Journal of the 2011 University Volunteers at Little BIG Africa

The university volunteer programme has now kicked off for the summer, with volunteers from the universities of Dundee and Glasgow (Group 1), Nottingham and Lancaster (Group 2) and now Bristol and Oxford (Group 3) in country. Volunteers will have the opportunity to recount their stories of joy, blood, sweat and tears on a daily basis for everyone at home to read (see below our Twitter tweets!), so don't forget to pass the link to your family and friends so they can also follow all the adventures.

The Final Entry from the Ladyboy House in Kisawayi (Group 3)Week 5 in the ladyboy household has been a week in two parts: firstly preparation for and the undertaking of the funday and secondly, our much anticipated trip to Sipi Falls to both see the sights and celebrate Sophie’s 21st birthday. On the Wednesday, which was the day before the funday, we were all somewhat anxious. Although Matt had arranged and helped train the football team, the capabilities of the netball team were still in doubt as they had indeed been spotted practicing by, throwing rocks into a hole. The pupil MDD [music, dance andst drama production] had yet to be seen and the volunteer and teacher MDD had yet to have preparation started on it. As well, the food for the funday had still not been confirmed, despite our best efforts, and so we headed to school to attempt to finalize (and start in the case of the volunteer/ teacher MDD) arrangements for the next day. However, despite a slow start as all of the teachers were occupied writing report cards and there were hardly any children in school, we were all pleasantly surprised to find that the school had continued to make arrangements for the funday without us. The football and the netball teams were sorted, the food budget had been topped up by the school to have meat for lunch, and the pupil MDD had been completed without us and contained not just one song, but three as well as a poem and a drama! These were performed to us to much hilarity for the group as the poem contained reference to our visitors Ugo, Matthew, Victoria, Sarah and others; Rachel was not impressed to have been forgotten!

With everything else organised, there was just the volunteer/teacher MDD to sort out. Sarah had brought lots of balloons with her to Uganda and had the idea that we could use them to demonstrate how to purify water with moringa. So after a quick adult education lesson demonstrating moringa usage to the assembled teachers, we got down to practicing our drama – which turned out to have an Oscar winning performance from Vic’s namesake, Nekesa Irene. The drama starts with Irene and the MDD teacher Joseph walking to the dirty water source to fetch water. Irene then drinks from the dirty source and becomes unwell (with exaggerated vomiting) at which point the moringa fairy (Sarah) and the Moringa friends (Ugo and assorted teachers) come out to dance around Irene and mime out the actions for purifying water using moringa. A highlight had to be Irene ad-libbing and telling Sarah that she was trying to poison her with moringa! We went home at the end of the day confident that we were prepared for whatever the funday could throw at us. How wrong we were!

The morning of the funday started off early for Matt and Ugo who headed up to school at the meeting time of 7am to collect children and teachers and walk them up to Bwiri Primary School where the funday was to take place. The girls had a slightly later start as they were heading straight to Bwiri with the banner. Unfortunately, heavy rain the night before and the continuing downpour made the simple boda boda ride much more treacherous. Rachel and Vic were firstly asked to get off the bike so that he could go down the muddy slope, that had previously been a road, safely and were then forced by the conditions to seek an alternative route. Sarah’s boda driver braved the mud and all three of the girls arrived safely, on time at Bwiri school. The same cannot be said for anyone else. Although LBA had said a start time of 8.30, by 8.30 there was still only the Ladyboy girls, the Bwiri group and a handful of Bwiri pupils on site. Other groups and children started to arrive after 9 but the last straglers (Ugo, Matt and the children from Kisawayi school) only turned up at 11, just in time to play their football match which they were about to forfeit!

The wet conditions turned both the football and the netball into mudbaths, much to the consternation of all involved. Matt flew the banner for the ladyboys in the ultimately victorious Bazungu football team and Rachel was the sole Oxford player on the equally victorious Bazungu netball team. Although Sophie from Bristol earned the prize for the best fall and thus the muddiest clothing, no one was spared and the mud has permanently ingrained itself into our clothes due to our poor washing techniques!

With the sports concluded, we moved inside for the MDD, and the weather immediately brightened up! The shoulder dance of our teacher/volunteer MDD was particularly well received though the ODA lads use of the Lion King sound track to dramatise the use of moringa was possibly the most memorable! The day was concluded by a prize giving and a banner parade. Although we did not win, we more than made up for it with the enthusiasm of our children for the banner parade. Ugo and the children of Kisawayi made countless trips round the field carrying the banner. The children were so excited that they continued parading even after Ugo backed out in order to eat.

The funday having been completed we set our sights on our trip to Sipi falls over the weekend. We set out bright and early on the Friday so that we could shop, use the internet, and purchase paint etc before meeting up with the Lads and travelling up into the mountains to get to Sipi. The Lads had booked into the Crows Nest hotel and so originally we had been planning on going there. However, Soph and the Bwiri group had booked into Moses camp and so we had changed our booking so that we could be with Soph on her birthday. With this in mind, we headed over to Moses camp....... to turn back immediately when we found that Moses camp had insufficient beds to accommodate everyone and only had bucket showers! Eventually everyone ended up at Crows Nest and, on recommendation, we headed up to the top of the hill to watch the sunset.

The waterfall at Sipi is located at the base of the mountain range that contains Mount Elgon, the highest in eastern Uganda, and so our view from the hilltop looked out for miles and miles over the flat plains to the west. As the sun went down, we could see all the way to the horizon lit up in the brilliant reds and oranges with the small patches of rain highlighted for miles around. As always happens in Uganda, the sun set and it went dark almost instantly, so we descended back down to the bar to have dinner. After four weeks of similar [though delicious] food in the village, Sarah chose to go for the tomato curry for dinner. By far and away the best choice of the night, the tomato curry out shone the spaghetti bolognese chosen by everyone else [probably because it is not exactly western food – western food in Uganda sucks!] in both quantity and quality.

We headed up to bed in our alpine-esque huts and woke up early to begin our guided tour of the three water waterfalls. We first visited the highest waterfall which was situated high up in the mountain – a hard early morning workout! It was worth it though as the views were spectacular. Getting close to this waterfall also provided us with an early morning shower as we were soaked through as soon as we got within 30 meters of the waterfall as the spray was unbelievably powerful! Whilst many of the boys sensibly removed shirts before going into the spray, many of the girls failed to heed this warning and approached the waterfall fully clothed. Although usually in Uganda this would pose no problem, as the equatorial heat means that you dry off quickly, the weather on this day was somewhat cold and rainy which meant that, once wet, we remained wet. Following a quick lunch stop next to the river where Rachel massively OD’d on eggs after bartering away her biscuits and juice for other people’s hard boiled eggs, we all continued on to the top of the second waterfall, where there was a natural pool where the locals were washing clothes. As the weather closed in and the rain started to threaten, some brave locals attempted to ford the swift flowing river to reach shelter. Unfortunately, one woman’s shoe didn’t make it and, despite the best efforts of those still using the pool, the shoe was whisked away over the precipice.

As it started to drizzle, we all headed for the downward path to take us to the bottom of the second waterfall. Unfortunately, the rain had turned a normally steep path into a muddy slide. We slowly descended and finally broke through the cloud into sun! This swiftly disappeared as we disappeared behind the waterfall where there was a natural cave. The noise of the waterfall was incredible, amplified by the rock. This was the waterfall where we had been promised a ‘shower’. This literally meant standing under a freezing cold off-shoot of the main waterfall, on a slippery rock. All of the ladyboys bravely faced the freezing water; particularly bravely in Sarah’s case as Ugo’s enthusiasm to get onto the rock and under the water nearly sent Sarah careering into the river. We were all wet and tired and it was nice to walk slightly further along the river and find an ex-pat run, luxury hotel/restaurant. Although once again the western food was disappointing, it was less disappointing than on previous occasions which meant that it seemed amazing!

To finish off the tour, we hiked for another 10 minutes to reach the top of the biggest waterfall in Sipi and what is arguably the most spectacular in Uganda. 100m in height, the water hugs the cliff face for 30m before plunging into an enormous cavern. The view from the top was spectacular and we were assured that the view from halfway down was even better, if we paid $50 and abseiled down the side of the waterfall. Matt was the only ladyboy prepared to take the leap of faith, literally, off the cliff top. The rest of us chose to take photos of him instead.

As it was Soph’s birthday on the Saturday, we had arranged with our guide to have a birthday party for her that evening in a local cave with roasted pork and malwa. The rain was still coming down as we clambered into the back of a truck (harder than it looks in a skirt) and drove out of Sipi to the site of the cave. A muddy scramble later and we were sitting on a mat in the middle of a natural cave, drinking malwa and local gin and eating pork javelins (imagine really, really big pork skewers). The entertainment was provided by two large speakers and a limited selection of dodgy remixes of Beyonce and Shakira songs. Although security was provided, he seemed uninterested in keeping out uninvited guests. Indeed, within half an hour there were more local gatecrashers than there were Bazungu!
Love from the Ladyboys (Vic, Sarah, Rachel, Ugo and Matt) xxxxx The Final Entry from Musoola (Nottingham Bread, Group 2)These last two weeks can be summed up in three words: illness, sipi and stress. Monday morning spelled fever for Jack, Arti and Ben. Heidi, Marie and I were decent substitutes for stove building, organising the school meetings and general chores while the others rested to try and get back to health. Luckily, Jack and Arti improved and it was just a flu. We were all really excited for Sipi falls following our walk to Laso falls. It was a shame that Ben couldn’t make it to Sipi with us, he was sorely missed. Sipi was beautiful and we had a really good guide to take us around the three main falls.

