Last Blog Entry

I can hardly beleive it still that Ive been back in the UK for just over 3 weeks. I remember being in Uganda and Achiltibuie and my home was a whole other world! But now im sitting in my sitting room writing up my last blog about the most incredible, unforgettable year ive ever had.

So as you can probably guess the last month was full of goodbyes and rounding up our work at our project. The last day of school came as a bit of a shock as we had always thought that it ended on the friday (1st of August) When infact Deo came up to us on the monday to tell us that they were actually going to finnish that day! So suddenly we rushed round the back for the end of year assembly. All of the teachers stood up on the platform/stage while the kids did the usual of lining up in their classes infront of us. I was looking over all of the kids trying to take in as much of their faces as i could! I know for a fact that some of the kids i will most likely never see again as they will move villages, change schools etc. So it was heartbreaking to think that some children that i have become so close with over the year i may not ever see again. I found myself having to choke back the lump in my throat at the thought. Jess and I gave a speech on how grateful we were to be teaching in such a fantastic school that Salvation is. How much we enjoyed getting to know each and every child and how much we would miss them all. I dont think alot of them had quite fully understood that we were actually leaving until the assembly. We then gave out awards for the house winner of that term which was a lovely way to round up the assembly.
It was so strange to have our last assembly at the school. I remember our first one Jess and I stood at the side unsure quite what was happening! Now a year on we were standing up on the stage infront of all the children and staff that we had grown so close to over the year.
After the assembly there was about a 15 minute break before they went home. Chatting with all the children was such a nice way to end it, laughing and joking around like we did so many times at break times and lunch times. I dont think ive ever met such amazing kids as i have in Uganda! All of sudden it was time for them to go home. I just wanted to grab them all and not let them go! As we watched them run off home i had tears in my eyes (if you know me well you will know i never cry!) I remember before this day came thinking how hard it was going to be watching them all walk off knowing that i may not see some of them again. It definitely was one of the hardest things ive experienced.

For the last day of school with the teachers (as after the kids went home the next couple of days were marking exams and then a parents meeting) We had a lovely lunch of rice and beans, yes rice not posho! We also bought a big bottle of soda to share out with the teachers. It was a really nice day and we also gave a lot of our old clothes to some of the teachers which they loved! It was like seeing woman at a sale in primark or something!
We also had a parents meeting for all the parents to come to discuss their childrens reports and next term requirements. Unfortunatly for Jess and I it was all in Luganda so we sat outisde playing with namakula. It was really interesting seeing all the parents that we hadnt seen before as it was easy to tell who was whos parents! Once the meeting was over I met some of the parents including one of my favourite kids Lawrence's (i know your not meant to have favourites!) I have only seen her from afar with a wave and a greeting but she came up to me and thanked me for being such a good friend to lawrence and how much they were going to miss me and that lawrence didnt want me to leave and thanked me for teaching him. It was so touching to hear and it felt so rewarding to be so appreciated. She shook my hand alot and then walked home. I just sat there thinking about what she said, i cant even describe how i felt but it was such a mix of happiness and sadness. I always knew it was going to be hard to leave but i didnt quite expect how hard it actually was.
Our last night at the project we had bought some soda and sweets to share with the kids. Sitting with them all outside it suddenly hit me just how much i would miss them all! I didnt want the next day to come and actually have to say goodbye to them. What i would have done to take them all back to achiltibuie with me!

The last day at our project was full of last minute clean outs of things and everyone coming round to our house and sitting and chatting with them all. We were being picked up by a mattatu in the afternoon so i couldnt help thinking while sitting with everyone that i was going to have to say goodbye to them all that day I had a horrible sick feeling at the pit of my stomach for the whole day. Deo also gave us a painting of his, which was so so nice of him to do. Definitly going to be framed on my wall!. He also gave us each a certificate for volunteering with them for the whole year. (now that is allready framed) It was such a nice gift to be given. He also told us how grateful they all were for our work that we did and that the parents told him to tell us how much they appreciated us teaching their children. It was so nice to hear!
Although lots of threatening that they were going to tie us to the flag posts so we would never leave the mattatu came and everyone helped pack our bags into the back. Suddenly i realized i was hugging people goodbye which i couldnt beleive was actually happening! I didnt want to let go of sara and rose. They had been like sisters to me for the year and now i was saying goodbye! It was also heartbreaking to say goodbye to benita and namakula although they didnt quite know what was going on. I even found myself choking up saying goodbye to Gita who ran the shop opposite us! It was so unbeleivably sad. I was saying goodbye to the amazing friends i had made over the year that had helped us and guided us and welcomed us into their lives with open arms. Although i didnt get to properly say goodbye to yiga brian we had been mucking about earlier on a bike and he had to go home so with a silly handshake we did he left and herbert was at school although the night before we had said a causual goodbye as he thought he would be back before we left. In some ways it was easier having those goodbyes casual as i knew they would be some of the hardest ones.
Getting into the taxi and waving to everyone out of the window was the hardest thing. The taxi out was full of tears and the surreal feeling that we were actually leaving.

A 8 hour flight from Entebbe airport to London Heathrow and then an hour flight to Edinburgh I was finally home. On the plane I had such mixed emotions i dont think ive ever felt like it! I was obviously hearbroken to leave what i called my home for the past year and leave everyone i had become friends with but i was also looking forward to seeing my friends from the UK and my family! It was as if there were so many mixed emotions the only way to cope with it all was to feel neutral. Walking through to the departures i had the biggest butterflys ive ever felt! I have to admit i did feel exceptionally grimey in the airport as i saw people in their shorts (still was a shock to see people wear clothes above the knee!) while we were stumbling past all sweaty, dirty and just generally not that clean! I was welcomed at the airport by my dad and sisters which was amazing! I couldnt quite beleive i was actually hearing their voices! It was the most surreal feeling being with people that you havnt seen for a year that you used to see all the time! It was lovely seeing them all again.

So i have now seen all my friends and family and I am getting myself packed up once again to start a new chapter of university! Im going to edinburgh university to study health, science and society. I am super excited for what instore for me next!
So far i have found adjusting to the UK life not too bad. I was quite overwhelmed at the order and cleanliness of everything. I went shopping and found it very overwhelming at the amount of choice of soaps there were in Boots! A self checkout desk in the airport was also a mind boggling experience.
Alot of people have told me that since ive been back its like ive never been away! Its as if ive just slotted back into life here.... I dont quite know how to feel about it all if im honest. I feel like i have changed but only in small ways like the way i think about things and it has definitly broaden my view on life. I do find myself getting a bit fustrated with some things that people can complain about here. I know of course i shouldnt be getting angry at them but i cant help but think about the people out in Uganda that arent complaining about what they have and how they just get on with things with a positive outlook on it. Its made me appreciate things that we have here alot more even the simple things like running water and good roads!
I find myself thinking about everyone out in Uganda still getting on with their life, peeling their matooke, fetching water, playing football and I would do anything to go back and see them all again. I hope that one day i get the opportunity to go back to Uganda and go back to my little village and see everyone once again. I will never forget the experience of a lifetime i had in Uganda. I did so many things out there that i never thought i would get the chance to do. I met so many people that i will remember forever.
So now my Ugandan life chapter has closed and I go onto my next chapter. Hopefully one of my future chapters will lead me back to uganda but for now I am excited for what i am doing next and will keep on stuffing my face with all the food available!

