Presenting the Perkins machine, a braille typewriter, to Julius, Chief Inspector of Schools and Kellon, the deputy headteacher of Kamwenge Primary School, where the unit is situated.
The local flea pit - well actually a mobile phone shop now, reflecting a major Ugandan interest.

Impressive hoe technique - all that time on the allotment obviously not wasted. Although there is a red cross volunteer very close behind just in case . . .

Dance techniques not as good as hoe techniques.

Volunteers Rob, from USA, and Wilson, a Ugandan who volunteered in Namibia.

We have had an eventful couple of weeks! Those of you who access Facebook will know that Sabrina managed to get bitten by a monkey whilst out with other volunteers in Fort Portal. The bite was tiny but no chances can be taken with rabies as it is 100% fatal. Fortunately we have both had a full course of rabies vaccination, but we still had to travel to Kampala for 2 extra injections just to make absolutely sure! Sabrina has decided she does not like monkeys any more!
Last week we went with VSO to Soroti, which is in the North-East of Uganda, as part of International Volunteering Week. We met up with volunteers from the Red Cross and UN and attended the events, which involved marching through Soroti town with a brass band and planting 250 tree seedlings! Soroti is quite different to Kamwenge, being mostly flat but with huge clumps of rocks jutting out of the ground. It is hotter and dryer as well. It was good fun and we enjoyed meeting up with volunteers from other organizations. Back in Kampala we attended a BBQ in the VSO garden which involved lots of food, drink, drumming and dancing and the next day we attended a party at a hotel where the volunteer of the year was announced (no, it wasn’t either of us!). All good fun.
We are now back in Kamwenge with only 1 week left until we go home for Christmas. Sabrina is preparing for a school health workshop that will be held at the start of the new term and Geoff is busy organizing some equipment and activities for Kamwenge Primary School’s special needs unit. He helped to get some specialist Braille equipment for the teachers of the blind and we have just listened to his dulcet tones as he was interviewed on ‘Voice of Kamwenge’ (our local radio station) evening news. Sabrina would also like to point out that she was on the news about 3 weeks ago as the guest of honour at a school prize giving but we did not find out until afterwards L.

Happy Christmas

We woke up one day and discovered swarms of flying insects and all our colleagues running around the district office grounds chasing them . . .

What was happening?

Turns out that it is a once a year event – grasshoppers. They are considered a great delicacy here, lightly fried in their own oil and everyone tries to catch as many as possible. The sides of the road are covered in sheets with dried grasshoppers ready for purchase. The real gourmets buy them live in plastic bags and pluck the wings and legs before frying.

We just got some already fried specimens and for a Ugandan friend and shared hers. They are actually quite tasty as the oil they have is very sweet, but all we could think of was the fact that they were once grasshoppers! As one of the English volunteers said, like prawns . . . but not quite.

They also herald the end of the year and the end of the rainy season – although as I am writing this during a very heavy storm I am not sure about the latter. The wife also traditionally prepares them for her husband to say thank you for looking after her for the previous year and the husband should then buy his wife a new dress. Geoff passed on the grasshoppers and offered a new dress for not getting them!

School Speech Day

P1 and P2 classes - the youngest children, singing about hand washing.

The older children telling stories through local dance.

Having been in Kamwenge for 7 months now, one of the things we often ask ourselves is “Are we making a difference?” or “Are we having an impact?”. It is difficult for us to tell as things move very slowly and often the challenges appear huge. However I was very pleased to be invited to Kyabenda Primary School's speech day last week. Not all schools have an end of term speech day, but those that do will normally invite members of the PTA and school management committee, together with parents, so I felt very honoured to have been invited as someone who has been involved in the school this term.

I was even more thrilled when, class by class, the children sung songs, recited poems, danced and performed drama, all of which had many, varied health messages. The younger children, who sang in their local language, sang a song about the importance of washing hands before eating and keeping food covered. Another class sang about the importance of washing their hands after using the latrine and protecting water from collection to drinking. One girl recited a poem called Mr. Mosquito, about how to prevent malaria, and the older classes performed a drama telling how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. I felt quite overwhelmed and very pleased that many of the topics I had been working on in the school were being performed in front of parents and school members. Although I am fully aware that singing about things does not necessarily mean that they are happening, I felt that perhaps I have made some small difference in Kyabenda School this term.

