November- starting our secondary project, project trust visit,final exams, end of school and the start of holidays equals a very busy month!

November has been a jam packed month and there is only one place to start this month blog by starting off with the toilet launch we went to at St Noahs, the local High school. I didnt know quite what to expect but it exceeded my expectations on what a toilet launch would be! When me Jess and Deo got there we were escorted right to the front where we were also given a formal introduction to everyone in the crowd (getting used to these) Then pupils from St Noahs came out and danced and sang so many catchy songs with the classic dodgy keyboard backing soundtrack as accompaniment. There were also several speeches made in Lugandan, a man sat beside me thankfully translated the majority of them to me! After some more dances and certificates given out for who knows why we were all piled into classrooms and served rice, matoke, beef and ground nut sauce. By the way i think i have mastered the technique of eating things with my hands! Rice is especially hard but once you get that claw action perfected its a piece of cake! Once we had finnished eating we had a very muddy walk home, it was very muddy at the start of November, Joseph reccomended me and Jess to buy ourselves some gum boots (wellies) which we did! In mityana we bought ourselves a pair for only 3.50! absaloute bargain. Something Ive noticed about the rain is that everyone loves it here including me! (never thought i would say that) its because it is so useful and helpful as rain means water in the tanks, jiggers washed away, growth of crops, washing of buildings and water can be collected in our basins for washing of clothes and dishes! While on the other hand rain in the UK is just a nuseance as it doesnt serve much purpose!
We have also attended a funeral at the start of the month along with the whole school. I still dont know whos funeral it actually was.. i did ask madrine and others but even they didnt know! There were so many people there, Kisweera was the busiest id ever seen it! However it started to rain half way through the service so everyone ran home!

                                                                  my wellies!

November has also been the month me and Jess have started up our secondary project! I am so happy we've actually managed to do it and so excited to getting fully into it! Every second Monday (market monday) we are going to be helping out at the local medical centre in Myanzi. All we had to do to start it up was go and visit them and ask if we could help out, as simple as that! So that coming Monday we were plunged straight into work there. Our work that day consisted of filing what immunisations babies had been given that day. We also registered new born babies into the clinic. I have never seen so many babies in one day than i did that day! We also sorted out medication for patients that the doctor Maska dished out straight away! I thought if i get this wrong that is their medication messed up! It was quite a big responisbility but i loved it. We also met soooo many people there which was really good. It was also really interesting as Maska would tell us all about what medication would do what etc. I am really looking forward helping out more at the medical centre and hopefully do more days at it.

This month also meant a visit from our desk officer Jen from Project Trust. It was at lunch time that Jen came while we were outside eating casava and beans with the teachers and suddenly Jen appeared in a car out of nowhere! It was so nice to see her. All the kids swarmed round her so curious on another mzungu! They kept on asking me if she was my sister, i think they think any mzungu they see with me is my sister or brother... So we showed Jen around the project and then she took us off to Mubende for lunch where we had individual interviews with her to ask any questions etc.
We then travelled with Jen to Kihura to the other girls projects where me and Jess got our hair braided at the salon there by Ruth. I've currently got blue, purple, pink fake hair braided through my own all around my head! While we were in Kihura we also went to the music extravaganza that the Kihura Parents school (secondary school) put on. Me and steph went earlier than the rest and met up with Grace a pupil at the school. We were once again ascorted right to the front to sit beside the MP! The kids did so many amazing traditional african dances and plays about witch doctors etc. Robert and Enok who we have met previously were in the dances as well and were so good! My favourite was the one where the boys had shakers attached to their ankles so jamp around constantly to keep a beat while the girls had straw skirts and shaked to the beat, with african drums in the backround it was amazing! We were all very impressed. Then at the end of the music extravaganza it was announced which house in the school did the best dances, turns out it was Roberts house which won! They were all soooo happy! Ive never seen teenagers so happy! So we all celebrated with them by dancing in the moonlight with them all! It was so much fun and we were all on such a high afterwards! It was brilliant.