Thank you everyone that has read my blogs throughout the year. Thanks to everyone that supported me and especially through fundraising. I literally couldnt have done it without your help, and i am so grateful for that!

Thanks for reading, Nansamba Abi.

Tony teaching me some bits and bobs

Benedee enjoying his jackfruit

namakula being mischievous

steven, yiga and co back from the bore hole

cheeky cousins

deo doing what he does best

salvation community school

Yiga Brian loved his achiltibuie t shirt, he didnt take it off once since i gave it to him!

Us and the whole school

Jess and I officially part of the family (down at the bottom right)

teaching them how to play snakes and ladders

borehole trip

Namakula and I

Peace and I

Boda boda

Benita and one of her many hair styles

The uganda project trust team made it!

Edinburgh Airport!

June blog! A tad late...

Our June here was spent in our little village of kisweera. We arrived back from Kampala (the football game in the previous blog) to lawrence coming up to us with 4 mangoes (he is a life saver at break times!) Its been a month of bore hole trips (i think ive permanantly bruised my bum bones from the rock hard bike seat) ive been lucky a couple of times where someone takes pity on me and pumps the water for me (the best) and usually its a pretty swift journey except once when mikey took our bike for a cruise around the bush and didnt come back untill dark he got a mouthful from sara! During mid June our bike broke sadly so it meant i could only take one jerry can instead of two  and had to carry the one on my head. The trip is alot longer when your walking it with a heavy gerry can on your head instead of cycling it! My neck felt like jelly when i took it off!

There has been some news in the buganda region as at school I realized that all the kids were wearing bracelets and necklaces made out of banana fibres. At first i thought it was just some strange village fashion craze but after i asked Fred what it was all about he told me that it was actually because there was apparently a disease which started in Mubende (a town close to us) where the victim would get an itchy bit of skin, they would itch it and then a number would appear on their skin, that number determined how many days they had left to live..... but guys dont worry the witch doctors were on it and provided a prevention of wearing the banana fibre jewlerry to stop you catching the disease!


Some other small news is that suddenly the tree right outside our house is growing the tastiest gooseberry type things!! they are sooo good and the kids allways hit them down for us! its been a good break time snack for sure.

Our fellow baby class teacher Edith also finnally gave birth! She had a little girl called Rita. She came to the school and we ran up to her, unfortunatly she was breast feeding Rita at that certain time so we saw more boob than baby but it was good to see her again! Annette another baby class teacher is also now pregnant she will give birth after weve left sadly.

This month we also decided to initatie school house groups. We knew it would be quite a challenge but we were eager to get it started as especially no other volunteers are coming after us to do it. We decided to chose planets (the kids really dont have much knowledge about the solar system!) We have venus, jupiter and mercurcy. It took a hell of alot of organising but we managed to split all kids into each house and made posters for each classroom and the office ( so the teachers knew as well) We also created a point system for the houses. Although its a long shot were hoping to try and use the point system instead of beating. The point system so far looks like this

All awards are 5 points which include :
Doing Home work well
doing errands eg helping cook, fetching water
Answering questions in class
Getting full/god marks in tests
Good behaviour in class
Doing well in activities eg Debate

Deduct points
Fighting  5 points
Not doing home work  4 points
Speaking luganda  3 points
Arriving late   2 points
Loosing books/pens  1 point


So far its  working really well, the kids are really getting into it and are kean to gain points. We even painted the water tank with the different house groups on them so they could visually see which house they were in. At the end of the month we will give out prizes to the house that wins. Although it would be better if other volunteers were coming to carry it on, we have faith in fred to carry it on! He is very good at keeping the point charts updated so fingers crossed it will be a success!

Some other small news, we decided to buy some milk from the guy that comes every morning with a jerry can on his bike full of milk. We thought if vivian buys it for tonny (her child) surely its not too bad! It was ridiculously cheap like 100 shillings for a humungous cup. Unfortunatly it curdled very quickly and we didnt actually know quite what to do with it so im not sure well be doing that again...

Ive also spent some days here helping Deo with errands such as going deep into the banana plantations to get food for the pigs. We were walking and my legs and feet were literally crawling with ants! I also helped cut up concrete and flour bags to cover childrens homework books. By the end of it my hands were all dusty from it! it made me think to when i was in primary and wanted the nicest wrapping paper for my books, when the kids here are delighted when you hand them back a book covered in an old flour bag...

Ashlav, a boda driver were friends with also popped out of nowhere at our house. It was good to see him after not seeing him for so long. He has got himself another job in Mubende working with the local council. He is very pleased and we were so happy for him! As i remember the boda rides he would speak about how he was literally at a dead end and didnt quite know what to do. He didnt want to be a boda driver for the rest of his life but didnt know how to get another job. But now he has one and its such good news!
He also told us all about this club in Mityana called audio discoteque. He told us it was amazing, his reasonig was because when you drop your class it doesnt break because of carpet! Well take your word for it ashlav.

We also went over to the mzungu family we know in Mityana for the weekend. That weekend they were having a big cook out (bbq) so we met all the white people that live in mityana. We did not realize just how many they were! It was so interesting to hear why they were here and just chat with them about it all. We also had an amazing food which included burgers with cheese on top! We met people from canada, australia, tazmania and other places we however were the only scots! Chatting to them all we also found out some interesting things such as Lake Wamala that we live close to was thought to have been formed when a woman gave birth the after birth formed the lake.. so we live beside an afterbirth lake! We also learnt more about the witch doctors here, its all kept quite underaps from us so we dont know too much about it but we found out that people go to them with sacrafices like chickens (or even children, the mentioned child sacrafice in exams here which i got pretty confused about!) apparently albino children are more valuable. Also When someone has twins they sacrafice something to the witch doctor so that one of the twins wont turn into a snake. Also alot of children have their ears pierced here as children with their ears pierced are seen as less valuable to the witch doctors. We also see alot of toddelers/babies with a string of beads around their waste. Weve asked before and we dont tend to get a straight answer, but we found out that it is infact to ward of evil spirits.
At that bbq we learnt alot of interesting things about the culture that usually doesnt get told to white people, but it did make sense and made things alot more clearer!
 During our weekend at their house we learn alot of american dishes and traditions while also telling them about the scottish foods such as haggis (we decided against telling them what was in it)

Back to village news humungous colourful catterpillers were dropping from the tree outside our long drop, they are poisinous so had to make a detour to the toilet, the inconveninces!

This month was also our last time at the health centre. It was a very busy day and we even saw brian getting his medication ( he has a problem in his stomach, deo said it was stones? but anyway i found out that he is actually 14 although he only looks about 8!) After a busy day at the health centre it was time to say goodbye to the staff there. We gave mercyline and phiona a big hug and thanked them for welcoming us in to their health centre! Slowly easing our way into goodbyes..

