Blog number 5…

On the weekend of the 29th of October, Naomi and I were visited by Molly, Justine, Sarah, Ashley, Blair, Gregg, Richard, Mikey, Isla and Roxanne (10 of the other Project Trust Volunteers). They all arrived on the Friday afternoon, just in time for the eagerly anticipated netball and football match against the only local government secondary school-Kitenga. All the students were really excited to meet the other volunteers and had been talking non-stop about it all week. The girls especially were looking forward to seeing some Mzungu boys…when Blair and Gregg arrived the girls were very eager and literally ran up the track towards them grabbing Blair's hands much to his horror! (Gregg had cleverly put his in his pockets as he saw them approach). All the volunteers bar Richard and Mikey (who always manage to get in the taxi that's about to cough it) had arrived in time for the matches. Loads of children from local schools rocked up on bodas and bicycles-I had never seen so many kids at St Zoe. Unfortunately we lost the netball match 4-3, but we did win the football match 1-0-so that was good. The afternoon was really nice although it was rather hot and even the generator was dragged to the netball pitch to provide music, much to the delight of the primary school children-who had a good dance. After that we all walked home and had a right good feast prepared very kindly by Andrew and his family. The next day was the talent show and dance that Naomi and I had been looking forward to for ages.Before the dance all us volunteers invaded the tuck shop-buying all the chapattis and a good load of big bombs (lolly pops). The talent show was hilarious with hundreds of kids squashed into the Senior 2 classroom. There were mimes (which are rather odd- but is a very Ugandan thing) comedy acts, fashion show and some traditional dancing. Our favourite act had to be George William from Senior 2 who made an entrance to his mime on a bicycle dressed in a flowery orange dress with silky orange ribbon, some rather large women's sunglasses and girls knee high lacy, white socks up to his elbows. He then proceeded to strut about the room with diva attitude; we were all in stitches. After the talent show was the dance which was very similar to the previous one-so some of the volunteers chose to avoid the close, close dancing experience. After the dance we just about managed to walk home in the dark-although there were some navigational issues. We got back and there was another huge feast for us all and plenty of soda and beer-Andrew looks after us well! J So we had a good feast and then stayed up until the early hours of the morning nattering away; Molly and I were in hysterics looking at the photos taken from the dance as there were some particularly fetching snaps of both her and I. The cat also pooed on the chair next to us, which added to our laughter-immature as we both are. The following day everyone went home, with some of them having 8 hour journeys ahead of them! We waved off the last 6 at the main road and went back home. When we got home I went straight to the toilet and as I was sat there peacefully I heard Naomi scream loudly, three times (she scared the life out of me), she then said all the photos on her camera had been deleted and went into our room. Me being useless in these kind of situations, thought I would let her cool down first and went to find Paul-after a while Naomi came in and she looked pretty gutted and as though she needed a hug. At the time I was sat on the floor and inconveniently had my arm stuck in a drum, I tried to get up quickly to give her a hug but failed miserably due to the drum situation-luckily Paul was more helpful and gave her a big hug. After that we decided to go to school and visited the tuck shop for a bit of comfort food in the form of cake and big bombs.

On the 3rd of November we enjoyed yet another dance as it was the Primary 7 leavers party. Primary 7 had spent the last 2 days doing their Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), unlike in England Primary 7 exams are a big deal, because if they do not pass their PLE then they won't get promoted to secondary and have to re-sit. They sit their exams at an examination centre at the local village; they arrived back from their last exam on the back of a small pick up truck (all 40 of them) waving and shouting and wearing little paper hats. The dance was really good although the thousands of speeches they did beforehand did get a little tiring.

Last Sunday Naomi and I took a trip to Sarah and Ashley's project in Kyenjojo which is 2 hours west of where we live. We waited on the main road for ages waiting for a taxi, but eventually we got going; it's a nice scenic route to Kyenjojo and is much more rocky and mountainous than Mubende. We arrived at 12:30 at St Mary's Primary school, which is the school that Sarah and Ashley teach at; we went straight to their house as it was raining. They cooked us some tasty chapattis and some garlic, onion and tomato soup; we also got a big mug of tea. Afterwards we went and visited their local village and their school. Their school is relatively small, but has 1500 children! We then went back to their house had some jam and bread and I had my second experience of using a long-drop, I should probably start using them more often and get prepared for travelling.

Yesterday Naomi and I decided to take a trip into Mubende via taxi. We got there safely and were dropped off near the supermarket, where we promptly purchased some chocolate. Then we walked to the other side of town to the post office-as I am expecting a parcel from my mum. The man at the post office told us there were 2 parcels-so I got my hopes up, but they were both for Naomi. We then began the trek back to the taxi's to get home; as we were walking along someone shouted my name, which was very weird, it was Jude the headmaster of the Secondary section at St Zoe. We were walking right past his house, we met his wife and brother and then he took us to a bar where he got us fanta and pork (yum). We also met his rather drunk friend, who took a liking to Naomi's eyebrows, he said 'As I walked through the door, I saw your (points to eyebrows), they are very good because they are like mine-but you shouldn't shave them, let them grow!' It was hilarious-he just came out with it, completely out of the blue. Along with the pork and fanta we were forced into drinking a 'shot' of vodka, except for it wasn't a shot it was a bag-and the bags definitely contain more than a shot! After an hour or two we got going back to the supermarket, the taxi drivers were all trying to con us doubling their prices from sh1000 to sh2000, so we took our first boda boda… Although I thought it would be really scary (the wimp that I am) it was actually really enjoyable, much more comfortable than a taxi and also quicker. So all in all it was a good day yesterday.

Next week is exam week, so all the children are revising away and Naomi and I are constantly setting revision questions-they will pass! That's all for now x