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Wednesday - Day 16
Laura had told me about a TAORP affiliated project called Sonrise, which is a young baby and toddler's orphanage. A few of the guys had been since the night we met everyone at Kirra Kids and said that although it was very poor all the staff were lovely and that volunteers were urgently need just to give them a break. Santos and Laura came to pick me up at nine and Jen and Soph came too. The Orphanage is in such a nice house and setting but it has absolutely no toys at all and so it's very hard to play with the kids as they have no resources. The kids are loved and cared for at Sonrise but it's heartbreaking to think that they have no one in the world that could take care of them, family wise. One of the babies in particular is so unbelievably cute. His name is Mark and his smile, eyes and laugh are unbelievably sweet. The feeling of content as he lay sleeping in my arms and when I fed him was pure bliss. Visiting the Orphanage made it hit me what Moses' childhood must have been like. Growing up with no family is never going to be easy but because his sponsor pulled out he only had one and a half years of education as well. Most of Moses' friends grew up in the orphanage with him. Joseph who helps runs Sonrise and ASCO had the same background as Moses. We decided to leave Sonrise around half twelve and then go to the village and get some lunch, but at 12.15 the ladies at Sonrise told us that they'd already cooked us lunch. Slightly apprehensive at the thought of Orphanage food, I was pleasantly surprised with the best meal we'd had all trip. It was fish, African starchy carbs and the most tasty tomato rice. After lunch we headed to Flavours to use the internet and do some admin stuff for ASCO. We wrote a budget and it turns out to start fully functioning as an efficient project with a proper classroom, a workshop for Moses to make his art a few months paid rent, food stocks and materials it was going to cost about £1,000 which is money we just don't have. So we're going to have to think of some major fund-raising initiatives. We also can't get our CBO status until the project is kitted out. We also made profiles for each of the boys so we can fill them in after we find out more about their backgrounds and put all their health forms in. After Flavours I headed to the Market with Tom to get the rest of the ingredients for my Chicken Balti! Everything in the Market is so cheap especially vegetables and fruit. The market is so colourful and not intimidating at all, unlike the markets in Gambia or Egypt.When Tom and I got back it was just Jen there and Tom decided he wanted a hair trim. Basically I've been pondering whether to shave a strip on the shorter side of my head, a bit like Alice Dellal if you know who that is. I was talking about it to Jen and her friend had done it and she felt confident doing it so before I knew it I had about a two inch strip shaved on the side of my head. It's actually not really noticeable unless I clip my hair back to show it. I actually quite like it! After the hair dressing Joe and I cooked the chicken balti! To my surprise the group voted it the best meal yet which was a massive compliment and it was actually very easy to make. After dinner we headed to Somberos for ladies night but we had a pretty chilled one.
Thursday - Day 17
Got to ASCO for 9.30 with Moses and Sarah and Livy. The weather was really nice so we let all the boys wash their clothes together and have showers. After we bought some pineapple and watermelon and gave all the boys some and then we went on a group visit to the clinic. We managed to persuade the clinic to give the boys who hadn't had a tetanus jab one and all the boys were given a free check up. We found out that little George had Malaria and most of the boys had scabies, so they had to have lotion and tablets and try and shower every day. All in all it came to 89,000Ush which is about £30. It would be really great if we could set up a medical fund where people could donate so that it went directly to the boys' treatment. After the clinic we headed back to the project and gave the boys some porridge and bread and we finished early so Sarah and I could have an afternoon off and email the guys who have agreed to set up a website for ASCO, which should be ready in the next couple of weeks. Nothing of great interest happened in the evening, except Miles and Connor cooked a slightly inedible meal and we all cried our eyes out watching the notebook.
Friday - Day 18
Sarah text me in the morning and told me she was going to be late so would I start the project off and get the kids doing some activities. Joe, Livy and I headed to ASCO and played a variety of games with them such as the very well received duck, duck goose and the hokey kokey. We then went through some numbers with them. When Sarah arrived she explained she had a chest infection so she's on a course of antibiotics. At lunch time Joe and I got a rolex and Livy and Sarah had rice and beans with the boys. Once a week we try to give them a good meal such as rice and beans or take them to a cheap local restaurant so they can have meat, but we can only do this at the minute if we have donations from people. One woman who visited the project gave us 20,000Ush (£6) so we could give the boys good meals once a week for two weeks. After lunch we divided the boys in to two groups and did writing with them. Some of the boys literally cannot even write their name, as they have never been to school whereas others have finished primary education or done a few years but their sponsors have pulled out so they can read and write. After we'd dismissed the boys we all headed back to the guesthouse shattered and ready to have a chill before we went out for our group curry. Moses rang me a couple of hours later and asked if he could talk about ASCO with me, I told him of course and invited him round to the guest house. He'd brought his memory stick with him and on it the Constitution of ASCO, which is the document we need to get validated to become a registered CBO. He explained how he wanted to have five founding members and at the minute he was the first, Sarah was the second and his "brothers" from the orphanage, Dan and Joseph, who help out a lot were the fourth and fifth. Moses then asked me to be the third founding member explaining that he would really like me to permanently involved with the Charity. Of course I was not only flattered but excited at the prospect of not only seeing a charity develops from the very first stages but be involved with a project I feel so strongly about. My role obviously will be different when I am back in England but hopefully I can be an asset to a very worthwhile cause. That night we all sampled the delights of vegetarian curry at the lovely Aaswad restaurant and then sampled the less enjoyable Ugandan Karaoke, which is nothing like English Karaoke and more like a random sketch show. After "Karaoke" we headed to Viewer's nightclub to let our hair down and all have a good dance.