June has also been the month of mid term exams. I helped teachers mark their exams and again i came across some funny ones like "my father gave birth to kittens" and Q"state something that pupils do in class that would annoy god/allah" A"Killing" and Q"how is death useful for a good christian" the answer was supposed to be as they get to go to heaven but they answered "it fertilizes soil"  fair enough!

The school also got struck by the flu, every single one of us were ill, when it got to Jess and I they were all like nooo your going to die! someone has bewitched you! they can be drama queens sometimes i tell you!

It was also our friend ediths birthday this month. She wanted to get some new clothes we took her into mityana to shop! She got a dress, clip on earings and a handkercheif. We also treated her to a lunch at our favourite place to eat in mityana. It was a nice day as she seemed to really enjoy it!

At the end of the month we ended up being skint as the bank in mityana didnt have any money as literally the bank manager told us "we forgot we had to pay our staffs salaries so we had to use the money in the bank for that"..... so we have been living off plain rice for a good week, luckily though our neighbours came to our rescue! I think a pig died or something as suddenly there was meat everywhere! Even at school there was meat for lunch!! It was such a novelty! Then one evening maria came round with matoke and meat for us, literally saved us out of starvation. Then Edith came round with rice, meat, and home made passion juice that alice had made for us! I love the people here they are so generous! The kids also saved us during the days with mangoes, avacados etc. But thankfully know were out of those days as the banks are now back on track!

Weve also been getting to know the people that own the supermarket in Mityana. Their originally from India and come here to work. It was quite sad talking to her though (palel) as her kids are in India so she misses them but she likes it here as she is allowed to work here unlike in India so the days go quicker unlike when shes in India when she just stays in the kitchen. It was pretty sad to hear her talking like she was just wishing her life away. They go back to india sometime soon for a bit then will come back to uganda again.

So that has been June here! Just little bits and pieces have been happening. When we go to places like Kampala we realize just how laid back, slow paced village life can be. We tend to get pretty stressed out in the cities and like to come back to rewind in the village although crazy weird things happen its all at a nice slow pace!

May blog- end of the holidays and going back to the good old village life!

So the start of May we were still on our holidays. At this time we were at Kaihura spending most of our days at home again. I love just chilling with all the people there, especially Adolf (yep they dont know that hitlers first name was adolf!) teaching him how to play splat and peanuts and him beating me so badly at thumb wars! Adolf's english is pretty good as he went to america with others from home again for 6 months. Adolfs history is quite horrific though, he walks with bent legs as when he was little he stole some peanuts from his grandmother. His grandmother then tied up his legs with banana leaves and set them on fire. When the banana plants were untied his legs were so badly burnt that they had fused together. Home again took him and took him to a specialized doctor who luckily managed to unfuse them. however he was in a wheelchair for a good long time and they didnt think he would actually be able to walk again. Now though you wouldnt really have known about it unless you were told as he runs around home again happy as larry! He is such an bubbly and chatty guy, really an inspiration! 

I also thought i was going to have to say goodbye to people like kabito when we were leaving kaihura. Luckily though he has a visitation day at his school at the start of july so we will save goodbyes untill then, its fair to say i am dreading this...

After Kaihura we ventured down to the south of Uganda to a place called Kabale. It took us about 12 hours on a taxi to get there, driving through queen elizabeth national park we saw buffalos bathing in the mud beside the main road! Usually people see elephants crossing the road but unfortunatly we werent so lucky. We made our way to a small village that 2 other volunteers stay. It is much much more colder in kabale than anywhere else in Uganda. I was freezing my butt off most of the time! I found myself not even being able to walk and talk at the same time as my teeth got sensitive to the cold air! (managed to find some sensodyne in a supermarket though woohoo!) im not sure how im going to cope with scotland if im not coping with the cold in Uganda! The south of Uganda is also the most beautiful part of Uganda in my opinion. With so many rolling terraced hills, green foliage everywhere and beautiful lakes it was breathtaking! 

While we were down in Kabale we visited the famous lake Bunyonyi. We got a boda from Kabale town to the lake. The boda ride was one of the most beautiful rides ive ever been on, going up such steep mountains and having the most amazing view of the place. When we got to the lake we went to a lodge/hotel on the bay of the lake. There we went to the jetty that set off into the lake and went swimming. Although it was seriously cold i couldnt face going in! you would have never thought i went swimming in the sea in scotland! we also decided to go gorilla trekking while we were down in the south!! At the time we were there it was low season so everything was half price, we thought if we were going to do it it was now or never! 

We organised it with a company who were so helpful and all travel, accomodation, food, and gorilla trekking was included. The night before gorilla trekking we stayed at 2 volunteers place. They work at a special needs school where i was given a sign name (rubbing your fingers on your chin) 

The next day we headed to Kabale town to set off gorilla trekking! It took us around 3 hours to get from Kabale town to the place we were going to be staying. The road was the worst road ive ever been on, so many pot holes, we were being chucked around in the car! It was also very windy and reminded me of the scenic route from achiltibuie to lochinver! We arrived at the lodge at around 7pm we were pretty nackered from travelling and had an early start in the morning so went straight to bed.

On the 21st of May was gorilla trekking day! We woke up at 6 and had breakfast before setting off in the car to the UWA office to check passports, go over the trek etc. When we got there we met our trekking team, shaba was our leader and we had 2 guys with guns incase the gorillas got vicious and a porter called james who carried one of our bags and helped us on the tricky parts of the trek (he was a life saver!) After having a quick brief on the family of gorillas we were going to track we headed of in the car. Within 5 minutes we were out and ready to start our trek. We were also given sticks to help us which was very very helpful! To get to the gorillas it took us about 2 hours trekking down a seriously steep valley. At some points shaba had to get out his machete and hack down the foilage so we could get through it. We crossed rivers, climbed up rocks and everything else! However it didnt seem like long until we had arrived at the gorillas. 10 meters away we dropped off our bags and headed towards the gorillas. Within seconds i could hear grunting literally cm's away from me. My heart was beating so fast it was unreal! then suddenly i could see 2 gorillas grooming one another from fleas. They were literally a couple of meters away from us! They were not bothered in the slightest by us however. The guys did say not to make eye contact with them, not going to lie sometimes i did catch their eye! haha Then a baby gorilla came out of nowhere and was so playful, rolling around grunting (the guys grunted back which is a way of communicating with them) then suddenly it grabbed my legs to play! His grip was not vicious at all and was merely wanting to play but still my legs were like jelly! Then when i was crouched down he came right up to me grabbed my arms and my legs again and started to roll around the floor beside me! It was unreal! Then if that wasnt enough suddenly out of nowhere i Humungous silver back gorilla came out of the trees and strode right past us. If i had bent my knees they would have touched him! I could not beleive it, he was so big and dominant looking you could tell he was the boss of the group. We were only allowed to be there for 1 hour so we spent most of them time ogling at how human like they are. The silver back would be checking out his nails, relaxing in the shrubbery it was so interesting! It was such an experience knowing that there was literally no boundaries between us and the gorillas. We were able to get so close to them it was fantastic! defintily one of the best things ive done in Uganda! Then once the hour was over (which didnt seem like long) we trekked back up the valley. This was a killer as we were literally climbing up a vertical valley! I dont know how they do it everyday but at the top we were all nackered! It felt like it wasnt going to end! We were releived we didnt have to do that steep walk on the way there as well! Once we got to the top we got a car back to the UWA office and there we were presented with our gorilla trekking ceritifcates which will definitly be getting framed on the wall! 