The night out in Mbale to African Golden Gardens was another memorable night clubbing in Africa. The comforts and relaxation of Mbale contrasts starkly with the stress of the last week, which was a mad rush of organising funday, ensuring all the committees were set up with work plans and bye-laws etc plus tippy taps. Organisation spells trouble in Musoola. After countless postponements, torrential rain and marathons of mobilisation the committees were set up and underway, not forgetting the blood, sweat and tears. The funday was a definite paradox as one of the down hearted moments of the trip. The teachers were shameful in their feeding of the kids and greed in demanding meat. Similarly, the children reflected the nonchalant attitude of the teachers as they were less than enthusiastic to be part of the MDD. As we walked past the Bumbo victory parade our hearts sank and some began to question our impact on the village. Nevertheless, I think our group has triumphed with setting up the project in the midst of the adversity we faced of a difficult community integration and a less than convincing school authority and community local council presence. As one of the more isolated groups, I feel our efforts have been notably far reaching and I am proud to have been part of bread Nottingham. If anything, just look at our tank :-)
Nottingham Bread xx Week 3 in the Ladyboy House in Kisawayi (Group 3)After a hectic second week, I think we were all looking forward to a slightly more relaxing pace. However, I don’t think any of us were prepared for quite how relaxed the week would be. A combination of a teachers' strike and complications with the stove building materials pushed us into Ladyboy group confinement with minimal social interaction for 7 days. Cabin fever was slowly setting in... Wednesday dawned promising enough. School teaching had been put on hold for the day so that we could concentrate on what would have been our first smokeless stove construction. We had high hopes for this one as it had been organised in conjunction with ARDI who also have a similar stove building programme (though theirs requires cow dung which ours thankfully does not). Vic, Sarah and Ugo strode out purposefully through the forest to begin the stoventure. Our hopes were soon dramatically dashed as we walked through the gates of Bena’s compound to see what looked like two wheelbarrows of poorly chopped and mixed mud. She was informed that she would have to collect more materials and the trio trudged home dejectedly. Unfortunately this situation is still yet to be resolved as three further trips to Bena’s have revealed no more mud has been collected. The saga continues.

Thursday continued in this depressing manner as Matt, Sarah and Rachel turned up at school to teach and found that the school was shut down due to a teachers' strike and so what had looked like being a busy day turned out the same as before: sitting on the veranda reading, listening to music and going slowly mad due to enforced solitude and lack of action. By the time Saturday arrived, it was time to take action against the encroaching cabin fever and so we took a boda boda over to Kaboyi to visit the BVDA 1 group. The Ladyboys first attempt at travelling three to a boda almost ended with Matt unable to have children, as he clung precariously to the back of the boda and winced everytime they went over a bump. The second attempt, involving Ugo instead of Matt was considerably more successful though all involved became far more acquainted with each other than was anticipated at the beginning of the trip.

Sunday continued the sociable theme for Sarah and Rachel with a trip to the Born-again church. It seemed as though the regulars had got used to the Muzungu strangers and so the service was slightly more extreme than at our first visit. During the service one woman appeared to have a fit whilst praying and another woman was ‘saved’ which as far as we could tell involved lots of shouting from the priest over the kneeling woman. Although Sarah and Rachel had some small social interaction in the morning, the same cannot be said for Ugo, Vic and Matt and so on Sunday the first signs of joint group madness started to occur. Vic found her hand and waterbottle hilarious for about half an hour and then we gave the watching children a rendition of ‘you sexy bean’ to the tune of ‘you sexy thing’ with reference to our epic bean stew. Congratulations go to Sarah for her unrivalled knowledge of the lyrics and Ugo for the excellent dancing accompaniment. The madness appeared to have reached its height when Ugo and Vic started to make plans to steal one of the children in our compound, name her Artemis Mufasa and take her home as their lovechild.

We did, however, not spend the whole week alone. Week three was the week of Muzungu FC and so the ODA lads, with Matt, Ugo, Kart and Tony joined together with Finn (one of the gap year boys living in Lwakaka) to form a football team to take on one of the teams from the local league. They unfortunately lost 2-1 despite a heroic effort from the cheerleading team of Sarah, Rachel and Vic along with Benny (another of the gap year students). The game ended with a meal in Lwakaka for the defeated team where Tony tried to sell Rachel for 10 cows and Dan sent the bill back about 20 times for being wrong. It was also on this night that Matthew who had gone home early to change and dress his war wounds (just a cut to the knee during football – don’t worry Matt’s parents), found a goat in our house. Yes a goat, though it was just the little cute one from the compound. We're still a little unsure as to how it got in but thankfully nothing seemed to take its fancy and all our possessions remained unmunched.

Sadly, after only knowing them for 2 short weeks, we had to say goodbye to Benny and Finn as they were returning to the UK after 11 and a half months away. Their departure did, however, have unexpected benefits for us as they gave us the remaining stock of their pantry before they left. This means that the flavour range of our food has increased to jerk seasoning, curry flavouring and HP sauce amongst others.

The day before we were due to go to Mbale for Mid-placement was supposed to be a busy day and it got off to a promising start. Sarah and Matt went off to school to finally teach after the teachers' strike finally ended and the rest of us headed to the demonstration stove to meet Ari before checking up on materials. At last it seemed as though the epic stoventure was finally getting started! However, it was week three in the Ladyboy house and this level of productivity could not possibly last. In the afternoon we found that the adult education was cancelled due to no mobilisation and the sports class at school turned into a massive farce. Matt and Rachel headed off to school in the afternoon, thinking that they were going to watch and take part in the lesson in order to select a team for funday next week. Arriving at the school, Matt was immediately surrounded by eager teachers and boys wanting to play football and disappeared out onto the field. Rachel was equally beset by eager girls, excited to be playing netball. Unfortunately Rachel was then informed that the school had no netball, no netball posts, and nowhere to play. When she said that she was unable to take a netball lesson without these things the P4 teacher asked why she could not teach the lesson by throwing rocks into a hole. Unable to continue, Rachel came home.

The trip to Mbale came at just the right time. We left the house at 7am and arrived in Mbale at about 9.30am. The day of food had begun! Having lived on a diet of guacamole and rice salad for three weeks, we started the day off as we intended to continue, with an enormous breakfast including samosas, mandazi, yogurt, fruit salad and soda. We then did some shopping, had a shower and headed to an expat run restaurant for lunch. Looking at the menu almost caused a fit amongst the village accustomed group.
Love from the Ladyboys (Vic, Sarah, Rachel, Ugo and Matt) xxxxx Week 2 in the Ladyboy House in Kisawayi (Group 3)Week 2 turned out to be a very busy week in the ladyboy household as it saw the completion of the protected water source near our house, the initial completion of the water tank at school, the start of our adult education programme and another marriage proposal – hopefully next week will be slightly less hectic though the beginning of our stove building should keep us occupied. The week started off slowly enough with Vic, Sarah and Ugo continuing the teaching whilst Rachel and Matt stayed to help at the water source. A lesson in tippy-taps (or tip taps as they are called by the students much to Ugo’s amusement) seemed to be well received with the school now setting up class tippy tap monitors. We were also this week introduced to the most enthusiastic teacher in the school (possibly in the world)! His classes are twice the size of all the other classes as the children seem to have too much fun to contemplate truancy. Alarmingly, his eyes pop out of his head (literally, not metaphorically) everytime he sees Vic but his enthusiasm for his class and our teaching is second to none.

We were much less involved with the construction of the water source than the tank as the community was actively involved and are infinitely better than all of us at any form of manual labour. Whilst Matt became involved in digging the drainage channel, Rachel’s request for a job was met with the repeated comment that ‘we don’t have enough hoes’. Gender equality still has a way to go!

Due to us starting our water tank on Sunday, we would have been unable to attend Tsukasa’s birthday party and so we offered to go and cook for the ODA lads on Friday evening to ensure that we got to see them. As they had been building their water tank all day they were all exhausted (Nathan fell asleep on Vic). Our trip had been intended to be a short trip to see the sunset from their house (which is apparently spectacular though we failed to see it due to looming clouds). However, a tropical rainstorm put paid to this idea and by the time the rain stopped it was 11.30pm and we had to make our way home in the pitch black aided only by torchlight. Matt showed his Birmingham roots as he brandished an empty fanta bottle at the shadows in defense of the group.

Our weekend continued to be a sociable one with a trip to Magale on Saturday to visit the market (which was not on) and the internet cafe (which had no internet), ending with a visit to the BVDA 1 group in Kaboyi. Saturday also saw us entertaining Kart and Emily of the BVDA A group after the rest of their group went off to Mbale. Dinner that evening was supplemented for Vic, Kart and Emily by termites that they caught from the ground with the aid of the compound children. Apparently, they were surprisingly tasteless!

Sunday saw us starting to construct the water tank at school. This firstly involved the construction of 450 bricks using a machine with an enormous lever that only Ugo was able to operate and which required the combined effort of two people to operate otherwise. Unfortunately the mud ran out before we had finished and so we were unable to finish all of our bricks in one day like the Dundee group. The tank continued over the next two days in which we contemplated turning it into a prison for Fred (who came by twice to check on ‘his’ Sarah) and Rachel found the perfect career choice as a brick layer.

