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Hello!
Ok, major apologies for not writing for so long, but having spent such a long time in the same place (and a pretty small, non-happening place at that) there's not much left to tell. Though now Ive finished I thought I should say something! My days were pretty routine of late, going to the same schools and farmers and womens groups. Its been good though, since we've earned thier trust in us they've shown a real enthusiasm to learn everything we can possibly teach them. They just couldn't get enough of us!!
We were really busy towards the end planning lots of events. We had a Youth Conference organised by the head office in Jinja for all placements to attend along with 10 unemplyed youth from thier areas. The idea of the conference was to give young people the skills to write business proposals so they could apply for money to start up small scale agricultural businesses. Our team was 1 of 3 that won funding for thier proposal on a fishery. Its still in the early stages but I hope they will be successful and that the project makes a real difference to the lives of the
youth in Kayunga. Another event we had was an Agroforestry and grafting workshop with our 'Environmental Club' in one of secondary schools. We also took all our schools and groups to perform at the District Environment Day celebrations. This is like a school fete at home with lots of songs, dancing, plays and exhibitions to celebrate the community's work to conserve the environment. Our final event was a HIV/AIDS awareness day in all our schools. We got a couple of volunteers in from the SPW health programme to help us do this. It was a great opportunity for students to voice any questions and finally put some of thier wierd myths at bay. For example they believe that if you put a condom on a banana while having sex you can't get pregnant or STDs!!
Last week was my last week in the village. Our farmers all organised farewell parties for us with lots of food and speeches - very much appreciated as I'm pretty fed up of cooking on a charcoal siguri all the time!! Then we had a couple of days debrief in Jinja (monitoring and evaluation type stuff) before saying our final farwells yesterday! (Though I'm
still with the international vols at the mo).
So i just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to everybody that made it possible for me to be here. The fundrasing was hard work and I really appreciate the support from everyone. A big thank you as well from everyone in Kayunga - they were all so grateful to be given the oportunity to work with SPW and learn from us. I admit that there were times when I've counted down the days but I wouldn't swap this exerience for the the world. I've made lifelong friends from all over the world and discovered a beautiful country with wonderfully friendly and hospitable people. Rather unexpectedly I've discovered I do actually miss England! Cheesy I know but I didn't realise how lucky we are and how many opportunities in life we are given! Life here may be a lot simpler, which many are perfectly happy with, but so many just want to be given the chance to do something with thier lives. So if there's one thing I will take away from this its to grab opportunites with both hands.
So for now Im having a couple of months
off traveling down to Cape Town, there's so much more of Africa I want to see. Then I hope to find some similar work for a n NGO in South Africa to get some more experience in the field before coming home .....
Watch this space! Lots of love, missing England xxxx
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