After some last-minute nerves, ressured by a lovely send-off from my work colleagues I left Glasgow at 5am on a bright Saturday morning. The 36 hours in transit that followed I'll skip over as they were tiring and dull. I was greeted at Entebbe airport by Mark, who was responsible for this year's New Build Uganda project, and two of the Ugandan volunteers. My arrival had been linked with a trip to Kampala to buy supplies so we stayed overnight in the capital- my travel-weary bones being well rested by the fantastic hospitality of the family who put us up for the night.
Another night was spent in the nearest town to site- Mbende- and then we arrived onsite at Kabowa on Tuesday morning. Devon Development Education is involved in numerous activities to improve education in England and Uganda and New Build Uganda's specific remit is to create or improve education and training facilities where they are most needed. This year's project involved re-visiting Kabowa where 3 classrooms were built last year. These classrooms have been in use since then but were literally shells with dirt floors. Our task was to finish them, when I arrived work had already been going on for 3 weeks and in that time the outside walls had been rendered and they had started to lay concrete floors. The P1s, P2s and P3s had been decanted outside to have their classes under trees, mobile blackboards and all!
The first task that I was involved in was to assemble the window frames that had arrived. The frames themselves were straightforward enough to put together but we had to drill holes and insert 6 metal rods through each to secure the windows and ensure that thieves couldn't get in. The steel arrived in coils and had to be straightened before they could be cut- step forward Nora Dempsey- who used all her skill, knowledge and prowess to stand on the steel rods to keep them in place while they were being cut. I bet you'd underestimated my talents until now.
Other bits and pieces filled up the first week and then we set off for a weekend in Queen Elizabeth National Park, stopping off on the way to visit hot springs and spend the night with our Ugandan host's grandparents who in proper Ugandan fashion had prepared a feast and insisted we take the beds. The national park was impressive, unlike nearby Kenya they have let the communties who lived there before remain so every now and then we would pass a few houses and children would come running up to the car to look at us, oblivious to the elephants wandering around behind them!
In week 2 my exitement at the prospect of painting (a job I knew how to do!) earned me responsibility for selecting the colours for each of the classrooms (the Ugandan people love bright colours so I went for Lagoon Green, Dusky Pink and Bermuda Blue). The local volunteers were quite keen as well, only a couple of them had painted before so it was a new skill to learn. The team was made up of two other volunteers from the UK, the site foreman, a driver, 3 paid builders, about 8 Ugandan volunteers who were either learning the building trade or helping out during their university holidays and around 10 men from the local village who would come along each day. The rest of us stayed in an older classroom at the school furnished with 6 sets of bunk beds and lots of mosquito nets. Our 3 square meals a day were prepared on a wood fire outside by Mary, our onsite cook. Breakfast was usually matoke (unripened bannas) bolied with peanut paste and much tastier than it sounds, maize porridge and occasionally bread and jam. Lunch consisted of rice, poshu and beans, and dinner potatoes (or Irish as they are called in Uganda) and peas. Wednesdays were designated meat day when the other UK volunteers would excitedly debate who got to kill the chicken for that evening's dinner, one part of daily life I refused to participate in.
The second weekend our trip was to Jinja where we white-water-rafted on the Nile and watched people bungee into the river and I got to drink gin and tonic. It was an amazing experience, the weekend trips were treated like the 'holiday' parts of our trip so we really pushed the boat out (no pun intended) and ate in more expensive tourist restaurants where the menu items were more familiar- one night I even had a veggie burger- heaven!
The final week on site was quite hectic as I tried to get the painting completed around the actual building work, painting walls that had been plastered just the day before and generally cutting corners that would horrify professional painter decorators. Our last day on site was Wednesday and we speant the afternoon sitting in the sunshine being treated to songs, dancing, speeches and prayers from the priimary school children and their teachers. Then it was time for lots of sad goodbyes with the team before heading off on the two-and-a-half day journey back to Glasgow.
The improved facilities at the school- larger, more sturdy classrooms and a water tank- will not only make it easier to teach the children (previously 3 classes had to crowd into 1 classroom when it rained, making it impossible to do any work) but should also increase the likliehood of children, especially girls, staying on to complete P7. While we were there P1 had 200 pupils but P7 just 15, 2 of which were girls. So thank you again for your donation, it meant the experience of a lifetime for me and will offer a better future to countless Ugandan children.
