Cerys' adventure in Uganda: November 2014

Wednesday, 26 November 2014

We're Growing ...

Last week we saw some very exciting news at Wellspring as we gained another student, now making the student count all of 6. Slowly, slowly we are developing and making progress. We also have a new student who is also planning on joining us in January. Exciting to think that by the time the student had arrived I’d only been in Uganda for just one month and a new student had been added already. Although I cannot take the credit for this student coming along it is exciting to think and hope for a student to be added each month over the course of the year, this would mean that the school would have grown and developed by 60% in one year! Come on!

We have also seen some changes to the old classroom. It has been painted and the students were charged with making the displays look appealing and interesting. We now have two classrooms that we use and they are now looking great and our now a good environment for developing thinking skills and curiosity.

Painting the old classroom

Sorting out the new displays. It was a big task!

Moving tables from one classroom to another!

The second classroom all sorted and painted

Alongside the academic subjects, the students have enjoyed a range of different activities. A particular highlight has been when the students taught the upper primary class how to bake. The secondary students only learnt how to bake a marble cake the week before and then put their skills and new learning into practice by teaching the younger students. It was great to see the students developing their leadership skills whilst leading the upper primary.

Making a coffee cake

The boys working out the measurements

Secondary students teach the upper primary students how to make a cake

On Sunday we hosted the school open day. This was an excellent time of celebration with over 200 parents attending; it also was a prime opportunity to advertise the secondary school, which off course we did. There have been ‘murmurings’ of parents from the primary talking about sending their children to the secondary school, hopefully this will come true, only time will tell what their decision will be. In fact I have just had a parent pop in this morning to say they have 3 children that they are looking to send to the school in January, this would be fantastic and are praying for this.

It has been great to have Holly back in Uganda with a team from links. Holly was here for 7 years and worked as the head of the primary school. It has been so good to be able to spend some time with her this side of the world. The links team have been working with the primary school on the agenda of ‘Fit for Life,’ so during the open day we enjoyed various fun physical activities for children, parents and teachers. It was lovely to see everyone getting involved.

Driving in the rain on the back of a boda!

The rainy season has begun in full throttle, we have enjoyed many a thunder storm, this has resulted in a few leaks in the house and it has been good fun to try and find out how to stop the leaks whilst it is quite literally pelting it down outside. The roads get quite flooded in some parts when the rain pours, it has been fun driving through flooded roads on the back of ‘boda’s’ (motorbike taxi)!

Talking of traffic, we saw Kampala get very excited with the last football match; Uganda vs Ghana in the African cup. I live nearby Nelson Mandella Stadium where the football is held and made the mistake of driving into Kampala just before (well a couple of hours) before the match. It was mayhem and lets just say an experience driving; first of all driving pretty much a minibus which is about 6 times bigger than my car in the UK, bodas weaving in and out of the anything in their way with people dressed in their national team colours, flags flying everywhere, ‘matatus’ (big minibus/vans that run as taxis) cutting in at any which way and people crossing at any point! Wow, it was an experience but glad I’ve now managed the crazy roads in Kampala!

The community car, imagine how much bigger this is than the little Fiat 500!

In the last couple of weeks, I have also been learning about the procedures of Uganda. After an hour journey to Kampala city in a packed matatu I found out that I couldn't pick up some letters at the post office because I’d forgotten my I.D. ….dohh! Believe me I tried to bend the rules in explaining that I was from the UK and didn't know the procedures, however this defiantly didn't work! Next time I travelled to Kampala I remembered the I.D and then really enjoyed investigating the city for the first time on my own. It was so good to get my bearings around the city. The people here have been so welcoming and friendly and have taken me to many different places here but I was finding it hard to connect them all together. So it was an enjoyable experience to investigate on my tod. This was the first time I had been on my own since being here actually, (6 weeks now) that's how welcoming people have been!

I think I will leave it there for now … SO much has happened in the last few weeks and it is difficult to know what to write to ensure it is interesting … until next time!

Sunday, 9 November 2014

Half Term Antics & so much more ...

Time has flown by so quickly and nearly a month has passed, well three days short of this. So much has happened in the last few weeks where to start…FOOD! I was excited to go to the local market the other day and buy a bag full of carrots, tomatoes, aubergines, onions, peppers and garlic for just over £1. Even Coventry market would have to work hard to compete with these prices!

The local market in Banda; next town along from bweyogerere where Wellspring is.

Yesterday I was 'lucky enough' to try a local delicacy of Grasshoppers. Lets just say they were interesting and not sure I'd have them again!

Eating the local delicacies!

I’ve now managed to work out the pattern that the electricity is on and off, this makes it sooo much more manageable especially as now can be prepared for a no electricity day. It is challenging to think about how much more we rely on in the western world, I love the Ugandan laid back attitude they have to things like this which is often met with an ‘oh sorry…’ and that is that.

At the school since we are following the Cambridge curriculum we have the same holidays as the UK and so last week half term was met with happy student faces. The students were in school for the first two days and then we enjoyed a four day holiday. During this time I had the privilege of going with Wellspring into one of the communities (Kito) they work into. Unemployment is high in Kito and many of the people have not had the opportunity to be educated hence making it difficult for many people. As part of the community work Wellspring help to train people with skills that will help them find employment and the skills necessary to set up their own small business if they so desire in the future. These include literacy lessons, hair dressing and Jewellery making.

Learning how to create different Hair stlyes in Kito

Bead & Jewellery making

60/ 70 people & a cow turned up to the lessons in the community

Literacy lessons

Off course the ladies being trained in hairdressing loved having a ‘Mzungo’ (White person) there and enjoyed trying out their hair styles on ‘novelty’ hair they had not plaited before. In return the ladies taught me a bit of Lugandan, which means I now need to try it out…. Eeek!

There have been many success stories of people who have found work since being trained in the community. Around 60 / 70 people came along and it was so inspiring to see how lives are being transformed here.

Last week I also saw the arrival of a new housemate, Ruth from the UK. She is lovely and it is really nice to have a bit of company in the house. She will be here until December. We have enjoyed entertaining many people in the house and have enjoyed a few games nights. Whether these evenings happen to be by torchlight / candle light or the power is on it inevitably ends up competitive!

Ruth is setting up a charity here and works in partnership with other schools in the area. So during half term I tagged along with her to visit a local deaf school called BDI. It is only a small school with 53 students attending, the majority of these students board in a small space. This was quite challenging to see especially faced with such poverty! However it was amazing and so inspiring to see and feel the amazing love the children and staff have for one another. I was so challenged by how they showed love to one another and were so thankful to God for what they had, such a challenge for us in the developed world.

Many children with disabilities of any kind are seen as not worthy of any kind of love or care, or even an education. This means that even though the school is FREE the parents have to be persuaded to send their child to the school. The children here were beautiful and could have stayed for along time!

BDI School

Meeting the children of BDI school

Learning sign language

24 girls sleep in this dormitory

This week it has been good to get back to teaching and working on trying to spread the word about the school at Wellspring. This means many an email and phone calls have been made. We will see what will come of this! The students have enjoyed learning more practically this week, one of the highlights has been learning about the growing of crops. To do this I have given the students a piece of land each in which they are responsible for tending to and growing two crops of their choice. So this week the hard work of clearing the land took place!

Students at Wellspring clearing their piece of land.

So I’ll end with what I started with ….Food! Yesterday we had an amazing experience when some of the young people in Wellspring came over. A few of the wonderful ladies taught us how to cook traditionally. My particular favourite was making a 'whomba,' (spelt phoenetically not sure of the correct Lugandan spelling!). Basically it is meat cooked in a sauce using banana leaves, yummy!