Fifth week thus far at Situmi - LPH

Team LPH decided that, after all of our hard work, we deserved a break, and headed out for a weekend in the hills, or more specifically, Sipi falls.

However before we started our epic journey along the best road in Uganda, we met up with ODA Hats for a day by the pool at Mt Elgon hotel, an Oasis of calm and class when compared to brash Mbale resort. No bomb detector though. The afternoon was spent swimming, practicing our water acrobatics, scaring missionary children and eating too much food. Ideal. However, the afternoon hit a low during a particularly aggressive conversation over prices, but we were soon on our way, arriving at Crow’s Nest (or Crows’ Nest depending on numbers) just before sunset. We climbed a huge hill to watch the sun drop from the peak of Mount Elgon shrouded in clouds, to the flat expanse of the rest of Uganda stretching away in front of us, the horizon going forever in the misty dusk. Cameras were out and we got athletic and atmospheric silhouettes marking our arrival with the thundering Sipi fall backdrop.

The following day started early as we began our trek to the three falls. At the second one we stripped to bikinis and trunks and slithered and slipped our way down wet rocks swathed in dark moss until the spray hit us, leaving the group soaked and gasping, invigorated under the freezing spray. Just then, a group of fully dressed Ugandan tourists turned up, and, somewhat bemused, began taking photos of us, freezing and very white under the icy water. We eventually dried, an demudded, tramping into the very posh Sipi River Lodge for a prolonged soda and several bars of Mbale bought melted chocolate. This was necessary fuel, as after our rest, we walked on until we reached a bat infested cave. The roof sank lower and lower and the air became thick with ammonia from the bat droppings. We emerged, blinking and choking, as the bats flew off their upside down perches in protest against the insolence of our uninvited invasion.

Shortly after, we bumped into BVDA doing a reversed, shorter and much less sweaty version of our 10km trek. From this meeting we arrived at the top of the biggest fall, from which Alex, Becky and Becca decided to abseil. 100m of sheer rock face and unsupported dangling into an icy downblast of waterfall spray, while the rest of the group retreated to safety away from the crumbling edge of the cliff, armed with cameras and that certain smugness that comes from not being petrified and harnessed up. For all three abseilers, the experience was unforgettable and incredible, and complemented in terms of adrenaline rushes by the landing, which occurred full in the face of the 100m waterfall.

However all trips must end, and after starting the day by seeing dawn break above the waterfall, we were on our way to Mbale again. This time in unbelievable luxury – 6 of us in an 8 seater, something we never believed would happen in Uganda. Back in Mbale we hit the market, bought some paint and settled down to a large and delicious Indian meal at Nurali’s, where we all overindulged in Naan bread.

The journey home was less comfortable, with Becca and Laura taking 3 hours to get back on a 14 seater Matatu holding 27 and taking the scenic route. They spent 10 miutes when the bus pulled up in town searching for an errant can of baked beans, worth more than the fare, and vital for cooked breakfast. Transport induced bad moods aside, we had a brilliant mini break, and returned to Situmi relaxed and refreshed yet in two minds about the limited time left in the village.

The next day was the cooking competition. We felt our chances of victory took a battering when Anna, Debs, and Amelia suffered car trouble and were over an hour late, meaning our hash browns became potato and onion cakes and our scrambled eggs were slightly burnt. However the beans were a success (definitely worth rescuing from the bowels of the matatu) and even Isa, who shows a definite favouritism towards Ugandan food, finished everything except the tomatoes. A benefit of the later eating time was that Laura had time to produce mountains of delicious pitta-esque bread, no mean feat on a charcoal sigiri, bread so good in fact that Anna demanded the recipe.

Monday then continued, us sated and stuffed, nutritionally prepared to create our musical masterpiece for funday. “Moringa Moringa” being a particular favourite, although “walk like a Muzungu” also got a lot of praise. This rather brilliant Monday was a great day in terms of productivity, as we also built (or supervised) stove no. 5 at Tengey, as well as having our first water tank committee meeting. However, among it all this dazzling success, Monday was a dark day for Situmi and one that will haunt us for the rest of the project – Alex had gone; it was our first day without him and his absence was sorely felt, especially when we were being force fed Matooke. He had been a very important and hardworking member of LPH – Good luck in Edinburgh Alex.

Tuesday heralded the final day of teaching, as Laura, Becca and Will gave their final lessons to P5, 6 and 7 about Moringa and the water tank. We are still trying to convince all the children that it is as, if not more, important to wash your hands before eating as it is afterwards. As we don’t eat with our hands it is something we don’t think about too much but their confusion does make sense.

We also organised more stoves and did more Music, Dance and Drama practice for Fun Day. This was extremely positive – our song has one repetitive verse because we didn’t want to give the children too much to learn when they have exams too, but they turned up having memorised another song and an extremely long and complicated poem as well. All of them are very good, go team Situmi!

However, the volunteer/teacher presentation may need some work. Whilst lyrically masterful (pick, peel, crush, mix, filter, leave, drink) the volume from the teachers is somewhat lacking and Will’s drumroll is a little off beat, but hopefully all will be well on the day.

Another highlight was the purchase of Herbert the goat, one of the prizes for funday. He is juicy, delicious, and ready to eat. Becky and James struggled to bring him back through the market ‘The muzungu have a goat!’ The broken bridge proved the most difficult obstacle, and a local villager had to be recruited to get Herbert across it. However, all is now well, and Herbert is securely tied up in our compound, happily working his way through our compost bin! Herbert we hope you have a happy and joy filled last night on earth before we eat you. May the best village win.

Wednesday, the day before Fun day and the last ever ODA lessons. Becky and James, a team somewhat depleted by Alex’s absence, did a mass recap of the safe water chain as well as teaching how to make an Oral Rehydration Solution. A few more tank painting competition entries were received, but most seem to bear an identikit Chinese woman washing her hands, somewhat confusingly.

We also went through the sanitation pack and teachers pack with the staff at the school and then went to Harriet's to make the mud balls for a stove. We took our resident stove expert, 17 year old Emma, who put us to shame with his physical prowess.

MDD practice again – the teachers didn’t all show up, but hopefully that’ll be ok and the pupils have improved even more. While Will and James practiced their drumming Laura, Becky and Becca decided to teach the children how to dance like a Muzungu, having failed themselves to master Ugandan shoulder dancing. This introduction included the Macarena and ‘Saturday night’ by Whigfield, both of which they loved. We were then joined by 20 girls dancing to Beyonce all desperately clamouring for one of Becky’s in demand badges. Unfortunately they are only for performers – we take it all very seriously.

Later that night, to the sound of the impromptu Malewa bar that set up in the fallen down building near our house at 10am getting progressively louder and more packed as night fell, we started and finished our banner. It is resplendent with leaves, bark and moringa seeds, a double sided message, and perfectly cut out letters. Magical. The day was crowned by our neighbour doing her own moringa demonstration for a friend, adult education in action.

Ten days left in the village – ten days of efficiency and productivity, with no fifth week blues anywhere in sight.

LPH out

Week 2-3 - Sikulu

On Wednesday morning we taught our second lessons. In the afternoon we desperately tried to encourage people to get materials by giving out stove menus. The other two went to do sanitation surveys. We went first to people that we knew and spoke English. The surveys were useful and people understood us pretty well. Lucy and Alice went to the first netball training session which was really funny. They had different rules – pretty lax, and wanted us to teach English rules. Wednesday night Anna and Becca came to stay for a sleepover which was lots of fun.

Thursday we had a lie in as we had no lessons and quite a late night. We again gave out stove menus and surveys. We spent the afternoon in the mud hut. We had a chat with the family next door. Mainly with Dora the head of the house and Jess who speaks good English. We showed them the Ugandan guide book with the map of Uganda. We explained that we are going to Sipi falls and where it was on the map. They were very fascinated; I don’t think they had seen a map of Uganda. I explained where we were on the map then they asked where England was and then I explained it was not a world away. We then had a very nice dinner with them that evening.

Friday Adam arrived back to the mud hut. We were very excited to see him again and he came with lots of treats from the UK – biscuits, chocolate raisins, Nutella and Marmite. In the morning we went in for a lesson with P7 to find they were busy preparing for exams, so they gave us P4 instead. We taught them about hand washing. We had to adapt the lesson slightly on the spot as they took longer to understand. We decided to use lots of actions while explaining – this worked really well. Today we also launched the art competition for the tank with P4 and P5. They were very excited about the colouring pencils but behaved well and we got all of them back. We gave them some examples as inspiration on the board. This was a mistake as we ended up with 100 pictures copied from the board, all the same. Also the original pictures were all similar anyway.