On the 20th November it was International Childrens Day which we celebrated by a end of school concert put on by the kids at our school. The previous days me and Jess managed to hunt down a piece of material by finding deos sister in the market who made us follow her friend to some small material place! Then we took the material back home and painted 'Welcome to Salvation Community School' with the teachers. So the morning of the concert we hung up the banner and tied balloons, paper chains, and all decorations we had! (thank you so much to maureen, and everyone else who sent us out these decorations!) The kids were amazed by them! The teachers were also so happy with them and told us we had truely made it! It was also so funny as when i first blew up a balloon all the kids ran away from me as they had never seen it before and were so scared! I had to reasure them it was menat to do that and wouldnt hurt them! We had also bought loads and loads of sweets for the kids to give to them once they had finnished preforming which they went mental for! In Uganda if a school puts on an event its a must for there to be piles of food served to everyone. So beside maria and josephs house in the trees there were the biggest pots ive ever seen all set up ready to cook meat, potatoes, matoke, beans etc it was quite a sight! I helped peel potatoes, vivian said i was very slow when i lost a race with her so i got demoted to peeling matoke bananas... their was so much food being cooked for the occasion including pork! We also had 2 american women come to the concert as they help fund things like the building of the water tanks etc so it was really nice to have them there! We also painted all of the kids faces for the concert which they loved! It was pretty funny at the start when they had no idea what we were trying to do as they had never had their faces painted before! But soon we had a huge swarm around us wanting their whole faces painted! Soon parents/guardians began to appear where we guided them to some seats to wait for the concert to start. We also had speakers delivered that were run by a generator and crates and crates of sodas for everyone.
As we are on african time the concert started later than expected but was set of with the Ugandan National anthem and then the Slavation Community song. Then each class preformed their sets of songs they had been preparing for ages! They had worked so hard and you could totally tell. Its a comman thing for people in the crowd to go up and give money to the kids sinnging. I went up to give steven in p3 some money as he may not be the best singer but he tries so hard and is the best dancer! Once all classes had finnished their sets we started to serve out the food. We made sure all the kids had been served first with a soda each which they were ecstatic about! then all the parents were served and then ourselves. It was so tastey! After dinner we had awards where kids were given either cups, plates or pencil sets if they had done particulary well in their exams, behaviour, english speaking etc. It was so so lovely to see the kids that work so hard to get awards for their hard work. Then we cut the cake that the american girls had made especially for the school which was handed out to everyone. All the teachers were also given I Heart NY shirts from them!
Overall it was such a great way to celebrate the efforts that the kids put into their school work and behavior and they were all on such a high afterwards, which made us all so happy as well! I dont think anyone of us wanted the day to end!

On the 22nd of November it was our last day at school. This day was also the first day of exams I was monitoring the p4's english exam. Looking over it i actually think they have improved from the last one thank god! Then once that was finished i monitored the p2's read and write exam which also included them having to say sentences to me in which i had to mark whether they pronounced it correctly or not. P2 is quite a big class so this did take quite a while! Plus i had to pack as well to head to jinja so it was all very rushed! I didnt actually get to say goodbye to alot of the people which i was sad about but I guess i will see them once we go back to school! So soon enough we were heading off to kampala to get to Jinja to meet up with all the project trust volunteers and Eugene and Ian who are our over seas representatives and Jen.

So this month has been so much fun with so many high moments! 3 months in Uganda and im still loving every second of it. I am still so thankful i got picked for this country, its honestly the best country and i would not want to be in any other place right now!
I am now currently on my holidays and next stop is ssese islands! My next blog update will be telling you about the festive period although its getting hotter here and im eating more mangoes than roast dinners!
thanks for reading! Abi

                                                                  "See you!"

Side note: we have upgraded our washing basin from the black small basin that we washed our dishes in to a baby bath! luxury!
we also seem to still get into deep meaningful conversations with our boda boda drivers.. we ended up giving Ashlav a counseling session and saying how he should make sure he has a stable environment before bringing a baby into the world etc. We also had Freddie where we got into the discussion that money isnt everything and where he told us money could not buy friends like us! I think i may have agreed to getting christened into his church however... 

My October in Uganda!

Hello again everyone! ill try not start every blog with my amazement of how fast time goes here but i am really in shock that i have been here for 2 months already! October has been a crazy action packed month and i am so excited to tell you all about it!
We are still very busy with teaching at the moment which is still so much fun! the kids are very comfortable with us which is a plus as they are not scared to ask questions anymore if they need help (this was quite a big problem as they didnt ask any questions in any classes!) We also created an attendance and behaviour award chart which is working wonders! one of our main problems with classroom management is violence. My god they love to fight with each other! Im pretty sure the majority of the kids in our school are immune to full on blows to the face. But when i say "hey deo if i see you punch gloria one more time you will not get a tally mark so no sticker!" and he suddenly stops mid punch! If i am totally honest i dont blame them for being so violent as the teachers at our school cane the kids when they do something like coming late to school, talking in class, not cutting their fingernails the list goes on. So the kids are brought up with violence being acceptable. What really got me confused was that another teacher would come into class and cane the kids for hitting each other... it doesn't really make sense at all! When the school is all together to sing songs, etc the p4s are given twigs to patrol around the rest of the kids and are allowed to whip them if they are misbehaving. When im in charge i tell them not to, trying my hardest to break the violent cycle!
Ive also introduced stuck in the mud at break/lunch times they love being taught new games! they got quite a surprised when i played with them and darted under their legs to set them free! I also taught the p2s the hockey kockey in my read and write class, it was such a hot day and i felt i needed to give them a break! (to be fair it was educational as the story was to do with a boys right and left hand that i made up) as there are quite a few of them it got a bit crazy but was so much fun.
Jess and I are also currently in the process of teaching the p4s they hey arthur! theme song. Its going very well and they always sing it to us at break times. When we were teaching it to them they demanded me to dance while they sang so now they all know a couple of my fantastic dance moves that they like to practice at lunch times!
In Uganda dry season is slowly creeping up on us, it gets so hot here! This also means no more water in the water tanks! Im not looking forward to the walks to the bore hole in the blistering heat dieing for some water. Dry season also means the grass is going to be growing faster which means there will be an increase in malaria in the school unfortunately. Deo is also wanting to organise an organisation to come to our school to test the kids for HIV. I think this would be a great idea and me and jess are looking into places that would help us out with that.
We are also hoping to set up a library here as the resources here are so limited. The children love to read but have no books to do so. We give them some books to read some time and they love it so i think i library would be a great thing for the kids here as it would also improve their english.
We are also hoping to start up a secondary project in the hospital in Myanzi, we havnt organized anything with them just yet but the work will probably most likely be measuring kids, filing information, sorting out drugs for patients etc.

