Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Photos from the Building Team & the cement mixers
Sunday and Monday – Travelling home
Sunday and Monday – Travelling home
We meet for breakfast at 5am as planned, there are only a few suitcases to load on the bus now and some of these will be given to Gertrude later today.
We say thank you to the staff at the Guest House and are on the road by 6am and go to the centre to collect Ann and Naomi, Selina’s daughter. They are going to a UNICEF workshop in Kampala, representing both Global Care and the Soroti region. This is the first time that Naomi has been out of Soroti and she is a very excited teenager.
As we drive out of the centre little Janet is standing by the chain link fence waving at us. She is alone, standing in her red, ragged dress, it is all she has. We wave, a lump in our throat.
In Rachel’s words, we are privileged to see another African sunrise.
The journey is a smooth one, we stop at Jinja for a comfort break and some refreshments. We take the opportunity to check in online for our flights. Then onto Kampala.
We drop Ann and Naomi off on the outskirts of Kampala where she meets her son, who will take them to the conference centre. Ann says that it is too dangerous for the two of them to be dropped off in the centre of Kampala and get a taxi,
We drive into Kampala, where we meet up with the building team again who are excited and proud at what they have achieved in Rukinigiri, and so they should be.
We go to the craft market for some souvenir shopping, say goodbye to Steve and Luke who are heading back to Mbale for a few days.
Then to Nando’s where we met Gertrude and Charles, for our last meal in Uganda. Cath and I speak to Gertrdue, her bus is still being repaired and may be ready in two or three days. We are able to help her with some cash towards to the cost of repairing her bus, she runs Guiding Star School on a shoestring budget and this kind of unexpected cost can have major impact on her.
When we have finished our meal we make our way back to the bus. When we get there, there is no sign of the driver, apparently he has has gone off for a haircut while we are eating.
At 6pm we head off to the airport, planning to drop Claire and Sheila off in Entebbe as they are staying in Uganda for another 3 days to meet up with old friends. We eventually find their Guest House with the help of a local Buda-Buda driver. So another farewell and the size of our group is gradually diminishing.
We make it to the airport in plenty time and now it is time to say good bye to Gertrude and Charles. Gertrude is excited at accepting the new cases and boxes, which will help at the Women’s prison.
We go through the formalities at the airport and board our plane for Amsterdam on time to find out there is a technical fault, so we wait on the plane for 4 hours until it is fixed. After that the flight is without incident, except that for some reason the whole group is served with Gluten Free meals. Not the tastiest food, in my humble opinion. We land at Amsterdam at 11am but the four hour delay means we miss our connecting flight at Amsterdam and have to be checked onto a later flight leaving at 3.30pm. We have another four hour wait for our flight, we will land at Birmingham at around 3.30pm and by then will have been travelling for 37 or 38 hours, some of us will then have further travel of several hours before we get home.
We are exhausted, but we are happy with what we have achieved, sure we have made some difference on our trip.
So far the group on this trip has, over the years, both directly and indirectly influenced the sponsorship of at least 18 children here in Uganda. Namely: Brenda, Pampas, Patrick, Amos, Aisha, Agnes; Stephen Azubu, Rebecca, Barbara, Phiona, Sharon, Jesca, Gilbert, Marcy, Janet, Immanuel and Dennis.
We hope what we have done will be like a stone thrown into a pond, the ripples causing changes and positively affecting others. We hope these ripples will affect more children.
We could not do everything but we did not do nothing.
We meet for breakfast at 5am as planned, there are only a few suitcases to load on the bus now and some of these will be given to Gertrude later today.
We say thank you to the staff at the Guest House and are on the road by 6am and go to the centre to collect Ann and Naomi, Selina’s daughter. They are going to a UNICEF workshop in Kampala, representing both Global Care and the Soroti region. This is the first time that Naomi has been out of Soroti and she is a very excited teenager.
As we drive out of the centre little Janet is standing by the chain link fence waving at us. She is alone, standing in her red, ragged dress, it is all she has. We wave, a lump in our throat.
In Rachel’s words, we are privileged to see another African sunrise.
The journey is a smooth one, we stop at Jinja for a comfort break and some refreshments. We take the opportunity to check in online for our flights. Then onto Kampala.
We drop Ann and Naomi off on the outskirts of Kampala where she meets her son, who will take them to the conference centre. Ann says that it is too dangerous for the two of them to be dropped off in the centre of Kampala and get a taxi,
We drive into Kampala, where we meet up with the building team again who are excited and proud at what they have achieved in Rukinigiri, and so they should be.
We go to the craft market for some souvenir shopping, say goodbye to Steve and Luke who are heading back to Mbale for a few days.