Saturday was a bit of a dead day as we had nothing really to do and also Alice and Lucy were ill. Alex in the other group was also ill and the rest of his group had gone to Mbale, so we decided to invite him over to spend the day with us. We had a relaxing day and then planned our adult teaching for church.

Sunday was a day of church. First service at 7am went okay; we demonstrated moringa seeds. They were very interested but expected an instant change in the colour of the water. They insisted we leave the bucket so they could see it. We then returned at the end of this service at 9am. Laura, Becky and Becca from the other group had come to visit. We figured there was no point going on time to the second service as we could only speak at the end anyway. We turned up at 12.30 and church finished, perfect timing, again we demonstrated moringa seeds. Also Fran got offered a baby at church today and shocked she replied immediately with a no, and then politely explained she was young and still studying.

After this service we went to Joseph (the manager)’s service. We walked in halfway through; the service starts at 10am and finishes at 2pm, very long. Luckily we popped in, spoke about moringa seeds and stoves and then popped out.

Monday we spent the morning teaching, we had two classes, P7 and P5, so we split into a 2 and a 3. With P5 we started a new topic – the safe water chain, but only managed to cover the first two stages as we made them do written exercises which took longer than expected. With P7 Lucy and Alice did Hand washing – they got the class to split into groups and do dramas. Most copied the drama that Lucy and Alice gave as an example, apart from one group which did a drama about a grandfather visiting his children and grandchildren, it had no sanitation message but the moral of the story was that the family was happy because the grandfather gave them a visit. Lucy and Alice also launched the art competition to P7. Even in P7 most people copied the examples from the board.

After teaching we expected the engineer for the bricks of the water tank to arrive but sadly he did not turn up. We are very eager to do something productive related to the project. However we ended up with the classic afternoon of making chapattis and snacking along the way.
Tuesday we had no teaching, however, it was market day so this occupied our morning. Fran, Lucy and Sophie went down to Bukhawekha to stock up on rice, cabbage, onions, bananas and tomatoes. Fran and Sophie collected the Harem trousers we had had made. Sophie’s turned out to be so large that they fitted Adam and Fran’s fitted Lucy perfectly, so we will be heading back for alterations next week.

In the afternoon we planned to start making our first stove. We arrived at Wilson’s house to find his wife who speaks very poor English; she had the materials but not ready for us. She wanted us to dig out the soil from the ant hill heap; we explained that the materials needed to be collected. We insisted on speaking to Wilson as he understood better English. Wilson arrived but it turned out that the house we were at was not Wilson’s and we were not talking to Wilson’s wife. We had got the wrong house, he lived further down. Now we have to build two stoves as we had already promised Wilson. Luckily with Wilson’s relatively good English we clarified when we were coming to make both stoves and stressed the importance that people are there to help and learn to make the stoves. They have promised they will be ready by tomorrow. So again today we felt we had not made much progress with the projects. To make up for this we planned lessons in the afternoon. We spent most of the afternoon in the mud hut so to get rid of the cabin fever and wake us up, we did some exercise circuits. The locals found this hilarious and stopped to stare at the strange Bazungu.

ODA Hats

Bubikhala - Week 4 – The girlies diary

Week four was far from a bore. Our adrenaline levels were fully satisfied by our mini trip to Sipi falls. It was a thrilling adventure which began with a jam packed but smooth journey along the best road in Uganda and ended in the Crow’s Nest or more aptly named Rat Shit Nest as there were rat droppings everywhere! Besides this minor problem, we had fun trekking through the beautiful waterfalls, halting at every step to take breath taking photos. Some of the braver souls amongst us i.e. Emily, Tom, LiYan and Emma (we are a pretty brave group) risked our very lives absailing down the 99m treacherous cliff, 10m away from the powerful Sipi, landing romantically in a rainbow, we nearly did find our pot of gold, but lost it as the experience cost $50, LOL! We had a minor crisis when we realised we weren’t the only Bazungu (white people) around anymore – this was a good wake up call, to make us realise being the only Bazungu in the village doesn’t mean we are the only Bazungu in Uganda!

Whoever said that Boda Boda drivers were in any way hostile, cheaters or conmen got it grotesquely wrong! LiYan and Emily were laden with most of the shopping and paraphernalia from Mbale and Sipi onto the back of two cracking Boda Boda’s and survived and even enjoyed the ride home. Unfortunately they were not quick enough as Tom, Emma, Nikki and Therri narrowly beat them home after being frog marched up the hill by Michael (Emma’s new found love of her life).
This week was fun filled with animal encounters! First, we all had our chance to milk Daisy, our backyard cow. We all had our own opinions on this. For LiYan it reminded her of foamy milk in a coffee shop at home and even inspired her to install a live cow as a fixture in her neighbourhood starbucks. For Emma it was like squeezing a giant spot. Emily thought it was harder than it looked whilst Nikki thought the opposite. Tez on the other hand just didn’t like the texture. We think this is very telling of our characters – be your own judge!

Our second encounter was also cow related and a very touching moment. On our return journey from the Busyambi party, where we enjoyed choc crispy cakes (OMG), we stumbled upon a freshly born calf; in fact it was only 10mins old. We learnt from Rose (our school teacher) that the cow had struggled in labour for 3 days, followed by 40mins of intense mooing! We had ultimate respect for both mother and daughter, whom we named Flo and Mulan. NB – Mulan was LiYan’s choice as she was a female Chinese warrior who overcame adversity in every circumstance. We thought it was very apt. We also saw the placenta arrive – it was like a giant water balloon though not quite as pleasant as Mulan.

Not to worry we haven’t been dossing all week and the project is still very much on our to do list. In fact, stove orders have been rolling in like never before and we have all been embracing the momentum. On the school front we have stepped up the teaching schedule and are now present daily at the school. We can finally see the children absorbing more and getting used to our teaching methods – it is a good place to be!

And so as it is now 11pm, 2 hours past our usual bedtime and 8 hours before we shall rise, it is time to say goodnight and goodbye. Until the Matooke ripens....

The girlies, BVDA A xxx


Bubikhala - Tom’s week 4

I am now in the presence of some much more peaceful school kids who are fascinated by how much hair I have on my legs.

Simon, without realising it himself, has a more feminine approach to his looks than most other practical men. Sometime after the nail varnishes were revealed to the ladies of the village I found Simon with a few of the girls in our lounge brushing and then blowing his nails. Then another time when the girls were away in Mbale, he came in to the house and demanded to have the varnishes off me followed by him dolloping spoonfuls of the colours onto his finger tips. Just after this his respect level had obviously increased as I was invited round for lunch, which actually included some meat.

In week four nothing much productive happened. We did finally meet the head teacher of our school; we had arranged to meet him the day before but he had had an ‘accident’ on his motorcycle, he was splashed by a puddle which ruined his clothes so the meeting was only delayed for 26 hours!

At the end of the week the girls and I, along with the two Nottingham groups ventured to Sipi falls. I travelled alone, due to a lovely day by myself, and I got the first taste of travelling in Uganda, this probably made it my favourite day so far. I had one motorcycle ride with perfect weather and lots of strange looks from the locals. Then I was forced into a special hire with some relatively wealthy looking Ugandans and talked about politics. After reaching Mbale I tried buying flip flops on the street corner. I was then physically dragged around to different stalls by at least 10 different men. I decided to choose whose shoes I would buy on the quality of service. Straight away the man who was insisting I was Chinese was dismissed and then anyone who told me that someone else’s flip flops were weak and his were strong, when all of them were exactly the same. The man I settled with told me I was his brother and then offered me twenty cows for one of the girls, which is a good price.

The journey then continued with 2 mini bus rides. The first had me and 20 locals in it on a 14 seater bus. The second had much more comfortable looking seats but none of these were available and I was given a kind of parcel shelf to sit on. In this taxi I met my first Kenyan and my first Ugandan called Tom, and I met 2 very ‘nice’ Americans. One was a nurse in Burundi and reinforced my confidence in going to the country. The other reminded me of the more hippyish men out of Easy Rider and had the voice to match, he worked in ‘image and photography’ (said very slowly and quietly). I then arrived in Sipi; the two Americans couldn’t handle the level of tourism so carried onto the next tourist town. I got to the hotel before the others so was then seen as their team leader and all my food arrived before theirs.

