Testbourne Mityana Project |
Group Fund Total So Far:
| Daily Diary In Uganda - Week 1This page carries the daily diary from the Team during the first week of their visit to Uganda. Don't miss the full picture gallery Day 1 - Friday 17th October 2008 We arrived at the airport at 4.30am raring to go and excited about getting going. After waving goodbye to our parents we checked in and didn’t have to wait long before boarding the plane to Amsterdam. The journey was ok and was only about forty five minutes. Next we set off for Entebbe, this plane was amazing. We each had personal televisions and had a huge choice of films to watch, music to listen to and games to play. The flight was about seven hours and we arrived at 8pm local time. Out of the window we could see the Sahara desert which was amazing! At the airport it took us all a long time to collect our luggage and take them to the minibus. The locals were so eager to help and took our bags for us.
The minibus was really small and cramped and our luggage was put into an open-top truck and the men were balancing on top of the truck when it was going along. The journey took about half an hour. When we pulled up to the hotel we were all so shocked at how nice the hotel was with marble floors and brightly painted walls. Our rooms were really great with a king size bed each and a modern tiled bathroom - much unexpected. Dinner was interesting, we were served either a whole fish, eyes and all or half a chicken and chips. Later we had no trouble getting to sleep and woke the following day for an 8 o’clock breakfast. Day Two - Saturday 18th October 2008 We packed away and loaded our bags into the minibus
Then we went to the local market where we all purchased lots of presents for ourselves and family and friends back home. It was really strange because we had to barter as there were no set prices. We all felt a bit bad because we felt that by offering to pay less than they said we were robbing them of money that they need a lot more than us. We then headed to the Cathedral guesthouse for lunch. There was an interesting array of food on offer: goat stew included. We were all excited to begin the journey to Mityana which took us through beautiful surroundings and past lots of people who were very interested in us and who stared quite a bit!
The reaction from the local children was the best – they were all smiling and waving at us. The journey was quite uncomfortable and therefore we were relieved to finally arrive at our home for the next nine days – Enro hotel. As is customary in Uganda we were warmly welcomed and we had a nice evening. ..........by Chloe, Sarah and the gang! Day Three - Sunday 19th October 2008 We woke up at 6.45am (that’s 4.45 back home!) and had a breakfast of toast and pineapple at 7.15. We piled onto the mini bus and journeyed to Mityana Cathedral, which was a beautiful building. The service was amazing, with fantastic singing and dancing.
We were welcomed time and time again, but we all felt rather uncomfortable as we could sense that everyone was staring at us. There was a guy with a camera that followed us around filming avidly. The worst bit was standing in front of 400 people and introducing ourselves. They found some of us hilarious for various reasons: Sam Page’s height for his 14 years; Emily’s small height for her 15 years and this was emphasised as Ellie was next, really tall, saying she was 14 and Megan’s long blonde hair.
After the service had finished we met our buddies for the first time. We were extremely anxious, but after meeting them and letting them guide us around the school, we felt a bit more comfortable. We tried our hand at dancing and playing drums, rather unsuccessfully. However our buddies and other students enjoyed learning our own versions of dancing (e.g. The Hokey Kokey, The Macerina etc.).
We then ventured to the orphanage to see all of the orphaned children who were all very welcoming and sweet. They had put on their school uniforms especially for us which was a strange concept. We played tennis, catch and football (in a muddy field on which Sam C fell over at least twice!) We paid for all 240 of the children to have a meal containing meat which they rarely have but we pretended to be vegetarians so that the children could have more.
We got divided into groups. Some played various ball games, painted the orphan’s faces and some made masks and bracelets. Some of the children came from their homes in their free time to come and see us. The children were delighted with our visit and waved us off after several hours of fun! At the hotel we sorted out the gifts that we had brought in second suitcases all ready to give to various schools around the area. ........ by Sam C, Emily and the rabble. Day 4 - Monday 20th October 2008 We woke up early, and went to breakfast, which was pineapple, baby bananas (very sweet!), toast and juice. After, we made our way to the secondary school, where we were warmly greeted by our buddies! We were taken down to an open hut, used as a classroom, where we had over an hour to talk to our buddies and get to know them a bit better.
In return, we told them about ourselves, our family and life back home in England. I think we all felt a bit closer to them after this, which was nice! We were then taken on a tour of the school by our buddies. They showed us the library, which they all seemed very proud of, pulling out lots of books from the shelves to show us, the science labs and other, normal classrooms. Then we started walking up into the school field, and were taken for a walk to show us the school grounds. They were really big, and had loads of trees and plants everywhere, with fruit growing on some of them! There were also lots of steep hills, with very rocky paths. After, we returned to the hut where we originally started, to be greeted by Miss Kinsey and Dick again!.