Nicola's visit in pictures

Nicola meeting some of the pupils at one of our schools - they are very good at handwashing and the head is the best maker of tippy taps in the district.

We met this tuskless elephant and the rest of her family on the game drive - they were very close to us and gave us a scary look at one point!

We got really wet on the way back from Rwengobe School - and we got a puncture whilst there!

It was Nicola's birthday during her visit so we had a birthday meal in our courtyard and got all dressed up especially.

Geoff and his new friend - Harry the hippo

Harry wanted this one in as it shows his best side.

Nicola at the hostel overlooking the River Nile - this is where we ate our meals.

Nicola vists Mum and Dad

We had a brilliant time with Nicola and managed to visit lots of places as well spend some time showing her some of the schools we work in.
We visited Jinja which is the Source of The Nile. The river leaves Lake Victoria here, travels through Uganda, Sudan and Egypt and ends up in the Med, a journey that takes 3 months from beginning to end. Could make for a long game of Pooh Sticks!
We showed her the sights of Kampala including the chaotic bus park, met some other volunteers and sampled after work drinks at an Ethiopian owned cocktail bar, stayed at a hostel overlooking rapids on the Nile and drove her back to Kamwenge along some very potholed roads. She agreed we do live in the middle of nowhere.
During the week she went out to schools with both of us. Geoff claims he provided the most exciting visit as he took her on a motorbike, got a puncture which was repaired at the school for one pound, and were soaked by a massive thunderstorm on the way back.
The middle weekend was at Queen Elizabeth Park, where we saw warthogs and mongoose wandering through our hostel grounds, elephants, Uganda kob and buffalo on a game drive, crocs and giant monitor lizards on a boat trip and a hippo outside the bar of the nearby lodge when we went there for a meal. Sounds like the start of a joke - a hippo wandered into a bar . . . - but that's what it was like.
In Kamwenge she met lots of our Ugandan colleagues and was asked many times if she was going to buy a house here! In fact we think she was more popular than us as everyone still asks after her.
The last weekend we went to Entebbe and got up close and personal with some very friendly vervet monkeys in the Botanical Gardens including a mother who carried her baby by walking along on her front legs only - difficult to explain but lovely to look at.
And then she caught the flight home and we were very sad to see her go but glad that we had been able to show her our life out here.

Our laptop has died!

Just a quick post to say that our laptop caught some horrible virus and is no longer usable. There is no internet cafe in Kamwenge so posting photos and words is difficult, which is why we have not updated for some time.
News updates:-

• Geoff has got his bike and is riding round the schools of Kamwenge doing his work;
• Sabrina has ridden on the back of the bike and is even keen to try again;
• we did a live link on a Sunday morning with our church in UK to talk about our visit to Josephine (see earlier post) - well we spoke on our phone and Brian held the speaker of his mobile to the PA microphone but it was well received;
• and best of all, Nicola, our daughter, is coming out to visit us and will arrive this Wednesday evening. We will stay for a couple of days in Kampala before moving to Kamwenge. We have arranged a safari to Queen Elizabeth game park for the middle weekend and will celebrate her birthday whilst she is here. We are really looking forward to seeing her.

Nicola is also bringing out a new laptop - thanks to Grace and Adrian and Nexus - so hopefully we will be able to put photos on the blog soon!

Working in schools

This term, Geoff is doing what is called School Performance Review. I visit a school with a Ugandan colleague and we spend the whole day there, looking at lessons and the leadership and management of the school, feeding back to the headteacher and staff and writing a report detailing the strengths and recommendations for the school. When you say it like that, it sounds like an OFSTED report, but I believe that it is much more as we build an ongoing, relationship with the schools we work with. My Ugandan colleagues call it ‘supportive visitation’, which sounds lovely. We visit them regularly, provide training courses for them and the day itself is a process that involves a lot of conversation about where the school is compared to other schools and how management and teachers can improve the teaching and learning for pupils.

