunder and lightning over the lunchtime. The first time I was in a container – more later – and the second time Melissa and I were making our way up from the school to the office for lunch. We took shelter under the corrugated roof of a shop, but the wind was blowing so we still got pretty wet. Everything stops when it rains! So the chap we were meeting to talk about containers stayed in his office and so then we had to waste even more time waiting for him to arrive on a boda-boda (motor-bike – so you can see why he didn’t come in the rain!). When Melissa and I finally got to the office we found that the person who was waiting for us to order lunch had fallen asleep! Mind you I got my ‘meat’, altho’ it was tilapia the local fish. I’ve always had either whole fish or fillets before – this was a steak and the bones are like darning needles! Also had cassava for the first time – it looks like parsnips but isn’t sweet and tastes more starchy. However there was so much rain in half an hour that the way back to the school was impassable, so reading lessons didn’t really happen.
Our first proper reading session was on Friday and it went really well. Some children are good readers and others don’t even know the letter sounds. So we have a dual task - keeping the readers challenged and the non-readers interested!
Hope you are all well!
Flew to Rwanda for the weekend in a little Dash 8 – 100 plane. Extravagant, I know – but the alternative is a 10-12 hour bus journey and flight didn’t cost as much as my malaria tablets for the two months. Rwanda is a lovely country with beautiful scenery and clean streets. In 2005, the country banned plastic bags, so unlike Uganda which is littered with the ubiquitous black bag in various stages of disintegration, there is no rubbish anywhere. Most roads are tar with NO potholes. As Rwanda was colonised by the Belgian they drive on the right side of the road, but the traffic is controlled by traffic lights and zebra crossings and there are road signs and roundabouts planted with shrubs and flowers and even fountains!
I chose Hotel Okapi as it has views over the city and is near the minibus-taxi (not matatus as in Uganda) park and the genocide memorial. However little did I realise that I would have to climb quite a few of those thousand hills to reach the hotel! It was worth it – the views were stunning! After lunch and a ‘small rains’ delay I set off for the genocide memorial Halfway down the hill I’d just climbed, along a bit and then up a few more hills on the other side of the valley.
There are no words to describe the feelings you get when you visit the memorial. The display is in a small building, which also houses an education centre and a research library and which is surrounded by memorial gardens. The rose garden is especially dedicated to the children who were slaughtered. A quarter of a million men, women and children were killed in Kigali and they are now buried in eight concrete crypts. The coffins do not necessarily contain whole people or even parts of the same person, as identification was often impossible, but are a symbol of the dignity afforded them. Bodies continue to be found in shallow graves around Kigali; they are exhumed and reburied at the genocide memorial.
Sunday I headed for the town centre and especially the book shops. Unfortunately not many places were open – Kampala is heaving on a Sunday and I expected Kigali to be the same. Maybe it’s because it is a predominantly Catholic country that shops are closed. However the bookshop was open, altho’ the VISA machine wasn’t working due to lack of computer links and the bank ATMs weren’t working for the same reason. I finally found a Forex that was open and changed my ‘emergency’ 20 euros in order to buy a book on the genocide memorial – strangely there were no books or leaflets at the memorial itself. On my way back I saw Hotel des Mille Collines, which is know as Hotel Rwanda in the film of the same name and St Famille Church where people sheltered from the interhamwe; in most cases unsuccessfully. In total about one million people in the whole country were killed in just a hundred days.
On a lighter note – I had goat skewer on Sunday night. I always imagined goat would taste something like lamb, but it is more like beef. It was a bit tough, but then it was ‘goat’ and not ‘kid’! The tilapia (fish) skewer I had the previous night was delicious!
I returned to Uganda on Monday and was glad to be back! Rwandans deserve our respect and admiration for the way they have survived, are dealing with the aftermath of the genocide and have turned their country around, but I can’t say I felt as relaxed as I do in Uganda and the people overall aren’t as friendly and welcoming. Altho’ maybe that’s to be expected.