Then to Nando’s where we met Gertrude and Charles, for our last meal in Uganda. Cath and I speak to Gertrdue, her bus is still being repaired and may be ready in two or three days. We are able to help her with some cash towards to the cost of repairing her bus, she runs Guiding Star School on a shoestring budget and this kind of unexpected cost can have major impact on her.
When we have finished our meal we make our way back to the bus. When we get there, there is no sign of the driver, apparently he has has gone off for a haircut while we are eating.
At 6pm we head off to the airport, planning to drop Claire and Sheila off in Entebbe as they are staying in Uganda for another 3 days to meet up with old friends. We eventually find their Guest House with the help of a local Buda-Buda driver. So another farewell and the size of our group is gradually diminishing.
We make it to the airport in plenty time and now it is time to say good bye to Gertrude and Charles. Gertrude is excited at accepting the new cases and boxes, which will help at the Women’s prison.
We go through the formalities at the airport and board our plane for Amsterdam on time to find out there is a technical fault, so we wait on the plane for 4 hours until it is fixed. After that the flight is without incident, except that for some reason the whole group is served with Gluten Free meals. Not the tastiest food, in my humble opinion. We land at Amsterdam at 11am but the four hour delay means we miss our connecting flight at Amsterdam and have to be checked onto a later flight leaving at 3.30pm. We have another four hour wait for our flight, we will land at Birmingham at around 3.30pm and by then will have been travelling for 37 or 38 hours, some of us will then have further travel of several hours before we get home.
We are exhausted, but we are happy with what we have achieved, sure we have made some difference on our trip.
So far the group on this trip has, over the years, both directly and indirectly influenced the sponsorship of at least 18 children here in Uganda. Namely: Brenda, Pampas, Patrick, Amos, Aisha, Agnes; Stephen Azubu, Rebecca, Barbara, Phiona, Sharon, Jesca, Gilbert, Marcy, Janet, Immanuel and Dennis.
We hope what we have done will be like a stone thrown into a pond, the ripples causing changes and positively affecting others. We hope these ripples will affect more children.
We could not do everything but we did not do nothing.
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Saturday 30th October – A Day at Soroti Centre
Saturday 30th October – A Day at Soroti Centre
Today the plan is to spend the day at Soroti Centre, a gathering of Children.
We arrive at the centre and there are already children are gathering. Three sponsored children are also waiting: Gilbert, Mercy and Pampass. Cath and I meet with Gilbert, his sister & guardian and then Mercy and her mother Anna Rose as we represent their sponsors and have gifts for them. Sue meets with Pampass. These meetings are very emotional and worthwhile.
At mid-morning I head to Soroti Town with Michael to buy the equipment that they will need to harvest the honey from the beehives, they also need better personal protection, so we must get wellingtons. This shopping trip is very successful and we return on the motor bike with buckets, wellingtons and rubber gloves.
When we get back Cath and I give a very quick ‘Honey Harvesting’ training course to Michael, Sam and David. They quickly understand what they will need to do, we also agree that they should contact Stephen, a local beekeeper, and get him to come and help them with the harvest.
Gertrude has a stock of items for sale, these have all been beautifully made by the girls. We set about them with gusto and soon we have purchased lots of them, everybody is happy. Gertrude can use the money to put back into the training.
By now about 100 children have gathered, some are playing football, others are singing and dancing, others are playing with craft materials. They are all having a great time, laughing and smiling. The afternoon flies by and all too soon it is over.
The children leave the site and we head back to the Guest House to freshen up before coming back to the centre for a ‘farewell’ team meal.
Ann and the team have put on a wonderful buffet meal for us all. We sit outside, in the warm air with not too many flying insects around to bother us. David’s wife, Mary and his son Michael Timothy have also come to the centre to meet us. They give Cath a lovely, traditional African dress as a gift.
We have a lovely meal, chat and exchange gifts. The staff at the centre have worked extremely hard to ensure our visit if a success and that we are well looked after. By the time we come to say Goodbye it is dark and the sky is filled with stars.
We say Goodbye to our friends, an emotional affair, get on the bus and will some last waves head back to the guest house. The day has been a wonderful experience and we are in high spirits.
Most of us will be travelling home with suitcases that are nearly empty have left most of our clothes behind to help the people at Soroti or to leave with Gertrude when we meet her again in Kampala tomorrow.
We pack our bags and get to bed. The plan is to meet for breakfast at 5am and be on the road to Kampala by 6am. The building team are already there, having travelled safely from Rukinigiri, we are looking forward to seeing them again.
Today the plan is to spend the day at Soroti Centre, a gathering of Children.
We arrive at the centre and there are already children are gathering. Three sponsored children are also waiting: Gilbert, Mercy and Pampass. Cath and I meet with Gilbert, his sister & guardian and then Mercy and her mother Anna Rose as we represent their sponsors and have gifts for them. Sue meets with Pampass. These meetings are very emotional and worthwhile.