The week would not have been complete without a marriage proposal and this week George Bush (our 12 year old neighbour who claims to be 19) proposed to Vic and then proceeded to glare at any boys he saw with her for the next few days, a good week in all.
Love from the Ladyboys (Vic, Sarah, Rachel, Ugo and Matt) xxxxx Week 1 in the Ladyboy House in Kisawayi (Group 3)Our first taste of Uganda time was still at Manpower, when Fredrick [our Headmaster] turned up a good hour and a half late. He speaks good English and has done an exchange with a Swedish school; he believes in non-corporal discipline and seems to run a tight ship at the school, despite high truancy levels. We piled up the taxi with 4 weeks supply of loo roll and pasta and set off to Kisawayi.

We arrived to a blue-roofed concrete building with solar panels and glass windows on the main road – where was the mud hut compound? And the hourdes of interested neighbours? Turns out bazungu aren’t that rare here in the ARDI offices which are now our bedrooms. We still have innumerable children who join us on the veranda. This includes George Bush, the cool kid who is definitely up to something; Rohan, who Matt is teaching to read using Genesis on his Kindle; Jenifer with a gap-toothed cheeky grin and endless energy; plus two that Vic and I are going to smuggle home with us (your cool with that, right padres?)

Our first full day, we were collected for school (at 10.30am, expected at 8.30am) and were introduced to the whole school and given Ugandan names: Matt and I are Wafula and Nafula (when the rain comes), Ugo and Vic are Wekesa and Nekesa (time of harvest) and Rachel is Namboya (an obedient housewife – lol). We’ve also had a couple of tea breaks in the headmasters office where we are force fed (its rude to turn food down) and as a result, Rachel possibly has oncoming potassium poisoning after eating 6 bananas in one morning.

Our first lessons were of varying success – I never want to hear the tune of Happy Birthday ever again – but they seemed to get the hang of the 11 (yes 11) stages of handwashing.

Saturday was market day, in the next town along, with the Kenyan border at the end of the road. Ugo walked over unquestioned to get parafin and other bits; he then tried to cross again with Matt, wearing a backwards baseball cap and shades and they were stopped instantly – at which point Matt pointed at Ugo and claimed he was his Ugandan friend. It quickly became apparent that this was an outright lie, they were detained (only for 20 mins) and sheepishly rejoined us in Uganda.

There are two Muzungu gap-yearers in the market town who’ve been here 11 months. We went to theirs last night for a mini results party, celebrated in style with tuna, pasta and warm beers. At about 10.30pm a voice at the window was Joseph our neighbour worried that we hadn’t returned. Apparently Katherine (our surrogate mother) heard ‘late’ as ‘8’.

Apparently Kenya has electricity and therefore COLD beer – a more successful crossing will definitely be attempted before long.

Today, after work finally started on our protected water source (less than 500m from our door), we went to a music competition in Bwiri, where our school kicked ass with our mini-Rhianna, and met the Bristol volunteers and caught up. Home on a boda boda for a dinner of jacket potatoes in foil on the sigiris and oodles of guacamole, with a pineapple for pud.

On Sunday, we trekked about 30 mins through maize fields, people’s yards and across rivers to get to church – a born again congregation that was surprisingly sparse – a few mothers and millions of kids. We had to stand up and say a few words (mostly what Ugo said), lots of clapping and a keyboard that no one knew how to play – random demo buttons were pressed throughout the service, including beat changes in the middle of songs. Afterwards, we were given avocadoes and Vic was proposed to by the vicar, and is known as “the biggest lake (pronounced ‘lay’) in East Africa”. I’ve also been betrothed to our neighbours son – newly graduated and returning home any day from Kampala. Better buy a hat.
Love from the Ladyboys (Vic, Sarah, Rachel, Ugo and Matt) xxxxx Week 6 in Bwirusa - End of Placement (Group 1)Last week in our wonderful village! The Bwirusa children finally went to their MDD competition which has been dragging on since week 2! Sadly the epic play we had prepared with them was not performed because there wasn’t enough time!

On Friday we painted the colour on the water tank and did some drawings on the school walls. We were also invited to attend a wedding – we dressed up in traditional dress – it was really fun but also really long. We also had our final stove committee meeting and tied up loose ends from the project. We said our goodbyes to the children and teachers at school, and all our friends in the village – it was really sad to go. Village life was an unforgettable experience.

Over and out
SVA Club 7 xx

Week 6 in Bumwangu - End of Placement (Group 1)Tomorrow is our last and final day in Bumwangu. We have planned a big assembly tomorrow at school, where we will hand over some good-bye presents for the school, students, and teachers. The past couple of days have been rather successful as well as quite emotional for us. The funday last week, although rather stressful for us to organise as our students were really busy and the teachers were not so motivated, was really nice. The students really enjoyed the dancing, music and also the teachers were very eager by the end of the day. After our pupils performed their MDD, which they learned the day before, they sang a goodbye song for us. It was so unexpected then we were all overwhelmed and really sad. Everything even worked out fine with the food and it turned out there was enough for everyone (our headteacher made us a budget for three times the amount we had available). In the afternoon we even managed to construct two more stoves, or rather let the community build them.

The next day we finally went and saw the MDD that we have been waiting for for 4 weeks. We left early with the students to march to the competition because it was meant to start at 10. By the time we got there it was already past ten and of course nothing happened until 1.30pm! Well what can you do..... after all ‘this is Africa’! The MDD was worth it and Bumwangu totally rocked the show. We later found out that they reached 2nd place because Bubulo mixed school cheated and apparently bribed the judges. So technically 1st.

Over the weekend we finally elected and trained our stove committee. Like everytime, people started showing up at least an hour late. We were used to that now and even got in the habit of being late ourselves. After a very long and busy Saturday we finally managed to elect a committee and even let them, fully independently, build a stove! After that day, Sunday was nice and quiet and Paddy and I even managed to pull off an epic drama about Moringa in front of church (people actually thought Paddy was sick, thats how convincing it was).

On Monday we spent a lot of time in school and after a short visit from Isa we finally motivated students and teachers to help us remove the wood from inside the tank and clean it, now the water is safe and clean! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! The rest of the day, as well as Tuesday evening, we went around to all our friends houses and said goodbye. It was very emotional and we ran out of answers why we have to go and can’t just stay here.

Well our final day of school was absolutely lovely/sad (after we forced our Head Teacher to stay for the assembly). The school, teachers and pupils were so happy with all the presents we gave to them and the last day was absolutely perfect. Now that we are sitting in the taxi on the way to Jinja, we slowly start realising that this is it...... Bumwangu we love you and we will miss you,
Love DARE xxx

Week 5 in Bwirusa (Group 1)Started to go stove crazy – time is flying by! So we mixed a lot of mud and built 8 stoves. We identified some key members of the community who we would like to be on the stove committee. We painted our school's tank white and also fully painted another tank which was built in another school but had not been painted.

Did lots of Moringa seed demos in different churches on Sunday. We were invited to our headteachers house and she had organised a lovely day for us. She took us to see a primary school in her area and fed us a delicious lunch. We also taught her and her husband to build a stove. LBA came to demonstrate how the stoves are lit. It's really easy and requires hardly any firewood!

We finished our teaching curriculum with our classes at school. So by now all the kids from Primary 4 onwards should know all about clean hands and the safe water chain! They definitely remember the songs we’ve taught them as they sing them constantly!

The famous LBA funday arrived at last on Wednesday. We had our teams ready to go annihilate our Bumwangu rivals! The day was a success, with our school Bwirusa beating Bumwangu in pupil netball, music and banner presentation and teacher/volunteer volleyball. Football was a glorious defeat, considering the age gap between the kids (trying to sneak in older kids from secondary school does not work). The kids were amazing! They put everyone to shame with their dancing and made us all really proud! We also sang along with the teachers an epic remake of R-Kelly's ‘Worlds Greatest’ changing the words to ‘World's Cleanest’ and giving an entertaining but detailed example of the use of Moringa for purifying water – planning to take this to a higher global level – album release December 2011!

Over and out
SVA Club 7 xx

Week 3 in Bukaiyaki, Group 2Hello!
A week has gone since our last journal entry. We spent the Friday collecting results and getting goodies in Mbale. Was a nice relaxing break away from the hectic previous two weeks in the village.

Saturday ......what a very random day and night. We took a trip to Lwakhakha to see the Uganda/Kenya border. Firstly we were taken to a police investigation room to be interrogated over our reason and purpose for being in the country. After the investigation a drink was well deserved. So we went to Garden View, ordered beers and chips and got down low on the dancefloor. That wasn’t enough so we got Boda Boda’s to Sahendu and proceeded to get extremely merry. The journey walking home was very funny to say the least.

Sunday equals church day. The Holy Ghost Church was tried that week and with a hangover it wasn’t what we expected, back to the Salvation Army next week.

For the rest of the week we have been teaching in the Primary School, a different topic this coming week. We have also built two stoves, hopefully another one tomorrow if we have time and people have been mixing materials. Getting materials has proved to be a long and stressful task but we have just got to remember that we are on African time.

Sorry we don’t have any tales about wives and numbers of children, hopefully we will have them for the next journal. Hope everyone is well and happy at home. It won’t be long until we are back and eating the cupboards bare.
Lots of love Lancaster Jam – Rose , Sam, Em, Rob and Amy xxx

Week 3 in Musoola, Group 2Half way through placement already! Tank and water source done and dusted, which the community seem really pleased with, we’ll all be glad to never see a manual brick machine again. After the hard work we treated ourselves to a trip to Mbale, stocking up on chocolate, biscuits, cereal and tanning the forbidden places like knees and shoulders!! Very scandalous of us.