The Ugandan colleagues we work with are called Co-ordinating Centre Tutors (CCTs) and they are outreach workers for the local teacher training college. They are all very positive people and they carry out lots of training of school staff in their centres, so are glad to have the opportunity to visit the schools in their areas and spend quality time there. They all use motor bikes and give me lifts to and from the schools. Working together also gives us the opportunity to share skills so that the process can be sustainable when I leave.

I will usually do the leadership and management part of the process, as speaking to the headteacher, chair of School Management Committee (like our governors) and chair of the PTA can be done in English. I have started doing some of the lesson observations which is very interesting, especially as the younger classes are taught in local language. However despite my initial concerns, I was pleased to find that it is easy to tell a good lesson, even when you do not understand the language it is delivered in, as it is obvious if the children are engaged and learning and the teacher is good. The teachers’ English is good enough to allow feedback after the lesson although I mainly do the older classes.

A report is provided comparing the school with similar schools in the district and we will go on to hold a School Performance Appraisal Meeting later on in the term – commonly called a SPAM by my Ugandan colleagues. I always snigger slightly as I show my age by thinking of Monty Python every time! This is where all those from the school community are invited to a meeting to discuss the strengths and recommendations, decide on the school priorities and draw up a School Development Plan. We then will support the school as it tries to implement the plan.

So it is basically OFSTED with all the bits I didn’t like taken out and all the bits I wished it had, put in!

HIV/AIDS prevention in schools

This term, Sabrina’s School Health programme is all about HIV/AIDS prevention. Over one million adults are living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda and 3.5 million children are orphans due to their parents dying from the disease. Over the last few months we have carried out workshops for head teachers on HIV/AIDS prevention in schools and this term I am visiting all the schools trained to help them with implementation of the policy. The workshop consisted of topics such as prevention through education, preventing sexual transmission to pupils and teachers and mitigating the effect of HIV/AIDS. In fact I have never talked about sex so much as I have in the last few months!

Schools in Uganda cover a lot of information in PIASCY which stands for Presidential Initiative on AIDS Strategy for Communication to Youth. This was introduced by President Museveni in an attempt to halt the spread of AIDS. The initiative is successful to a degree although, when working in schools, we have found the messages given are good but understanding is lacking. For example, children chant ‘Don’t have unprotected sex’ without understanding what it means and school compounds have notice boards displaying messages saying things like ‘Have sex later’. The work in schools is very important as children present a ‘window of hope’ for stemming the HIV/AIDS epidemic, as those at school are usually free of HIV and the challenge is to keep them that way.

When visiting schools I talk with the head teacher and teacher responsible for PIASCY and we discuss how understanding can be improved through bringing the topic of HIV/AIDS into assemblies, clubs and lessons. The aim is to keep children free of HIV by identifying actions that the school can take. I also give lots of information on universal precautions to keep everyone safe. Supporting children who are caring for sick relatives in an attempt to stop them dropping out of school is also part of the discussion.

During the first workshop we held, Geoff and I did a role play during the session on Guidance and Counselling. I played the part of a caring teacher and Geoff was a pupil struggling at school because his mum was sick. Role play is obviously not big in Uganda because out of all the sessions we did, that was the one the head teachers remember and say they have tried with children. We feel under a lot of pressure now to do an even better role play at the next workshop we hold!

Sponsorship and Birthdays

Geoff's birthday
With Josephine's family at her home

We have decided to turn over a new leaf and update our blog more often. We used to struggle due to poor internet connection, but now it is much better so we have no excuse. Also, it is good for us to keep a diary of what we are doing as we quickly forget (we blame the heat rather than our ages!). Speaking of which, Geoff has had a birthday since our last update! It was spent staying with volunteer friends in Fort Portal and going out for dinner in a posh hotel!
Since the last update we have had our final VSO training in Kampala and Geoff has now completed his in-country motor-cycle training. He now has a motor cycle licence and, all being well, should have a bike within the next couple of weeks.
On the 18th September, we had a very good day visiting a child called Josephine, who is sponsored by St. Andrews (our church at home). She is sponsored through an organisation called Compassion and, when we first came to Uganda, we had no idea that Josephine lived only 30miles from us in Kasese. When we discovered how near she was to us, we organised through Compassion to visit her to see for ourselves what ‘being sponsored’ actually means for her. She lives in the foothills of the Ruwenzori Mountains and we were very impressed with the project and the difference they make to children’s lives.
How does the project impact on Josephine? Well, we must admit to some scepticism before our visit but are now convinced it is working successfully. Why?