During our October we had a week of exams. it was pretty odd being on the other side of exams, it doesnt feel like long ago since i sat my own exams. All classes have exams, even baby and top class! although the exams for baby class are to draw a woman carrying a jerry can on her head. They get it wrong if they dont draw something vital like her legs.
Marking exams was actually weirdly fun! you come across some cracking answers like 'he beat her with a snake' and 'when he goes home he bathes his women' the list goes on! Its also quite frustrating having to mark something wrong when they are so close to the right answer or have not read the question correctly... oh god im sounding like my teachers! I ended up having to mark a lot of exams as i told joyce i would mark her exams and ended up with a humongous pile! i didnt mind though although i found myself having to down my porridge in a oner and nearly missing lunches due to marking exams!
The exams were really helpful however with showing us just what the kids needed to improve on. Reading and understanding what the question actually asked was a big problem as they knew the answer but just didnt know what the question was asking for. It was a shame but were all determined for them to improve.

Another thing i have noticed about the school textbooks that teachers use as a guideline for what the kids should know are very heavily based on death, abuse and diseases. As a lot of the stories for p3's are written about things like a childs mother being very sick and how the chld has to care for them but then they die and they are so upset. this story here is a fill in the blank story! Alot different to the happy, stories there are for the kids back in the uk! Its quite sad though as they use stories like this so the child can learn easily as they can relate to the stories. They also have to learn about malaria and child abuse very early on. One break time i was sitting outside with the kids and one of them wrote on the bench in chalk "what is child abuse?" i didnt quite know how to reply! But it just makes me realize how much they must go through at such a young age. I admire all the kids here for how they just get on with life and still seem so happy! Alot of the kids parents have passed away so live with a distant relative and after school and before school have to do numerous errands and look after their siblings. Cissy has to take in her younger siblings in every now and again and when we are teaching we will just be passed a crying child (that peed all over me once while i was teaching!) teaching and trying to calm down a hysteric baby is quite a challenge, trust me! The kids also have to collect water from the bore hole and one story in the textbook was about how a child spilt a lot of the water on the way back from the bore hole so her mother didnt give her any dinner and the moral of the story was that she would never disobey her mother again. Its quite shocking reading these stories and i usually make up my own stories for them instead. ontop of all of this a lot of the kids have to walk very far to get to school so the fact they have to do their chores after this huge walk amazes me. I honestly dont know how they do it.

During classes i still get many suprises! the other day i was teaching my p4 class and i looked up from the board and was face to face with a huge rat! In the p3 class i was also marking Becams work when he causally whipped out the biggest bug you have ever seen and just started stroking it! I got the fright of my life! Lawrence also is making sure im fed by providing me with mangoes every day! hes brilliant. Ive gotten so close to my p4s, i dont want to say goodbye to them when they move to st noahs for p5!
All of the kids english is actually dramatically improving! im so proud of them all. There are some phrases that are sticking with them that dont make much sense like;
extend-move
touch- meaning take so "touch my book!"
assist me with the - can i have the..
so sweet!- when something tastes nice even when its savoury.
the pen is over- the pen has run out
i actually find myself using these phrases as well!

Our cooking is still questionable.. Yesterday night i had stones in my rice.. no idea how that happened! I think it was allready in it when we bought it in the market in Mityana. Edith comes round to visit us alot and taught us how to make rolex's! they were very succesful so we shared them out with everyone and sent edith home with some for alice and others. We ended that night taking out the wind up radio and all dancing to it in the moonlight! how ugandan of us.