Sipi was great, I did a 100m abseil with 80m of overhang; so for most of it I was just dangling in mid air next to a huge waterfall with a view that looked onto the lowland planes of Uganda from the slopes of Mount Elgon, looking down there was just spray from the water hitting the rock, this fine mist provided a complete rainbow to guide my landing and it all ended too quickly.
Before I finish I just thought I would mention how I got into the country [back in June]. We got off the plane, went through passport control, collected our bags (which LiYan had a disgusting amount of) and arrived at security. The entrance which we arrived at had just one scanning machine and just ma-hoo-sive queue. But to the side of this separated by a thin fabric divide, like the one you get in the post office, was quite a wide open passage into the Buganda kingdom. It had space for maybe five traditionally shaped Ugandan mothers with their trolleys and it was guarded by just one confident looking uniformed security man. We noticed that an alarming amount of people were entering through this gap and so it was decided to leave the nearly static queue and venture slowly towards the guard. As we got close he addressed us with just one question “are you with the U.N.?” this did startle me somewhat but the reply was short: “Yes”. The guard did not seem one bit surprised by this and just gave us a nod and a wave, and thus we were free to smuggle our complimentary pillows and 2kg of cocaine.

The kids that are watching me are now demanding my pen and water!

All the best
Tom (Heinz, cheese, medi) xxxx


Busyambi - Week 3/4

Monday 26th July – Playing the waiting game for the engineer who for the second day running has not arrived. We stay at home planning and generally sorting the house out. Eventually we give up on the engineer and split into groups to carry out questionnaires. The men of the village were a lot more forthcoming than the women who always seemed to be busy when the survey made an appearance.

Tuesday 27th July – Three little piggys went to market, three little piggys stayed at home....and the engineer only bloody turned up. The source work was rapid and that took up the rest of the day. The engineer doesn’t speak much, we shall see if he opens up.

Wednesday 28th July – Three on source, three on stove. The source is slow work but Bosco’s stove is full steam ahead until Matt and Rosy chop their fingers off with a panga. Fortunately with one year of medicine behind her, Sarah managed to bandage the fingers up and work was resumed. Meanwhile at the source the girls, excluding Rose, were learning how to carry like an African.

Thursday 29th July – After waving goodbye to our two mid-placement representatives the previous evening we wake up to an empty-ish house, as empty as a house this small can ever be. The four crack on with the day, three on a stove, one on the source and a bit of teaching thrown in. We finish source, have some small fish as a reward and bump into the Mbale guys on the way home. Evening is spent entertaining a very drunk Gerald (engineer) who morphed into a completely different person as soon as the source was finished.

Friday 30th July – We have been invited to a wedding! We spend a lot of the day trying to blag an invite for Rachel’s father who is arriving the day of the wedding.

BVDA 1


Situmi – Wednesday 28th of July (Week 3)

The morning broke gently, dawn cascading over the verdant hills, and rolling down towards our house, tendrils of light curling up to our windows and drawing us from our slumber to the most divine sound of Laura vomming in to a plastic bag, repeatedly. This continued every two hours with Alex ferrying buckets of sick outside and Becca being encouraging from as far away as possible. The rest of the house failed to wake up and were surprised to get up at 7am and find Laura asleep on the floor in the living room.

Alex, James and Becky went off to teach as it was their turn but not before Becky had expertly lit both sigiris leaving the boys in silent awe. Becca carried 30 litres of water, nearly dying in the process, before boiling everything that Laura had thrown up on.

Teaching went well – Becky lived up to her fallen women reputation and poisoned the two boys in their play on the benefits of using individual cups. The kids found it very funny and we were left wondering if it was through sharing cups that Laura became so ill.

Alex, Becky, James and Will walked to Bukhawekha to get chapattis and beans. On the journey back, Becky and Will were caught in the heaviest downpour yet and arrived back drenched and dripping. Becky took the opportunity to have a shower under the rain, soaping up in the quad. Alex and James had made it to Sikulu dry, but Alex then slipped all the way down the hill and arrived back filthy.

Laura stopped being sick in the day, and is now completely fine. However we are all very excited about half-way hall and getting our tank started.

ODA - LPH


Bubikhala - Week 3 – The girlies diary

Week three began with shit – literally! Tez valiantly smeared cow dung on our very own stove, with her bare hands! She was such a trooper and has since earned the title Therri Trooper Tait.
The week continued with our second most physically demanding activity – the water source. Although, getting to the actual source was a bit treacherous with everyone taking spectacular falls, we soon adapted and within the day we were carrying rocks on our heads, against the advice of overprotective locals. 3 days, 5 rains, 25 locals and 67 matookes later and the source was fully protected, complete with plaque stating ‘Bubikhala you are most welcome!’ For clarification, this is far from a grammatical error but rather, the greeting we receive every time we meet a local.

Of course, the realities of our project are a mere fraction of our daily lives. This week we embarked on a new personal challenge to find ourselves the perfect husband via a Hindu festival. This involved only eating fruit, raw veg and nuts during the day followed by one meal at night which had to be dry bread and chapattis. During this one meal you weren’t allowed water or to stand up otherwise your meal would be terminated! A note to mums, we are all alive and kicking and now, after a full week of recovery and eating all we want, we are literally rolling around the village!

Our night rendezvous also deserves a special mention. It was a cold, dark, stormy night and we were all cuddled up in our cosy house, about to embark on our daily card game. Suddenly, a crash of drums, a thunder of footsteps and a howl of excitement broke the stillness of the night, Therri’s hope of circumcisions were confirmed and three grown boys emerged from the night, strapped in bells and draped in white beads crossing their bodies, practicing for their upcoming circumcision ceremonies. We soon learnt from the ever enthusiastic Michael, the ever present super Si and the every concerned chairman that they were “training their muscles” to guard against pain on the actual day. Both super Si and the chairman willingly demonstrated on Tom’s shirt tails how the “chop” would happen and that Tom should have it done so as to “shoot well” and “keep mud out” of it.

As you might have noticed we have been struggling to communicate effectively with our school! Timing is a real issue in Uganda and for one meeting we had to wait 2 hours +. Nevertheless, we soon realised our grandfathers got it right, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again, or in this case wait, wait and wait some more. The eventual meeting was highly successful and we realised we are actually moving towards some goals despite our previous misconceptions. Nevertheless, if there is one thing we can take away, Nikki Lord is a damn good prayer leader!
Nikki and Emma have also been fulfilling detective roles over missing marker pens at the school. They have been known to have one of them distract the children through a window, whilst the other sneaks through the door to search the classroom high and low for the elusive pens, unfortunately this has been to no avail.

Just a final word of thanks. First to our dear Ronnie who has brought us so much joy and laughter to our church Sundays with his outrageous matching gangster outfits ranging from a crimson red, furry, rhinestone studded ensemble to a stripped, black and violet African printed attire. Second to our dear Mal limb for providing us with stimulating and challenging reads via the Week, Puzzler and Time. We can confirm via weekly measurements our heads have enlarged considerably.

Forever and always, the gwerlz xx

Bubikhala


Tom’s diary - Week 3

Hello all (probs only my mother), a quick note, while writing this I am being fiercely protected by two young boys from an ever interested crowd of little girls, that could not be more innocent.
Simon is now greeting me with firm, prolonged handshakes and enthusiasm, so I think he is getting a sense of respect for me as well. But when drunk this level of respect drops off and is covered by a fascination with the rest of my less practical housemates. Or when he is drunk he is possessed by his wife, Joy, and therefore insists on peeling and preparing locally sourced vegetables, leaving the skins all over our floor, producing far more mess than is surely necessary and once finished he leaves with an expression on his face that is similar to a year six school child’s when he, in front of the whole class and in one of his less dyslexic moments, spells the word ‘beginning’ correctly and gets to leave school five minutes before the rest of his fellow, far more literally gifted, pupils.
In week three we started on the stoves. The first was Michael’s who is a very smiley, quite wealthy, farmer and greets me with a fairly comical, “argh To-o-mm, argh yeeeessss”. After the encounter with Michael he introduced me to his neighbour; she was a slim, young(ish), quite attractive, quite forceful, local Muhindi. She grabbed my hand in a way that felt like she was never letting go and proceeded to drag me through a banana plantation. Giggling suggestively as we walked, this made me quite amused and I began to laugh as well. I laughed in the fear of the possible reasons she was dragging me along the path and I laughed from the memory of the last words my brother in law said to me: “don’t sleep with the locals”! Eventually we arrived at a half built house with a cow in a box outside. She disappeared inside and the giggling persisted at an increased volume. Moments later the locks on a different door were being undone. I was terrified by the possibilities behind it, either the forceful woman dressed in something more ‘colourful’ than before or an enraged husband demanding why I was at his house alone with his wife. The door swung open and it was the woman, still giggling but fully dressed and just pointing to a corner of the small room inside. After some seconds and a series of silent charade like gestures the message was eventually put across. The relief hit and put me into hysterics, all she ever wanted was a stove. The smiles that followed made me realise the excitement and enthusiasm that the locals have for the simplest things that we can show and do for them.