• Josephine is still in school when, without support, we are sure she would have left as she is ‘below average’ and struggles academically;
• She has the opportunity in the future to go on to either vocational training and secondary school, which would not be possible for her family without Compassion’s support;
• She has had regular medical check-ups and clinic visits when ill;
• Her parents have received guidance at weekend sessions on how to support Josephine educationally;
• This support has also helped the other children in the family to make the most of their educational opportunities;
• The family have received a goat and training so it can generate further income for them;

Although this is, of course, what every child should receive, the reality is that in Uganda, as in so many other developing countries, many children do not have these basic things.
As well as visiting the project, we were able to visit Josephine’s home, which involved a 1500 ft climb up a mountain! Had we realized how difficult the climb would be, we would not have attempted it, but 2 hours later and soaking wet, due to a thunderstorm, we reached her small mud and wattle hut with amazing views across the valley.
After meeting all the family plus neighbours and friends, it was time to go down so we could get home before dark. It took an hour of scrabbling down the now slippery paths before we got back to the valley floor and the project. We were amazed to look back at Josephine’s house and see how high it was. We were even more amazed to learn that she goes up in 45 minutes and comes down in 25 minutes!

We saw some animals

Whilst visiting Bollus near Masindi, we managed to fit in a trip to Murchison Falls National Park and went on a boat trip up the Nile to the base of the Falls, an early morning game drive and a walk to the top of the Falls. Here are some of the animals we saw as well.

The Falls are caused where the half-mile wide River Nile is forced through a 6 metre gap in the rocks and down 40 metres. It is truly awesome and from the top you can feel the staggering power – photos do not do it justice.

Visiting Friends

Last week we were able to visit Bollus Wembabazi, the headteacher who hosted me on my first visit to Uganda back in 2002 and who came to visit us in Essex in October 2005. Children from Stock may remember him visiting the school and he has an album full of pictures of the school – Geoff was interested to see how bright the (only just done then) playground markings were and the absence of the new buildings! We met his family, had a lovely local meal at his house and went on a walk round his farm (called a garden here – what we call a garden is called a compound). We thought it would be interesting to hear about his children’s activities as it gives a small insight into family life in Uganda.

He lives with his wife, Margaret, has 7 children of his own, looks after 2 orphans of his wife’s sister and hosts an old man. The oldest 2 children are twins of 22 years, called Irene and Collins. The next two are also twins, Daniel and Godwin, aged 18. His children are completed by Nelson, 16, Bridget, 13, and Noreen, 11. The orphans are Daphne, 16, and Douglas, 13. The old man, only ever called Muzee during our visit - a term of respect for an old man in Ugandan life - used to look after the garden of Bollus’s mother, but when she died 4 years ago he was made homeless and so Bollus now looks after him. Incidentally Geoff is often called Muzee, which he finds difficult to come to terms with!

They live in a traditional home which was built by Bollus using home-made bricks with corrugated iron sheets for a roof. It has a living area and sleeping areas. There is an outside kitchen made from a wooden framework and covered in local mud from the farm with a thatched roof. The pit latrine is set about 20 metres from the house and is made in a similar way to the kitchen.

Bollus has worked at 5 schools since 2002. The moves have been for 3 reasons; Firstly due to conflicts with the local community, secondly by the district in order to fill more rural schools, and thirdly so Bollus could work at a school nearer his home. These 3 reasons are common across Uganda and mean that there more movement of headteachers than is good for school stability.

Margaret has been a local politician and is currently the treasurer of her local primary school. She wanted to go further in politics but is not well educated enough. She only made Primary 4, because her mother died and she had to leave school to look after her younger siblings.

Irene is very hard working and after taking A levels, she went on to do a secondary teaching diploma, which she has just completed. She is awaiting the final results and is working as a matron in a girls boarding school (where she did a teaching practice), before applying for jobs.