This month i also have to tell you about Justuce and Mariams wedding! Basically Jess and I were the photographers for the wedding which meant we got the best view in the church! I was all up and close during the exchange of the rings, signing of the papers everything! We even got pictures of Mariam getting her hair done, her nails done and when she had just put the dress on. She looked amazing! The other fort portal volunteers were all the bridesmaids in their lilac dresses with a gold sash around the waste. Mariams sister lippy was also a bridesmaid who i love! she is hillarious! (she said we all have to go to kampala to experiece a crazy night dancing! haha) anyway once mariam had gotten ready we all got piled into different cars. I was put in with a bunch of family members, they were all very nice! we then made it to the church, a couple of hours late but hey were on african time now! we then all crammed into this church for the ceremnoy to begin! it was so nice to see even if it was through a camera! after the ceremony we all got piled into different cars again. This time i was with mariams mother who was so sweet! I was finding it hard not to speak luganda to her as they all speak ritoro there! we then headed to faiths mums house for a meal and speaches and of course dancing!! The dancing was hillarious, at one point we were having a dance off with the preacher, one thing to cross off the list of things to do! However dancing here your guranteed to look around and see a 5 year old dancing better than you.. one of the hardships of living in uganda! Then after a lot of hugs and "god bless you!" and "you were sent by angels!" we headed back home. It was such an amazing event to be invited to and we have now not only been invited to a wedding here but been photographers at a wedding!

Myanzi our nearest village still makes me so happy every time we walk there! We are welcomed by david shouting ABIIIIIII (he has confirmed us as being his friends) we also get greeted by gerald the guy who sells bananas who says were his daughters... we also have all our street food guys, my god the street food is good! meat on a stick is my personal favourite. its like a big communal family myanzi is!

So overall this month has been awesome, ive still not had a bad day yet! ( i phoned home the other day for the first time as apparently i was weird for not) i thought it may make me homesick but it didnt at all! i think im not homesick because everyone here is like a family to me. Its pretty amazing.

thanks for reading!
Abi

My first month in Uganda

I'm still amazed that im in Uganada so to think I've been here for a month amazes me even more! There has not been one boring day here, and I have enjoyed every second of it! (except once when i nearly fainted from blowing on the stove then standing up to quickly but even then it was pretty cool)
So the first month has been jam packed which means that this blog could be quite long but I'll try not to bore you all!
I have officially started teaching! It is so much fun and all the kids are so eager to learn! The other day they were pleading me to give them homework, still cant get my head around that one! I teach mainly p3s and p4s. I teach p3s maths and p4 english. I also teach p2s read and write which youve got to have a lot of energy for as Ive learnt the best way to keep them engaged is to keep them active, they thought it was great when i acted out a fat and thin person and then someone being sick. (very glad a teacher didn't walk past when i was taking this role) Teaching in itself is very different to what it is at home. especially the classrooms! As we are in the rainfall season classes are called off pretty much as the papyrus does not do too much for shelter and when i write on the chalkboard the rain just washes it right off! Animals are also regular visitors as chickens and ducks stroll in and even the cheeky baby goat. Avacados will also occasionally roll to the front as kids in the class go to the toilet and then on their way back pick up an avacado and stash it for later. Kids have also started to give us loads and loads of fruits while were teaching so we end up with big pile beside the chalk board at the end of the class! I also love how enthusiastic they all are about everything, when you walk in their clapping and beating their tables and when you leave they thank you for teaching and ask you not to go! Jess and I also introduced stars when marking work and now they beg for you to draw them a star after marking every question! In our first week i also had a go at teaching the p1's but it turned out to be quite hard as they didnt have much english so had no idea what i was saying at all and spent most of the time stroking my arms and hair when i was trying to explain something to them!
However all the kids in each year are so keen to get their work marked and to see their smiles when they get something right makes it so enjoyable! I havnt really had to introduce a disciplinary that much as they all want us to praise them and not get annoyed at them (hopefully this doesnt ware off!) But as teaching goes on i get to know each child individually and get to know how they learn and what is better for them. 
Not only are we getting to know the kids all a lot more were also getting to know everyone in the village really well. Gita who lives opposite us is brilliant and david in myanzi helps us get a good taxi or boda whenever we go somewhere. Kids are also starting to call us by our names rather than mzungu which is a great achievement!
The school provides us with break time food which is porridge and lunch which is either beans and posho, matooke or casava.
The school days are actually really long it starts at 8 and ends at 5. I dont know how theyre still running about the place at the end of the day! But at the end of the day at 4 there are extra curicular things like music, which is basically deo banging the drum and all the kids dancing and singing, its so fun to watch and everyone gets so in to and cant help but jump up and dance as well. They also have hand work which is basically the girls weaving baskets and the boys making brooms. There is also sport but its not organised at all as they just run about or play with a ball. Some girls do play netball but i dont think they know the actual rules so will definitely relive my glory netball days with them!
Weve also seem to have started to become the local medical clinic as weve had to bandage up and diagnose a lot of infected cuts and burst toe nails, im definitely getting less squeamish about blood!
The teachers in the school are also really nice and helpful. Madrine who teaches p1 is only 17 and loved seeing all our photos, she said that she likes the way i talk as well which is a first! Vivianne is also lovely and teaches top class, she is practically the mother to all the kids and always has a kid clinging to her. And Annette who teaches baby class is brilliant. You can tell she is teaching as you hear her from a mile off! She is also hilarious and has the best hair, so tempted to get mine the same, braided and dyed! 


