So, on the 18th of February, Peter, Bob, Michael, Jean, Matt and Phil arrived at St Zoe. Peter and Bob are trustees of the charity HUGS, Michael and Jean support the charity and Phil and Matt are football coaches from Liverpool. Over the next few days the students had a lovely time playing sports with the lads and absolutely loved their new kit. Naomi and I also had a lovely time-great company and great food-I can honestly say I stuffed myself to the brim, at every meal, for a week (Bob can vouch for this). We also went on a trip to Fort Portal; we stayed in the nicest accommodation so far in East Africa, it was in the middle of the tea estates and was so beautiful. There was a full length mirror in our room and an ensuite bathroom and a huge patio door, it was really lovely. Whilst we were in Fort Portal we visited The Good Sheperd School, a truly wonderful and well-organised school. The school choir performed many songs, which were well put together and I really enjoyed them. Later that day Naomi and I were set the task of buying posters for St Zoes, which we managed to find. We also got treated and for both nights we stayed in Fort Portal attended meals at Mountains of the Moon Hotel. On the first night I had Beef fajitas with guacamole and chapattis-it was so good!!! At 5:30am, Tuesday morning, Naomi, Bob, Andrew, Father John and I, headed back to St Zoe, as Father John (Andrew's brother who went to Cambridge university!) had to get back to Kenya and I had Senior 1 to teach at 8am. For the next few days Bob got to chat with the kids and got to know the daily goings on of St Zoes. We went into the Primary classes and handed out the posters, which they were all very impressed with and were even more impressed with the magic that is blue tac. On Saturday, Matt and a very sun burnt Phil arrived back to collect Bob, it was strange to see them driving off, knowing that within the next 12 hours they would be on aflight back to England, when we have 5 months until we make that flight.

So back to the new term; the Secondary School now has around 130 members, an increase of around 60 from the end of last term! Most of the new kids are lovely, although Naomi and I have had some issues with disciplining the new Senior 1's. We are both of the opinion that it is pretty obvious that when we enter the class and write the title on the board they are to do the same! But for some reason they tend to wander out of lesson, sit with their books closed and one lad had one of the girls writing his work for him! The same lad also distracts half the girls in the class who just sit there looking at him for most of the lesson-teenagers! (And yes I know I am a teenage, ha) All the water tanks have now been installed and the first proper rainfall arrived yesterday; the tanks worked perfectly and it was great to see the school children able to get clean water from nearby, rather than the trek down to the water hole at the bottom of the valley. Thanks to the wonderful amount of art equipment that Bob brought, the students have been able to do some lovely art work. I have been doing figure work with Senior 1 and 3 and Primary 1 did some lovely coloured chicks, which are now displayed on the class wall. I also did some smiley faces with pre-primary that they coloured in-they loved it and so I now have a permanent fixture and this week they will be colouring in cardboard butterflies. I am going to stick the butterflies on a big butterfly, which will then be put on the wall, which should be good. One of the girls was really proud of her smiley face and just kept walking over to it and grinning away, it was very cute. The secondary kids seem to find it hilarious that I teach pre-primary and struggle to see how they would understand me, to which I reply-actions! This week teachers are setting mid-term exams, so the kids are busy revising for them at the moment. The secondary children are also currently enjoying the joys of Top Trumps (Toy Story Top Trumps in fact).

On the 3rd of March, Andrew's brother's wife who has been suffering greatly from breast cancer, died. The whole village was up at the house, paying their respects and work towards the funeral was immediately started upon. That night and the following few nights, lots of people stayed at the house, to show that they care for the family-very different to British culture. The school children asked me whether I was staying there or not and I tried to explain that if someone in England died only close family would be at the house. Once again I was given a glimpse of how caring and different Ugandan culture is.

A 5 year old boy can do his own washing, peel potatoes and look after his baby sister. Every Ugandan has real respect for their elders and family life is so important; they really care for each other and I know that when I go back I will have learnt a lot from these brilliant people and will appreciate my family a lot more.

I really like being back at project and am having a lovely time, its also nice to be taking our little trips into Mubende again. Which goes: Post Office, Internet, Orange Shop, Indian's Supermarket. The several Indian men took to telling me how fat I was, shortly after we had been to Fort Portal (admittedly I had got fatter) and told me that when I go home I will be so fat that my family won't recognize me!! -so mum, you can look forward to that.

That's all for now

Much love

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