We are in the short rainy season and twice last week I was caught in torrential rain with thunder and lightning over the lunchtime. The first time I was in a container – more later – and the second time Melissa and I were making our way up from the school to the office for lunch. We took shelter under the corrugated roof of a shop, but the wind was blowing so we still got pretty wet. Everything stops when it rains! So the chap we were meeting to talk about containers stayed in his office and so then we had to waste even more time waiting for him to arrive on a boda-boda (motor-bike – so you can see why he didn’t come in the rain!). When Melissa and I finally got to the office we found that the person who was waiting for us to order lunch had fallen asleep! Mind you I got my ‘meat’, altho’ it was tilapia the local fish. I’ve always had either whole fish or fillets before – this was a steak and the bones are like darning needles! Also had cassava for the first time – it looks like parsnips but isn’t sweet and tastes more starchy. However there was so much rain in half an hour that the way back to the school was impassable, so reading lessons didn’t really happen.
Our first proper reading session was on Friday and it went really well. Some children are good readers and others don’t even know the letter sounds. So we have a dual task - keeping the readers challenged and the non-readers interested!
Hope you are all well!
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
How are you? I am fine!
How are you? I am fine! The traditional greeting – but you must say it in a sing-song voice with the emphasis on the last word each time.
Got here OK – pretty shattered as didn’t seem to sleep on the plane and spent the rest of Monday unpacking and settling in to Banda Inns! It is a very friendly place! The owners live on the premises and have a 2-year old, Hector, who is around all the time and a couple of dogs. There is a UK woman who lives in Sapin who has adopted two little boys, both 2 years old, Mark and Luke. Luke was one of the babies I looked after in Sanyu when I cam 18 months ago – small world! There are other volunteers who are here for different lengths of time so it’s an interesting place to be.
What a difference six months has made! Mamma Betty has moved on as she couldn’t afford her rent. So it’s lunch at the nursery with the children and other workers. We have rice and posho (like wallpaper paste made from maize flour!) on alternate days with spicy beans, but they were clean out of beans on Tuesday so we had well-boiled shredded cabbage with rice!
The Nursery (note to avoid confusion – this Nursery will start with N; the nursery class at the school will be nursery!) has grown from 10 children to 45! Beatrice the teacher I worked with last time has also moved on. Aidah, who started work at the nursery while I was here last time, is now in charge assisted by a new teacher, Mary. They are both great! The children have lessons in English but if they don’t understand, Aidah and Mary explain it to them in Luganda. The children’s English has really improved tho’ since I was last here – it’s really good to see them again, hey have all made lots of progress!
After lunch on Tuesday I went into the slum with Violet, who lives there, to meet some of the local families. She is a local representative on the council whose interest is environmental issues. Among other things, she is trying to get them to put all their rubbish in specific places so it can be burnt. We visited families who live in one small room, where there isn’t enough room for them all to lie down and where the streams of rubbish flow by their doorsteps. One grandmother who is looking after her grandchildren as their parents are dead sells charcoal to make a living – you can imagine the colour of her hands and feet as she stands among it using her hands to measure it in a plastic bowl.
The reading books I brought with me are going to be used at the slum school, there are already some reading books at the Nursery. There are 210 children enrolled: 50 in the nursery; 55 in Primary 1 (P1); 60 in P2 and 45 in P3 – big classes! James, the teacher of P3 and I have worked out a provisional timetable. I’m to have 4 children at a time for about half an hour every afternoon from 2.00pm until 4.30pm. On three afternoons, I’ll have children from P2 and those from P3 on the other afternoons. This means I should see every child once a week! If other people help we’ll see them more often. Melissa another volunteer form USA and Martha a local social worker are also keen to help – adds variety to their day I guess!!
On Wednesdays and Friday I will be at the school all day so will have lunch there, which holds out the hope of meat as Martha checked I wasn’t a vegetarian! I’ll have to pay for it tho’. Win some, lose some!
