Blogs from Eastern Region, Uganda, Africa - page 5

Throughout my time here I have watched people, come, go and stay. Apart from the few travellers and purely ‘holiday tourists’, nearly all have been passionate about ‘helping people’ and many have been quite certain about the best way to do that, though few think that they have any ideas at all. As I have reflected on my own mistakes, it seems you need a unique set of skills to be successful (by success I mean helping people rather than reaching the top) in development. Be quiet, listen and observe – this is possibly the hardest thing, though it seems the easiest. I have never been around people that have sought or valued my opinion so much. When asked for advice, I would give in to the pressure and offer it, even though often having no ... read more

As a former social researcher and current monitoring and evaluation person I should be the person that defends research and statistics. Sometimes, however, I find it difficult. It is undoubtedly the trump card in a wide range of arguments. “How can you say Arsenal are weak in the air when only 12% of the goals they have conceded have been headers?” or “you say Africa is catching up with the rest of the world: more people live on under $1 a day than in the rest of the world put together.” For charities desperate to raise funds and for Government agencies desperate to show success, statistics have become the holy grail. Now I don’t think I am boastin when I claim that the organisation I work for has one of the best monitoring and evaluation systems ... read more

Having now been in paid work for months I am starting to look back with some fond nostalgia on my time volunteering. I can, however, still remember the feelings of frustration, boredom and confusion that seem to affect volunteers in Uganda. I was reminded of this was when I was helping to run a debrief for the International Citizenship service programme. This programme, a brainchild of David Cameron, aims to make young Britons ‘globally active citizens’ and reduce poverty. Our organisation had decided to run this programme by pairing our young UK volunteers with a Ugandan volunteer, train them, and then place them in a civil society organisation (CSO) to build the organisation’s capacity in organisational management. In brief, it was a small disaster due to a myriad of factors which left some very disgruntled volunteers. ... read more

These are some odd photo's and evidence of the horror of white river rafting on the Nile....a must for everyone! Werna... read more

Rafting the Nile was unbelievable… not only was the rapids insane but also the animals that we saw were incredible. We set off for Jinja early Saturday and arrived to the backpackers with a welcome of free teas and coffees, which then extended to chapatti with an omelette and fresh fruit. If the rest of the day is going to be as good as this… I… can’t… wait. We got We got down to the Nile after we got kited up, had a little safety lesson and jumped in the rafts for a further safety lesson. Can I just say, at this point both Meg and I had not been rafting before and didn’t know really what to expect. It’s probably the right to say… mum, dad… we didn’t want to wimp out and go for ... read more