After gorilla trekking we stayed the night in Kabale town for one night. The next morning we had to wake up ridiculously early to get the post bus back to kampala then a taxi to our village. The bus took about 8 hours, it was such an odd feeling being on a bus after not being on one in 8 months! I was getting flash backs of the bus from inverness to edinburgh! haha 

That evening we had finally made it to our village. It was so exciting being back as it felt like we hadnt seen everyone is so long! Driving past myanzi on the boda we saw everyone and got waves off everyone and "kuli kyo!" (spelling is wrong my bad) We also stopped in myanzi to get a good old ronald rolex which was by far the best one weve had so far! out of all of the rolex's in uganda ronalds is the winner! 

Then we were back on the boda to our small village! When the boda pulled up at our house zaina, nakiwala, benedee, benita, amina, site, sajay and kassuja all came running to us for big hugs! It was soo lovely seeing them all, i had missed them over the holidays! We had also passed charles and fred our teachers on the boda and they were very happy to see us also. We also saw annette at our house another teacher who gave us a big hug and said we had been missed. We also came back to the brick building of the school which had been painted! It was being painted the uniform colours of white, orange and burgundy. It looked alot better than the grey thats for sure. I also went over to marias to see sara and tallemwa and others, as soon as i saw sara she slipped on her butt in a  huge puddle of mud, to try and supress laughter while helping her up was very difficult, man i missed that girl! She also then told me that Deo was sick as when they were putting the windows and doors on the school a spark had hit him in the leg. It then must have gotten infected as now his leg was ginormous! We went to go see him and my god ive never seen a leg so big! He said he was getting injections from myanzi but they werent working. Puss was literally running down his leg, it was pretty gross. Later on that week though he got a boda to mityana (the boda was very late though as he was dropping off a cow in the next village.. only in uganda!) there in mityana he was admitted to a hospital in mityana where he stayed for a week. He is now perfectly better, still hobbling a little, but his leg is now normal size! He said that he cant use his stick anymore because the doctors think he will become dependent on it... 

On the 26th of May was our first day of teaching! Its hard to beleive that we are now in our third and final term of teaching. Literally have no idea where the time has gone... This term we are again helping out in baby class and doing p1 drawing and shading. We also still have the roles of secretaries of the school so we are spending alot of this term organising behind the scenes of the school. As there are no other volunteers coming after us we want to try and make the school as sustainable as it can be. At the start of school as the brick building was being painted the p2 and p3 couldnt be in the brick building, so both of the baby classes had to be crammed into one classroom. This meant that there wasnt enough desks for all of the babies. So work had to be done in rounds. One group would do their work on the table, then once they were finnished they would move to the floor and the next group would do their work on the table. It was pretty hectic thats for sure! Baby green class have this term started to practice writing "Today is _____, my name is _______ i am in baby class" so we have been spending time helping them write letters, and try guide them on how to space out their letters etc. I spent alot of time with a kid called Nsamba. He was so determined to finnish writing the sentences and when he finnished he had the proudest smile on his face! It was priceless.

Our baby blue teacher Edith is heavily pregnant at the moment. Literally think shes going to pop any day now! So Jess and I took a couple of her lessons which as always was mental. If your in baby class on your own you walk out of there feeling a little emotionally fragile! haha

Edith has now left finally for maternity leave. We told her that she has to take her baby in as soon as shes given birth  so we can help look after him/her! We are very excited for her to come back! The woman who lives up the road from us gave birth to twins, Nakato and Babirye. They are adorable and i held Nakato one afternoon and sent him to sleep with some classic lullabies! He was adorable. 

30th May alot of the volunteers decided to go to Kampala to go to the Uganda cranes vs Madagascar match! We all had our Uganda cranes tshirts on and as we walked past people, they would thank us for supporting the cranes. We got bodas from the safari lodge to the stadium. It was crazy! the whole place had such an amazing atmosphere! as we were driving the bodas were honking their horns. Other supporters came past with vuvuzelas and whistles shouting and singing their heads off it was brilliant! 

When we pulled up to the stadium, straight away people came running up to us painting our faces and arms! I had just stepped of the boda and i was covered in the uganda flag! Then we walked up to the stadium on route to the stadium we had so many photos of us taken and were even in a tv shot where some guy was presenting the football game! once we were in the stadium we got our seats and waited for the game to begin. People were dancing round in conga lines singing and chanting and then when the cranes ran out onto the pitch there was a huge uproar and everyone was cheering and going crazy for the cranes! It was so much fun! Soon enough the game started and within 10 minutes the cranes had scored a goal! As you can imagine the whole uganda side were jumping up and down and going crazy! it was hillarious! Then throughout the game they would all get so into it, im not really into football back in the uk but i was loving this game! Soon enough it was the end of the game Uganda cranes had won!!! the whole place was ecstatic! everyone was hugging jumping up and down people were running around the crowd beating drums it was brilliant! We left the stadium on such a high! The boda ride back was brilliant as all ugandans were ontop of the world, including us!

After this weekend we came back to the village and deo had told us he and everyone else in the village had seen us on the tv! It also turned out we were on the newspaper the caption being "foreigners, in love with the cranes support their team!"

So that has been May! Its been a fun month full of weird and fun experiences! Now we are into June and time is slipping away from us! less than 2 months now i will be back in the uk freezing my butt off, so for now i will enjoy the sun and make the most of every minute I have left here!

April blog

I'm currently writing this blog from jinja as we're now on our 2 month Easter holidays. This April however we have been teaching since the 10th. 

As each month goes its coming closer to our leaving date so nowadays I try to savour every day here as I know a week or month being at home ill miss my home here like nothing else!  It's also the little things that I'm going to really miss for example lunchtime as school, usually sometimes weird/funny happens like once tonny from p5 was chasing girls around the school I asked tonny what on earth are you doing to make those girls so scared which he showed me proudly a big wart coming out of his hand, that boy has no shame! Being here for this long you also begin to notice little things that you wouldn't notice otherwise like deo in p3 his English has gotten soo much better than it was when we first arrived its such a good improvement. Deo and stevie are also our school time keepers and after a hundred times I had to fix their falling apart watches I decided to buy them both a watch for next term so hopefully next term the school will actually be on time for once! 