MDD (Music Dance and Drama) competition was held earlier in the week, our school definitely did us proud but sitting on wooden benches with children’s knees in your backs whilst sat in a hot, crowded church for four hours wasn’t the comfiest experience. We need to inherit African kabinas to cushion the pain. The cringe-worthy erotic dancing from the primary school girls in front of their teachers and random village men was strange to say the least. To get into the competitive spirit we painted Musoola onto the children’s arms which went down a treat. Our headmaster also got a new camera phone which he seemed extremely excited about and took photos of us on the sly.

Now we’ve built our first stove at the school, there’s many more lined up for next week, so more hard work to come!
Nottingham Bread

Week 5 in Bumwangu, Group 1In the past 10 days stove building has gathered pace and we have been swamped with requests for stoves. The tank was painted by everyone and we chose to paint the steps of water purification using moringa seeds. We also used some of the paint to decorate the school buildings, painting a sun and a rainbow amongst other things. We have been able to establish a water tank committee to look after the maintenance of the tank, unfortunately we could not get a second meeting with the committee as when we had scheduled it the committee seemed to be on African time and did not show up. More positively has been the founding and following up meetings with the water source committee. We seem to have brought together a very engaged and active group of community members.

On the teaching front we have struggled to maintain regular schedule as many of the children are preparing for an important music competition between all the schools in the district. We have also been preparing for another competition between our school and SVA’s school, Bwirusa. The competition will include contributions from students, staff and us volunteers. It is due to be held tomorrow, we hope we are ready to compete with the SVA guys.

The only committee that has not been established is perhaps the most important, the stove committee who will be trained to maintain existing stoves and to continue constructing new ones when we have left. We have planned a stove training day for the coming Saturday and we hope to be able to elect and train our committee.

This is to be a very busy week, having our competition/LBA fun day with SVA on Wednesday, the important school music competition on Thursday, a water tank commissioning day on Friday followed by lunch with the teachers prepared by us and on Saturday we will hold our stove training day. It will be a busy week and we also hope to cram in as much fun time as well as we head in to our last week in Bumwangu village. The time seems to be flying by soon you will be reading our last journal entry before we all split up.
Dare x

Week 2 in Bukhaiyaki, Group 2Sorry for only just writing a journal, we have been very busy since we got to placement. The water source was completed within three days...only to have to be redone eek. It is sorted now so there is a fresh water source by the school which the community can benefit from. There is a plaque on it so we will hopefully be remembered in years to come.

Today we are plastering the inside and outside of the water tank at the Bukhaiyaki Primary School. Not too sure how we will all get it but I am sure we will manage it somehow. Making 500 bricks was tough but we pulled together and managed it. If we come home all toned and muscular you know why. Tomorrow we are heading to Mbale for some food and the internet. Results will be ready and waiting for us, so if you don’t hear from us you know why, only joking. Also Rose gets to see pictures of her new born nephew.

What other stuff have we to say? We met a man who has 56 children and 180 grandchildren meaning he has 325 descendants in total. Also a man who had 10 wives but only 17 children. We will keep you updated with the news on wives and children.

The community have been really friendly. Our neighbour Sakini has been very helpful and we are sure we will come home saying a lot of his quotes. The beer is very strong over here, only takes one or two bottles to get us drunk, and then Amy ends up falling in a ditch.

We will be in touch very soon, when we actually remember to write a journal. Hope everything is well back home.

Lots of love
Rose, Amy, Em, Rob and Samxxxxxx Jam (Lancaster) xxxxxx Week 2 in Bumbo, Group 2On Friday, we caught a taxi to Mbale. It was an interesting experience as the taxi was full to the brim with 22 on a 14 seater. Eventually we arrived at our long awaited destination with much clamour. Bundling out of the minibus we made straight for Mbale Resort for some much needed leisure activities. After a longer than expected swim, we chilled by the pool, looking more bazungu than ever. Finally we left our haven for the frantic town centre, weaving in and out of the busy bodies and their individual ventures. Wolfing down some chicken and chips – a local delicacy we were told – we proceeded to part ways. While the rest of the group shopped Dan got lucky in the pharmacy, successfully picking up a girl while simultaneously picking up laxatives. To conclude it seems logical to describe the return journey to Bumbo. Abi had a joyous ride next to a woman breastfeeding. We once again bundled out of the minibus to sounds of wild relief, Abi with her face flecked with white dots. So that’s for Friday, cool.

Over the next few days we started protecting the water source, and in fact as we write this we sit facing our handiwork, a clear flowing stream providing clean, drinkable water. The job involves several steps, of which I shall now detail: First we dug around the source to unearth the watery goodness, getting very muddy in the process. Next we moulded a wall around the main area of the source and installed a tap for all the water to flow. Finally we reinforced the walls with large cemented stones and the job was done! Our engineer was very curiously dressed in a sailor’s hat and wellies as well, thought it was worth a mention.
S. P. Broussard (a.k.a. Sean), Nottingham Butter, Bumbo

On Wednesday 13th July Group 3 volunteers left for placement today in their taxis with their Headteachers and Village Chairperson. ODA Lads (Tsukasa, Luke, Nathan & Iain) headed for Buserere, ODA Ladyboys (Sarah, Matt, Ugo, Vic & Rachel) for Kisawayi, BVDA A (Sophie G., Soph, Kart, Tony, Ed & Emily) for Bwiri and BVDA 1st Team (Megan, Cally, Sarah, Alice, Drew & Toby) for Kaboyi.
Click on the Google Map Link to see where their new homes (and previous LBA projects) are located. Now they are on placement, we will post weekly updates from them about their progress in the village. For shorter updates on their progress, check the Twitter box above.

Week 4 in Bwirusa, Group 3Came back from our half way through project meeting with our batteries recharged and ready to roll! We devised a plan of action involving stove building, mud checking, adult educating and committee set-up(ping)??! On Saturday we went to en engagement ceremony where the two families are introduced and the dowry is paid. It was very nice and lovely to see- everyone was in traditional costume and looked amazing. The music was either cheesy western love songs (from Westlife and Boyzone to Mariah Carey and Phil Collins) or really cool African beats which everyone danced to. We were quite shocked when the dowry was brought through, which ranged from tons of baskets of fruit, salt, and flower to last the family about 3 lifetimes, crates of soda, a cows leg, 2 live chickens, matooke, 3 cows and some goats, along with 3 boxes of bottled water, and a dining room table with 6 chairs! Oh- and a MASSIVE plastic suitcase! A personal gift to the bride from the groom’s mother was a basket with chocolate, fanta, sprite because (Quote) “She is sweet, always a fanta girl and very bright”. It was a really cool experience but there was definately something strange about being at such a ceremony knowing that just down the road there are people who can’t afford even one meal a day.

On Sunday we went to church and a lovely man actually translated for us what the priest of saying which was nice. At the end of the service we stood at the front and did a demonstration on how to purify water using moringa seeds. We did a short drama and then sang a song which the people loved and requested an encore, which we were happy to do as long as everyone joined in! We got a great response - a definite confidence boost! Then we had a meeting with the community at the protected water source, which started an hour and a half late. Not everyone showed up but we had enough people there to decide on a committee who will be in charge of looking after the water source and making sure it is properly maintained and clean. We then split the group up to check on some families who had collected mud. A lovely old couple who were expecting us had prepared some bamboo for us to try. They call it ‘Malewa’- it was really yummy! Especially with some banana! We got home pretty tired and had a delicious tomato pasta for dinner and a megalicious banana bread for pudding! What a treat after a very successful day!

Over and out
SVA xx

Day 7 Training, Monday 11th July 2011, Group 3A really long day today. Disscussions and debates about the meaning and nature of culture - very interesting and something everyone felt really strongly about! Some, no, a lot, of insightful meditations.

Chicken killing. A strange ceremony with the air of a ‘right of passage’, although in reality a necessary and pragmatic piece of training! Alice ‘chickened’ out.

Following lunch it was back to the debate and we ran through a number of potential scenarios which appeared to calm some nerves within the group. More Lugisu was covered in preparation for village life, and the final game of the price is right brought out everyones competitive nature. The overall winner was unclear, but the ODA lads walked away with the chocolate bar, moral victory for them.

The evenings entertainment was the best yet, those BVDA 1st lot are so damn funny.
Love from BVDA 1st team (Alice, Drew, Toby, Megan, Cally & Sarah) x

Week 3 in Bumwangu, Group 1
Since we arrived in the village 3 and a half weeks ago, a lot has changed. We finished the water tank for the school and the water source for the community. We’ve settled into our village life and have a certain routine. Though it is very hard to get used to ‘African time’ we try our best not to let it get in the way. Our main focus for the next two and a half weeks is to paint the water tank, build stoves, set up the different committees and prepare for the Fun Day with (and against) SVA and their school. In trying to set up the committees we have been struggling with ‘African time’, because none of the four meetings we set up actually happened, but we try and so today is another attempt.

Next week we are painting the water tank. To get our students involved we are having a small competition concerning the design of the tank. Students can draw their ideas and then give them to us and we will try to combine them all. We already received a few very good pictures and were proud to see our teaching reflected in them. For example, one picture showed a man washing his hands. Yay! It’s good to see that, though sometimes it doesn’t feel like it, we do get through to the children. So anyways, painting the tank should be fun. We’re also planning to buy a bit of extra paint so we can add some colour to the classrooms (of course only if Stephen the Headteacher allows it). While mobilising people to get their materials for the stoves we’ve learnt more and more about their culture. This is very nice. We learnt so much from just talking to them. Yesterday we were invited to a pre-wedding ceremony, where the man is formally introduced to the woman’s family and has to pay dowry for her (In this case it was 5 cows and 4 goats). It was a true privilege to go to this ceremony, which is even bigger than the actual wedding. Of course a lot of people were staring at the large group of bazungu (SVA were there as well), but we’re used to it by now. The ceremony was like nothing we’ve ever seen before and when we left in the evening we were all really happy.