We went to have lunch, Ugandan school style, which consisted of a kidney bean stew and pochu, which was… interesting. We also had to eat with our fingers! When I (meg) and Sam were talking at the table, a whole bunch of kids around us started laughing! We had no idea what it was about, and when we asked, they said we eating really small portions. Then we tried bigger portions, and they still laughed! Then we found out it was because of our accents. I think it is fair to say that the food was not to some people’s taste… but I liked it! Especially the beans! But Ellie hated it! After lunch, we were invited to take part in our buddies lessons. Some had English, and learnt things we didn’t know! Did you know it’s ‘They had had lunch’? We all thought it was ‘They have had lunch’! We were wrong in our own language! Oops! The classrooms were really packed, with about 150 pupils in each class, and were so unlike we expected, in the way that everyone talked over the teacher and didn’t shut up all through the lesson! She didn’t even seem to care!
They were being cheeky as well, all the boys now and then said something, and then all the class went ‘oorhh!’ and went in fits of giggles! They seemed to find everything so funny, laughing when ever someone got an answer wrong! We then stayed in the same class, and chatted and played cards while we waited for the next teacher for the next lesson, Geography.
We got pulled out of the lesson slightly earlier to be taught Lugandan, including a version of ‘twinkle twinkle little star’! We then learnt some simple Lugandan words, such as Hello, and Goodbye, how are you and the responses. Afterwards, we got the bus back to the hotel. We then had a few hours to kill and Ellie enjoyed it by beating Harry at Pool. We then had supper, which included pizza and chips! - and then the usual rice, potatoes and beans. We then had about 15 minutes to spare before we had to get to the conference room. There, we met a woman who talked about university and refugee camps. There was also another woman there, who was selling homemade bags. We then discussed what we had been doing that day, and went to bed. .........Ellie and Megan and the crew Day 5 - Tuesday 21st October 2008 We woke up at about 7:30 to get ready for our breakfast at 8:00, for breakfast we had the usual. We left the hotel at 8:15 to be at the school for 8:30, for our gardening lesson.
We met our buddies in the gardening compound, and were then shown round each of the pupil’s plots. As we were walking round we got the chance to see many different types of crops, including maize carrots and cabbages. We also saw sugarcane which we don’t grow in England.
After this we went water carrying. This involved carrying our Jerry-cans down to different locations, a well for the boys and a pond/stream for the girls. The boys and girls water areas were about the same distance from the main school. The boys filled there Jerry-cans to the top where as the girls only filled theirs half way. Every one struggled to carry their jerry-cans as the walk back involved many hills with uneven surfaces.
After getting back to the school, we were permitted to have a small break before heading of to lesson with our buddies, one group had biology and the other had Luganden. The group who had biology were taught by Miss Kinsey, learning about animal and plant cells. The children seemed interested to lean how we learn in England, but after the lesson a few pupils commented that they are used to waiting until the teacher has finished talking and then copying work of the board. The found it strange how we copy off the board while the teacher is talking. The other group who were “learning” Luganden found it hard to as we were learning the same level as our buddies. After these lessons had finished we were let out for lunch. It was pochu and beans again; some people enjoyed it while others struggled to eat it. After lunch was finished the whole team was brought into a physics lesson taught by Miss Kinsey. We showed the children how to make electrical circuits. The children seemed to enjoy this as they had never seen a practical before. Where certain groups made the bulb light up everyone clapped.
After the lesson we were waiting outside for everyone to arrive when it started raining, so we all had to pile in the computer lab where we were taught a quick art lesson. As rain started to finish we took a quick look around the girls dormitories, many people were shocked by what the saw. All of the beds were cramped into together, with all of the children’s belongs on their beds.
Then we were split into girls and boys for games of netball and football, we managed to win both girls. The boys won football 2-0 with the girls winning netball 7-2. It was a fantastic day. .........Amy, Will C and the team Day Six - Wednesday 22nd October 2008 Today was a wet and drizzly day with patches of sunny spells! Throughout the morning the heavens opened and for the rest of the day it was quite damp. We were split into 2 groups of seven with Suzy, Chloe, Ellie, Harry, the two Will’s and Sam Page going to the primary school for the morning whilst Andy, Amy, Sarah, Chrissie, Megan, Emily and other Sam when to the secondary school for some lessons with their buddies.
The first group had a warm welcome to the primary school and were firstly introduced to the children and we were invited to join some of the classes to see their way of learning. They then went for an assembly with the whole school and had a presentation of gifts for the school with singing and dancing. The second group did a 2 hour lesson on global partnerships in schools which was great! After that they went to the primary school and painted classrooms.
