It started off a bust week with myself, Esther and Stephen conducting some research into the girls who spend their day's on the streets and their nights back in Massese, after a very long walk to Massese we asked many of the local people in the village if they knew where any of these girls may stay, none of the villagers knew of anywhere, but all where very helpful. On our return home we discussed our findings with Mike , after telling him how far we had walked we then realised that we had infact been to the wrong Massese! The village we wanted was actually very near and just behind Moreen's School, after a good laugh we said that we would go back to the right village next week and continue our research....
On Tuesday we went with Stephen and Musa to CRO to find out if there was anymore background information we could find out, we spoke with a lovely social worker, who gave us some invaluable information and also shared with us that Musa was a keen artist and singer! We got a taxi to Mbiko (Musa's home village) and from there a boda boda up to Musa's house, Musa was really excited about going to see his family, and had even made sure that he had a wash at CRO before we left! Once at Musa's house, we were greeted by Musa's elder sister and younger siblings, Musa ran straight to his baby sister and gave her a huge hug. Unfortunately neither of Musa's parents were at the house, Musa's upset was palpable, he is a lovely boy and was so sad not to be able to see his parents, but was definatley putting on a brave face. We took his elder sister's number and said that we would ring her and check that his parents were there before coming back again the next morning.
On Wednesday, Esther,Stephen and Musa went back to Mbiko where they met wit Musa's father, Esther said that the meeting went very well, and that Musa's father was very keen for him to be involved with the SALVE programme, the next step is for Musa to meet with Mike and fingers crossed he will be joining the SALVE home soon.
On Thursday myself and Esther spent most of the day with Mike in town to help develop the Ugandan constitution, we are all keen to get this done as it is needed for the CBO (community based organisation) registration, Mike is so keen that he told us he has been waking in the night and writing down ideas. Our meeting was very informative and we all left feeling that we had met our objectives.
On Friday we spent the day taking Helena to see her Mum and new baby in her village, we also met with Helena's grandmother who quite literally greeted us with open arms, invited us in and gave us some of the tastiest mango's we had ever had. We were also introduced to Mike's goat kid 'Gift' who is being looked after by Helena's grandmother who is adorable!
Throughout the week Esther has been busy developing a more uniform system for the SALVE profiles, and general adminstration in the house. I have started the task of arranging meetings with HIV/AIDS organisations in the area with the hope of developing an HIV/AIDS protocol for SALVE international. Harriet has been busy developing a libary system in the house, and we both wish her a lovely trip to Finland this week, and look forward to having her back on the 2nd October.
We have met with lots of lovely people this week, who we know will help make our stay here even more enjoyable!
Lots of Love
Alice and Esther
xxx
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