This month we've had some rain, it's quite a light rainy season so our tank has ran out during this month once. Which meant a trip to the bore hole! I went at the same time as school was finishing so I went with the kids that live en route to the bore hole. Ronald roped me into carrying his books home but repayed me by buying me a banana pancake which I shared with the gang of kids walking with me (a banana pancake does not go far with 9 kids!) I also bumped into Brian who wasn't at school that day and asked him why he wasn't at school which he simply answered with "debate" I was like you know what Brian I don't blame you there as debate is horrible, I would have hated it if I was them as they have to stand up I front of the whole school and argue a point that they don't even know much about all in English. Last time they had to debate about which one was better water or fire...... 

This month we also celebrated international health day on the 7th. 

It was all based on preventions and treatments for malaria which was very relevant for the kids at our school.  We first of all did a brief talk to them all and asked them questions to see if they knew ways to prevent malaria and got them to read out some facts. Then we had invited Phiona a nurse from the health clinic who we are good friends with to do a more in depth talk with the kids. They were all so interested and really got into it as it does affect all of them somehow. 

So after the 10th jess and I made our way to Kampala for jess' 19th birthday. Pretty much all of the volunteers came to Kampala for it. It was such a nice weekend. I had my first ever proper massage which was amazing although it wasn't as relaxing as we were talking about Uganda and she was literally in hysterics while pummelling my legs because I told her we cooked on a charcoal stove! That night we also went out for a nice meal and ordered a surprise birthday pudding which she loved! It was brilliant when the waters came out singing happy birthday which a huge sparkly decorated cake. 

As this month is the month that a lot of volunteers families come out to visit. It's quite strange seeing them here. It makes you realise so much about Uganda that we have forgotten about. It's like seeing the country through fresh eyes. Things like how little the kids have, as at home again the orphanage the babies literally only have a pot that used to contain pills and they spend their days peeling the paint off the wall and putting it in the pot. It's quite easy to forget this as no one has a lot so it just seems normal but then you actually think wait kids in the uk have toys, arts and crafts, books and a lot more. Yet the kids here are happy with a pot full of peeled off paint... 

Also violence and beating, when we talked to them about it they were pretty hottified about it all as jess and I wake up to kids being beaten in the morning which happens right outside our house.. We have become so hard being out here it's quite sad but if you were to let every single bad thing get to you you would not want to get out of bed in the morning. 

Another thing they pointed out was what do the kids do once they have finished school? Education here is such a vital part in life here, the country is literally covered in primary schools. But once the kids are finished with primary school they are pretty much dropped and left stranded on their own. Which sadly usually results in them not going on to further education and getting a poor paid job their parents had. It's sad as there is so much potential in so many kids but they just don't know what to do with it. 

Uganda does have many flaws and numerous problems and corruption, it is so clear to see that Ugandans live for the day, they don't think or worry about the future- yes we will spend all our money on building half a house, yes we will eat all that bread now as who knows what will happen tomorrow. It's quite a contrast to the way we are used to, saving is such s huge part of life in the uk whereas saving here is not really existent... 

April also meant Easter! Easter is celebrated hugely here as its such a Christian based country. So for Easter Day we went to home again the orphanage where we did some arts and crafts with them, making flowery headbands for the girls and bandanas for the boys. They loved them and wore them to church that day as well! We also did an Easter egg hunt with all the kids. We split everyone into teams and we had previously hidden their colour of eggs all over home again. They then had to find their colour of egg then bring them back to us as we were the team leaders. At the end we then handed out each child a package of mini eggs that a volunteers mum had brought out. They were amazed that they looked like eggs but were chocolate! Even the older teenagers at home again were getting very into it! 

There was also a Easter football tournament going on between all the villages. We watched the final on Easter Day as well as it was kaihura who our friends play in from home again against another village. It was such a good game and to top of Easter Day kaihura won!! They were soooo happy and were running around the pitch crazily! We even got an excitable hug from the captain sundae who was over the moon! 

It was such a good day, by far the best Easter I've had in my life! 

In the holidays we also went to visit  a guy called Everest who is 21 but is paralysed from the waist down. It's such a shame as he is such a friendly person and loved playing uno with us! The people he lives with are very helpful and kind to him and people who have visited him before have decorated his room to make it very homely which is lovely! 

This month I've also been trying to improve my volleyball skills, the boys at home again are ridiculously good at it, David even wears a glove on one of his hands so he can properly smack the ball down. I'm getting better though! 

Recently however home again has started to go down hill after the supervisor went crazy and joined a cult and called us white demonds.. But ever since the babies house especially has gotten so disorganised and saddening. For some reason the tv was moved into the baby house so now the babies are shut in a room while the house mothers watch tv and braid one another's hair. It's so frustrating and when the kids do watch the tv it's not even appropriate stuff for them to be watching. The other day we took them all outside and it was like they were on a whole new world! They never get let out and the house mothers rarely interact with them. I feel so sorry for them, it's not about how poor thy are and the lack of money they have it's the lack of love their giving which is the problem. It's so sad but faith the owner is joing to talk to them do hopefully there is a change soon! 

So that has been April here, next month we will be on holidays got most co it but will be going back to school at the end of the month! 

Jess managed to get Lubega to finally fall asleep! 

Nakiwala skipping then our route to our nearest village Myanzi! 

March- a month spent teaching baby class...