The other night we witnessed a boda boda drivers wedding! It was dark and we heard screaming, shouting and roaring coming down our peaceful road so of course the whole village had to come out and see what was going on, and suddenly tons of bodas flew past lighting up the whole place! They had branches and leaves all over their bodas and were standing on their bodas and screaming and throwing gun powder things on the ground to make small explosions! It was hilarious! I think its fair to say boda boda drivers know how to throw a wedding.

We also have gone on a few trips on our weekends. We went to Fort Portal to visit other volunteers. It is a 4 hour taxi ride from Myanzi so a bit of a trek but the journey is so nice as we passed so many rolling hills that were covered in tea plantations. We also came across many other mzungus which was actually pretty weird, i think im getting to used to being the only ones! In Fort Portal we went to the orphanage which was lovely, the kids were so sweet and clung to you like limpets! It was quite sad to say bye however as they all burst into tears, i felt a bit sorry for the people working at the orphanage that had to calm them down once we had left! We then went to visit Justice and Miriam who run the orphanage, they were so lovely and welcoming and invited us to their born again church the next day.
The born again church was amazing!! Although it took 4 hours it was not boring in the slightest! there was so much singing and dancing even though we didnt know the songs it was impossible not to stand up with everyone else and dance! Kids were on the stage doing the best dance routines youve seen and were singing along with 2 men who were doing the service, it was brilliant! There would also be outbursts of clapping and "Praise God!" and "Hallelujah!" and at one point the 2 men doing the service got everyone singing and then to jump up and down, i literally felt like i was in a crowd at a festival! no mosh pits though. During the service the project trust volunteers were taken up to the stage to introduce ourselves to the fully packed church. Then women from the audience had to run up to us and pick one of us to take us back to our seat (after giving us a full embrace) The service also turned into a matchmaking service at one point as all the single men had to go to the front then all the single women where they were then given hope by married couples who went up and prayed for them. People were asking if i was married or not but luckily i had a kid on my lap from the orphanage so didnt have to go up! Near the end of the service an old man was also taken up to the front, he had just been out of hospital and was made to kneel down at the front where 5 other people layed their hands on him and prayed very intensely. He was then given a new jacket and new shoes as a sign of renewal. there was also times where we had to point and one side of the church and shout and scream and then the other side, i didnt really know what we were doing there but i just copied everyone else!
We are also now invited to Justice and Mariams wedding on the 19th of October! I am so excited to attend a traditional Ugandan wedding! We have the roles of being the photographers! Maybe a new career is awaiting for me..

The past week I have been helping to build 2 new water tanks that will collect rain from roofs and then will fill up which means no more walks to the bore hole! Even though i was quite enjoying a good old cycle to the bore hole! But it will be a lot easier and resourceful! So i spent afternoons shoveling cement and placing bricks to make a foundation for it. Before long they were up and functioning! We filled our first jerry can with rain water the other night it was a very proud moment.

I still cant get over the night sky here! Every night the sky has hundreds and hundreds of stars! On my way to the long drop at night (lovely i know) I end up star gazing with deo for hours until i realize im bursting for the toilet and have to go! Weve also witnessed an amazing moon rise! It was incredible and lit up all the banana trees around our home. Weve also found out there will be a lunar eclipse soon which im pretty excited about! The lightning here is still incredible to me, they all laugh when i get so excited over it! The rainfall season also apparently hasn't hit its worse so still more rain to come! 

Maria, tallemwa, seeta and sajay also took us to their church the other weekend. It was a very long walk to get there up a huge hill and where we finaly reached a banged up tiny tin hut which was their church! We were then greeted by people in white cloaks. We were then asked to take off our shoes and walk round to the back where there were mats to kneel on. The whole 4 hour service was in Luganda, I had no clue what was going on! I dont even know what religoun it was, i think it was a new one though.. At the end of the service everyone suddenly started giving us gifts such as sugar cane, peanuts, avacados, papya etc I still dont know why and at one point edith told me to give some peanuts to the people in the white cloaks. So i had to kneel down and hand them a bag of peanuts. They loved it so i guess i did it okay!

Our cooking is also improving thankfully. We are becoming more adventurous which sometimes is not always good.. We made a cake for maria and deo and everyone else and they loved it! The builder also tried some and was so appreciative of it he came the next day with a huge papya for us! Seeta and Tallemwa also love our creations, we made a banan syrup which they loved and couldnt get enough of! I think its a nice change from beans and casava for them. One night when i was over at their house they whipped out a bag of white ants.. They did not look appetising and were kind of squidgy to touch but seeta and tallemwa popped a couple in their mouth and insisted i tried some, i could not refuse them and they were not bad at all! Maria then fryed up some in salt and oh my gosh they were so good! If you get a wing stuck in your teeth its a bit weird but otherwise its just like eating peanuts!

