Settling back into life in Kiwangala

  - 10th June

I’ve been home for just over 2 weeks, and it feels as though I never left. As though my mad month of travelling never even happened. I think, coming back to Kiwangala from travelling has made it feel even more like home. Everything feels familiar, and it was such a comforting sight when Kiwangala came into sight, across the valley, on the road from Masaka.

Unfortunately, my body realised that now it was home, it didn't have to push through and keep going, as it had done whilst travelling, and I fell into a state of disrepair shortly after arriving. Not before I had the opportunity to make a round of all of our friends, and our lovely family though, who made me feel even more as though I’d returned home. Sunday evening, after a lively church service which almost had me in tears at the joy of the familiarity of everything, and lunch down with the family, my body gave up the gun and the sickness I’d been holding off, took over. It took all of my energy to pull myself out of bed the following morning, to sit on a boda, to take me to the other end of the village, and the sight of Kiwangala health centre. Where I spent the next 4 hours half asleep, sitting in the narrow corridor, waiting, along with around 60 other people, to be seen to by the single doctor. She diagnosed me with malaria, very nonchalantly, and sent me home with a set of pills. Luckily for me, Calum’s family were staying that week, so I had 2 mums to look after me! Justine came up one morning at 7am with Dan and Elinah and toast and hot milk, to check that I was taking my pills and recovering. I was. I had another mum on the end of the phone, rather helpless, wishing she was here to look after me too! After spending the next few days in bed, I felt much better. At the end of the week I phoned Dr. Stockley, the big gun doctor in Kampala, who P.T. are closely linked with. He told me, straight away, I hadn’t had malaria; I was almost disappointed! Apparently 19 in 20 cases diagnosed as malaria in rural clinics in Uganda actually are not. After I told him my symptoms he was even more certain, saying I would have been hallucinating and unable to get out of bed if I’d had 3 fevers with malaria. So, sorry for worrying everyone! Panic over.

Since then, everything has been focused on the start of a new term at Children’s Sure House, and Moses’ radical ideas for change in the school, which has meant the introduction of a whole new timetable. The secondary school now has only 6 students, and has a pretty uncertain future. We continue to teach the unstoppable pair of girls in senior 2, who are a credit to themselves and work so hard, in a difficult situation. Senior 4s are being taught by Moses. And that’s it for the senior section.

Which leaves the primary, where there are nearly 300 students, spread over 9 classes. With a mixture of pressure from us, and Moses’ recent trip to America, where he saw how things could be done differently, the curriculum has suddenly become a hundred times more diverse and exciting for the students, which is also exciting for us! In the new timetable Jenny is teaching drama, Calum sports and art, Holly Music, French, baking and sewing. And I’m teaching Spanish and art, and hopefully going to get the chance to join in with some baking classes! We’re all really fueled up about it, even if it does mean no more 3 day weekends and 7.30 starts most mornings!

Spanish has been great fun; the children are so excited about it and have fun shouting out new Spanish words, in surprisingly good Spanish accents. It’s so rewarding to hear them shouting hola and introducing themselves to me in Spanish out of the lessons. Art is great; Holly and I are working together so, as she teaches new recipes to the students in baking classes, we are creating recipe books to catalogue them all in our art lessons.

I have also started teaching English in the primary school, using the book Funnybones, which is incredibly popular. The children have been so starved of any kind of fun in English lessons, but Moses has specifically said that he wants us to teaching reading and writing. This is so exciting, as previously lessons have consisted solely of grammar and sentence structure, leaving no room for imagination! So, the school suddenly has a new burst of life, Moses is ensuring all teachers go to all their lessons (theoretically, there’s still some work to be done there) and the children are actually getting to do things other than just copying from the board. Leaps and Bounds!

We have a plan to take all of Justine and Moses’ children along with Robinah’s (a teacher and neighbour) four boys, swimming in Masaka on the 29^th June, which everyone is already buzzing for! Emma, our friend who lives a few miles away in an orphanage has said she’s going to come with her 8 children too, so it looks as though we’ll be taking over the pool! We can’t wait. Holly has started a very self-disciplined exercise regime, which involves running most evenings, and I’m beginning to get sucked along too, which is good, as Uganda is not being kind to my waist line! So, life in Kiwangala continues. It’s hit us all how numbered our days left here now are, and I think we all feel as though we have to really make the most of the little time we have left in this special place which we’ve all become so attached to.

Just arrived home from a walk with Jingo James and Calum to a tiny coffee processing place in Kiwangala. It’s coffee season and I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to buy some fresh coffee beans. . It’s so interesting to see the bare roots of where the coffee comes from. All around Kiwangala are plastic sheets laid out with beans in their husks, drying in the sun, then they are taken to one of five little factories in Kiwangala (competition is rife!) where they are laid out again, before being hauled up the most rickety little staircase I’ve walked up in my life to be dropped into the top of the machine where the husks and beans are separated. I now have a little tub of green beans and am going to try to make my own coffee…

Blog about my travels to follow!