Well March has been a month in Uganda spent fully teaching. Although at the start of this term we were teaching PE to all the classes "MAKE A CIRCLE!" they reply "A BIG CIRCLE!!" After a parents afternoon it was decided that it would be better for us to be more focused on the younger classes to improve their english from the start. Jess and I were happy to help in any way we could so agreed to it, its also nice to have a change every now and again, we have now taught all classes in the school at some point in our time here!
As the kids in baby class' english is not very good at all we have to use our luganda phrases in the classroom like "Tulla wansi"- sit down and "silika!"- keep quiet and "Webake" which means go to sleep, you would be suprised on how helpful that phrase is when they are running riot! Usually however we have the class teacher in with us to help and we act as class room assistants. The baby classes are split into two because there were so many of them, baby blue and baby green. Baby blue is definitly a lot younger and arent as good at the work as baby green. Vivian teaches baby green so i usually help Edith with baby blue as they are the ones that need it the most. I either fill in work into all the kids books the day before as before edith would do it during class time which would take away time from her teaching them and all the kids would just get really restless. So now classes tend to run more smoother as the work is allready filled in ready to be completed. I spent my afternoons drawing a billion cows, mud huts, old people, razor blades, etc for them to match, colour in, or comlete. I will defintily be a pro at drawing dangerous objects by the end of this year! Last week i was drawing insects like cockroaches, mosquitoes etc for them to colour in!
I also help dish out the books and pencils to the kids and then help the ones struggling with the work. Most of the kids understand what to do when i do an example for them and go over it with them but there are some that just seem too young to even be at school! There is one girl called nabakooza who is way too young to be in school let alone matching insects to one another! 
Some days edith or vivian either need to go to the hospital or do some errands so Jess and I are left to teach the class on our own. This is the most hectic thing I've ever had to do! Obviously because we dont beat and verbal warnings dont exactly work with babies who dont know much english they have the tendancy to go absaloutly crazy! I find myself thinking back to nanny 901 and think what did she do with all those mental spoilt kids?! We have kids like Wasswa climbing up the walls (weve realized now that when we peel them off the wall they treat it like some game so we have to ignore them) we have a sea of kids sticking to you when you ask one person to come and draw something on the board. We have 2 girls called Peace in our class and you find yourself shouting "PEACE STOP!" when shes clambering all over everything and everyone (it feels quite wrong shouting the word peace angrily) We also have Lubega who is soo cheeky, the other day he was biting other kids and going mental in general but jess luckily managed to put him to sleep by stroking his forehead (works a treat that one) we also have tamale who is constantly running out of the classroom, as the classroom doesnt actually have a door its pretty hard to control who comes in or out!
Once we have finnished the days work we have "webake time" where the majority of them fall asleep due to exhaustion of running riot, im not going to lie a couple of times i have joined them in this sleep time as your usually shattered by the end of it!
There was one time when Edith and Vivian had gone to do something so jess and i took one classroom each. Usually when there is two of us one of us can be at the front while the other is at the back stopping them from beating each other up but when your on your own it can be extremly difficult to do both things! While i was in one classroom i heard jess shout "WHO PUT THE SEED IN CONGO'S MOUTH?!" i had to ask her about this afterwards, the story goes that one kid had shoved a huge mangoe seed into congo's mouth, to which it got trapped and he started panicking and jess had to fish it out and comfort him! That is just some of the eventful things that happen in baby class!
In baby class when edith is teaching she does beat the kids when they get something wrong several times or arent listening or fighting. It can be quite hard to sit there while she does it and i find myself going up to comfort them afterwards. Teachers here know we think its wrong and that they shouldnt do it, we do make it plainly obvious but because theyve grown up with it and its such a common thing they dont see it as a big deal. It breaks my heart though when she beats a kid for getting something wrong as i think thats not going to make them understand! Like a girl called sanyu the other day was crying so much after getting beat that she couldnt even hold her pencil, after calming her down she was still shaking so she couldnt draw a straight line so i helped guide her pencil and finnish the work so she could go outside for break. Jess and I have told other teachers and the head teachers our opinions and that there are other ways of punishment but because everyone does it here and its just a fact of education here its hard to get them to change their ways sadly.

This month we have stayed mostly in our village, one of the main bits of news from our village was that there was a guy going round stealing peoples boda bodas by killing the drivers then taking the bikes. So a bunch of boda boda drivers found him and hunted him down it was so close to our house that they killed the guy and jess and I were on a boda boda and asked ashlav what is that they're burning? as we drove through the smoke he replied thats the man they killed... we couldnt beleive we had just driven past a burning body and he seemed so casual about it!!
I also mentioned in my last blog about how we have a new head master called Fred who is our neighbour. We chill with him most nights the other night i was outside waiting for the kettle to boil under the stars and he came over to sit beside me and sang me christian songs until it was boiled! It was very relaxing! Its very strange thinking that Jess and I helped him a Ugandan settle in, showed him round, told him about things here and what to do , where to get stuff etc. I think that there shows just how long weve been here! It feels good though to not be the new ones were seen as the regulars which i love! Fred and Charles another teacher say whenever they go to myanzi its like were famous as everyone knows us! a couple of weeks ago the water ran out of the tank so i went to the bore hole. It was the time of kids going back home from school so I walked there with kids that lived on route to the bore hole or further. Tonny one of the kids gave me his books to carry and in return he bought me a banana pancake which i shared with everyone else. I love walking to the bore hole, its so nice when the kids shout "HEllo madame abiiii!" and parents recognise you and greet you, you feel really at home!

This month we also went to go and visit our friend Kabiito Robert who goes to a boarding school in Fort Portal. We know him from the home again orphanage that we visit in the holidays. We told him we were coming to see him but i dont think he actually knew that we would be coming so it was a bit of a suprise!
The boarding school is situated in such a beautiful place, right beside the crater lakes! The best bit of it all though is that the school was founded by a scottish man so all the boys have to wear kilts! (although theyre not tartan they still have a sporan!) it was amazing!
We arrived there and all the pupils were like whhaaat who are the mzunugus coming for?! we then managed to find robert and the smile on his face was priceless when he saw us! It was sooo nice to see him and just chill with him for the afternoon on the grass. We brought sodas and chocolate for him and his friends as well which they loved. Unfortunatly the time went by soo quickly and we soon had to leave to get back home. It was so sad saying goodbye, although we promised we would visit him in the holidays at home again. It was so sad walking away as he looked close to tears! It hit me then how unbearably sad its going to be to say bye for real to everyone here. Im dreading the day...

As I've said in previous blogs that weve been helping out at the medical centre in Myanzi. Beforehand we had been talking to Deo about whether he knew if many of the kids were HIV positive. He had no idea and was saying how it would be so good to get them tested but its things like funds, organising it, who to ask etc that never made it come about. Jess and I then decided to take it into our own hands as we now have good friends at the health center. We asked phiona there and she said no problem it would cost 80,000 for the whole school to be tested , 267 kids! that is only 20 pounds!! so 10 pounds each jess and i were happy to spend. On the 27th of March Phiona and matovu came to the school and set up a little desk in the office. Beforehand jess and i had wrote down all the kids names so that we could just call them out of class to be tested. The test was a simple prick of the finger which was then dabbed onto a testing paper to indicate whether they were positive or not. If they were, they then did another test and if that 2nd test counteracted the first one then a 3rd one would take place to be the tiebreaker.
We started off in baby class. Of course there was a lot of crying and freak outs but soon enough they were finnished we then moved onto Top and then p1, 2, 3,4, and 5. As the classes got older it got easier as we knew everyones names and they were more cooperative! It took the whole day and all the teachers were very suprised and happy we had gotten everyone tested in one day. We even had time for some of the teachers to be tested. There were even people from the village wandering over and asking if they could be tested (we had to draw the line at that one)
Overall the results turned out to be extremly good with only one child being positive from baby class, The health centre knew of her all ready and she is getting treatment for it and her parents are also aware of it.
However this was still such good news with only 1 out of 267 kids being positive. We were thrilled with the results as everyone thought it was going to be alot higher.
Over the next couple of days phiona brought soap for Jess and I to hand out to each child that got tested. As part of the package. Each child got half a bar of soap. You would be quite suprisied on how excited the kids got over a half bar of soap!

More news of the village was that there was a graduation for our neighbour Gita's son and daughter. RIght outside our house was transformed into a venue for it with marques, chairs, an alter(?) and more! We had 3 volunteers from masaka over for the weekend so we thought we would join the celebrations! of course because we are white we got front row seats (im going to find it odd not getting special treatment like that when i get back home!) We also had to dance up infront of everyone to the graduates to congratualte them (kids from our school that were there found this hillarious) and stand in the baking heat while Gita gave a speach about each graduate i was like come onnnn gita rap it up! After we dashed back into the shade and it was time for food! Function food is the best with meat, rice, matoke, soda etc
That night the music was soo loud that parts of our wall crumbled off!