We have also taken a trip to Kampala to meet up with other volunteers. There is a lot of security around kampala at the moment especially around supermarkets which was quite reasuring in a way! In kampala we went to Owino market which was Huge!! It was incredible. So many stalls crammed up so cloesly to one another. When you walked through the cooking section of the market it suddenly got so hot as there was no chance for air to get in our out! The clothes sections were also hillarious as people would whip you with their clothes to get your attention, interesting marketing technique! There were also lots of camera phones shoved at me to get photos of me which was a bit odd. Some marriage proposals were thrown in as well, not as romantic as you think it was basically them shouting "Marry me!" I find that a good sense of humour goes a long way here!
After Owino Market we went to the African craft market which had so many amazing things in it. It was very typical africa stuff and was quite different to owino market!
The next day before leaving Kampala we decided to take a trip to the tombs in Kampala. Although the actual tomb was burnt down in 2010 it was still so interesting! The tour guide was an actual prince (his uncle was the king) it was also so interesting to find out more about the royal ugandan culture. There was a hut full of drums which were specifically beaten to whatever the king was feeling. There was one for when he was hungry, standing up, tired, happy, pretty much one for every feeling!

So overall this first month in Uganda has been the best month so far! I've gotten to know so many people and feel like ive really made some amazing friends! All the kids have warmed to us so much and i feel like i have 30 odd brothers and sisters here!
I cannot wait for what the next month will bring and look forward to telling you all about it!
Untill next time, Abi

My first week in beautiful uganda!

I have arrived! I am currently sitting in an internet cafe in the nearest town Mityana. We got here by a surprisingly spacious taxi (usually they cram 24 of us in a 14 seater van) It costs 1 pound to get here and back! I love Mityana there always seems to be music playing in the streets and the people are so friendly!
So I will start off by telling you about my arrival in Uganda. We were greeted off the plane by Ian who is the Project Trust Ugandan representative. He has been living here for 16 years and was so nice and welcoming. We all then piled into a van and were taken to his house where we would be staying for our first night and day in Uganda. The girls however stayed at his neighbour Miriams house who had an immaculate garden! We also met Eugene who works with Ian as another kind of project trust representative he was giving us a briefing of Uganda and little tips to help us throughout the year. That day Eugene had organised 4 of his friends to show us around the capital of Uganda, Kampala. I was pretty tired before hand as I had only had 1 hour sleep but being in Kampala is definitely a good way to waken you up! Its crazy! So many people and traffic, I'm not really sure what the rules are when it comes to traffic here but there didn't seem to be many as boda bodas (motorbikes) would mount the pavement to get through the traffic jams and people just weave their way through the traffic as it does move pretty slowly. There are also vans full of speakers that blast music through the streets (There is also one in Mityana) The pavements are also filled with people selling things like fruit that are lying on cardboard on the floor. I actually really enjoyed the buzz of it all there was so much to look at! The taxi pit was something that blew me away as it was basically just a pit full to the brim of taxis trying to edge there way out of the pit. In between the tiny spaces there were between taxis there were women and children sitting on the muddy ground selling fruit on the bits of cardboard. I don't know how they didn't get squashed! After our exciting day in Kampala we all went back to Ians house to sleep and get ready for our departures to our projects the next day.

The next day Jessica and I were introduced to our amazing host Deo who runs and funds the salvation school we will be teaching at. He has the most contagious laugh and is so chatty and does so much for the school and kids where we are at. We then left the other volunteers and headed to our project with Deo. The more we drove the more rural it got. With shacks scattered at the sides of the road selling bananas, rice, and some hanging meat out in the sun (not quite sure how hygienic that is) and with kids running around outside barefooted and women hand washing their clothes and cooking outside, it was suddenly dawning on me that I was truly in Uganda. It also amazed me just how green and beautiful Uganda really is, There are long orange dusty roads and contrasting green bushes and trees and all sorts of fruit trees around it. Its amazing!
After about a 2 hour drive we had arrived at our project. We got out the car and were greeted by 3 kids and one older girl (about our age) they were all squeeling with excitmenet and insisted on taking some of our bags. We were then shown to our new home! It was pretty basic to begin with, with enough room for 2 beds, a chair and some shelves. We have now made it  very homely with all our pictures and decorations. We then sat outside with deo and met some of our neighbours. We met Maria and Joseph who are our neighbours and are so kind. We also met Rosie, Tallemoi and Sseta who live next to us. They are so sweet and have the cheekiest smiles! Rosie is a little bit younger than us but has pretty good english. The others however dont have that much and a lot of the kids here have none at all really. Thankfully Deo has been giving us Lugandan lessons everyday so I am actually picking up quite a few things and it is getting a bit easier! Ive learnt things like "lwaki to wandiika?" - why arent you writing? and "Ogenda wa?" Where are you going? And a lot more! The kids also love it when you make mistakes as I accidently said "mpa amazzi" instead of "mpa amazz" so instead of saying I want some water I said I want some poo.. they found it hilarious!  Deo has also taken us to Myanzi and Mityana, he introduced us to a lot of his friends like Alex the carpenter as Deo is wanting to get some wood to make runners for the water that they can collect during rainfall season. We actually have arrived at rainfall season. The rain is crazy! When we were in Kampala there was a sudden outburst of rain. This is not Scottish rain,this is huge rain droplets that get you soaking in a second and comes down in tonnes! Everyone in Kampala stopped and took shelter while the roads literally turned into rivers! However some Ugandans did make the most of it and came out selling umbrellas, they were on the ball!