Collins also did well in his A levels – well enough to be able to go to university to do engineering as fee-paying student but not quite well enough to get a government scholarship. Bollus wanted him to do teaching diploma as he could not afford degree fees, but Collins refused and left home – teenagers are the same everywhere regarding their parents’ wishes!

Daniel left school before O levels so works on the farm. Bollus has bought him two oxen so he can set up a ploughing business and he has built a home on the farm where he lives with his pregnant wife.

Godwin is mentally handicapped and the family looks after him at home.

Nelson is at the local government secondary school, but with classes of 90, Bollus is unhappy with the quality of teaching and is keen for Nelson to attend a private school. Nelson however is happy to stay with his friends in the local school!

Bridget did well in her primary leaving exams last year, but again not well enough to get into a ‘good’ secondary school. Her parents say this is because she is ‘playful’. She is repeating her year at a local private school as government schools are not supposed to allow children to repeat the final year of primary education.

Noreen is just chugging along in Primary 4, content to keep her head down and let her older siblings take the parental flak.

As we re-read this we realise the difficulties faced by government schools when even goverment headteachers are not keen on using them for their children! It makes us even more determined to improve the quality of the schools used by most children.

After lunch and a photograph session, we all went for a walk around the 10 acre farm. They grow maize, beans, cassava, matoke (a type of banana), cabbages, pumpkins, coffee and groundnuts. They also keep pigs, chickens and goats. What they produce is mainly used to sell to supplement their income from his teaching job after they have eaten their needs. Sabrina was particularly excited by the cabbage seed bed and got some seedlings to take home and grow on in her plant pots. They have been planted and are doing well.

Graduations and presidents

Sorry about the lack of updates to the blog – just to assure you that we are both fit and well. We have just found it difficult to find the time to get on the internet – no other excuses! Since our last update we have had a flying visit to the UK to attend Tom’s graduation. We had a brilliant time at home and were also able to catch up with family and friends. It was lovely to see everyone and to be back in ‘our world’ of luxury and plenty for a while.

However, it feels good to be back in Kamwenge and we were straight back to work as we had 8 Irish Global teachers in our schools for 5 weeks and were anxious to see how they had settled in. Schools here are very keen to host a Global teacher and some have been waiting for 2 years for their chance to host. As well as being an amazing experience for them, they have a huge impact on teaching and learning, which Geoff will be following up after they have left. Sabrina had given them a long list of health related issues to look at whilst in their schools. These will become part of the Healthy Schools programme.

The major issue in Kamwenge District at the moment is the lack of water. We are now in the dry season and it has not rained for about 6 weeks. Shallow wells are dry and there are long queues at bore holes. We visited a school where the head teacher said the nearest water source was 2 kilometres away and although he had sent some children to collect water, they had returned empty-handed because too many people were already there. As well as the obvious problem of children going all day without drinking water it also makes the health issue of improving sanitation and hygiene very difficult. For those of us in Kamwenge Town, life is easier as a pump has recently been installed at a nearby river and water is now being pumped to various points, including the schools within the designated area. However, there is a cost to this and we are concerned about what will happen if some people cannot pay when their water bill arrives.

During the Irish teachers’ stay we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. They completely surprised us by organising a little party and managing to get a cake baked for us.

Our local church in Kamwenge was upgraded (if that’s the right word) to a cathedral and the new bishop consecrated last Sunday. It was a huge event with people coming from all over Uganda. It was very exciting because as well as most of the bishops in the country, the President, Yoweri Museveni, also came. Everyone felt this was a great honour. We were seated about 30 feet from him as the picture shows.

Last week was the last week of term and Sabrina has been helping to facilitate sanitation training for selected teachers and pupils. The best bit was when she asked the pupils when they needed to wash their hands, one replied, “Before you milk a cow.” This was, of course, correct, but not the sort of answer she would have received in Maldon! She also showed the pupils how to make a ‘tippy tap’. A what, I hear you ask. Well it’s an cheap and easily-made hand washing facility for schools as shown in the picture. The aim is that all schools in our programme will have these by their latrines. The main challenge is access to a nearby, clean water source.