Saturday - Day 19
I got to ASCO just before 10, feeling slightly worse for wear but still enthusiastic. The boys had been well behaved and polite all week so we let them watch Tom and Jerry on Dan's laptop, much to their delight. Sarah and I headed to an internet cafe to print off all the CBO stuff for ASCO and get it bound so we could all sign it and Moses could take it to get it stamped. When we got the back the porridge was ready so we gave all the boys porridge and a Satsuma and gave them their medication. Lomer and John still need to go to the clinic everyday to get their dressings changed and check on the progress of the wounds, so after Lunch I took them along with Luka who just likes to come for the walk. At the clinic I got my arm checked out, as I had a small patch of rash and was worried it might be scabies, as it is very contagious, but the Doctor assured me it wasn't and gave me some Hydrocortisone cream to clear it up. That afternoon some of the boys were playing rugby in Kampala so the girls and Dom, Connor and Miles all headed up to Nile Resort for a swim and sunbathe as it was absolutely boiling. Unfortunately there weren't enough beds for us all so we had to share beds, which was interesting in the boiling heat. At the weekends we usually do our own thing for dinner in small groups as not everyone is around for group meals and people want to do different things. After swimming Marianne, Livy and I went to Flavours for some proper western food and then headed home to get ready for a big house night out. However, when the boys got home from rugby they weren't up for a night out all. Dom was the only boy who was but didn't fancy being the only boy. So the girls headed to Explorers bar for a few drinks as that's where Brook and the AV lot were staying this weekend. After a few drinks Livy and I and Brook (who had played rugby) decided that we were up for going out even if it was just us three. Benji and Nash (Manager of Explorers) had a car so we headed to Sombreros, on the way we had a brainwave that despite it being 12.30 at night Dom might still want to come out. When we got back some of the other boys were up watching a film and said Dom had just gone to bed so we all ran into his room jumped on him and despite already having his eye mask on he agreed with the promise for a few drinks that he'd come. When we got to Sombreros Marianne and Soph surprised us as they had decided five minutes after we'd left they'd like to come too so followed us there. It turns out that spontaneous nights out are definitely the best as well all had a really fun night.
Sunday - Day 20 (Valentine's Day <3)
We all had a day off so despite the cloudy weather we headed up to Nile Resort for a swim, which was really fun. When we got back Dom and I cooked communal pasta for everyone and then as it was Valentine's Day we all decided to go out. So we all went and got ready then played various classic drinking games, such as I have never. The boys we're being decidedly shifty all evening and when Marianne said that she wasn't going to go out as she was too tired lots of dubious looks were given. We had a really fun night in the end and when we got back we found out what had been going on earlier in the night. Despite making a pact not to ever reveal their plans we got it out of them pretty quickly. Basically all the boys put the girl's names into a hat and then pulled a name out and had to give their girl a romantic gesture. Dom got me and the general consensus was his was by far the most romantic. When I got in from the night out layed out on my bed was
DEAR LIBS
WOULD YOU DANCE IF I ASKED
YOU TO DANCE ?
WOULD YOU RUN AND NEVER LOOK BACK ?
WOULD YOU CRY IF YOU
SAW ME CRYING ?
WOULD YOU SAVE MY SOUL TONIGHT ?
P.S. I CAN BE OUR HERO.
Each word was on an individual piece of paper and decorated with hearts. I nearly cried when I saw it. It honestly was the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me. Bless him.
Monday - Day 21
I was awoken abruptly by Cathy who decided to call at 7'oclock in the morning to let us know that we could come in at some point this week as the timetable was now ready. At 9 we headed to ASCO to start our paint job extravaganza. Shaun and Wes, two other volunteers who are good friends of Sarah and Laura agreed to donate all the paint so we decided to have Monday as the day we'd prep all the walls by sand papering them down. Dom, Joe, Livy and I along with all the boys spent all day sand papering the walls down and sorting out all the boxes of stuff at ASCO. I was ruthless and found sorting all the stuff out very cleansing (yes I am turning in Robin!). I got Moses to sort through all his art materials as well so he was more organised. Dom and Joe are so amazing when manual labour is involved. Dom was literally bright yellow from all the dust from the walls and didn't stop until it was all done. We talked through the colour schemes for the Walls and decided on gloss white for the most part of the walls and bright blue for the bottom half. For Lunch I had an omelette from a chipaati stand and then headed back to ASCO to give all the boys their meds and lunch. Livy and I decided to go to school in the afternoon to sort out our timetables, but in typical Ugandan style when we got to school the timetable was definitely not ready yet. Due to our moods that day we actually found it quite funny and the boda ride up and down from Wanyange is really beautiful. After school we came back and chilled out. Rachel and Dom cooked a very healthy tea of Fish, roasted vegetables and pesto rice which was really tasty and just what we really needed.
- comments
Melanie Hi Liberty, this is Dom's Mum. We've been really enjoying your blog since Friday when I discovered it, and so thank you for spending the time to write it! It's lovely reading about all the little details. I am emailing Dom with some thoughts about money-raising.
karen lyth news gets around fast.... have just spent all afternoon reading your absolutely brilliant, brilliant, fantastic blog... finally feel as if i really know what you are all doing... can't wait until tomorrow's update. Love to Ollie xx
mum i knew my organisational skills would rub off on you eventually love you lots excited about coming out love to al xxxxx
Grandma Really enjoying reading all your news and will be sending things over for the children at Easter. Love you lots.