Towards the end of the week the source was protected, this was dull. The process of protecting a source I think is quite stimulating but as we are weak, tired and delicate bazungu we couldn’t possibly be able to lift more than a few small rocks and definitely cannot wield a hoe for more than a few minutes. So instead we were given the role of spectators and even had a patch of earth covered with banana leaves to sit on so our precious bottoms weren’t hindered by the filthy, infested, totally uncivilised ground. And just in case our eyes or our precious bottoms were getting tired we were continually fed fresh sugar cane and avocados. The find of the week was a plate of bean, chapatti, and a cup of chai for just 400 Ugandan shillings, about 12p.

Tom, BVDA A, Bubikhala


Tooma – week three

21/7 – Today was an important day in Tooma’s school calendar. We joined the children on the back of a fully loaded cattle truck, to go to the music dance and drama competition at the county level in Buashu (near the Kenyan border). Typically everyone was late so we were taken on an impromptu tour of the village. Our guide had a massive trench coat and tried to convince us that at Tooma we shouldn’t greet with ‘Mulembe’ but we should use ‘Yoga’. Our tour included a viewing of the schools latrines, facilitating “long and short calls”. We then joined the teachers for a spot of tea and chapatti. The MDD itself was a very high standard and very entertaining, especially the traditional dances. Unfortunately it wasn’t Tooma’s day... but obviously this was down to corruption. After the competition we met an intoxicated gentleman, who challenged us to ask him any question, we asked what the tallest building in the world is and he answered “soap”.

22/7 – We finally started our first stove! The stove was for Fred, a teacher who seemed to have no trouble cancelling all his lessons for the day to accept a free stove. In his defence he was a great help and very enthusiastic. That evening Notts 2 dropped in, we had a nice dinner followed by our first Zebra experience.

23/7 – In the morning we applied the finishing touches to Fred’s stove and we were rewarded with some tea and rock hard mandazi. Later Anna and Isa came to visit and check on the water source. Meanwhile, Rachel went to the clinic where Melia (our neighbour) was in labour, but unfortunately didn’t give birth that day. Charlotte set off to Kampala to visit her Dad.

24/7 – We started building the water tank for the school. We had an extremely productive day churning out an LBA record of over 500 bricks which meant we could build a bigger tank!

25/7 – The base was laid and rain stopped play for the rest of the day. In the afternoon charlotte returned bearing gifts and we received news that Melia had given birth to a baby girl and named her after our Rachel!

26/7 – We cracked on with bricklaying for the tank. After we finished we treated ourselves to dinner in Bukhawekha, followed by drinks with the Notts 2 group. On the way back an unsavoury incident occurred; a head on collision of two Boda Boda’s left Mitesh with what seemed a nasty foot injury. Thankfully he was ok.

27/7 – We had a lot of fun slapping on the plaster [on the tank] and socialising with the engineers. Later we were greeted with a surprise visit from the LBA crew. We completed the tank with a nice smooth finish and it was looking good!

All in all we had a very productive and eventful week!

Nottingham 1

Dear volunteers (3rd Aug)

I just wanted to say a quick but extremely heart-felt thank you for letting us share in a small part of your experience through your volunteer journals. As a mother (sorry Rosy, it's me!) it is such a treat to be able to turn on my computer, log on to the Little BIG Africa website and read the latest entry. The frequency with which I do so has been described as 'sad' by Rosy's siblings, but now that Busyambi have FINALLY made an entry, perhaps I can reduce the frequency of my visits!

You all feel a very long way away (which of course you are) but, for as long as I am reading your entries, that long distance diminishes just a little and it feels as though I can have a peep into your world of mud huts, mud balls, matooke and Lugisu. Please give us lots more diary entries, with as much detail as possible. At risk of being extremely pushy (sorry again Rosy) it would be great to hear what the villages and houses are like, whether you have to walk to get water, how far away you are from the nearest towns, what (if anything) you have in your mud huts/ houses, whether you're managing to learn Lugisu and anything and everything else.

I hope that each and every one of you is having an amazing time.
Stay healthy and happy and make the most of a truly life-changing experience. Rosy, I hope you are completely better now and haven't had to miss any more church services and I send you a huge cyber hug and all my love.

Mum/Gill

NOTICE

Thursday 5th - Tuesday 10th
LBA final official placement visits to all groups including the infamous - and this year, highly competitive - cooking competition.

Thursday 12th
LBA Fun Day with inter-school competitions in football, netball, banner & musical/theatrical presentations. Hopefully lots of photos & journal entries to follow.

Busyambi - First 2 weeks

Wednesday July 7th
Arrived in Busyambi, still recovering from the rollercoaster ride here, then were ejected from the taxi into a throng of timid children with wide white eyes. We followed the pitter-patter of children’s feet into our glorious mud hut. The staggeringly beautiful view compensated for the first shock of the mud hut. The football pitch angled at 30 degrees down the mountain immediately shattered Matt’s dream of coaching a Busyambi football team.

Thursday July 8th
Arose to cockadoodledoo, had introduction after introduction, we walked to the nearest shop only to find a group of rowdy men staggering towards us during an afternoon on the local brew, Malwa, which would soon become a familiar occurrence to us. Tried to pasturise milk over a lantern, gave up and put chlorine tablets in it.

Friday July 9th
Rachael, Matt and Rosy embark on a trip to Bukhawekha, the local trading centre for the first time. Sneakily purchase sodas and potatoes from the group fund.

Saturday July 10th
In Uganda nothing happens on a Saturday

Sunday July 11th
We attend our highly anticipated first church service, armed with our hymn ‘Shine Jesus Shine’. Matt was quite forcefully questioned whether he believed in Jesus Christ, a question which he quickly deflected onto Becks, who agreed that she did indeed love God.

Monday July 12th
We finally experienced the Ugandan sized portions we had so often been warned about, after the headmaster of Busyambi Primary School offered to buy us lunch after Sports day. We were ushered into a little room off the high street of Bukhawekha, and were plied with mountains of matooke, which we all trooped through admirably.

Wednesday July 14th
Today was the day of the African dance and drama festival, and after sitting through eight renditions of the horrendously repetitive ‘East African Community’ anthem the delights of the dancers began. After being initially disappointed at Busyambi Primary’s shocking no show we sat back and enjoyed the other schools’ stunning performances.

July 15th -18th
The water tank
We were woken up to a frustrated knocking at our door and Becks blearily announced to us as we sat down to our daily porridge that we had 20 minutes to get started on the tank...oops. The next pitfall we struck was the lack of wheelbarrow and generally any kind of building implement. Rachael and Sarah, led by an overly-enthusiastic marching engineer, Dan, went to the neighbouring village to pick up a hoe so that work could begin. The four days of watertank building did fly by, apart from the memorable (albeit forever scarring) incident in which 90 of the 450 bricks collapsed with a dull thud to our UTTER HORROR. We finished with a satisfying ending of flinging plaster at our fantastic brick work. The community rewarded us with a total of 37 avocados. Score.

July 19th - 20th
Mbale trip
Used real toilets, the biggest delight of staying at a resort. Two days well spent by the pool, a fantastic curry and six sunburnt bodies later we return to the village.

Wednesday July 21st
Rachel Matt and Alex built an incredible spice rack; the delight and pride and joy of the mud hut. The group begins to worry about the imminent poo-smear of the mudhut floor.

Thursday July 22nd
We write this entire diary after Debs’ visit. Much to our excitement building materials finally appear for the stoves.

Friday July 23rd
Long but successful day. Start and completed our first fuel saving stove in our kitchen. Strong community interest. Stove is worryingly huge, there must have been a slight error in our calculations - our mammoth stove takes up half the kitchen.