Apart from that there is no news. We are constantly mobilising and finally building a few stoves. We still have a lot to do but at the moment it feels like we’re moving at a steady pace to finish everything. Let’s hope the last few weeks will be as productive and efficient as they can be.
Dare

Week 3 in Bwirusa, Group 1
We are now pretty settled in the village. The people are used to seeing us walking around- we still get stared at when we collect water, and they find it hilarious if we try and carry the jerry cans on our heads the way they do it - but we’re used to that by now (We are pretty funny). We built the dome of the tank so now it just needs to be painted. A day later we started on our protected water source. Although two of us were ill and had to stay in bed for the day and another two had arranged to visit CJ’s (our ‘landlord’) old school. So only three made it up the hill to the source that morning. The source was a state, it was a pool of muddy water with a shoe in it! With the engineer’s help, we dug and found the eye of the source. The next few days we begun early, working at the water source, mainly bringing clay and sand up the hill and breaking up rocks with a hammer to mix in with the cement. We were all going up and down the hill all day as we had to teach at the school as well. The girls are working hard on the school drama. They had auditions to choose the main characters and from there it’s been PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! Volleyball is going well. The net is still standing and we have now started to teach the kids some real skills- one kid is a natural! Let’s hope they keep training.

We took our first trip into Mbale since being in the village and had a really nice day shopping for some communal essentials as well as some luxuries. We had a nice meal in an Indian restaurant which was much appreciated since our menu in the village consists mainly of beans and pasta and cabbage- although we have been quite inventive and our meals are always delicious!

On Friday the water source was finished, it looks really good. Four days of work and it looks like a completely different place! It’s clean and there are steps on either side of it and we engraved the date it was constructed and gave ourselves a little mention! We’re so proud of it! All in all everything is going smoothly. We have built our first smokeless stove in a house nearby and it is looking beautiful! Lots of people came to watch and we have a number of stoves lined up for the next few weeks. At the end of our third week in the village we had a meeting with LBA and the DARE group to chat about our project and about what we need to do during what’s left of our time here in the village. We suddenly realised that although our tank and our protected water source are finished there is still so much left to do! Bring it on!

Over and out
SVA

Day 6 Training, Sunday 10th July 2011, Group 3‘Surreal’ was a word we’ve used a lot this week and today was by no means the day things became just ‘real’. Having unsuccessfully attempted to build a one pot smokeless stove on Thursday with mud that just was not up to the task, Luke, Ugo and Kart valiantly returned with Ari to finish the job they started.

This was supposed to be a rest day after our hectic Mbale night out on Saturday, but instead we found ourselves mounting boda-bodas once more. The 15 minute journey up steep pot-holed mountain tracked, while terrifying, was made worth it by the spectacular views it offered of Mbale and its surroundings. We found our way back to the hut where we had been just 72 hours earlier, and the pile of mud that we’d thrown around fruitlessly. We started with optimism and gusto which gave way to frustration and despair, as our efforts were still proving to be absurdly inaffectual.

Luckily we had Ari the ‘yoda’ of smokeless stoves, who worked her magic to produce a passable result. Once its dried in a months time, the family who were incredibly hospitable and grateful will have a much cheaper, safer, healthier, easier and more eco-friendly means of cooking.

After an equally terrifying boda-boda trip back into Mbale, we returned, stinking to high heaven once again, to find the others had spent the day sunbathing and playing football. However, the feeling that we had finally accomplished something that will genuinly help a family’s quality of life feels good, and is one that I imagine we will experience a lot over the next few weeks.
ODA Lads (Nathan, Luke, Tsukasa, Iain)

Day 4 Training, Friday 8th July 2000 and 11, Group 3 Cooking! Today was a pretty special day! It was very relaxed and we were able to have a lie - in (hope I spelt that correctly) and for many of us the day began at about 11am. People generally spent the time between 11am and 2pm shopping and wandering about the very lovely Mbale. I bought an amazing belt which I was pretty pleased with. We got back to the Manpower camp at 2.15pm. We began cooking at about 3pm. Our first tasks were to cut up aubergines and sieve rice. We definately struggled with the sieving and no matter how we tried, we were never as efficient as the kitchen staff. We then set about making the chapatis, this went a lot better! We made them like demi-gods! We got very creative with the chapatis coming up with a variety of shapes like a smiley face (which Vic ate) and a map of Africa (including Madagascar). Some shapes were more successful than others as people seemed to struggle with the shape of Africa. The evening meal was masterfully prepared (as always) and everyone loved our chapatis. Vic was so impressed that she professed love for Ugo and his chapati making prowess.

The evening’s entertainment was pictionary in ODA lads style. There was banter, romance, heartbreak and action and this was just in the first round. New things we found out that evening were:
1. Nathan’s head looks like a pineapple
2. Kart doesn’t know what rasberries look like
3. Luke is a massive Lad (in his mind)
4. Tsukasa has a funny idea of a mastercard

The night ended with group 4 victorious (not my group :( )

I think thats it really, I'm sure you’ll agree that the day was super-epic!

Love
The ODA Ladyboys (Ugo, Matt, Vic, Sarah & Rachel)

Day 3 Training, Thursday 7th July 2011, Group 3Today our teams were split into two and half went to the village to learn to build stoves. It was really hot when we learnt in the morning but really interesting to see how resourceful they are, using all natural resources. They are made of banana stem and mud from anthills (which is sticky because of the saliva from the ants) and grass. We had to stamp in the wet mud to mix it together; strangely enjoyable but very messy.

In the afternoon we were split into two again, and went to two different households to put what we had learnt into practise. They served us lunch. We found out about the Ugandan tradition of leaving the room when your guests are eating. One group made a two pot stove, the other made a one pot stove but failed. The problem was that the mud wasbn’t sticky enough so Ari said to the family that she was going to come back on Sunday to fix it. Luckily the other group were pretty efficient and felt really proud because the family so deserved what we built for them. We made “mud-ball chains” and the children all found the whole thing hilarious.

Smelling really bad, we took the minibus home later that evening, showered and went to the ‘Club’ pub together. The boys played pool versus the Ugandans and we had a chat with a brill Ugandan guy called George who told us all where our future husbands/wives would come from (e.g. Mine from Sudan).
Love from BVDA 1st team (Alice, Drew, Toby, Megan, Cally & Sarah)

Day 2 Training, Group 3Today we began by learning about sanitation, this began with the SAFE WATER CHAIN. Although it was all fun and games as we made posters, sung the washing hands song to 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' tune and acted out Oscar winning dramas it was also eye-opening. Nathan and Luke were in particular struck by the quality of the water being used at unprotected water sources throughout the village - green stagnant water puddles with tadpoles, frogspawn, flora amongst other things. It really made us see what a difference we could be helping to make to the lives of some of these people.

Also, we improved our Lugisu further and we can now invite people in and thank people. Like typical Brits (and Japanese) we keep trying to impress the locals, but to little avail at the moment.

The final activity of the day was the 'Tippy Tap'. This involved us being given some string, branches and a jerrycan and asked to make a hands free tap. Fortunately our latest arrival Iain had just arrived and swooped in to save the day and earn the ODA Lads their first, of hopefully many, victories.
ODA Lads (Nathan, Luke, Tsukasa, Iain)

Project Progression - Week 2 in Bumbo, Group 2
A week has now passed since we touched down in the village! We were welcomed with open arms and those arms have remained firmly spread for the duration of our stay. On Sunday we visited two churches, Pentecostal and Anglican, to introduce ourselves to the community and explain our objectives. The first was to the Protestant Church of Uganda in Bumbo and was a very orderly affair. We were given a royal introduction and followed up with our prepared message. Next up was the Holy Ghost Church which was far more animated. We arrived just before the second service to scenes of people muttering prayers and pacing back and forth seemingly out of touch with the real world. The service grew gradually more and more eccentric before reaching a crescendo as the priest read from Exodus and finally healed the Church goers of their sins by placing an agressive hand on each person’s head. The whole experience was bizarre but thoroughly entertaining. Sunday was also Sneyha’s Birthday so we met up witht the other group and had a pancake-with-nutella-cake, which was beautifully cooked and worthy of the special day.

On Monday we woke up early to visit our school and begin work on the water tank with our engineer, Dan. We introduced ourselves once again, this time to the school in assembly. Having done that we gor right down to an arduous day of brick building, first mixing dirt and water and then compressing the results to make bricks! The teachers even had a go on the brick-making machine, much to the amusement of the kids!

Next day was filled between teaching our first few lessons and laying the bricks for the tank. The lessons went okay and it didn’t prove too hard to get the kids involved. In terms of the tank we layed the bricks and filled the gaps so the basic structure was complete.

Wednesday was more relaxed. We taught one more class and plastered the tank. Having completed the main body work we decided to go to Magale for the night to celebrate with Saul, one of the teachers, and Dan & Douglas, the engineers. It was a cheery night with much merriness and a needed break from hard work.

Today, Thursday, our dear friend and group member Linda left for Mbale ahead of her Birthday on Friday. We bid her farewell and made sure we sent her off with a proper goodbye - she will be gone until Sunday and will be greatly missed.

Saul and Dan joined us at the water source to help carry water and supervise Daniel Fine’s (I say the full name so as not to confuse with engineer Dan) washing technique. On the way back, Sean surprised everyone by proving his strength and carrying 40kg worth of water across both arms, establishing his position as the alpha male of the group.

