Started work

---

Started work this Monday at the orphanage 'Welcome Home' which has about 60 under 7 years olds. Basically our job is to play with the kids and help out during showers, lunch etc. The kids are great, their English is pretty poor they can say hi. They call all the volunteers and people who work their 'mummy' which was a bit strange at first, but they're starting to learn to say 'mummy katie' which sounds like 'mummy ti', which I can just about get used to. We only work with them for 4 or so hours a day, it's very tiring and you constantly have about 4 kids hanging off you at any one time - it's really sweet they just want to be hugged! It's also strange - health and safety hasn't reached Uganda yet so these kids, who most are pretty tiny, climb everywhere and fall over constantly, luckily they bounce but it would never happen in the UK! It's a positive place and not upsetting or anything working here, the kids are sooo happy and rarely cry or anything - although one of the kids dads turned up on Monday and he looked so young I couldn't believe it (16ish) and I felt so sorry for him and the kid.

We've already had one major sucess, we (me and the 2 aussy girls) were being chatted up by an Italian on sat night, by an Italian buisnessman who is manageing the building of the dam here. He said call him and he donates money to local causes. We thought nothing of it but Benji rang him and set up a meeting today and the guy came down to the orphange and is donating 4000US$ a month (which here goes miles - millions of ugandan shillings!) to go towards giving the children meet in their meals which they cannot afford to do at the momment.

It's very hot at the momment, you can't do anything between about 12.30 and 3 in the afternoon so we sleep - we keep meaning to go back the orphange in the afternoon but it takes a whole afternoon here just to do one thing (e.g. go to the internet/bank etc) so not got round to it yet. I'm slowly getting used to 'Ugandan time' where everything takes about 4 times longer than at home, you start getting used to queuing and waiting for hours. The house we're staying in is pretty small so we go out, but there's not a whole lot going on during the week.

We went out to kareoke last night, they all took it very seriously! It was ok but got hassled a bit and I wasn't really in the mood - one of the guys here 'Nash' had to extract my hand from a guy who wouldn't let go of my arm and I wasn't very impressed!

We're going away this weekend to an island on the nile called 'hairy lemon' and sort of camping in a hut thing as far as I can work out, but should be good!

---

Comments

[Rooby]

HAHAHAHA HAiry Lemon
HAHAHA Hairy Lemon... I laughed at that..... lots! Kareoke in Uganda sounds awesome! And back to the bit that truely matters :) the kids sound cute...and the man donating $4000 a month thats amazing! By the way I may have to call you mummy ti from now on too! haha :) xxx