Much anticipated start to the Matooke competition. Alex and Rachael set the standard very high with their curried matooke and Onion Bhajis.

Saturday July 24th
In Uganda nothing happens on a Saturday.

Sunday July 25th
Unfortunately Rosy is ill today and misses the two and a half hour Lugisu church service. Church yields fruit which is extremely generous but it does feel strange being on the receiving end of a donation in church.

Hi Debs (27th July)

Thanks for making it possible to send a message to all the volunteers 2010.

I want to say WELL DONE to each and every one of you. It takes SPECIAL PEOPLE to sign up for and endure this kind of volunteering. So for those of you who have stayed the course, through all your trials and tribulations I want to say congratulations. We are following your journey via the LBA website and its great to read all about your days and see the photos. You are over half way through now and I know the people of Mbale are richer for you having been there. God bless each and every one of you.

To my own special daughter Rachel V (Nottingham Group 2) I want to say we have missed you so much but respect your decision and applaud your tenacity in completing this course. We have always been proud of you but you never cease to make us feel how blessed we are to have you for our daughter. You are quite simply unique and amazing and we send our love. xxx

Sincerely

Christine Vora

ODA LPH – Friday 23rd of July

Today had been our planned trip to Mbale for some hard earned R+R – almost two weeks after entering the village. However, disaster had befallen us late on Thursday night whilst building the schools giant stove and we had run out of mud balls, meaning that we did not finish it that night. Undeterred, we postponed our trip and on Friday completed our first stove. While a bit daunting making our first solo stove in front of a large audience it was definitely the right thing to do – having a stove at school has enabled many of the interested villagers to actually see these stoves we’ve been chatting about – hopefully more people will provide the materials soon.

We then went to Katilda’s house. She’s a lovely teacher who is ready for us to build her a stove too. Unfortunately, her pots are even bigger than the ones used by the school! Cue three hours of insulated mud ball making!

Susan one of our neighbours, gave us some matooke a few days ago, and tonight offered to teach us how to cook it/cook it for us. It was actually really nice – surprisingly so!

All in all a very tiring day but a very productive one – as well as stove stuff we also got the sanitation survey and clean water chain translated in to Lugisu. This all means we definitely feel like we earned our day off tomorrow. Mbale resort, here we come!


DARE - Week 2

So begins our first week of formal teaching on the topic of handwashing. Lessons varied with P6+P7 being taught with brainstorming and various games including hangman and a sanitation themed version of Snakes and Ladders. Younger years were treated to games of Simon Says and wonderful renditions of the Hokey Kokey. P4 were by far the most hilarious, in response to being asked ‘what happens if your get sick?’ a pupil responded ‘you die’, in response to ‘what happens if you fail your exams?’ they responded ‘you die’ yet again. When asked ‘what do you dig for in the fields?’ the response from the kids was meat and money! To continue our amusement the pupils replied to our question of when should you wash your hands with responses such as ‘after building houses’, ‘after teaching’, and ‘after touching rat poison’! We decided to play stuck in the mud with P3 and tried to explain the purpose of the game was to run away from the taggers, however the kids ran up to us to be freed as they were so excited and really just wanted to shake our hands.

P7 and P6 were taught a lesson on tippy taps and it was inspiring to see such enthusiasm and we felt a sense of achievement seeing the kids pretend washing their hands and faces just like we taught them.

Very tough week physically! Constructed our first stove which happened to be supersized and appreciation was shown by us being given gifts of sweet potato, sugar cane, matooke, bananas and avocado. We also got water brought to us by many of the surrounding kids as a way of saying thanks. We were warmly introduced to the whole family, shown photos, met the 99 year old grandmother, ‘foxy’ the dog and three adorable poes poes (kittens).

Tank building began Wednesday in ernest. Started the colossal task of brick making – 475 bricks in 2 days – 6.15am to 6pm! It was hard work, shovelling, brick laying and plastering (throw and splat).

Funny moments from the week include a conversation with LC1 about a man’s role in Uganda – they eat, sleep and make babies – 3 wives and 20 children make you a man. Stu was accused of being half-man after being caught cooking by the chairman.

Tuesday night was full of disturbances; Barbara had a nightmare about a giant bug being on the inside of her mosquito net and would not go back to sleep until Stu had checked everything was ok. We also experienced our first proper thunder storm which caused Katie to scream and Kat to reply ‘what?’ as if nothing had happened although it sounded like we were being attacked as we lay in bed. Charlotte and Stu had an interesting experience on the back of a truck, speeding along the Ugandan dirt tracks, hair in the wind, enjoying the ride as they transported the brick machine to the next placement group. Dan the engineer had to desperately hang onto his precious brick machine as they hurtled along. All in all a good week which was thoroughly enjoyable and productive.

The end!

20 - 26 July 2010 - Week Two at Tooma

Started the second week off nice and early by visiting the water source to see how Edson our dedicated engineer was doing. It was on schedule and was to be completed later that day. The work looks amazing and only took a few days.

We then made our way to Bukhaweka for the sub-county music and dance (MDD) competition, again didn’t start till around midday – not getting used to Ugandan timing! Although whilst waiting most people had their daily indulgence of chapatti and eggs – scrumptious but half a bottle of oil can’t be healthy. The competition was incredible and we were finally getting to see the African culture. The day ended on a positive as we found out Tooma had won – we were going to the next stage of County level. Tired from the day we had another chapatti and headed to bed.

We went to thank and say good bye to Edson on Thursday morning, we cleaned our dusty house and then headed to school to get a timetable for teaching. William finally constructed one and we were on our way to start getting things done.

The boys started constructing our practice stove outside our house while Rach cooked sweet potatoes, eggs and guacamole for lunch – sounds like a weird combination but tastes delicious. The rain kicked in after lunch and there was a standstill with the stove, we spent the afternoon playing Uno until the rain stopped and the stove building commenced.

After bread and honey for breakfast on Friday everyone carried on stove building – we wanted to complete it as it was Matt’s birthday and we were going to Mbale for the night. Got it complete and had chips and guacamole again for lunch before everyone started to get ready to go to Mbale. We were covered in mud by the long walk but got picked up in an open taxi by the Bristol group. It was a bumpy experience but what an adventure. We all settled in at Elgon View Hotel and then made our way for an Indian dinner. It took two hours to get our food which was disappointing but it was nicer than eating avocados everyday.

Everyone embraced the warm showers on Saturday morning and then had a relaxed day at Mbale resort. We enjoyed all the yummy food, tanning opportunities and the cold sodas – Score! After doing some shopping we made our way back to Tooma. Had a relaxed evening by playing poker and went to bed by 10pm as per usual.

We went to church on Sunday morning with our Pentecostal neighbour and loved it. We enjoyed the dancing and singing and were welcomed with both arms in the church, then partook in the day of rest. We made our own chapattis for dinner, after last times disaster it was quite a success! Very pleased.

Started teaching on Monday, Pete and Rachel taught P5 whilst Mitesh and Rupal taught P6. We loved it, the games went down well and the kids were responding. Charlotte and Sadiq went to the market and taught in the afternoon. The rest of us went to the market in the afternoon, what a long walk and just our bad luck that it was closing up when we got there so we just walked back and made it before afternoon rain.

We went to Bukhaweka on Tuesday, we had Rolexes by the stream and Rach got her funky shirt – looks very nice. As we were waiting for our phones to be charged Rupal, Charlotte and Rach went to Masaaka to see the other group who were building their water tank. Pete, Sadiq and Mitesh were already there. The day was tiring, hot and sweaty.

Wednesday we went to the MDD competition. Again using an open vehicle but it wasn’t that much fun this time, as we were cramped in with many kids. Scheduled to start at 9 we were still waiting around midday. We were given tea and chapatti for breakfast and matooke, beans, cabbage and beef for lunch – very filling and our first Ugandan meal after training. We got boda boda’s back as the taxi didn’t show up and had bread rolls for dinner. Overall has been an enjoyable second week!

Week two in Bubikhala by Tom

At the beginning of week two the jealousy over ‘super’ Simon had turned into a slight level of respect for the man, as he willingly shifted tons of red anthill soil all the way across the village for no benefit of his own. In week two we all went to Mbale for the night, which meant hot showers and flushing toilets. The best part for me was brushing my teeth in the morning at sunrise on a roof terrace overlooking the whole town with the mountains in the background. It was the first time I’ve ever experienced a mirror with a landscape view inside it, magic!