We dont start teaching untill the 16th so untill then we are just getting to know the place and getting settled in. The school is literally attached to our room and is very basic. Its made out of papyrus and has one black board at the front. There are 6 classrooms, baby classroom, top classroom and p1,2,3 and 4 classrooms. Im hoping to make them look a bit more welcoming with some posters and maybe some welcome signs. During our first week here we have also met a lot of other kids that live close to us. They are all so sweet and appreciative of everything! The other day Jess and I brought out some crayons and paper and they were in heaven! We also have a mini pool table in our room left from previous volunteers and they love that as well, they can honestly play it for hours on end and not get bored! We collect our water from 3 near bore holes the closest one is a 10 minute walk away. There is a wee boy called Brian that accompanies us everytime we go there and makes sure our jerry cans get filled and walks us back. Hes also facanated by my camera. They all are really! However because I have no electricty to charge things I have to walk to Myanzi to get it charged there.
Behind our house there are pigs with one about to give birth, goats, muskavee ducks and chickens. We also have avacados, coffee beans, passion fruit, papya, sweet potatoes, jack fruit and more surrounding our house. the kids are always climbing the trees to get some jackfruit which is so sweet and juicy.
For the first week we didnt have a stove so Maria cooked us our food. It was actually pretty tasty we got casava ( like a really dense potato) beans, posho, sweet potatoes, banana pancakes, bananas (I dont think ive ever eaten so many amazing banans in my life!) and other things. However yesterday we went into myanzi with Edith to get our stove and we cooked our first meal in the dark which was pasta with tomatoes. I shared mine with tallemoi and sseta as they loved it so much. Its also crazy how quickly it gets dark here. At half 7 within 10 minutes it can go from light to dark! it was quite weird at first but were getting used to it. The stars are also amazing here ive never seen so many in my life!

During our week here we also painted some of the buildings , it was desperatly needed and is now a lovely blue colour. We also take the goats down to the grass to eat.
We are pretty busy all the time, there is always something to do here even if it is cleaning as things get dirty so quickly here. Feet especially! I have to dedicate some time aside to clean my feet and inspect them for jiggers! I think i got one yesterday either that or some dirt engraved in my foot.. Our room also gets pretty dusty so sweeping is a must! Hand washing clothes is getting easier. Ive learnt my lesson not to wear white socks. They will be orange for ever! I have been bitten quite a bit on my legs but we seem to be accomdation 3 lizards which im hoping will eat at least some of the hundreds and thousands of ants we have here!
If we have any spare time we also take little walks around the place is so funny as when we walk past homes kids will run out screaming "Bye Mzungu!!!" bye pretty much means hi as well as bye and mzungu meaning white person. We give them a wave and a "bye" and their jumping about with excitment! we also say "jambo sebo/nnyabo" to the adults and "oli otya?" I think they appreciate us trying!

I have a time limit on this computer so im trying to fit in as much as i can! but in a nutshell im loving it here! Were becoming pro's at bucket showers and cooking on a charcoal stove and were getting to know the people here more and more each day. Waking up to music as people cycle past and kids laughing is one of the best ways to wake up!

I will try to get to an internet cafe next month or earlier but I'm not sure how busy I will be when i start teaching. I will try my best though! thanks for reading, Abi

                                                             Home Sweet Home!

                                                   P1 class room.

                                                                     P3 and 4 class room

                                                            Some of the kids drawing

                                                         Where I am right now, Mityana!