Much love,
S. P. Broussard (a.k.a. Sean), Nottingham Butter, Bumbo

Friday 1st July - Thursday 7th July, Week 1 in Musoola village, Group 2 Everyone we drove past greeted us with smiles and waves on our way to the village. Upon arrival, some of the local children cooked us a dinner and we were welcomed on behalf of the community by the Headmaster.

The following way we began to settle into our new accommodation in Musoola, firstly by completing the important task of naming the resident chickens over breakfast. Although we have since been disappointed to find the only regular visitor is the white rooster, Maurice. We then waited for the Headmaster with whom we had arranged a meeting at 8 o’clock, it already being 10 we took the opportunity to greet some of the neighbours, shortly finding the very friendly David. He invited us to his church and gave us a gift of mangoes, shortly followed by a lifetime supply of mangoes from the village. Unfortunately, this friendliness resulted in David becoming our shadow for the next few days, always seeming to know when we’re preparing food.

We eventually met the Headmaster and arranged our teaching and meetings, though this Ugandan timing has still been an improvement on our LC1 whom has yet to be seen.

So far the lessons have gone well and the community has embraced the adult education. Their sense of humour has been appreciated and we have been asked to repeat many songs to the sounds of laughter, luckily they have taken the messages on board as we have received many requests for stoves.

These meetings have not only been a way to teach but have introduced us to all branches of society and we seem to have been truly accepted. In fact we have even had the opportunity to meet the local Council Chief in what was a surreal event as an overly official affair in which very little was actually discussed.

So we can look back at our first week as an eventful and enjoyable success, with but a few trials which we have yet to overcome. The first being plagued by a particularly crafty cat that has left little trace other than our missing food and the second being an easier way to complete our daily quest to collect water with the crippling 20 litre jerry can.
Nottingham Bread, Musoola

Nottingham Butter in Bumbo - Week 1, Group 2So now team Batta has arrived in Bumbo and things are moving along nicely. So far we have had plenty of help from Saul, a teacher at the local school, Davis, the Primary School Headmaster, and Joel, the Local Council Chairman, amongst others. We have managed to get famaliarised with the community and sort out our school programme.

Life here is quite rural, we are sitauted on an autonomous farm/compound with no electricity or running water but with plenty of essentials and a friendly feel. Our hosts have been nothing but hospitable and we are grateful for their help.

In terms of group dynamics, we seem to be getting on well. Abi is a hard worker and a determined gal, always eager to help out. Dan is subdued but thoughtful, providing interesting observations and giving the group background management. Linda is culturally aware and sensitive to the community’s undercurrents. Mel is a breath of frsh air, always positive and upbeat, pleasant relief from the rest of the group’s hard work. Ney is wise and calculated, always taking a step back to examine the group’s direction and ensure things are developing. Sean is scandalously cool and funny.

That’s all for now.
Love, S. P. Broussard (a.k.a. Sean), Nottingham Butter, Bumbo

Day 1, Training, Group 3Mulembe!

Started the day with traditional Ugandan breakfast, watermelon and fried dough [mandazi]

Started training by learning Lugisu. Feel fluent in local greetings now :-) Next was risk assessment - not so enjoyable so lunch was a welcome sight! Had chicken, avocado, chappati, pineapple, rice and peas - delicious! After lunch we did roleplay regarding issues that might arise during the project. Really informative and fun :-) Short refreshment break - Fanta and Coke in glass bottles, woop!

After that Bikie gave us a brief history of Uganda, politics and the scholling system. Learnt a little about what the timetabling in the school could be like. To finish off, Bikie did a presentation about how the water tank will be constructed - really good to actually see how it's all going to come together!

Chill-out until dinner for an hour then a feast of fish, maize, vegetables and jackfruit - oh wow!

After dinner entertainment was an epic game of "wink-murder" [Mafia] - brought out everyone's characters! Then back to our rooms to chill!
BVDA A Team

On Friday 1st July Group 2 volunteers left for placement today in their taxis with their Headteachers and Village Chairperson. Nottingham Bread (Arti, Keli, Ben, Jack, Marie and Heidi) headed for Musoola, Nottingham Butter (Ney, Linda, Sean, Dan, Mel and Abi) for Bumbo and Lancaster Jam (Rob, Sam, Rose, Amy and Em) for Bukhaiyaki.
Click on the Google Map Link to see where their new homes (and previous LBA projects) are located. Now they are on placement, we will post weekly updates from them about their progress in the village. For shorter updates on their progress, check the Twitter box above.

Final Words before Placement from Group 2
Nottingham Bread
Heidi: Miss all my friends and family. Off to the village today, am very excited. Will send you all letters very soon xx

Sean: Very excited about going to the village.

Lancaster aka Jam
Em: Don't panic dad! Love, Em

Rob: Love you Mum and Dad, am very excited.

Rose: Got your emails mum but haven't had time to reply. Definitely becoming a vegetarian after the chicken experience. Will speak to you soon and let you know how the village is. Love to you all xx

Amy: Hugs and kisses to everyone. Having a fab time so don't worry too much. Love Amy

Sam: Miss you Mum and Dad, I'm sure we'll be fine. Love you, Sam

Weeks 1 & 2, Group 1
So the project has begun, and for me personally it has so far been absolutely spectacular in so many ways.

Leaving Mbale was quite a strange feeling. I think that DARE and SVA mix really well, and it was strange to be splitting up after getting so close during training. On the day we left each group met two representatives of the community we’d be moving to - for DARE that meant our headteacher, Stephen, and a representative of the PTA whose name none of us can remember...

After a quick chat and lunch with them we packed our things into taxis, said our highly emotional goodbyes, and bade farewell to Mbale for a while. The journey to our placement, Bumwangu, took around 1 hour along roads that would make a European driver squirm - but did we get there? Yes.

When we arrived we quickly unloaded our stuff at the new house. And what a place it is - so much more than any of us expected. It was definately bigger than any of us expected plus the scenery around is quite something.

Soon after we left our new school under the mango tree. This was definately a highlight so far - they came out and oogled us for a while and then we introduced ourselves which was in itself a nerve-wracking experience. But they were incredibly welcoming, the choir also sang two songs.

Since then the project has begun to take shape. Mobilising people is more of a challenge than expected, mainly down to the fact it's currently harvest time. Other than that the community have been really welcoming.

So far DARE has made decent progress with the project. The water tank will be completed on Tuesday and the stoves are on the move. I think we should be starting our water source in 7-10 days, but of course that is a complete estimate.

So, overall, village life is quite something. Tough, but hugely enjoyable and satisfying when you finally crack the challenges. The locals are so unbelievably kind, and we’ve been welcomed so warmly, which has made the transition so much easier.
DARE Tuesday 28th June, Group 2
Hello again!!!

Everyone is having a fab time. We have learnt how to drum, dance and kill chickens, a very traumatic experience, which Rose, Sam and Rob will not be doing again in the near future. Everyone is v. friendly and likes to come and have a look at the Muzungu, but you only have to say ‘Mulembe’ and everyone smiles. The dancing brought the different groups together and we have learnt that Rob can shake that ‘kabina’ haha. The Kadodi will certainly be danced and drummed in the village.

Killing a chicken will be something that will be forgotten by Rose. Don’t think Amy, Em and Sam will want it to be done again. But Rob says he will be the man of the house and feed us all meat. The last 2 days have been really interesting building mud stoves with the beautiful view of Mount Elgon in the background. We made the stoves out of anthill mud and cotch grass mixing it by stamping with our bare feet. We all built either a 1 pot or a 2 pot stove and had lunch with the villagers. The first stove we all built together in the local primary school, and we had a massive crowd of all the students! We all felt like celebrities! I think we all learnt a lot ready for placement.

We also did our first two weeks of shopping for placement the girls did most of it as Rob and Sam couldn’t be trusted! And the girls are a lot better at bartering! Overall, its shaping up to be a great experience on placement and we are learning loads!

Miss you all and hope you are enjoying the heatwave. It is rainy season in Uganda, but it won’t stop us having fun and doing a good placement.

Love
Rose, Em, Amy, Rob and Sam xxxxxx (Lancaster Jam) Monday 27th June, Group 2
Our team split in two today with half the people making stoves while the other half shopped and made the local cuisine.

The Stoves - Abi, Ney and Linda
We woke up early and had a short journey to a day of building stoves in the outskirts of Mbale. Starting off by cutting grass with a Panga (Machette) we then got to stomp in the soil and mix the mud which ended up being hands on. After building a practice stove we got drenched in the rain, which delayed our filling lunch at one of the local homes. We spent the remainder of the afternoon building stoves.

The Shoppers - Sean, Mel and Dan
A relaxing morning quickly descended into chaos in Mbale market, bartering with the local traders for the groups essentials. Our lack of knowing how to successfully barter quickly became evident and we emerged from shopping slightly less wealthy. Next on the menu was chicken, so we headed back to camp to prepare dinner. Sean, Ben, Dan, and Rose got down and dirty, slicing off a chicken’s head each, then plucking and cutting up the bodies. Sean appeared to be a natural born killer while Dan looked a million miles from his comfort zone. After much frolicking, the chefs showed us how to cook chappati, with intermittent Lugisu lessons, which allowed for some great banter.
Lots of fun all round really.

Love
Sean, Mel, Dan, Abi, Ney and Linda (Nottingham Bread) Sunday 26th June, Group 2
Keli: Killing the chicken was quite surreal at first, particularly having to hold the chicken down and feeling it struggle and choke by my hand. However, I feel it was an important experience to appreciate where my food comes from as if I readily eat it, I should be able to kill it, pluck it and carve it up really.