Strangely I thought this experience would be totally alcohol free but yet again I am mentioning it, as our village is rather fond of the local brew, Malwa. Some residents have even been seen drinking Malwa at breakfast time as, apparently, it gives them strength. It tastes like dirt but I am growing to like it. It is served hot and through straws, at large gatherings around one pot and I have seen straws up to 2 metres long. Also the taste seems to depend on the quality of the straw, myself I prefer the slightly wider and medium length straw for a regular smooth flow with minimum grit.

Our cow Daisy gave birth one night to Rory the calf. This means that early mornings are compulsory as Rory is locked away at night which gives Daisy a cow version of postnatal depression in the early hours of every day. Emma in particular is suffering, so maybe a clinic for her and Daisy could be a good use of our microgrant as long as no sharp objects are included.

At the end of the week Emily and I finally cracked and had half a kilo of pork between us, which we saw alive the night before. In secret we were quite happy that none of the others wanted any. The crackling was superb.

Thats all for now,
Tom xxx

P.S. There are far less offers of circumcision here.
P.P.S. I almost forgot; the night that went down in history. Quoting Nimrod: “This moment goes down in history, never in our life times have there been so many whites in Bubikhala”.

11th-19th July 2010 - Tooma - Week One

After being collected from Mbale by William, our dynamic and incredibly cheerful Deputy Head Teacher, we were greeted, on arrival in Tooma, by hundreds of running children in yellow uniforms, who chased our minibus and helped carry our bags into the house.

After settling in and some homely additions (England flag hung on wall!) we set about constructing frames from which to hang our mosquito nets. The girls and boys took rather different approaches: the boys spent many hours deliberating over and constructing a complication ‘solar system’ of strings spanning their bedroom, while the girls took a more sophisticated practical approach using sticks to make neat little frames (guess who is writing the diary entry!)

After a peaceful night on our foam mattresses, we went to the school the following morning (which is handily just next door) and met the staff and pupils who were all very welcoming “Visitors you are mooooost welcome!”

The following day we had our first meeting with the community. The community were familiar with some of our names - Peter, Rachel and Sadiq - which were greeted with warm applause, but the other names - Rupal, Charlotte and Mitesh - were met by a sea of confused faces and silence! The meeting went well and at the end an interesting community ‘character’ arrived and began instructing us to ‘kill cows’ and such like. William said in hushed tones “He has mental problems, so we give him time to be himself” which we thought was a nice sentiment!

Rupal and Rachel have been getting gradually more experimental with the cooking and boiled eggs have become a staple, along with chappattis from a local outlet.

On Sunday, our engineer, Edson, arrived to begin protecting a local water source. Community support was good and lots of progress was made. The locals did not trust us Bazungu (white people) with too much of the technical stuff, but we tried to make ourselves useful by carrying and breaking rocks. In the evening we travelled to the local trading centre, Bukaweka, to watch the World Cup final on the big screen (a cinema of sorts!) It was a late night by Ugandan standards but it was fun to see some of the other groups and partake in a couple of Eagle beers.

The following day we returned to Bukaweka on foot to watch the inter-schools sports competition. The weather was glorious and most of us now have some interesting ‘builders’ tans’ going on! We discovered the delights of homemade guacamole as avocadoes are in abundance here and we have been given about 20! It was enjoyed the first couple of times but by the 5th day, the group were somewhat less enthusiastic. Our final day of the first week was spent at Bukaweka market, stocking up on fresh local veg (offsetting the carbon footprint we created getting here by plane!) Our source is coming on well and we helped place the decorative animal-discouraging sharp stones along the walls.

We were invited to our first Malwa drinking session - the local brew in our District. Those who partook gave varying reviews ‘warm’, ‘gritty’, ‘not too bad’! The world of Tooma Malwa drinkers is a complex one with membership of ‘the pot’ a necessary stipulation (everyone drinks from a central communal pot using long straws). members pay a fee and each have a distinct position and title ‘old man of the pot’, ‘chairman of the pot’, ‘secretary of the pot’ etc. etc! Our ‘born again’ Pentecostal neighbours were not too impressed by our escapades, but we felt it had been useful community integration activity!

We had our first dinner disaster as our sigiri (miniature outdoor stove) went cold, so we ate half-raw chappatti dough for dinner - yum!

Tooma


Masaaka - Week One

Week one at times proved hectic - meeting new people every morning and every afternoon. Our first visit to the school we were made to feel most welcome with an assembly in our honour and a full stage music production. On the way home as per usual it rained and rained some more and we got soaked. We weren’t warned about Ugandan rain!

The engineer arrived two days after we went to placement and we started the source. Help protecting a source means carrying big stones and then some more stones. Fun times!

On Sunday, when Church finally started two hours late, it was good to find out we were ‘saved’ and it was also nice to meet more friendly people.

The inter-school sports and drama competitions provided great entertainment. Food is bearable, if we have rice one day, we will have rice the next day and more likely the day after as well. Basically, we just eat rice :-)

Discovery of the marvel that is a ‘rolex’ [chappatti and omelette] was the highlight of my week one.

Dom, Masaaka


Bubikala - Week One

This week was all about settling into the village. It began with a very interesting journey. It was ubber bumpy and when we got closer all the local children started running after our van. We had quite the following.

2 days later, we are Africans. It’s official. The integration process was complete. Matooke was our best friend.

On the Sunday, ‘Dan the man’ arrived and gosh it was fun tank building. We built bricks, plastered, discussed my (Therri’s) weight with the villagers and generally had a ball. Four days later and the tank was complete.

The week flew by are we are now desperate to face the next hurdles and challenges in our path. Despite our initial shock about the size of the hole in the latrine, we are getting much better with our aim :-)

Love, the girls x

Bubikala

Week One at Bubikhala by Tom

Tom’s week one in the village:
Being the only man in the group, I thought my role would be clear, but straight away I was out manned by ‘super’ simon; a ridiculously practical neighbour who was entrusted to answer our every need. The next surprise was that I was given an actual, wooden, raised off the floor, BED! Its just a single and a few inches too short but all the girls are on the dusty mud floor. Technically this is the most logical space saving solution to the sleeping arrangements and so far there aren’t that many complaints.

Week one involved probably the most memorable world cup final I have ever seen. It involved walking 5km down the side of a mountain, though a banana plantation to a small very overcrowded bar full of hundreds of Ugandans and about 30 very white British students. The night then moved onto a lot of sweating and some very strong beer. This just made the football less interesting and getting pissed a priority. The boys did the same the next day but failed to take head torches and it rained. So climbing 5km back through banana plantation in the dark, pissed and along a mud path on all fours also made for the most memorable drunken walk home I’ve probably ever had.

The most cliché moment in week one was the meeting with the local council in the centre of the village underneath the mango tree! It started with a prayer and ended with a round of applause.

Best moments of training:

Being able to explore the market for the first time
Making the tippy tap
Traditional African dancing
Practical work e.g. stoves, cooking, tippy taps, dramas
Getting to know the rest of my team
The first drive to Mbale
Going out for a group meal/BBQ
Tippy tap victory
Adult education sessions
Buying a Panga
Dancing
Amelia
First Boda Boda ride
Night out dancing
Cooking/killing chickens
Meeting the ladies in the kitchen and cooking
Meeting the ladies in the hairdressing salon
Ugandan club experience
Headless chicken
First market experience
Going for a night out – a nice break
Boda Boda
Tippy tap competition
Interacting with the people
Learning everything
Evening entertainment
Six way spoon
Stove building
Shopping in Mbale
Shopping game
Shaking it like a Polaroid picture at Restville
All day Friday
Musical chairs
Party night out with Boda Boda home
General team bonding
Making up songs for teaching


Funniest moments of training:

Watching Stu dancing with the locals
Watching the dramas we all made up
Basking in Adam’s banter
Dancing
Being accosted by children at the market, grabbing us and following us around
Watching/creating the dramas and songs
Writing our first journal entry
Janter (Jerry can banter)
Any conversation with Sophie
The African dancing
Getting to know Isa
Watching Alice – comedy gold
The Ugandan public finding me their funniest moment in a long time
When Charlotte almost got roped into buying a hideous dress in the market
Matt’s headless chicken
When I thought I could take on the locals in a dance off
Isa’s ideas/description of a four legged bird and asking if little green men on Mars go to hell
Hearing Rupal being called ‘my size’ by some random Ugandan man
The boys lapdancing
Captain clean
Too many to pick
Conversations with Isa
Musical chairs
Evening entertainment
Being traded in for ten cows by a man in the market
Matt’s drawings for the presentation
Lap dance off
The headless chicken
Being asked “Eh, Why are you Indian?”

