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Published: September 8th 2010
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Heading to Sunday Church..
We bumped into a couple of the kids from PCA who were on the way to church..
Dan (the man), John and little Shuku... It has been 3 weeks since we have arrived in Kampala - Uganda and time has flown so fast. We have started our volunteer work and have had some wonderful / interesting / strange as well as thoroughly frustrating experiences!
We arrived in Kampala on an express commuter bus from Nairobi on the 19 August and we were both bursting with anticipation to meet up with our friend Jac who has been volunteering in Uganda for the past 4 months. We booked the bus from Nairobi the day earlier with both of us feeling the effects from the Chinese dinner we had eaten the previous night. As Tracey was booking our bus I was busy throwing up in the street outside...that Chinese restuarant has allot to answer for!
The next day, we arrived early at the bus station feeling human again after a 14 hour sleep. Our bus was due to leave Nairboi at 7.30am and arrive in Kampala at 7pm the same day. The bus eventually pulled out of Nairobi an hour late (we were not surprised and were well prepared for the departure time not be relied upon!). We had business class seats (aka economy class by
A local market
This is the view from my motel room...always busy with activity. Australian standards). Prior to departure we were rather taken back by the security guard who stepped onto the bus and proceeded to get out a video camera and film everyone separately as they were sitting on the bus. We did comment that it was a complete waste of time as the (express) bus stopped at towns along the way picking up people however strangely they were not captured on security film...ahh Africa...
The bus trip was long and we eventually arrived in Kampala at 9.30pm. We arrived stupidly only knowing the name of our motel where our friend was staying as we were so sick the day of booking our bus ticket that we didn't think to get proper directions from our friend. Albeit we eventually arrived at our motel (after our taxi driver stopped at several other motels in the area asking for directions) and we were reunited with Jac.
We are currently volunteering for 2 separate organisations, Peace for Children Africa (PCA) and Sanyu Babies home (for orphaned babies under 4 years for age).
PCA is a organisation that is currently supporting 21 distitute children who all have heart wrenching stories as to how they
Dancing
The boys and girls from the home practicing their traditional dance routine out the back of the home (they do performances to raise funds). have come to live at the home. All have at one point lived in the slums and on the streets. The home is situated in Kampala and the organisation supports the kids by providing a home for them and supporting them financially to go to school. The organisation relies on sponsors and donations to keep the kids at school. Our role we have currently been undertaking as volunteers is to provide help with their school work.....especially English. The official language in Uganda is English and all school lessons are conducted in English. The kids have been on school holidays (and only just returned this week) and we have been helping them revise their school exam papers. These kids (age range from 8 to 17) have 2 exams papers every semester (mid term and end of term). It has been revision for us as well..especially the maths! If you are interested in reading further information on this organisation please refer to the website. It also has the background stories on the kids. http://peaceforchildrenafrica-org.ning.com/
The other organistion we have been spending time with is Sanyu babies home. We have been helping feed and play with the babies. The babies range from
Cooking up an Aussie treat..
Jacqui with her helpers cooking the Aussie meal...notice the stove in the background we used to cook with! newborn to around 4 years. The good news is that allot of the babies are in the process of being adopted both from Ugandan families and overseas. Yesterday we were at the home playing with the kids when obviously a new born baby was brought into the administration office by what looked like nurse/social worker from a hospital. It is absolutely heart wrenching to see all of these kids who so desperately need love and support from a family. They all want your attention and understandably demand hugs and cuddles all of the time. I have fallen in love with 2 baby girls.... 3 month old twins called Maureen and Milly.
Our time recently has been spent helping our friend Jac throw an Australian themed party at the PCA home for the kids (she is due to leave in less than 2 weeks). The menu was bbq sausages. bread rolls, patatoe salad and green salad. This was followed up with fruit salad (local pineapples, watermelon and passion fruit) and cake. The kids would nornally eat posha and beans ( for both breakfast and lunch) so this was a great surprise for them and a real treat. I happened to
Cooking...
More helpers proudly displaying their Aussie tattoos...they wanted the tattoos on the foreheads! have brought some Aussie tattoos with me so we gave them out to the kids. A fun night was had by all!
We have also been experimenting with the local cuisine and have found some very cheap and delicious places to eat not far from our motel. Ugandans tend to eat lunch late (from 2pm) and also have dinner late (9pm) so we have sometimes been very disappointed to find a restaurant is still serving breakfast at 12pm. My standard lunch / dinner has been rice with greens (spinich), steamed pumpkin and beans. This meal cost around Aus $1.50 and the serving is huge. We tend to only have 1 big meal a day as it really fills you up. When we get desperate for western style food we have several options that we keep going back to. We have found a cheap Indian style restaurant called (Gopala). For Aus $2.50 you can get a plate of the best vegetarian fried rice I have ever tasted (I love this place so much that is was really worth a mention).
We have also been learning Lugandan. The kids at PCA have been teaching us and it has helped so
Serving up the meal..
Jacqui and Tracey helping to serve the kids...as you can see they were all very excited about the food.... much with negotiating taxi prices with the locals. Everytime we walked down the street from our motel we are met with cries of "hello muzungu!". This translates to "hello foreigner or white person". There is "mazungu" price and "local" price for taxis which can be frustrating especially when you have to negotiate every day. We always tend to pay more anyway!
So we have been kept busy with all of the above and have been throughly enjoying the experience.
Until next time...
Kath
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June Robathan
non-member comment
Great work
Hi Kath, Have been finding your adventures really interesting and what good work you are doing in such a poor country. My husband was born in Kenya so hes very familar with the language and the country. Hope you didn't mind Craig giving us your blog sight to read. I knit hundreds of Teddies each year that get sent to countries in need. keep up the good work and hope the rest of your time there goes without any hitches and look forward to reading more of your adventures .... Craig's mum