The beauty this week came from our trip to Bujagali falls at the weekend which was breathtaking. After a bumpy ride on a moped (my Dad will be so proud!) all the way there we found that it was totally worth the pain as we overlooked the most amazing view of the Nile and its green banks. As we got closer to the waterfall (or seeries of rapids) we watched in awe as a number of white-water rafters cascaded down the rapids unscathed and both wondered if we’d ever be brave enough to take on rapids of up to grade 8! As with most places in Uganda everyone was so friendly and welcoming and we made the most of the recommendation from our UK Team to have a chapatti with avocado inside – very, very tasty! We were so refreshed after going; it was lovely having a break from being in Jinja and seeing a bit more of the surrounding area.
I would use the word ‘challenging’ (rather than frustrating or stressful as we would have described it at the time) to describe the beginning of our working week where we had one of the most ‘challenging’ two days out of our whole time here. Everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong, from computers not working to offices being closed. One of the most testing things that we have come across in Uganda is the fact that deadlines and times are rarely kept to, and Esther and I are definitely ones for sticking to arrangements and schedules. However, it only took us 2 days (!) to sort everything out and we eventually printed the letter about forming a link with CRO and took it to the manager. Once again, we are waiting for her call!
I think we've also been the cause of people having a challenging week I'm sorry to say! We're still really enjoying living at the Guest House but will probably go down in history as two of the most difficult guests there have ever been...we had requested, amongst other things, boiling water, milk, breakfast at dinner time but only on certain days...but they've finally agreed to let us cook for ourselves on a gas stove which is fantastic, probably to make life easier for themselves! All the staff are so lovely and we are very lucky to have all of them.
As well as finally succeeding in effective communication (on our part) with CRO, we also managed to meet with the volunteer who will be helping us with our Street Clinic, starting on Monday. This is where the emotion came in to the week. He is a lovely young man called Steven whose own experiences in life led him on to the path of helping others. His mother fell unexpectedly pregnant when she was very young and Steven was left to fend for himself
whilst she finished school. She married a man other than Steven’s father and, as with a lot of step-parent families in Uganda, life wasn’t made very easy for Steven. I was so touched with the way he hadn’t turned into a bitter person but instead made the best of his situation and used it to help other people. Another man that Estherinterviewed during the week for her Community Education Project explained to her about both of his parents dying from HIV and his experiences of trying to find money to go to school. He seemed the most normal, down-to-earth person in the world, hardly affected by his tragic past. Of course this could have been a front for us but people
in Uganda seem to take nasty experiences on the chin so well and it just makes me look at some people in the West who turn a petty problem into the worst thing in the world. I think everyone should come somewhere like this; it makes you put your own problems into harsh perspective and realise we actually have it pretty good.
The fun has come in abundance from Joy school this week, as the name suggests!! Drama club started on Wednesday and I haven’t had so much fun teaching before. It was an initial lesson where we mainly played games but they threw themselves into it amazingly. At one point I had 50 girls and boys playing ladders, running all over each other’s feet but laughing so much that they couldn’t run properly. It was a bit of a challenge (there’s that word again!) trying to talk to them all in a group, especially the younger ones, about my plans for a production of Noah’s Ark so I think next week I will have one class and have them all the way through. I’ve got so many ideas and they’re all so dramatic and theatrical that I can’t wait to see the finished play! Esther has also had fun continuing making the beads and thinking about all the ways that she can create a market for them. She returned today with some amazing samples of necklaces to sell and it sounds like there is a massive potential for selling both here, in the UK and via SALVE’s website. They're also doing a funding application for the project andthis should, if it is successful, bring in quite a bit of money. So everyone is keeping their fingers crossed that this will all come together and be lucrative enough to help those poor students who can’t afford uniforms, books etc.
I hope you don’t think I’m being too dramatic with the term ‘life-changing’ but there’s no other way to describe what we’re trying to do here. We really hope that the beads project will change some lives into getting a decent education. I’ve been working on the brochure for the school and hope that this will also change the lives of its students when we get funding for, amongst other things, permanent and advanced buildings for the children and sponsorship for children who can’t afford to pay the school fees. The preliminary stages of the Street Clinic that have successfully come together this week may also mean that we can change some lives of those who seem to need it most – the children who sleep rough every night of their young lives and live in constant fear of perhaps not even surviving the night. So far we’ve been desperate to get going with this and change some lives but it onlyseems like this week there can be a real potential to do so. Esther's Community Education project should massivelyhelp the cause by changing people's attitudes to street children and therefore the way people treat them. It has been hard walking past street children every day and not being able to help them so hopefully Monday will be the
start of something good. We’re very excited and will be sure to keep you updated on our progress!!
So we've had a bit of a roller-coaster of emotions this week but that's partly what I love about being here - you never know what's going to happen!
As cheesy and cliché as it sounds, the last words I want to use are Thank You to everyone reading and supporting SALVE in your own way. I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s blog and that you will come back to read next week’s
entry.
Lots of love
Caitlin xxx
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