April in Uganda

FINISHED 29TH APRIL

 So, it’s been a long time. Life continues in Uganda, in Kiwangala. The rainy season is well and truly set in, which is great, as it means we almost always have a supply of water, straight from the sky to our buckets to our jerry cans. The mornings can actually be quite chilly, I ventured outside one early morning this week, and had to go back in to put on a jumper.

I’m currently in Masaka, where there is a power cut all over town, apparently it’s common in the grasshopper season, as really bright lights are used at night to catch the little fellas. (It’s grasshopper season now, they’re not great, they taste a bit like a lump of over cooked fish batter). Also, I don’t have my diary with me, so I’m not sure exactly what’s been going on, in what order since I last wrote, so I’m just going to write about things I can remember.

Starting with my jigger, which I got a few weeks ago, it was exciting,  I found it in my art lesson, on my baby toe, and went straight to mama Justine, who expertly removed it with a needle, intact, until there was a small pea sized white grub sitting on my toe. Amazingly, I didn’t feel a thing, although I held tight to Jenny’s hand throughout the ordeal. They can grow to the size of baked beans and  Justine sometimes pulls several out of one child’s fingers or toes in one sitting. I got off lightly.

At the end of March, it was Easter, and I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to cope without the annual Easter egg hunt. We decided to introduce some eggs to the Easter in Kiwangala. Children’s Sure House is also a parish, with Moses as the pastor. So every Sunday, there is a lively church service, with drums and an electric keyboard and dancing and jumping and shouting and praying and a man translating the whole thing into English for us. Easter Sunday was no exception, it is the biggest annual holiday hear after Christmas. We decided it would be good fun to have an egg paiting competition, so we took all the children into one of the classrooms. An hour later, after paint managed to find its way into all sorts of places. After lots of laughter, and a few tears over dropped eggs, 30 children emerged with their painted eggs, to carry them back into the church, where the rest of the congregation voted on their favourite. Following this, everyone lined up outside, eggs in hand, to roll them down the hill. The egg that got the furthest won, and as soon as the children cottoned onto the fact the prizes were in the form of chocolate, competitiveness rocketed, with some eggs being thrown, more than rolled! All in all it was a really great morning, many, if not all of the children, had never touched a paint brush in their life, and it was nice to bring something from our celebration of Easter to the children of Kiwangala. The rest of the day was spent down at Moses and Justine’s eating too much, and playing scrabble, which is more amusing than you might think, when playing with people who have a slightly different take on the English language!

Moses left again, this time for 3 weeks, to visit America, to try and get more sponsors, and have a bit of a jolly, on the back of said sponsors! Whilst he was away his father dies, a very highly respected man in Uganda, we were going to go to the funeral, but Justine had too many people to accompany her, a whole bus load left from Kiwangala to go to the capital for the occasion. Apparently there were thousands there, even President Museveni showed up to pay his respects. Upsetting that Moses was out of the country though.

Sports day at school was good fun, and the first of the 2 day event coinsided with Jenny’s birthday, which made for an exciting day at Children’s Sure House! After a present opening session on jenny’s bed, we all hunted for clothes to match our colours. I am team red, which is the superior team. Jenny is yellow, and Holly is blue. Wearing everything we could possibly find in our team colours, including a broken blue umbrella, a red oven glove and a full yellow football kit. We left for the Kiwangala football pitch (just across the road from our house, where all major sports events in the village take place), the site of the sports day! The event itself was the epitome of organised chaos. The children were incredible, the boys longest race being 25 laps of the whole field. The whole placing system was far from correct, with some boys running 27 laps instead of 25, and the teachers became far too competitive, a fight nearly broke out when one teacher gave a place to a boy is his colour, when he shouldn’t have! But all in all it was a good day. We left to get a jerry can full of water, as the children were baking in the sun, and everyone was fed glucose to replace lost sugars.

The biggest trip we’ve had in April was to theSsese Islands, on Lake Victoria. We met 3 Project Trust girls who live down in Kabale, in Masaka and headed over on the free ferry. Storms followed us over, and we thought we were in for a weekend of rain. We were wrong, by the time we arrived in the little hippy campsite at the other end of the island, the sun was hot, and spent the rest of the day lazing on the beach, and swimming in the bilharzia infested water. It does feel strangely like you’re on the coast , Lake Victoria is so huge. That evening, we were joined by 4 more PT volouteers, 2 girls and 2 boys, and then 2 of Holly’s friends who happened to be in Uganda too. On Saturday I managed to visit the 11 year old girl, Tina, who I formed a little bond with the last time I had been there. The owners told me shelives on the campsite during the school holidays and that she was at a school up in the village. With a bit of searching I managed to track her down. It was a magical moment, when she came out of her room and saw me, after a sharp intake of breath, she remembered my name and ran straight over to give me a huge hug, after that, she got all shy. It was so lovely to see her though.

Our latest project, this last week, has been to paint S4’s classroom. Last Sunday we bought almost 80 litres of paint and, starting last Thursday, with an undercoat, and finishing just now (it’s now Monday evening) with 3 yellow walls, and a blue wall. It looks 100 times better, I’m so so pleased we managed to do it, and the students were a great help, real team work!

There is so much more I could write about, but I have no time left. I have to finish packing. Early in the morning Holly, Jenny and I are leaving with two girls, who we met a couple of weeks ago in Masaka. They live only 5 miles from us, with 2 other volunteers, working in a really lovely, small children’s home. The girls are called Emma Mills and Swandiz (not how it’s spelt! From Iceland). We had a night out in Masaka with them and the other two they’re with, as well as a woman working nearby. We started in a pork joint and then headed to the biggest night club in Uganda, which just happens to be conveniently placed in Masaka! They came to ours for dinner on Friday, and we were at theirs yesterday for lunch (Mills has been a chef in London for the last 3 years, working under Gordon Ramsey, so needless to say, her lunch was incredible!) Anyway, we all get on really well, so we decided to go on a road trip together. We managed to secure a 4x4 for a week for $360, we’ve got a route planned to go through Queen Elizabeth National Park and Fort Portal, and I’m so excited!