Ben: Being hissed at by the 'Albatross' tribe has to be the strangest most memorable part of the day. The women were dirty and force fed by the men. The best bit of this surreal moment was when we were told it was all fake! [LBA - Albatross is a cultural awareness game that we play with volunteers to introduce the concept of foreign cultures.]

Marie: We had our first lesson about stoves and the benefits they have. It's good to be able to tell people why we're making them. The best part of the day was playing ball games with Amelia to stay out of the rain.

Arti: "International Volunteering Does More Harm Than Good" - we had a heated debate about the pros and cons of international volunteering. We all came to appreciate that volunteering is a good thing - if done properly - and projects are sustainable in the future. We understood that respecting others cultures and traditions is important to prevent westernising their culture..

Jack: Today we had an opportunity to discuss the Ugandan culture as well as our own. It was fascinating to see how people perceived their own native cultures as was the discussion of differences and surprising similarities with this former colony. It has been genuinely interesting to learn more about this unique country.

Heidi: We were shown how to ue and clean the lamps that we will be using as our only source of light at night in the village. We also had a demonstration of how to light the sigiri [charcoal stove] that we will be using to cook on. Having this lesson made everything a bit more real!
Nottingham (Bread)

Saturday 25th June, Group 2
It’s the weekend at LBA HQ and after a heavy night of rock and roll Church music which probably even kept Jesus awake, the volunteers arose for another day. Indewela (first) on the agenda was Lugisu numbers from 1 to 5000. Then it was on to kadodi music, after learning the drum beat for the traditional circumcision ceremony we got into the dancing. Rob was quick to shake his kabina with the local ladies who donned a curiously shaped (phalic) costume. He would have made Bruce Forsyth proud. Dan on the other hand flailed his limbs in an unsuccessful attempt to look graceful.

Then each group produced a mime about WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene), Bread (Nottingham) performing an oscar-worthy tale detailing how to purify water with Moringa, Jam (Lancaster) delivered a tale of thrilling tale on washing your hands and Butter stole the show with a masterpiece about tying the lid on your jerrican.

Lunch reminded us of home with a lovely dish of fish and chips. In the afternoon we talked through the challenges faced on project and how best to overcome them before playing ‘The Price is Right’ a la Uganda. After Butter had annihalated Bread and Jam, we were paid an unexpected visit from students from Glasgow University, who were 10 days into their project and are quote “still alive” and having a fantastic time. They had a contagious energy and enthusiasm which made us even more excited for the project.

Evening entertainment consisted of some extermely competitive card games of ‘Spoon’ played with bottle tops in which ultimately Heidi prevailed.

After a hectic and enjoyable day all I can say is bring on the next.
Nottingham (Butter)

Week 2 in the Village, Group 1We started to build our water tank at the school on Sunday. First we had to make bricks using a brick machine. This was hard work but once we got into a rhythmn it went quite quickly. We made 360 out of 450 bricks on the first day. We could have finished all the bricks in one day but as it was a Sunday most of the group went to Church to meet people and inform the community of the projects we have planned for the next few weeks. Church took an unexpected two and a half hours! We had prepared a song which everyone seemed to like very much.

Making the bricks gave everyone very sore blisters and very achey muscles. Once the bricks were complete we cast the base and then started building. As the walls grew up and up the people on the inside were wondering how they were going to get out. Eventually we managed to get a ladder and pull them out. It was very nice to see the tank built so quickly - we plastered it on the last day [see the photo on the twitter link] and once it is roofed and dry we can paint it and it will be ready to use.

We had our first community meeting with parents and teachers at the school. It was really important for us to let them know what our projects are for the next few weeks. Everyone was very enthusiastic.

We had our first lessons in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene which were very successful. Everyone's classes have been really responsive - hope this continues.

We also constructed our own volleyball net at the school out of banana fibres! The pupils really enjoyed playing and even the teachers joined in.

We had our first Birthday celebration this week. Raymond turned 21 and we celebrated in true style with beef stew and our chalk was put to good use in decorating the walls.

We have three people collecting materials for stoves, one of which already mixed up the mud ready to start building next week. And currently we are in the midst of writing a small play for the kids of Bwirusa Primary School to perform in a couple of weeks time in a drama competition. The theme is East Africa.

p.s. We were asked to name a baby and we came up with the name Rose - some way along the line there was a miscommunication and she ended up as Ruth! Whoops!

Been a very exciting and exhausting week.

Love to everyone.
Over and out
SVA :-)

Week 1 in the Village, Group 1We packed all our things onto a taxi and drove the bumpy road to our village. We arrived at our new home for next 6 weeks. It's a lovely house - made of bricks! We have 3 bedrooms, a living room with a table and chairs, and a kitchen out the back. We have a verandah at the front to sit on and watch the sun go down - beautiful! It's very green, lots of trees and vegetation - very picturesque but very dark at night - no electricity.

We walked to school, our school, which is called Bwirusa - it's at the top of a vertical climb. We will all be very fit and healthy by the end of 6 weeks. We were really warmly welcomed by the school - one of the girls from Primary 7 [the last year of Primary School] sang us a welcome song and we met all the teachers as well.

We don't have running water in our house so we go to collect water from a protected water source. It's not far away but when you're carrying 20 litres of water it feels like miles.

The other day we went for a walk and bumped into the Dundee group. They are much closer than we thought and we invited them over for dinner - it was a fantastic dinner of veg curry and chapatis - yum! It went down a treat.

On Friday our village has a weekly market. So we made a shopping list and off we went. Unfortunately it only sells onions and tomatoes and lots of cabbage. We will definitely have to rethink our dinner plans! Our neighbours have been really generous and give us mangoes and avocados. It's the bean harvest at the moment, so I imagine there will be lots of beans around soon. A girl just offered us some beans so we will be having beans for dinner tonight.

We are constructing the water tank at school next week - everyone is really looking forward to it. The initial stage is to make 500 bricks for it and then with the help of an engineer we will then build the tank - sounds like a walk in the park!

Yesterday we met the headmistress and decided a timetable for our lessons on Water and Sanitation. We will be teaching classes from Primary (P)4 to P7 every week.

We are currently building a 'tippy tap' - a great contraption to wash your hands without touching anything. We'll show pictures when we can.

Lots of love to all our families and friends
Over and out
SVA :-)

Friday 24th June, Group 2
Mulembe Lancaster Parents
We are finally here and all safe after two days of airports, waiting and travelling. Think we are all still a little tired, but taking in all of the Lugisu language. We will be fluent by the time we come home :-) We are learning a little each day, so we will be prepared for the community.
Today we learnt about some of the local communities, how to purify water using local moringa seeds, brainstormed games which could be adapted to teach sanitation to young and old like. We finished training for the day with a competition to make a handwashing facility in which we came second :-) at least it wasn't last place.
Nobody has got injured, sun-burnt, argued or fallen ill...YET! We have a few bites between us but nothing too itchy.
So all is well, really eager to get to placement now :-)
Much love to all our family and friends and pets.
Lancaster aka Jam
xxxxx

Thursday 23rd June, Group 2
Mulembe!
Things we learnt today:
Ben: "How to greet someone fifty times over & still be smiling at the end of it!"

Keli: "Learning more about Ugandan culture, for example, greeting another person with a handshake or how guys hold hands."

Jack: "Risks I could encounter and how to stay safe."

Arti: "Learning about other people's perspectives especially about gender roles."

Marie: "How we can use fun games in order to teach children about sanitation."

Heidi: "Learning all about the usefulness and importance of building the water tanks and protecting a water source. This is key for sanitation, preventing diseases and ensuring children can stay in school."
Nottingham (Bread)

Wednesday 22nd June, Group 2
Welcome to our second group of volunteers from the universities of Nottingham and Lancaster who arrived in Mbale late last night. We're looking forward to starting training with them on Thursday and will bring you daily updates over the next week about their adventures during training.

On Wednesday 15th June Group 1 volunteers left for placement in their taxis with their Headteachers and Village Chairperson. SVA (Ray, Sally, Becca, Helly, Carla, Kevin and Megan) headed for Bwirusa and DARE (Kiki, Nora, Ashley and Paddy) for Bumwangu.
Click on the Google Map Link to see where their new homes (and previous LBA projects) are located. Now they are on placement, we will post weekly updates from them about their progress in the village. For shorter updates on their progress, check the Twitter box above.

Monday 13th June, Group 1
This morning we had our final lesson in Lugisu! We are now (almost) fluent and ready to practice our skills with the locals. After introductions, numbers, fruit and vegetables, we learned how to say words that will help us for the construction part of the project.

After our last lesson in Lugisu, Anna and everyone else discussed different ways of adult education. She explicitly told us it is not teaching (although she said adult teaching about 50 times) but more discussing, demonstrating, promoting, through informal chats, at the construction site, by incorporating it into meetings and through drumming, songs and drama.

We were told that we shouldn’t feel weird to just stand up and act out a drama, or sing a song or do what ever else we can think of - making a fool of ourselves will be the top thing in the next 6 weeks. Following this news, we had time to think of a drama, without any words that had a clear message. To make the whole drama a bit more interesting we drummed a beat on the Jerrycans.

Right before lunch we played a shopping game. LBA loves playing games with us..... Each team, DARE and SVA, had to guess local prices of items they had put on the table for us. Whoever was closest recieved that item for their group. The items ranged from neccessities like rice, cooking oil, salt, toilet paper, to luxury items such as fancy toilet paper, chocolate, crisps, biscuits. After a rough and clueless start for us, we did in the end manage to get some of the items (with a little help). We then planned out exactly what we still need to get for our placements and how we will manage the given money from LBA.

