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