Lazy Morning

Woke up late after a Nile Special Beer to drown our sorrows after the tennis last night so having a lazy morning on computer and washing before going out to visit the accomodation that the Irish teachers will be staying in.

Prime steaks, bishops’ washing, travelling chickens, HIV/Aids workshops and food parcels?

No update to the blog for a few weeks as we have been at VSO training for new volunteers in Kampala and access to internet has been limited to checking our emails with not time to do anything more. It was good to see and sample the bright lights of a capital city, although we felt like the country mouse visiting the town mouse! At one point we went to an Italian delicatessen and Sabrina lost Geoff, only to find him staring open-mouthed at a cold counter full of prime steaks.

The training was held at the Lweza (pronounced Louisa) conference centre, which is owned by the Church of Uganda. The accommodation was basic hostel-like, but the hot showers were bliss. Our stay coincided with a retreat for all the bishops of Uganda, so we were sharing the place with 33 bishops. We chatted to them in the meal queues, spoke to the Archbishop of Uganda and met the new bishop of our new cathedral in Kamwenge. But enough name dropping. The best sight was of 35 purple shirts hanging out to dry on the washing line – definitely a missed photo opportunity.

The new volunteers were a mixed but amazing bunch of people. 2 Americans, 1 Kenyan, 1 German, 8 English, 2 couples, and a family with 3 children under 8. Most were in their 20’s and 30’s and we were the oldest, but we felt young. The job skills ranged from doctors and nurses, through fundraisers and sign language teachers to managers and organizational capacity builders (a common job in development circles but we’re still not sure what it really means).

We went up from Fort Portal by bus, which was our first experience of coach travel in Uganda. We sat in the two window seats of three and were joined by a succession of passengers who squeezed into the small third seat. One of them fell asleep on Geoff’s shoulder. The journey took four hours, with stops only to pick up and drop off passengers. There was a chicken under the opposite seat and at every stop, street vendors would try to sell a range of snacks through the windows – goat kebabs, fried bananas, boiled cassava, sugar cane and drinks. We had brought our own sandwiches.

At Kampala we were just dumped off in the street, as apparently the bus company is in dispute with the bus station about an increase in fees of 10,000 USH (about £3.30) per coach. The number of people around was absolutely amazing and special hire drivers (our taxi drivers) were continually thrusting their keys in our faces to tout for business. Fortunately one of my work colleagues, Salvatore, sorted us out with a good, safe and cheap special, although not before a language misunderstanding meant we had walked for 20 minutes through the hot and bustling streets to another bus station.

Back to work this week and we have 4 days of workshops. On Tuesday Geoff was with the senior education officials and local politicians of the district to review last year’s, and plan next year’s, work. On Wednesday and Thursday we facilitated a workshop on HIV/Aids issues in schools with headteachers – 40 of them. On Friday we are told headteachers and host families how to look after the 8 Irish teachers who will be visiting for 5 weeks. Ugandans get quite worried about hosting bazungu (whites) especially with our ‘weak’ stomachs and so we will try to allay their fears.

P.S. We watched Wimbledon on the TV in the next door hotel, eating Minstrels which had been sent by our daughter, Catherine, to our new Post Office Box – the address is
Slide
PO Box 1511
Kamwenge
Uganda
just in case you’re interested. They took 3 weeks to arrive and tasted even better for the wait. The packet of chocolate buttons has however melted into one big button due to the heat. Going back to the tennis, it was great to see the shots of the London skyline between games.

P.P.S. Some more chocolates and liquorice allsorts arrived from Nicola this week as a late Father’s Day present. No pressure Tom

P.P.P.S watched Murray lose last night – very sad. The game finished at 9.00 local time, which meant that the locals were unable to watch their very popular soap opera – equivalent to East Enders. Very culturally insensitive but how often do we get the chance to see a Brit in the semis of Wimbledon?

Is a fox a wild animal?