The bus turned up and it started to leave to turn around leaving Chrissie very confused as it left with out her and that was our laugh for the day. On the way back to the hotel we went to the drum shop and bought some drums, which will be something to look forward to for ‘our beloved’ (Ugandan term of endearment) parents - BE VERY AFRAID! ...........Andrew and Suzi and the 08 team Day Seven - Thursday 23rd October 2008 - Bulera The team had a bit of a treat this morning as we got a huge lie-in of 30 mins. We had breakfast, where there was another treat the surprise of bacon, beans and eggs yum yum! Then all aboard on Juma’s fun bus to Bulera.
Uganda’s road’s chucking yet more surprises’ when a rather large coffee truck seemed to block our path. Juma’s (the driver) expert driving skills were on show when he made us all exit the vehicle and managed to squeeze the bus through an almost impossible situation. We finally made it to Bulera primary school and were welcomed by 500 screaming children, a great moment for the group when they realised the joy they were putting in to these children’s lives.
Bulera’s scout group welcomed us with a fantastic display, which was impressive because the group hadn’t existed a year ago. The school’s head teacher Wilberforce then gave us a tour of the school and its grounds including their crops. After our detailed tour we were invited to a school assembly where there was a vast array of dancing and singing. The group was excited to witness indigenous African dancing something no-one had seen before. Once we had calmed down after an energetic display we handed over the gifts we had for the school. The shock of the day was when after we had finished handing out our presents the school had made gifts for us. Next the assembly finished and students were dismissed. The team then went outside armed with bubbles and a lot of puff, like the primary school it was quite a shock that something simple as bubbles could entertain the children so much.
Countless bottles of bubbles later it was time for some Ugandan style lunch that the school had laid on for us. We had a varied choice from matoke, rice, beef and fresh pineapple. It was surprisingly delicious, well certainly for Sam Chappel who managed to eat 5 bowls of pineapple; it was like “luxury” for him.
After lunch we then cleared the classroom and the team were split into two groups: one group were sent outside to play volleyball where the other was sent to do face painting for the younger ones.
The team were aware of the fact there was about 200 children’s faces to paint but this didn’t faze them as they knew how much the children would appreciate it and how rare it was for the children to receive such a treat. I think that what really shocked the team was the fact that no matter the precision or accuracy we put into the painting, the children didn’t care and their faces said it all!
Whilst this was happening, the other half of the team excited the children with a game of volleyball with the help of local teachers. Although the team changed from an initial comedy act, with their poor skills, the final score was 29-29. A good game I think everyone could safely say. After a tiring day out, we then returned home promptly, with the exception of a few stops for bird watching. What a great day! .......Harry Cope and Chrissie Hackett.
Day Eight - Friday 24th October 2008 - The last day at school We started off today by being woken up 7:15. I was straight up but Harry was a lot different. He looked very bad so I told Dodie & Dick about it and he disappointingly didn’t come with us. On the plus side we went straight to the secondary school to see our buddies for what was the last time.
We had a longish wait as James, the master of studies, was quite late but as soon as he arrived we went straight into a class. It was in business & entrepreneurship which was fun I guess but at parts a bit boring J. After this we had a final whole school assembly where we all came up with one thing that we enjoyed & would miss after we left. After this we gave our buddies all our gifts, I got Joel (my buddy) a pad of A4 lined paper (100 sheets), a pencil case filled with coloured pens, a geometry set & a pack of top trumps.
Then we put our handprints on the card next to last year’s team, and then went to Testbourne house and relaxed with our buddies. We then had lunch (which was not poshu and beans!!!!!!).
After that we made batiks (we drew them, then put wax on the parts we wanted to stay white, then dyed them different colours).
The girls then went to the maternity ward at the hospital, and the boys and Megan went to the computer room, where we were put in rooms with the prefects, and we had to ask them all questions. I enjoyed it and got a few email addresses, but then we had to go pick up the girls at the hospital. When we got there all the boys went in except for Will and Will. I went in for about a minute, but all the crying and the people lying around looking like they were about to die so I left. We then saw the x-ray room then came back to the hotel. .................Will D & Sam P |
|
alongside us making it even tighter for space. We headed into Kampala to exchange our money at the bank. It was about a fifty minute journey and at the bank we all became millionaires which was very surreal. After this we walked onto the Post Office past many beggars. We all found this hard especially as one man had no legs. In the Post Office we were given postcards which you should receive some time soon. It was nice for us all to have an unexpected opportunity to contact home.
