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Published: January 17th 2008
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Whilst waiting for Godfrey I receive a call from Charlie who has tracked me down at the Athina Club. It takes me a few minutes to connect the dots… He invites me to an Art exhibition
‘I can't I am afraid, I am on my way to the orphanage’ . We agree to talk when I am back at the end of the week.
The trip with Godfrey is long and arduous, we take a boda boda (motor-bike taxis), 2 matatus (the local bus that sits 14 but really takes up to 20 @ one time) and then more boda bodas the other side. At the point where we need to change buses- TOTAAAAAAL GRIDLOCK- I’ve genuinely never seen a traffic jam quite like it. After being at a standstill for 45 mintures we abondon the bus and walk through a market to get to the next bus.
The Kampala to Entebbe journey would take 30 mins by car, it takes us 3 hours. I am greeted at the orphanage by Gordon, the Maths teacher, and some of the children. What no one has told me is that it’s the school holiday and a lot of the kids
have been sent back to some relative or other.
What I was to witness over the next day and a half doesn’t shock me as I was prepared for the abject poverty but I am amazed at how little has been accomplished given that the project has been going since 1996.
I sit down with Godfrey and go through his project proposal, I pushed to see a budget, to see a breakdown of the school’s needs and to hear how he plans to get things done and finally I try to figure out what he needs the most and how I can help.
I conclude it is a van/mini-bus. At the start of school term, for example, Godfrey travels hours by bus to pick up his students individually, he travels hours to get to his homeland to pick up certain food supplies, and has no way of bringing in bigger items the school needs.
Deep into discussion with Godfrey I get another phone call from Charlie.
“I am going to Entebbe tomorrow, I am going water skiing- join us?”
“Ah well I’ve just arrived so why don’t I touch base later in the week?”
I reply some what bemused at his persistence.
What I don't realize about this phone call yet is that the puzzle of life is piecing together a design that is working in my favour.
That evening at the orphanage is certainly surreal to say the least, but it doesn’t take long to bond with the kids who, despite their situation seem happy and all the more for a stranger being there. We hold hands, we count fingers, the children play with my sunglasses...
Godfrey speaks to me at length about Bruce- the Canadian volunteer who came to stay for two months last August. He helped lay the bricks for one of the class rooms. He also did some fundraising when he returned to Canada sending over enough money for school mattresses to get the kids off the floor and soon there were also metallic bunk beds for the dorms.
I think I spent the night dozing rather than sleeping. I was sharing a room with the matron and one of the younger girls. To compensate for no pillow my bed is at a strange angle. A faulty alarm set itself off in the middle of the
night. No one seems to hear. I tracked down the faulty device which is right next to the matron’s head… strange that she didn’t hear it!
What does awake the matron is the rooster’s crow at 6.30am. She is up in a shot, cleaning and dusting. The ‘shower’ is a basin and a jug of water.
In the morning Godfrey takes me on a tour. He shows me where the kids go to get water when the running tap stops. It’s appalling- a hole in the ground with murky rain water.
‘You don’t drink that?’ I say some what shocked.
‘No but we use it for cleaning and cooking’
I know that Bruce has been paying for their running tap. Bruce is based on Vancouver Island, I make a note to look him up when I am back so we can work as a team.
There are actually 4 of us from Vancouver looking out for New Hope and a Peter from the UK who wants to set up a website. He has instructed Godfrey to take pictures of the school so he can load up a website. Godfrey doesn’t have a digi-camera. He
did get a quote from a photographer- it’s too expensive. This is somewhere I can help. We agree that I need to come back after February 4th, once the kids have returned to school so we can take pictures of the school in action.
After the tour; where he has also shown me a run down church, a dilapidated Born-again Christian school, how and where they make and burn bricks; I explain to Godfrey the following.
‘Godfrey, last night I have been thinking, you need to find a way of making the school generate an income. Even if we were to help finish build the school there will always be on-going costs, you have to find a way of paying for this.
The only real thing I think I can do to help at this stage is to help you get a van. What I am going to do is go back to Kampala and organize a fundraiser before I leave so we can get you this.’
He takes my hand, smiles and says ‘God willing’
I now realize how lucky I am that Charlie is water-skiing in Entebbe, at 11am I call.
‘Charlie, where are you?’
‘In Entebbe, waterskiing’
‘Excellent I am coming to join you’
We realize that we are only 3 km away from each other and agree to meet at the Caltex petrol station on the Kampala- Entebbe road.
My original plan was to spend the week at the orphanage but with the kids not being there I realize that I will do a lot more good if I stay in Kampala and plan a fundraiser.
Upon reflection the two things that sadden me about the orphanage are: the desperate need of support and finance and the diet, which is a mix of porridge, potatoes and local meat that has been hanging around in the sun too long- or was that just the taste of goat's meat?
They grow their own tomatoes but not enough and when I suggested they plant more of their own vegetables he shows me the only small patch where vegetables could grow. It's not promising.
When I arrive at the Entebbe Club, I freshen up- much needed and appreciated, and go out to meet the team. Very friendly, in particular Sarah and Laura. Sarah is Charlie’s flatmate and a self-confessed Africa bum. I sip on a beer that I feel is well deserved and observe the scene. How familiar it all looks and feels. The women stretched out on loungers under the palm trees, the men at the bar standing around a round high table drinking beer. The breeze is keeping everyone cool.
I learn from Charlie that not only is he the owner of Just Kicking bar but he has number of business including the Eye which is an informative magazine/directory for Kampala and the surrounding areas. This man clearly has his finger on the pulse. I put the idea of a fundraiser to him and he says he’ll help. He has been wanting to set up a dog race and thought we could merge the two.
I am not sure that’s quite what I had in mind but something tells me it's going to work...I am going with it.
After lunch just as I am dozing under a palm tree we are beckoned on to the boat. Sarah, Laura, and I and about 10 kids all pile in to do some tubing.
At the end of the day Sarah and Charlie drop me off at the Red Chilli back packers. I am invited out to dinner, I decline- I am exhausted, I need to re-group.
In the morning I hear the rooster crow- aaahhh long stretch, roll over, I have nowhere to be today…. For 25 minutes I try to ignore the fact that somehow the rooster is on repeat. Waiiiiit a minute… it’s just not going to stop. Ah well it’s the beginning of a new day.
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