Please click on the links below to replay and enjoy videos taken during the training sessions - some are very funny!

Saturday - Teaching through Imbalu (traditional, local) dancingvideo 1video 2

Thursday - WASH Drama

video 3

Wednesday - Development in Practise Drama

video 4

Thursday 8th July 2010 - Training - Group 2 Day 6

The morning got off to a sad start as we said goodbye to our own teammate, James, who sadly had to return to the UK. Luckily Bikie had prepped an enlightening lesson on the wonders of the Moringa seed and its water purifying qualities to distract us. Lucy and Adam discovered that eating the seeds was not particularly pleasant.

This was followed by our first taste of Lugisu which will hopefully be of much use to us in the carrying out of daily life in the village.

After this we put together a practise lesson incorporating games, drama and a song to demonstrate why washing our hands is very important. This involved lots of pretending to be sick which we have been told goes down well with the children in the village. In the evening we played a game of Mafia which was both complex and interesting... And so came the end of another day in Mbale as placement looms ever closer.

Sophie, ODA Hats

Wednesday 7th July 2010 - Training - Group 2 Day 5

Today our team was split up - Kat, Barbara, Katie & Charlotte learned how to make the stoves. Stu had the morning off which he spent at the market - he bought a panga (machete) and two beautiful African style shirts and was very happy with his purchases! He then went to Mbale Resort to enjoy a leisurely swim and steak lunch - such a tourist!

As Stuart was bathing in his resort, Barbara accumulated a third cut; Katriona was mistaken for a McDonalds employee because of her lovely hat and Tshirt combo (kept wanting to order large fries and bacon double cheeseburgers from her); and Katie was mortified when her pot washing style was mistaken for a small boy squatting. Much to the amusement of the local cooks. Discovered the secret ingredient to Ugandan cooking - salt!!! Have learned to make chapattis, salty beans, salty chicken, salty groundnut (gnut) (peanut butter) sauce, salty fish, salty cabbage, posho, rice, salty sweet and irish potatoes.

Entered the maze that they call the market... a labyrinth of brightly coloured fabrics, sewing machines, peanuts, fish/meat, toys, fruit... children playing, curious looks, marriage proposals and lots of bartering. The girls ordered themselves skirts and dresses, very excited to see how they turn out... will let you know! Hopefully get time to go back soon... over and out
xXx

DARE

Monday 5th July 2010 - Training - Group 1 Day 7

Mulembe bapaapa na bamaayi

Hope all is well, I’m surviving (just). Today I pushed my engineering intuition to the max by constructing a Rocket Lorena (stove to simple folk). As this was very demanding the day was finished off with a swim and, believe it or not, a sauna!

Yesterday I managed a complete conversation with a local in the native tongue, Lugisu. The day also involved yet more offers of circumcision (the persistence of these offers is almost persuading me that it might be a good idea if I wish to become a pure man!)

That is all for now, I’m off to my village on Wednesday (7th) so you might not hear from me for a while.

Love Tom (Heinz, Medi, Cheese) xxx

p.s. Happy Birthday Jack and Happy Birthday Nikki

BVDA A


Monday 5th July 2010 - Training - Group 2 Day 3

We awoke to another glorious morning in Mbale. The sun shimmering through the trees and the majestic birds of prey gliding in the sky. After some worthy training sessions the day reached a climax when we were set the task of constructing an improvised handwashing station (or tippy tap). In a manner foreshadowing our close approaching submersion in village life, we, with testicular fortitude, set to our assignment.

Despite a valiant effort, and what we thought was some excellent engineering, we were still put to shame by Isa’s elegantly simple design.

After the construction based task we set off to Mbale Resort Hotel for some much needed ‘R & R’. The resort hotel, with our near Oxfordian exclusivity, was enclosed in its own bubble. The contrast between the rich and the poor was palpably devastating. Moreover the food was relatively exquisite, i.e. it wasn’t peanut and spinach. In fact some compared the scene to the ‘last supper’. Following a ‘casual coffee’ approximately 21 of us bundled into a 14 person taxi. The sardine-esq trip came to a dramatic conclusion at the aptly named ‘Da Place To Be’ (“where smart ladies get in free”). After grooving to come mid-to-late 90s dance music and Will being taught a lesson in playing the owner at pool, we embarked on the short journey home through Mbale town centre. Whilst sauntering back we were taken by surprise by a shock power cut. However this phenomenon treated us to a panoramic stellar display highlighting our relative insignificance on this fragile yet most beautiful of planets.

ODA

Sunday 4th July 2010 - Training Group 2 Day 2

Early start, 7:30 am! Started the initiation of cold showers ......failure! Hoping to adapt better shower etiquette tomorrow. Tea, samosa and banana for breakfast- classic Dundoneon student breakfast. Excellent.

Training continues...Zzzzzzzzzzzzz . First lesson on stove building, very interesting, increased awareness of our purpose here. Finished promptly, an hour late (Ugandan time)!

Assigned case study scenario to act out, about conflicts we may face. Stuart took the opportunity to show case cross – dressing skills. What a sight.

Afternoon involved learning culture with Debs, overview of water tank construction and spring protection with Anna. Bikie talked about Ugandan government.......president, vice president, cabinet, local council I-IV, sub-counties, councillors, MPS, LCI, CAO, DEO, DWO, SMT, PTA.....massive acronym overload!! Learned about integrating with the Ugandan villagers – ‘Smile and Wave Boys’!

Strict alliance with Oxford to charge phone using solar/radio/torch/kinetic power vessel/universal charger for everything......to spend 1 text message. Biceps bulging after 20mins cranking session...phew.

Evening entertainment provided by Oxford in the form of a pub quiz. Everyone turned a little over competitive. We were so close to victory but illustration student, Miss Beek’s cat drawing didn’t quite cut the melted cheese.

All in all very successful and productive day. Lots of love to everyone at home. Over.

PS. Please send Percy pigs ASAP!!

DARE

Sunday 4th July 2010 - Training - Group 1 Day 6

Stoves
Prossie and Herbert from PETSO came to teach us how to build the fuel efficient stoves we will be building in the community. I will not bore you with the many complex stages of the construction process but most people’s highlight seemed to be stamping the mud with our feet! I (Rachel Murdoch) experienced my first communication issue when Herbert commented on my ‘weird accent’ much to the hilarity of other group members! I assured him I have that problem even in the UK! The basic steps in the stove construction included mixing (by foot) both insulated and non-insulated building clay (using sawdust and anthill soil); creating an insulated base; building this up with bricks; an advanced system of proportional measurements (which I’m not sure I fully understand) using banana plant stems as markers, which we then constructed around to create the finished stoves. Our group forgot to put on the chimney (shhhh!) but luckily this was rectifiable. Herbert taught us some African songs to pass the time and we were revived by the other group’s cooking efforts at lunch and dinner time - the chappattis were particularly delicious. We finished off the day with a quiz courtesy of Oxford - good clean fun and a trip into Mbale for a late night supermarket run for ice-cream, crisps and chocolate! Yum!

Nottingham 1

Volunteers from DARE (Dundee) and ODA (Oxford) arrive.

Saturday 3rd July 2010

First day of training. As we were settling in we enjoyed a lie in with breakfast at 9.30 - bread, eggs and pineapple. After breakfast it was onto training with the Dundee group of five - making our introductions and choosing our team names - Love, Peace and Harmony (Panthers) was born. We felt it really reflected our inner feelings and the aims of our group. We then got down to the serious stuff ‘shaking it out’ under a tree with Debs and Amelia. Loosened up we attacked training, having some difficulty with the priorities of the people of Mathari Valley slum. We then went on a walk to assess the sanitation (or lack of it) around various areas of Mbale, illustrating and presenting our findings to the rest of our training group on a map. We discussed the structure of schooling in Uganda, focusing on primary schools. We had soda, got a frisbee stuck on the roof, and ate sweet potatoes and beans. Our confidence higher than ever after being told by the doctor that the anti-malarials most of us are on does not actually prevent malaria. Super.
We then spent the evening bonding with the other volunteers playing a great friendly game of 40-40 with Bristol (which Oxford dominated) before going to ‘stop and fetch’ with some of the Nottingham group, and then we retired to our rooms to eat cookies. All in all a delightful first day.