Last weekend we visited some of our fellow VSOers who are working in Fort Portal, our nearest large town, which is about 1 ½ hours drive away. We stayed with a Dutch couple called Kees and Freddy. Kees works as a maths tutor at the local primary teachers’ college and Freddy helps at the local special needs school. She is also a serious walker and we did some serious walking over the two days. On Saturday we visited some caves and a beautiful waterfall which we could stand behind and listened to some interesting stories from the guide about kings and princesses that used to live there. In the evening we met a couple of other VSO tutors at the college – Hannah who is from Hull and Celia from Boston, USA.

On Sunday we were up and off early for a rigorous 4 hour walk up and around the local crater lakes. The paths were very, very, very steep but the views at the top were stupendous. We could see the Rwenzori Mountains on one side and back to Kamwenge – about 70 Kms away – on the other. Freddy has done lots of planting in her garden so Sabrina took the opportunity to take some seedlings and cuttings home with her. Why?

Well we are now the proud possessor of three large planters. We wanted to brighten up our courtyard, which is just plain concrete – very secure and private but very boring - and asked the next door hotel staff for some empty paint pots, which is what the locals use for flowers. To our amazement they carried in these huge planters – it took three people to carry them. The escari –night watchman – then got the soil from the roadside which he carried in a washing up bowl. Altogether it took 18 loads to fill them up. As it is now the dry season we are carefully watering them with waste water. The flowers and cuttings are all doing well.

On Monday Geoff went out to visit a couple of nearby schools with the district inspector, Willy. All very well, except that he had to go on the back of Willy’s motor bike – the first time he had been on one in Uganda. He met Willy clutching his brand new white helmet and put it on – much to Willy’s annoyance. He seemed to take it as an insult to his driving ability! Geoff had to explain that VSO insisted on volunteers wearing helmets on motor bikes and only then was Willy happy.

On Thursday Sabrina attended a school assembly to hear the HIV/AIDS message put over by pupils. The messages are very direct for our ears, although it must be remembered that a lot of the pupils at primary schools are teenagers as they move up to the next year when they are ready and not by age. It was very entertaining and there were some brilliant actors. The highlight for Sabrina was when the male star came out standing on a pair of sticks held horizontally by two scouts, like a stretcher without the fabric in the middle. They stood still and moved the sticks backward and forward and the actor moved his legs with the sticks so that it looked as though he was walking despite not moving! Even more amazing he remembered his lines all the time his legs were moving back and forth!

This weekend we went for a walk around a local environmental area, the Bogodi Wetland Sanctuary. This small sanctuary is an admirable example of conversation and tourism having a direct impact at grass roots level. Run by the Kibale Association for Rural and Environmental Development (KAFRED), all money raised from the trail is used for community projects in the local village. So far it has funded a library and a new secondary school. It is about 4.5Km long and lasts for about 3 hours, with lots of different birds to see with exciting names – we particularly liked the eastern grey plantain eater, the shining blue kingfisher and the olive bellied sunbird! We also saw 5 types of monkey from very close up. Our guide was Ivan and he was very knowledgeable and interesting about what we saw. There was a very high tree house looking out over the swamp.

When we were filling up with petrol the day before, we mentioned to the attendant that we were going to see monkeys; he said “Do you have monkeys in England?” When we said no, he asked if we had chimps, then hippos, then lions, then giraffes and then elephants. On being told no to all of them, he said, “Well what animals do you have?” All we could think of was foxes, which we felt did not really compare with any of the above so we just kept quiet! Fortunately another vehicle wanted fuel so we could escape without having to think of what in the UK compares with the animals here.

Going to schools

We drive along the murram roads of Kamwenge trying to avoid pedestrians and cyclists. Cyclists carry everything and anything . . . sugar cane, sacks of charcoal, beds, furniture, even coffins (empty) Pedestrians carry their water, produce and shopping on their heads. Children run barefoot along the side of the road with their exercise books and bags. Along the roadside the papyrus grows tall and graceful.

After being joggled about on the potholed roads, we see a school sign and turn off on to a virtual footpath through the high maize, banana trees and elephant grass. We drive for anything up to 5 Kms past mud huts, cassava, or bean plantations until the path widens and . . .