In mityana where we go for nice vegetables etc there is an indian run supermarket that we go to which is so good. We have made friends with Palel who runs it, she made us these really tasty spicy prawn crackers and said she wants to cook us a dinner which we are looking forward too!
Also fred and charles after school were sitting to us chatting and we found out that charles has 2 wives!! Hes only 21 as well! We were gobsmacked, we didnt even know he had one let alone two! We were telling him how he would be called a "ladies man" back in the uk. Fred then told us how his wife in myanzi was very dangerous and if she saw us walking with him she would get very angry and chase after us... so ive declined every offer charles gives to come and meet his wife! I asked him do they not get jealous? he was like no because i love them equally! allright then charlie..
There is also this woman called Patricia who i randomly met outside our house. She asked for my number so i gave it to her, i now get daily phonecalls from her telling me to have a good lunch,dinner etc. She is very sweet though as when we were walking back from the health centre she came running out her house to meet me and asked "abi do you like fruit?" "yeah i do! why?" she runs off and comes back out of her house with a jackfruit for me! so kind of her. We were walking back with edith that day as she was at the health centre getting treatment for malaria so i gave it to her to take back to alice and her family along with my water so she could take her pills, she was very happy and told me she has a present for me in return, who knows what it will be!

So thats been my march here in Uganda. I usually leave this place realizing ive forgotten to put something in!
A few weeks ago we got an email confirming our flights home for the 9th of August...... this means we only have 4 months left!!! its crazy! i keep on having nightmares about saying bye to people here , im trying not to think about it too much though and just enjoy the time i have left here and make the most of everything that comes my way.

So i guess ill see you all in 4 months time!
Nansamba Abi.

pictures!

                                        
                                                 Juliet, Joseph and tony under the salvation community family tree

                                                                   Benedee

                                                                  zaina "abi take a picture of meeee!"

                                                            Told our headmaster fred to smile when a photo is taken
                                                           he is very excited about the fact all my family and friends
                                                           in scotland will see a picture of him so fred says hi!

                                                                    benita looking cute and innocent and not mischievous!

                                                                zaina and I

                                                        drawing cows and goats for baby class!

February - School and rainy season begin hallelujah!!

Once again we have found ourselves coming to the end of another fantastic month in Uganda. We are now actually half way through our year which is a very sad and scary thought.. they always say the next half goes the quickest this worries me as the first half went so quickly already!

This month included the end of holidays and going back to school! I was actually really looking forward to going back as I missed all the kids so much! I was also looking forward to getting back into a teaching routine and helping out at the health clinic again. We had our holidays and now it was time to get back to work!
The 2nd of February was the day before school started. You would think everything would be getting very organized for the main day tomorrow but in Uganda this is not how it works. People here can be pretty good at postponing things until the verrrry last minute so all questions Jess and I asked about the start of school were answered with "we shall see on Monday" at first this got a bit stressful as Jess and I felt like the only semi-organized people in the school! But we sat back and let it be and were ready to help out when they realized infact they did need a bit of organization!
They Sunday before school was eerily calm.. the calm before the storm! we spent that day sorting out books, teaching resources that we thought we may need for the new term (bare in mind at this point we didn't even know who or what subjects we would be teaching!) It was only at 11pm that night that it was decided it would probably be a good idea to put the desks into each classrooms. So there we were in the pitch black night using phone torches and moving desks back with Herbert, sara, tallemwa, site, sajay and deo. The compound was also swept so we were all being chocked by the dust up in the air and were having to dodge burning piles of leaves while moving the desks. Finally we had finished and went to bed to prepare ourselves for the storm the next day.

3rd February - the storm had hit! Well actually it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be maybe a fource 4 gale? Anyway we got up bright and early and were greeted by lots and lots of new pupils to be interviewed to deterimine which classes they went into. Jess and I carried out a few of these. Some were so nervous and I sympathized so much with them as I remember I used to hate on the spot tests and ended up failing them so it was quite heartbreaking when I interviewed one kid, I tried to make him feel as comfortable as possible but he really was not getting any of the questions I asked him even with a lot of help so he had to go into p2 when he was previously in p3. It was such a shame as the tears started to roll down his face, I just wanted to give him a big hug and slip him into the p3 class! Although I know its for the best to put him in a class he can manage. He is doing really well now and is a very happy guy (I kept a check on him throughout the week)
Not only did we have new pupils we also had a bunch of new teachers! We now have a new teacher for the new p5 class and a teacher for p4, top and baby. The teacher for p4 sounds identical to Marty zebra in Madagascar (nearly called him marty a number of times) We also have a new head teacher! His name is fred and he is 19 years old.... i was very surprised when he came out with that sentence!
Jess and I also took the responisbilty of registering each kid in the school and giving out jotters to each pupil and pens and pencils. They were all so excited to get new pens and pencils! Then for the rest of the day the kids were left to rome around the school so jess and i decided to make there time worth while and play games with them like tig, sticky willow, british bulldogs etc fair to say we tired them out! We also had a minor awkward situation when joyce the previous p4 teacher came back. Noone was expecting her to come back well actually i don't think they knew if she was or not and the new head teacher fred had moved into her room. It was verrrry awkward when she asked me where fred stayed i was like errr over there somewhere i think! I ended up having to clear out her stuff with her and phone up a boda boda to take her and belongings back to kampala! I have also come to the conclusion that people here are very bad at confrontations and hope that the person will just eventually get the idea!
So now our new neighbor is Fred not Joyce!
The first day at school once the school day had finished we had a teachers meeting to allocated classes/subjects/roles. Jess and I are now the designated P.E teachers, we do P.E with p1,2,3,4 and 5. We also do reading and writing with p2 and 3 and drawing with p1 and this term we are also more involved with the lower classes baby and top as we now do shading and drawing with them.
P.E is so much fun as the kids love to get out of the classroom for once and run around! Its so different to what they are used to and its so rewarding to teach them new games that they love and have so much fun doing! (thankyou mr fraser and jane for all the games in pe they have been very useful!)
In the meeting Vivian one of the teachers then volunteered me to be the secretary of the school. So now i am a secretary! following my mothers footsteps here! Jess and I have also been put in charge of debate and quiz afternoons on a Friday and we also asked if we could start up an art club on a weekly afternoon which they were happy with. So now the teachers include, Jess, me, fred, erinah, moreen, Vivian, Annette, edith, rose and Charles. A very good team i think!

