This is for anyone who is interested :)
-Peace Out
Uganda Newsletter!
On the 24th of
May, an excited team of 22, (18 students and 4 teachers) met at Dublin Amsterdam Uganda Africa .
The journey was exciting as we were all anticipating what was ahead and letting
it sink in that we really were going to Uganda
Finally we arrived at Kampala Uganda
Friday brought quite a culture shock when we
saw Kampala
We made our way to the markets, so we could
get a taste of what Uganda
After we went to a small place to have some
lunch, we were introduced to the African food and it was actually really nice!
Most of the Ugandan’s diets are made up of beans, a sort of maize-flour meal
called ‘pocho’, fruit, (like pineapple, melon and papaya) meat, chapatti, a
fish called ‘talapia’, bananas are also a big part of what they eat, they have
ones the size of your palm as well as ones the size of your head! The small
ones are sweet to taste and the bigger ones are used to make ‘matoki’ a potato-like meal. This all depends if a
Ugandan can afford to eat this kind of food, a lot of Ugandans might only be
able to afford beans and pocho, if even that.
The second market we went to was very
different from the first; it wasn’t really a tourist market. It was very busy
and, again, things and people were everywhere! You would see piles of clothes
and big mounds of fish, bananas and nuts for sale. Children were sitting on the
ground, most of the time very skinny and undernourished, their mothers trying
to make a living by selling what she could. As we went through, we did get a
lot of funny looks from the Ugandans, calling out “Mzungu, Mzungu!!” and
suggesting we take a look at what they were selling, the men occasionally even
asking to marry some of us! The atmosphere was so different to any market in Ireland
Day two we traveled to Jinja where we taught
the kids there. We sang the whole way on the bus and also stopped at Bujigili Falls Uganda
When we arrived at ‘Good Shepherds Fold
Orphanage’ we got such a warm welcome, we danced and played with the kids, who
are so sweet. Traditional dance over there is in a grass skirt and they sing
and clap. Our stay at G.S.F was truly an amazing experience, we spent lots of
time with the children and on the second day did some teaching which we had
prepared for in pairs. We did things like face painting, blew bubbles, taught
the kids Irish words and songs and dances and did Art with them, doing things
like fortune tellers and drawings as we were limited with supplies. The kids
were so happy with anything we did, most of the time they just wanted to run
around outside and play with the inflatable beach balls we brought with us. We
left all the toys and stationary we had brought, with them. I learnt a lot that
day, I knew that they had so little but I saw the reality as appose to just
hearing about it. We took so many pictures; wanting to document every moment.
Church over in Uganda
After an amazing time at GSF
orphanage we had to leave to go to Kisizi, we were on our way again after
saying our sad goodbyes. It took about eleven hours to get there, but it didn’t
seem like that. We called out “Aghandi!” to the people we passed which is a
greeting over there, meaning “how are you?” to which you reply “neejay” meaning
“I’m fine”. I think we must have said Aghandi about a hundred times! We also
saw Zebras on the way, lying in the hot sun.
We visiting an orphanage just up the road
from where we were staying, which was very poor; it had no electricity and only
a few chairs and desks. The man running it, Canon Charles invited us over to
his house for dinner (chapattis, goat, pineapple and melon) and we went for a
hike around where he lives, we weren’t prepared for it and a lot of us were in
flip-flops, but it was all part of the fun. The kids at the orphanage were
adorable and we sang and danced with them and performed a few songs we had
rehearsed.
The next day we went on a ‘scavenger hunt’
to get to know the village and the people living there, it took most of the
afternoon and we got lost a good few times but it was great fun. We went up to
the secondary school up the road, called ‘Rubrizi Secondary School’ that same
day to meet the headmaster and go for a tour around, this is the school that
St. Andrews donates to, it has been recognized as a good school so the
government help support it now. We also went here for afternoon classes; it was
interesting to see how an African school day compared with one in Ireland
One evening, with the projector that one of
the teachers brought, we showed a movie and all watched it together, we left
the projector with them, as a donation to the school.
Another day in Kisizi; we were arranged in
groups and went to the hospital where we had a tour around and visited the
patients here; a lot were in a bad state. The babies in the maternity ward were
literally the size of your hand. It was sad and emotional to see, but all a
learning experience. We talked with the patients, and the next day about a
quarter of us went back to the same hospital to paint and distribute balloons
to the kids. Over half of us went on a hike, about 10k, to a beautiful lake
where we swam and played with the kids. We were torn between going to the
hospital and doing the walk, but both were really great. On the walk, kids came
up beside us and took our hands, we gave balloons to them and took their
photograph as they love seeing their picture; they are fascinated by digital cameras.
When it came for the time to leave Kisizi, we
were all emotional as it had been so wonderful and we had made friends with so
many of the students at the school and at the hospital, we waved goodbye, piled
our rucksacks on top of the bus and began our long journey to Bushara Island,
were we went for a day or two’s rest. It was a chance to reflect and let the
whole experience register before returning back to Dublin
I found the trip to Uganda Uganda Uganda