ODA (Love, Peace & Harmony)


Mass lie-in after the wild dancing and debauchery of the previous night. Breakfast attendance reached a record low. Debs (wisely) postponed our morning session to a respectful 2pm. So the morning activities were then towards the leisurely end of the spectrum, with sun cream application constituting maximum energy expenditure.

In the afternoon, Isa and co. took to the stage with a sensational piece of wordless drama, performed to the beat of a drum-come-jerrycan. We will definitely be plagiarising this in our own adult education sessions. The session culminated with a lesson in booty-shaking. More practise needed from all.

A visit from the doctor served to calm some nerves, and antagonise others. The doctor quashed most anxieties relating to jiggers (the little rascals that burrow into bare feet). However, news that Doxycycline doesn’t work was a little worrying as individuals were relying on its anti-malarial properties. We’ll all just lather up in DEET and cross our fingers.

Evening activities included a giant game of 40:40 IT. We all donned our head torches and headed outside. Bristol volunteers were accused of ‘unfair play’ as a result of guarding home. We finished off with a game of sardines. GOOD DAY!

BVDA 1

Saturday - our first day of training. As we were settling in we enjoyed a lie-in with breakfast at 9.30 - bread, eggs and pineapple.
After breakfast it was onto training with the Dundee group of five - making our introductions, and choosing our team names - Love, Peace and Harmony (Panthers) was born. We felt it really reflected our inner feeling and the aims of our group. We then got down to the serious stuff 'shaking it out' under a tree with Debs and Amelia. Loosened up, we attacked training having some difficulties with the prioririties of the people of the Mathari Valley Slum. We then went on a walk to assess the sanitation (or lack of it) around various areas of Mbale, illustrating and presenting our findings to the rest of our training groups on a map :-) We also discussed the structure of schooling in Uganda, focussing on Primary Schools. We had a soda, got a frisbee stuck on a roof and ate sweet potato and beans - our confidence higher than ever after being told by the Doctor that the anti-malarial most of us are on doesn't actually prevent malaria. Super.

We then spent the evening bonding with the other volunteers playing a friendly game of 40:30 organised by Bristol (which Oxford dominated) before going to 'Stop and Relax' [a bar] with some of the Nottingham group, and then we retired to our rooms to eat cookies. All in all, a delightful first day.

Day 4: Training (Friday 2 July 2010)

Today was a brilliant day! We had lots of fun. After more cold showers we started our training sessions. We began a fast paced competitive shopping game which involved guessing prices of luxury Ugandan items. We were surprised that a bag of potatoes cost only 20p. We ended up winning the most items out of all the groups. After a week of bland Ugandan food we were super excited when they brought out fish and chips, which everyone loved a lot.

Sooner after lunch than we would have preferred, 6 chickens needed to be killed by the volunteers for dinner. Charlotte, Sadiq, Tom, Matt and Matt were man enough for the task, but Therri chickened out (!) at the last minute so Debs took her place. All were successful apart from Matt who having beheaded his chicken jumped off it showing us the meaning of ‘running around like a headless chicken’!

The evening brought the much anticipated night of dancing and debauchery. Despite the disappointment of Ghana being knocked out of the football. The bargain booze was flowing, the beats were thumping, and the dance moves were grooving (Sadiq was chundering). Braver members of the groups took motorbike taxis home and we all staggered into bed.

Nottingham 2

Day 3: Training Week (Thursday 1 July 2010)

Tom would like to announce to everyone that last night his toilet had a hot flush - also he has a minor infatuation with the bug life! Breakfast was interesting - we didn’t know that bread was sweet and eggs were black. Lugisu lesson followed where we learnt words for food and money. It was then proven that BVDA A is the BEST group with victory in the tippy tap competition. The foot pedal to increase hygiene was inspired and floral decoration was definitely appreciated. Beef sausages follow for breaktime snack - it was red and the group is split on opinion. We are all agreed that the pineapple is sweet and juicy though. We learnt about our household hygiene and have found a new love for ash - it is now on Nikki’s list of top ten natural resources wanted. We have also have a new found fear of the mysterious jiggers that bury into your feet. We had a weird playdough thing for lunch which is now in Therri’s top ten most hated food list. It tasted like sandy sandwiches on the beach but was multi-purpose as we felt you could play with it as well as attempt to eat it. We got a lesson on teaching methods and practice in front of everyone, we included music, drama and a poster. We had some free time after this and half the group stayed at manpower and thrashed the Nottingham team at rounders. 1-0 to us but this is to be continued. Our friend we met on Tuesday in town paid us a visit today and we taught him how to play rounders, he was speedy and caught on quick. The others headed into town, made a few purchases and Terri failed to get onto facebook on the internet - she contemplated suicide but came back for a yummy dinner! Tonight we had to eat with our hands - Emily relished this and Nikki got very involved in her avocado and rice. Emma gave up and used a spoon eventually. Notts entertainment to look forward to tonight :)

Lots of love, yours always and forever

Tom, NIkki, Therri, Emma, Emily and Li Yan (BVDA A)

Day 2: More Training in Mbale (Wednesday 30th June 2010)

Mulembe!
Started off the day with a selection of samosas which was rather novel. We then went straight into our first Lugisu language lesson, which meant that our second trip to the market involved much more (attempted) communication with the locals.

Part of the culture and behaviour training involved a rather interesting invitation into the world of "Albatross!" This showed us an extreme way of living and demonstrated not to always take things as they seem, although we're not sure there will be many people wearing swimming goggles in the village!

We tried our first matooke (similar to mashed plantain) and were told we'd be eating a lot more of it when we reach the villge. During the afternoon we had some free time - some people explored Mbale town and market; others relaxed at the compound.

After our first experience of goat for dinner there was a Nottingham - Bristol debate about the positive and negative effects of international volunteering. This was followed by a spontaneous group migration to the local Mbale 'hotspot' for some traditional British drinking and mixing. Everyone was very impressed by the alcohol prices - 2000 shillings for 500ml of beer (about 60p).
Everyone embraced the bar's motto "Stop and Relax. Free Thinking!" A great night was had by all - a good warm up precursor to Friday's planned Ugandan dance session. Despite previous medical advice, the Doxycycline-crew still whole heartedly embraced the cheap-as-chips Smirnoff Ices.

Nottingham 1

Day 1: Training in Mbale (Tuesday 29th June 2010)

So, 8.20am and it's shower time, which was bliss after a 24 hour journey the day before and little/no time to shower before slumber kicked in. So we rise and proceed to breakfast which was yummy, super large, doughnuts.

Hunger quashed it was onto training. First we tackled risk assessment - dull but necessary. Next a very interesting quote was put on the board by Bikie - it raised a question over whether the work we do here is good regardless of our motivations. The consensus was that motivations had to be good but make your own judgement on this. Next was an introduction to the history and politics of Uganda. Bikie did a sterling job. Lunch. Talks on the water source and the tank by Anna and Isa were preceded by a game by Anna where we put ourselves in the shoes of people in a slum and put a list of desires in order of priority as the slum residents would have put them. Naturally we all had different opinions and coming to a consensus within our group was intense but enjoyable and a taste of things to come.

4pm-ish (Ugandan time doesn't run like English) We explored Mbale. Sim cards were bought by the homesick to make those crucial calls home. BUT then... we found the MARKET!! Oh my days, things were bought and bartered for and we all made many friends. Rumour has it one member even has a dinner date with an Mbalian. Dinner time... fish eyes - an explosion of fishy goodness. Then we played Mafia - which after a long day and an early morning sent us wandering, eyes half closed, back to the dorm.

From BVDA 1

The Journey to Mbale (Monday 28th June 2010)

After long flights out from the UK, the volunteers arrived in Uganda on Monday afternoon, ready to embrace Uganda and everything it has to offer. We set off on the long slow journey from Entebbe, skirting both Kampala and Jinja, arriving in Mbale six and a half hours later. Tired, and weary from sitting for so long, most people ate and went to bed, with only a few joining some friendly cockroaches to brave the cold showers. With training beginning the next day, it was an early night all round.

A big welcome to all LBA volunteers preparing for Uganda, and especially to volunteers from BVDA, ODA, Nottingham, and to Dundee's DARE volunteers who will be coming to Uganda for the first time this summer.

As the university volunteer programme kicks off in the summer, 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, so don't forget to check back in as the programme starts and pass the link to your family and friends so they can also follow all the adventures.

In the meantime, 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