Training and getting ready to go

On the 20th of July untill the 24th I went to a very intense but exciting training course on the island of coll (where I went for selection and also where I will go for debreifing)
The four days were action packed full of lessons, presentations and discussions with our desk officer Jen who answered all our unaswered questions. During our training we also got extremly helpful talks from a current primary teacher who gave us so many ideas and tips on how to teach younger ages to older ages and how to discipline kids without using violence, which unfortunatly is quite common in many ugandan schools. We also got horribly graphic slideshows on all the illnesses that could occur (note to self never ever wear bare feet outside!) and some serious talks about theft, accidents that may occur and the dangers of being in a different country. Basically just be as sensible as you can and hopefully nothing too bad will happen! (I hope)
On the training course I also met my partner jessica, I was so relieved to get on with her and cannot wait to spend my year with her! we also found we had a scary amount in common, not quite sure how project trust managed that one!
On training we also had to prepare individual lessons of 10 minutes and 20 minutes, although the 20 minute lesson seemed quite daunting at first, when I stood up infront of a group of fellow Ugandaners I found the time went by so quickly! The two lessons actually helped a lot and made us all feel more confident about teaching.
Jess and I also got the chance to have a one on one discussion with Jen about our project, we found out that we will be sharing a large room with two beds and will do most of our cooking, cleaning etc on our front door step. There are also 3 bore holes nearby so we are spoiled for choice on where we fetch our water from! Our host Deo who funds the Salvation school where we will be working funds it by selling his own artwork and lives in a building like ours attached to the back of ours. Jen told us that Deo is one of the nicest and most inspiring guy you will ever meet and that he will soon become like family to us. Safe to say we cannot wait to meet him! We also got to see some pictures of the Salvation school we will be teaching at, I was amazed at first to find out that it is made out of papyrus and is so small! (size of a medium sized shed) And in the pictures there were little 5 year olds walking in ready to be taught. Jen said that it does break your heart how far some of them half to walk to get to the school. The school is literally on our doorstep which is also quite handy!
Previous volunteers that are out in our project right now have concentrated more on the construction side of the project, by building a pig hut and a shower cubicle for the lovely bucket showers were going to experience for a year! However Deo wants me and jess this time to conentrate more on the teaching side of the project. I have allready started to collect some basic resources like pencils, rubbers etc as from the pictures the school looks very very basic with only a small blackboard at the front! I was also hoping to have wall displays but im not quite sure if blu tac will be able to stick to papyrus..

Anyway as it is the 1st of August today that only means one thing, it is exactly 1 month until i head from london heathrow to Uganda! People keep on asking me whether I am scared, nervous yet and of course i am  a little bit but i can tell you the excitement, anticipation totally outweighs it!

I have been given my address for my new home which is :
Good Hope Initative
Myanzi
Mubende District
P.O Box 376 Mityana
Uganda

If any of you have some time to kill please feel free to send me a letter no matter how big or small. I will really appreciate it and will write back! (Bare in mind it takes about 3 weeks or longer to get mail from Scotland) I will also try my best to head to Mityana which is the nearest major town which is about 15 to 30 minutes away to access the internet to update my blog monthly.

Thanks for reading!

My Project is Finalized!!!

Hi everybody!

This is an update to tell you some extremely exciting news!! A few weeks ago I received an email from project trust, with details of my project! I literally was jumping up and down from my seat and occasionally letting a scream/squeal come out (my sister had no idea what was going on) so now to the details.

I will be setting of from London Gatwick on the 1st of September this year (only 3 months and 14 days!) I will then be flying to Uganda! I have been placed in the perfect and most wonderful project and i am so SO pleased i got picked for this! I will be working at the Good Hope Initiative in a very small rural village called Kisweera near a small town Mityana. It is west from Kampala the city centre. Good Hope Initiative is a non-government community based organisation. The initiative works to re-house orphans locally and
is funded by the Host who generates income for the organisation through selling his own art work. My role is to volunteer in the schools the orphans attend, in nursery and primary classes. The classes are small by Ugandan standards of 30-35 pupils. The School is very basic made of papyrus and iron sheeting. Our host is keen for us to start extra curricular activities in art, sports, music and more. There is also an opportunity to work in the local medical clinic nearby.
My accommodation is also very basic I will be  sharing a room with my partner (yet to meet)  in a small building. Cooking facilities are on a charcoal stove and there is no running water so I will need to collect it from a source 5 minutes away. There is  only electricity at times and I will use a long
drop toilet at the back of the house which is shared with their neighbors! I will be great place to get to know the locals in the Que to the toilet!
 Locals tend to use the front step of their houses to do washing and cooking; so it’s very sociable!

I am so unbelievably excited for this opportunity and I just want to go out there now!!
I have attached some photos from the Good Hope Initatives facebook page of the kids that go there.
Thanks for reading! Abi

Fundraising!

Hi everyone! So this is my first post so bare with me!
Basically I have had a pretty good start to fundraising, in total I have raised about £1632, my goal was £1000 for Christmas so I am pretty chuffed with the result so far even though there is still a lot more work to reach the £5,400.
I have done quite a lot of events in school with my friend Jenny Voy who is going to Honduras with project trust. We have held a Halloween ceilidh which was surprisingly stressful but was a great turn out as we raised £344. We also did a candy cane delivery service (if you've seen mean girls you will know what I'm on about!) And we have done some bag packing/attempted carol singing and a leg wax! (Not us but our brave best guy friends).
I have also done a few individual fundraisers, I had a stall at a table top sale, I made sandwiches for a trade fair and did a Christmas card delivery service!
Now I am planning a sponsored cycle to Ullapool and back with my good friend Georgie! Also jenny and have began to organize a school 'take me out'!! So excited for this so will update more on this!

Thanks for reading and I will try my best to keep it updated!
Abi