In addition I’ll work with the nursery children and those in P1 on a couple of mornings a week. The other three mornings I will be at the Nursery and let’s not forget ‘reading club’ on Saturday mornings! People work hard in Uganda! School opens at 8.00am and teachers (not me!) are expected to be there at 7.15am and they work through until 4.30pm.
I’ve discovered an oasis round a couple of corners from where I’m staying. It’s got a couple of outdoor pools and a gym. As I’m doing PE every morning with the children I might give the gym a miss. Did intend to go for a swim on Saturday afternoon, but guess what? It’s cloudy!
Rained all Saturday night and it’s a bit damp this morning so I’m finishing this off and hopefully it will be fine later. Keep smiling – I am!!
Got here OK – pretty shattered as didn’t seem to sleep on the plane and spent the rest of Monday unpacking and settling in to Banda Inns! It is a very friendly place! The owners live on the premises and have a 2-year old, Hector, who is around all the time and a couple of dogs. There is a UK woman who lives in Sapin who has adopted two little boys, both 2 years old, Mark and Luke. Luke was one of the babies I looked after in Sanyu when I cam 18 months ago – small world! There are other volunteers who are here for different lengths of time so it’s an interesting place to be.
What a difference six months has made! Mamma Betty has moved on as she couldn’t afford her rent. So it’s lunch at the nursery with the children and other workers. We have rice and posho (like wallpaper paste made from maize flour!) on alternate days with spicy beans, but they were clean out of beans on Tuesday so we had well-boiled shredded cabbage with rice!
The Nursery (note to avoid confusion – this Nursery will start with N; the nursery class at the school will be nursery!) has grown from 10 children to 45! Beatrice the teacher I worked with last time has also moved on. Aidah, who started work at the nursery while I was here last time, is now in charge assisted by a new teacher, Mary. They are both great! The children have lessons in English but if they don’t understand, Aidah and Mary explain it to them in Luganda. The children’s English has really improved tho’ since I was last here – it’s really good to see them again, hey have all made lots of progress!
After lunch on Tuesday I went into the slum with Violet, who lives there, to meet some of the local families. She is a local representative on the council whose interest is environmental issues. Among other things, she is trying to get them to put all their rubbish in specific places so it can be burnt. We visited families who live in one small room, where there isn’t enough room for them all to lie down and where the streams of rubbish flow by their doorsteps. One grandmother who is looking after her grandchildren as their parents are dead sells charcoal to make a living – you can imagine the colour of her hands and feet as she stands among it using her hands to measure it in a plastic bowl.
The reading books I brought with me are going to be used at the slum school, there are already some reading books at the Nursery. There are 210 children enrolled: 50 in the nursery; 55 in Primary 1 (P1); 60 in P2 and 45 in P3 – big classes! James, the teacher of P3 and I have worked out a provisional timetable. I’m to have 4 children at a time for about half an hour every afternoon from 2.00pm until 4.30pm. On three afternoons, I’ll have children from P2 and those from P3 on the other afternoons. This means I should see every child once a week! If other people help we’ll see them more often. Melissa another volunteer form USA and Martha a local social worker are also keen to help – adds variety to their day I guess!!
On Wednesdays and Friday I will be at the school all day so will have lunch there, which holds out the hope of meat as Martha checked I wasn’t a vegetarian! I’ll have to pay for it tho’. Win some, lose some!
In addition I’ll work with the nursery children and those in P1 on a couple of mornings a week. The other three mornings I will be at the Nursery and let’s not forget ‘reading club’ on Saturday mornings! People work hard in Uganda! School opens at 8.00am and teachers (not me!) are expected to be there at 7.15am and they work through until 4.30pm.
I’ve discovered an oasis round a couple of corners from where I’m staying. It’s got a couple of outdoor pools and a gym. As I’m doing PE every morning with the children I might give the gym a miss. Did intend to go for a swim on Saturday afternoon, but guess what? It’s cloudy!
Rained all Saturday night and it’s a bit damp this morning so I’m finishing this off and hopefully it will be fine later. Keep smiling – I am!!
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