After another rich lunch (we have probably all gained loads of weight) we went out shopping for all the important things for our placements. Everyone went off to town to run errands and came back quite exhausted with loads of shopping. Most of the girls picked up their tailored dresses on the way and at home we presented the dresses.

As the last days are approaching, LBA took us out to another (very different) dinner. We went to an extremely fancy resort and were ushered to the prepared round table. At first everyone was too intimidated to speak because it was so chic, but as we are a quite loud and musical group this behaviour changed soon. We stuffed (especially Paddy who finished Raymond’s steak) our bellies and took many pictures. Off home and to bed to our final day of training.

Adios,
Bis bald
DARE

Sunday 12th June, Group 1
Today we really got to grips with the local food, and that grip was our hand round a chickens neck! I won’t go into too much gruesome detail but that ugly bird ended up on our dinner plate later in the evening. A first time experience for all of us and one which should stand us in good stead for the upcoming weeks, for us carnivores anyway. You really start to appreciate the local food once you see the time and effort spent to create one dish. Seperating rice for example takes an age if you are not a skilled cook. Later on the two groups – DARE and SVA were split up to compete in a fiery duel to design a handwashing contraption our of nearby materials. 2 ½ year old Amelia decided DARE had won, total setup! But we all learned to build the perfect device in true Blue Peter style courtesy of Isa, what a guy!

Later in the evening we were all quite excited for a game of albatross and our excitement only grew when we saw Isa and Anna appear in eccentric tribal costumes. Our anticipation soon cooled down after an unwelcoming reception from our hosts. Bemusement soon took over as Isa handed out biscuits and glasses of water to us whilst uttering no words, only sounds. We noticed that Anna was sitting on a chair with her shoes on whilst Isa was kneeling barefoot. With our cultural instincts we thought the women were the more important species in this tribe. But it turned out to be the opposite of our expectations. As Isa was barefoot he was closer to the earth and therefore more important than Anna. So basically the moral of the game was to not project our culture onto another.

Over and out, SVA Uganda xxxx

Saturday 11th June, Group 1
Well, I'm afraid to say that today has been a fairly quiet one following last night's antics.

A very late/student time breakfast was followed by lunch after which some of the two groups had their first experience cooking Ugandan style. Who knew chappatis could cause such stress!

Despite the stress it caused it was a pretty good first shot. Beef stew, "irish" potatoes (so called to differentiate them from sweet potatoes), chappatis, beans and the green stuff which I can't describe or name. At 10pm it's a well earned early night before regular training resumes tomorrow.

DARE

Friday 10th June, Group 1
Today at training we were talking about community integration. We learned two key phrases which were "to mobilise" and "to sensitise" - apparently commonly used in the village. So if we want a meeting to be arranged we would ask someone to "mobilise" the community. "Sensitising" would be what we call learning and teaching. We talked about how, once we have mobilised everyone for a meeting, the meeting itself follows a strict agenda - starting with a prayer, followed by introductions and welcoming speeches. We also learned about African time which means meetings will probably start two hours later than planned. In the village, a common place for meetings is under a mango tree... let's hope no mangoes fall on our heads!

Morning break time was marked with a taster of a Ugandan local snack - white ants - which are fried. Most of us were brave enough to at least try them...

We had our first Ugandan night out, which was great fun! Most people were expecting a dingy bar but in fact it was quite the opposite. We started the night at African Golden Gardens where big beer bottles were the equivalent of 70p and where quarter (of a litre) bottles of spirits were sold whole for £1.70! We ended the night in Club Oasis where people were teaching us to shake our bottoms with style! The music throughout was AMAZING - good African beats with some 80s classics!

Over and out, SVA Uganda xxxx

Thursday 9th June, Group 1
After yesterday's exhausting day to build stoves I think everyone was glad of a relatively relaxing day at Manpower. Breakfast was at 8am as usual so getting up by now wasn't too bad as we have gotten into a bit of a routine. This morning for breakfast we had boiled eggs and bread and after we finished it was straight into a Lugisu lesson. This morning we learnt informal greeting, thank you and goodbye.

After Lugisu with Isa we began our WASH training that's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. We learnt about the safe water chain, how to purify water with Moringa seeds. We split into groups to come up with games, songs and posters we could use to teach about the safe water chain.

After lunch the Doctor was there to answer questions which we had. After the Doctor had left and terrified everyone we started to look at what we would be doing in protecting the water source and building the tank. We rounded off the day's teaching at about 5.20pm and some people headed into town to the market and internet cafe. Some of the girls got skirts made.

We had chicken and a banana thing for dinner. After dinner SVA provided entertainment in the form of games which lasted until about 9pm and some people hung about until later.

DARE

Wednesday 8th June, Group 1
Today was absolutely brilliant. We ate breakfast and then Ari stuffed us into a taxi and we drove to the outskirts of town where we were supposed to learn how to make a one-pot and two-pot stove. When we arrived Isa and Ari showed us how to chop grass and mix it with mud to make a soil-grass mixture for the stoves. This was really fun and we all tried different things like chopping banana stems. After that Ari built a demonstration two-pot stove and explained every step of the way. It was really cool but a bit difficult because only 2-3 people could help at a time and everyone else was just standing around. It was a bit crowded but overall good.

When the stove was finished we all cleaned as much of us as we could (not that that helped much because traces of our earlier mud fight were visible on Tshirts, trousers, necks, arms and legs - totally worth it though :-) ) We were divided into two groups, one was later making a two-pot stove in a house and the other was to build a one-pot stove. In those groups we went to respective houses and had lunch there. Basically as much lunch as we wanted and it tasted absolutely DELICIOUS.

The stove building was a lot better in small groups because everyone was actively able to participate. It was just really really fun.

After that, both groups met again and we drove back to the compound. Immediately everyone wanted to have a nice shower and we also washed our filthy clothes.

After dinner it was our turn to provide evening entertainment. We made two groups and there were five different small games, like Charades, Hangman etc. where the groups could get points. The team with the most points won. A highlight was when both teams had ten minutes to make a rap. It was absolutely hilarious and really creative what both teams came up with. To end the evening we played some card games and everyone quickly realised that we were all way too tired so we eventually went to bed.

This second day of training was absolutely amazing and so so much fun.

DARE

Wednesday 8th June, Group 1
What a tiring day! We all put our theory into practice and actually made smokeless stoves. First we were shown how to do it then we were divided into groups to go to someone’s home and install them ourselves. Very messy work! Covered in mud but such a satisfying experience to finish our stoves and see the response of the homeowners!
Learned more lugisu:
Kumahola: banana fibre
Lilowba: mud
Lilowba lie sisile: ant hill soil

Lunch was made for us by the family we were building stoves for - matooke = delicious mashed unripe bananas, such a lovely day but ready for bed.

Over and out, SVA Uganda xxxx

Tuesday 7th June, Group 1
Day 2 of training in Mbale. Got up and had some sausages and coffee for breakfast in preparation for a heavy day of information overload. We learnt about the local language of Manafwa district:
MAN: Mulembe Mai
WOMAN: Mulembe Papa
MAN: Oriena?
WOMAN: Bulai
MAN: Kamahowa?
WOMAN: Kasira

This is the Lugisu form of greeting, meaning hello, how are you etc. We tried it out on the locals in our evening stroll through Mbale and they seemed impressed!
Training involved discussion on risks and fears while on placement. LOTS of things were cleared up so feeling quite reassured. Also learnt the theory behind the stove building and how they work to reduce fuel consumption and ...

[A teradactile instect just landed on the table and stared at Ray right into the eyes. He thinks its trying to tell him something]

...are environmentaly friendly. We played some fun games outside, which we will play with the kids in the village.

FOOD! Is delicious! We all love chapatti. Definately going to be addicted by end of six weeks. We need to learn to cook them so we can fill up Murderous Megan so she doesn’t take her cannibal jokes to the ULTIMATE EXTREME and decide to eat Raymond.
Survived a thunderstorm and a bit of light flickering [dramatic pause] DUN-DUN-DUN!!!!!
Also survived the evenings ‘entertainment’ which was an INTENSE debate which proposed: Intenational volunteering does more harm than good. Minds are a bit frazzled.... Off to play cards (matatu).

Over and out, SVA Uganda xxxx

P.s. Don’t worry Mums and Dads, we are having our high fives a day!

Monday 6th June, Group 1
The day has finally arrived. The day that the whole group has been working for since January. We arrived at the LBA camp after a long, adventurous journey. We left Entebbe this morning at 9 o’clock and were told our journey would last for about four hours. Six and a half hours later we arrived at camp in Mbale and were warm heartedly welcomed by the LBA team. We were shown to our dormitories.

For the next 8 days we will be staying on a hospital complex, the biggest one in Mbale, which has spare house at the back. We settled into our new accommodation and went for food. It was the first attempt to get us adjusted to Ugandan food. There was rice, chappati, chicken, some chicken stew and a spinach peanut sauce. The meal was absolutely delicious and massive and we all stuffed our bellies. For dessert we had pineapple. I have to say it must have been the best tasting, sweetest, juiciest pineapple I have ever tried. A little taste of Uganda on day one!

After this, we got a first introduction of the following week. I was positively surprised about the easy going warm atmosphere. After another rich and delicious meal we received LBA’s evening entertainment, which helped us to get to know each other a bit better. Tomorrow the actual training starts, which will prepare us for the seven weeks we have all been waiting for.

DARE

The articles below are produced by LBA to help prepare volunteers for their experience in Uganda.  
You can also check out the diary to see what LBA is up to before then.

- Introduction
- The Projects
- Before You Go & Communication
- Kit List
- Money