It is always enjoyable arriving at a new school, especially at playtime. First we see the bright colours of the school uniforms through the trees – all Ugandan schools have brightly coloured uniforms – and then as we turn into the school, a few children will notice that there are white people – mzungus – in the vehicle and will run up to greet us. Gradually more children will come out until by the time we park in the shade of a mango tree, the car is surrounded by smiling faces shouting ‘Hallo Mzungu, how are you?’, to which we reply ‘I am fine, how are you?’

As we get out of the vehicle they respectfully move aside and some offer to carry our bags. By this time the headteacher or another senior teacher will have hurried out and we will be ushered into the headteacher’s office where a visitors’ book will be produced. Every workplace and organization in Uganda has a visitors’ book and our first task on sitting down is to fill it in. Once we revisited a school the next day and signed our names immediately below our names from the previous day! As we sit, there will be faces peering through doors and windows to catch a glimpse of the white faces – in many cases in the rural areas, it may well be the first white face they have seen in the flesh.

Our business with the headteacher and staff finished, as we emerge from the building, more children will appear to surround our vehicle and offer to carry our bags. Unfortunately this also occurs during lesson times as teacher absenteeism is high for a wide variety of reasons and there are always some classes where children sit waiting patiently for a teacher to turn up. They are therefore glad of our appearance to enliven the waiting! As we drive off the children run up beside and behind the vehicle, sometimes so close that we have to stop and shoo them away. Once we drove to a house 1 Km away from the school only to find that three 9-year-old children kept up with us all the way!

The same story is repeated at the next school. The only exception is in the town centre schools, where pupils are used to seeing mzungus around and so adopt an air of world-weary sophistication as we turn up, as though nothing can surprise them!

Celebrating Sabrina’s birthday

Into the life of every VSO volunteer must occasionally drop a little luxury – and we had ours last weekend at the Ndali Lodge. We went there, one of Uganda’s ‘most stunning retreats’, to celebrate Sabrina’s 40th birthday. Well that’s what the owner kept saying and he should know! The history of the lodge is fascinating. It was originally bought by the present owner’s grandfather, who was kicked out of Uganda by Amin. When the present government said that such owners could get their land back if they produced title deeds, the current owner’s father came back with his title deeds and reclaimed it.

We arrived just in time for a lunch of macaroni cheese bake with home grown salad from their garden. Then round the pool to cool down, take in the wonderful view and generally relax until dinner. There were 10 guests staying and we were an eclectic bunch. A gay couple who had just seen the gorillas and worked in finance in Canary Wharf, a couple on their honeymoon, which had lasted for 6 months and was about to end with a trip to see the gorillas, 2 New York singleton women who were in fashion and the law and lived up to stereotype by never stopping, a young couple who managed an upmarket lodge in the south of Uganda and a Dutch/American couple who worked for NGOs in Kampala and had diplomatic immunity as the female partner was attached to the US embassy on bed net distribution. Oh and us! The owner and his fiancée were also at dinner which was great fun with brilliant and wide-ranging conversation as well as the first alcohol since the plane. The 4 course meal was very tasty with some great conversation.

In the morning we got up late, had breakfast and then went down a very steep hill to take out the boat. By the jetty there were 3 local teenagers who were fishing from reed canoes that they had made themselves and which looked exceedingly hard to balance on, yet they were able to catch fish and paddle around without looking unstable at any time. One even spread his hands wide apart to indicate how the big the fish he caught were, but we only saw him catch tiddlers – fishermen are the same the world over. We just paddled around and let the wind push us about, then moored and slowly walked back up the steep sides of the crater lake.

We lunched overlooking the lake, were presented with a date cake for Sabrina’s birthday, then set off back to Kamwenge. The weather was lovely and the roads were full of Ugandans in their Sunday best strolling along in family groups or sitting in groups just chatting. It was lovely to watch and see their happy, smiling faces. In Kibale Forest we saw 3 family groups of baboons enjoying the evening sun and stopped right next to them. There was also a blockage caused by a road grader improving the road through the forest which necessitated some delicate vehicle manoeuvring across a pile of loose earth at a 45º angle with 4 wheel drive engaged.

Overall a wonderful weekend and a great way to celebrate Sabrina’s birthday.