Summary of my first week (take 2)

Saturday (09/01/10)

• In the morning, all the volunteers (bar Martha, who was in Kenya, and Dan and Rob, who were on the Sesse Islands) came to Isabel and James' to meet up with us and have a chat.
• We were given our monthly allowance of 125,000 shillings ($80/40 pounds approx) each.
• Joseph, our host, picked us up and took us shopping for mozzy nets, phones and toilet roll before we all caught a mutatu (taxi van) to Kitega, a village just outside of Lugazi, which took about an hour.
• We walked to Joseph's house, past tiny brick houses and mesmerised children who loved to follow us saying 'Bye mzungu' (mzungu means white person)
• After meeting Joseph's family, we caught a boda boda (motorbike public transport) to the hotel we were staying in while our permanent accommodation was being painted.
• I burnt my leg on the exhaust of the boda while getting off :(
• After dumping the bags (well...not mine) in the room, Paul (our kind of second host) took us for dinner.
• Went back to the room, which consisted of 1 double bed, a sink (which is a luxury in Uganda), a shower (again, a luxury) which only had cold water and a porcelain squatting toilet (mmm porcelain).
• We all fit head to toe in the bed and after suffering in the head, eventually got to sleep.

Sunday (10/01/10)

• All 3 of us caught 1 boda in the morning at 6.45am, having promised Joseph we'd go to his church for the 7am English service, which was quite similar to church services I've been to in England
• Walked back to Joseph's and chilled before realising Joseph wasn't there, so went back to the church and found him at the end of the Luganda service.
• He took us to meet the village leader, who seemed delighted to have mzungu teachers at the school.
• We then went to Paul's pentecostal church and ended up staying for the full 2 hour service. The service was quite a cultural experience, with singing, dancing, clapping, African drums and passionate, overly emotional preachers.
• Later on, after lunch and a thunder storm, we went back to the hotel and convinced the hotel manager to give us another mattress.
• Had dinner at Joseph's then went back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Monday (11/01/10)

• Got up at 4.30am to get a 5am mutatu with Joseph to Kampala where he worked and I needed to go to get my bags.
• After Joseph showed me the Kenya Air office and took me to a place with lots of internet cafes, he went to work.
• I looked around for an open internet cafe and met a guy called Simon who helped me look. Nowhere was open so he took me to his place to chill.
• The place was called 'paradise', or thats what the residents called it at least, but it was basically the ghetto, where he gave street kids shelter and taught them skills like wood engraving, which they could sell instead of stealing from people.
• Left there and went to Kenya Air office, where I got 80,000 shillings compensation and was told my bags would be delivered there from Entebbe at 2 (it was 11).
• Caught a boda and met Georgia and Rosie at a cafe for some lunch. Emily and Caitlin came at 1.30 and they all left and I went to an internet cafe.
• Got my bags and caught a mutatu back to Lugazi.
• Moved into our permanent accommodation, a house owned by an old lady who insists we call her Aunty.
• Found that Boz's glue that was in my bag cos his was full had exploded inside my bag, over a t-shirt, my towel, sleeping bag, toiletries bag and cooking book. Eventually got all clean.
• Went to bed

Tuesday (12/01/10)

• After shopping in Lugazi for food to cook, we bumped into Shaun and Oscar, who had come from their village just a few km away to see our village.
• We showed them around. Went to Joseph's, Paul's and ours.
• That's about the only exciting thing that happened that day.

Wednesday (13/01/10)

• Called James and Isabel about having to pay rent, which the community is meant to pay for.
• Learnt how to make ciappattis.

Thursday (14/01/10)

• Chilled and wrote in our journals at the school, which has become our hang out while school's not on.
• Vomitted from I'm not sure what. (Bet you really wanted to hear that :P)
• School made up of 7 classrooms (3 with blackboards), 1 office, 1 bigger room that we don't yet know the purpose of, 2 longdrop toilets for the children and 2 porcelain squatting toilets that, according to Boz, don't flush for the teachers.
• After going back home and having lunch, Molkie and I did the washing up then helped Boz with the laundry, which is probably the most time consuming, exhausting chore we have to do.
• A dead lizard fell on my back from the roof....
• At 4, Boz and I went into Lugazi to buy some food for dinner.
• After dinner that night we had a bit of singalong then went to bed.

Friday (15/01/10)

• Wasn't a very exciting day, but Paul and Joseph gave us African names for a laugh. I'm Moberu.

Sorry it's not very detailed. There's so much more I could add to this but internet time is limited. Photos coming soon hopefully.

xx Ben