Also in the previous blog i mentioned how we came back to the school being built with bricks! I can now say that it is pretty much completed! With builders coming from Kampala it was finished within a week! All we need now is doors and windows and paint and it will be done! (windows and doors aren't a necessity at the moment with the heat)


Also this month weve had Herbert and Sara who are my age and a bit younger living here ( i think i mentioned them in the previous blog) anyway they are still here and i don't want them to go! I love just sitting outside with them chatting my luganda is getting a lot better with them as Herbert is always teaching me new words. Some nights i will be sitting out with them under the stars playing snake on my phone and learning new words like "sara ofuyay"(v. bad spelling but basically means sara is gassing) which she replys "oh limba!" (your lieing!) "slimba!" (im not lieing!)  its pretty fun to wind her up but i can always reassure her that she my mukwano! (friend)
I've also been taught a word "enyoko" which is apparently a bad word that i cannot say around people under the age of 15.. still don't know what it means though!
In return of Herbert teaching me luganda i decided to teach him Scottish words! So far I've taught him och aye, nae, wee, ta, weisht, bairn, etc the words sound hilarious in his Ugandan accent but he loves Scottish words! I also told him that supercalafragalisticexpealadocious meant great in Scottish... it was a form of torture for him trying to learn it but was so funny, i should probably tell him its not actually true!

This month we also were invited to a wedding in Kampala with Deo! It was very exciting as Deo thought it would be a good idea for us to go and get Gomez's made for the wedding. A gomez is the Buganda traditional dress. I will try explain how to wear one.
First you put on the kichou (not kichoo as i learnt this means a bed bug!) You have this material up to your shoulders like a box then you tie it around you waist and fold the top over itself.
Then you get the gomez and put it on like a coat, button it at the front side and gather the left over material to the side.
This material is then folded in and you tie another bit of material around your waist and let that left over material hand down over it.
Then you get the sash type thing, wrap it around your waist and tie it at the front and voila! you have your gomez!
So for the gomez Jess and I made our way to Mityana to see caroline, deos sister at the market. She then took us to a material shop where we picked out the material we wanted, then we went to go get our kichou and she began to make it! In the next couple of days we came back to find our gomez's had been finished! She then took us into a room and showed us how to put it on (ill tell you its not easy!) everyone at the market said we looked very smart and were very happy to see mzunugus in a gomez!

Before the wedding however we had valentines day! it wasn't that special as we spent the day going to mityana to pick up school uniforms. However i did get proposed to at the rolex stand and invited to go to a mans parents house to be introduced to them, most romantic valentines day ive had. I also got given a branch of a tree for a valentines present..

15th of February- was wedding day! Deo, Jess Site and I headed off early to catch a taxi to Kampala. Deo got off before us to go and collect his suit so we were left with site who had never been to kampala before and ill tell you for a fact it is a lot crazier than the village life we live in kisweera! So we had site grasping onto our hands for dear life while we weaved our way through the hustle and bustle of kampala. We then stopped at a café and we all had a soda and chapatti while waiting for Deo. Deo then finally arrived and we made our way to the old taxi park to get a taxi to the church. Made it to the taxi park after at least 2 close hits by taxis and soon enough we were at the church and under a tree with my top off infront of a busy road and a group of people i had no idea were while an old woman that was one of deos relatives dressed me in my gomez... taxis that drove past were a tad shocked!
We then had some pictures taken with people that wanted a picture and then made our way into the most beautiful church! There were long mosaic windows, huge chandaleirs, flowers everywhere and the bride looked so beautiful! She kinda looked like Janet Jackson! I also saw Julie who was deos neice i think. It was so nice to see her! Then we got piled into a car to make our way to the reception. The reception was very fancily decorated with the colour scheme of gold and red. There were sooo many lights and a huge centre piece. The more tacky the better! We had to wait a while for the bride and groom to come but that was no problem as we were thoroughly entertained by the traditional Buganda dancing and music. It was amazing! I've never seen bums shake so much in my life. It looked seriously tireing though!
Once the bride and groom arrived some speeches and dancing and singing were done. Then it was time for dinner! There was chicken, rice, gnut sauce, and more and of course soda! Once everyone had finished dinner it was time for giving the presents to the bride and groom. We all had our presents and had to dance towards the bride and groom where we were then given a huge hug by them and thanked and we then proceeded to dance to our seats.
Once the wedding was over Jess and I made our way to backpackers where we entered in our gomez's and got a lot of positive comments and shocked expressions!

As i said earlier because we are back at school we are now helping at the medical centre again every market monady (every fortnight) It was so good to be back and see everyone again. We set up our work station once again and started to register new babies and what immunisations they had received that day in the records. Once we had finished this job we asked mercyline if she needed anymore help. To which she replied yes and we were then led through into the injection room. Very oblivious to it all we watched her do an injection upwards into a babies arm. I thought we would probably just help her clean the babies arm before she did the next one but nope. She handed a needle to me i was like "wait your wanting me to inject the baby?!" she was like "yes! you saw me to do it, you know now, you learn from trieing".... i felt my hands start to shake as i walked over to the baby oblivious to what i was about to do to it. Merycline kind of talked me through it by saying now pinch the arm and put the needle into the indent. I pinched it and went for it and stabbed the needle upwards into its arm and quickly injected the liquid to prevent measles before i had registered what i was actually doing! I then stepped back and was like what on earth have i just done?! I then had to dispose of the needle without pricking myself. I then also gave mouth drops to babies to prevent polio which was a hell of a lot less nerve wracking! Then Mercyline did an injection into the babies upper thigh to prevent diphtheria. Once again i found myself with a needle in my hand about to stab a baby in the thigh. That one i found easier and soon i was injecting a few more babies. Bare in mind throughout this Ugandan mothers were watching me doing the injections which did not make it any more easier! Once the injections had finished Jess and I walked out of the clinic and only then did it truly dawn on us what we had just done. I'm not sure how i was trusted with it but mercyline had said next time we could try the bcg one... i think im going to have to draw the line at that one!
After that health clinic session we went back to school where i helped edith draw a billion mud huts into the baby classes books for them to copy.

25th February - first day of rain!!! Rainy season has begun!
you have no idea how happy i was to walk out of the p2 classroom i had just taught and feel the water droplets on my bare arms! I saw deo and shouted "Its raining!!" then i saw Vivian who had an ongoing joke that it would never rain ever so i smugly said "eh Vivian what do you call this?" she laughed a lot then assured me it would stop very soon! Herbert was freezing sheltering under the rain and thought i was crazy for standing in it. I was going to try and put a basin out for water but the water was so dirty as it was washing the roofs from dust and was falling off the gutter brown.

So this month has been pretty hard with it being dry season and having very limited water. Bore hole trips are fun though when its not baking heat. yesterday Herbert, sara and i made our way to the bore hole on the bikes and when we got to the bore hole Herbert was like you are not like any other mzunug ive met! i guess that is a compliment maybe, but he did say this after i showed him my party trick or rolling my eyes so its just white eyeball staring at him. Sara said she was going to have nightmares so now whenever i see them i just flash them my white eyeball and they freak out, its hilarious! Now i think times are going to get easier with the rain, you don't realize how much you love it until its gone!

However with the rain i have today developed a cold.. i did miss the rain but not a classic cold!

ps very sorry i didn't put photos in this one as i forgot my camera but will post another blog sometime with photos of new school etc!