At mid-morning I head to Soroti Town with Michael to buy the equipment that they will need to harvest the honey from the beehives, they also need better personal protection, so we must get wellingtons. This shopping trip is very successful and we return on the motor bike with buckets, wellingtons and rubber gloves.
When we get back Cath and I give a very quick ‘Honey Harvesting’ training course to Michael, Sam and David. They quickly understand what they will need to do, we also agree that they should contact Stephen, a local beekeeper, and get him to come and help them with the harvest.
Gertrude has a stock of items for sale, these have all been beautifully made by the girls. We set about them with gusto and soon we have purchased lots of them, everybody is happy. Gertrude can use the money to put back into the training.
By now about 100 children have gathered, some are playing football, others are singing and dancing, others are playing with craft materials. They are all having a great time, laughing and smiling. The afternoon flies by and all too soon it is over.
The children leave the site and we head back to the Guest House to freshen up before coming back to the centre for a ‘farewell’ team meal.
Ann and the team have put on a wonderful buffet meal for us all. We sit outside, in the warm air with not too many flying insects around to bother us. David’s wife, Mary and his son Michael Timothy have also come to the centre to meet us. They give Cath a lovely, traditional African dress as a gift.
We have a lovely meal, chat and exchange gifts. The staff at the centre have worked extremely hard to ensure our visit if a success and that we are well looked after. By the time we come to say Goodbye it is dark and the sky is filled with stars.
We say Goodbye to our friends, an emotional affair, get on the bus and will some last waves head back to the guest house. The day has been a wonderful experience and we are in high spirits.
Most of us will be travelling home with suitcases that are nearly empty have left most of our clothes behind to help the people at Soroti or to leave with Gertrude when we meet her again in Kampala tomorrow.
We pack our bags and get to bed. The plan is to meet for breakfast at 5am and be on the road to Kampala by 6am. The building team are already there, having travelled safely from Rukinigiri, we are looking forward to seeing them again.
Gillian’s thoughts – 29th October
Gillian’s thoughts – 29th October
I was very excited to visit the deaf school. After a chat with the headmaster in his office, we were taken to meet deaf children in the assemble hall.
After an introduction from David of Global Care and also Paul, with the sign language interpreters help, I then stood up and explained about my deafness. The children were spellbound listening to my story. Afterwards we did a craft activity with the kids. The others in the team made a comment that it was strange for them that there was no sound at all from the children, only the sound of their scuffling feet!
I had a chat with a deaf teacher who has lived at the school all her life and who has a daughter who is hearing. We somehow understood each other using a mixed Ugandan, British sign language.
A VERY good visit.
Friday 29th October – School visits – Ngora & Angoram, more painting
Friday 29th October – School visits – Ngora & Angoram, more painting
We arrived at the Centre at 9.15am after a lovely breakfast of fresh fruit, eggs and toast. Already sponsored Sam and Jesca and their guardians were waiting for me.
The group split with me staying at the Centre while the others went off to visit Ngora and the School for Deaf Children.
Gillian who is a member of our group describes this visit in her thoughts.
I spent time with Sam, our sponsored child, giving him and his mother, Grace, the gifts we had brought for them. Sam was delighted with the toys and clothes that had been sent to him by Cath’s sons, Jake and Ben. Grace could not contain her smiles at the small items given to her, little things like toothbrush, bars of soap, a sewing kit, may be trivial to us but mean the world to her. We decided that Sam and Grace would stay at the centre until this afternoon and come with us on the bus to Angoram, as that is close to their home at Atira, from there we would get them a Buda-Buda.
Jesca, is a lovely 14 year old girl who is sponsored by one of my sisters, was there with her Father, who is becoming increasingly disabled in his legs and unable to work. She loved the gifts and photos brought for her.
After lunch we all boarded the bus and headed for Angoram, a community which is working with Global Care to build a school, the Ron Newby Memorial School. Last year when we visited the classrooms were in four huts with straw roofs and open sides. This is a community school, built and paid for by the local people. The teacher is unpaid and lives on donations from the community also.
As we travelled to Angoram, Sam sat in the middle seat so he could see out of the windscreen. We think it is the first time he had ever been on a bus. His smile was from ear to ear, Grace sat beside him smiling at the way her son was enjoying himself.
When we reached Angoram the children came out of their old classrooms when they heard the bus and ran to greet us. They gave us a wonderful welcome ceremony, singing and dancing. Paul then thanked them and presented the school with two footballs, an inflatable globe and a football strip for the school team, donated by a Coventry school.
The school football team suddenly increased in size from 11 to about 40 when they heard about the strips.
We then went onto the new shool building and started painting the walls of the two classrooms. The Ugandan builders had watered down the paint so it would go further. It certainly went further, mainly onto the floor. They had also stuck paint rollers onto the end of 2 meter lengths of wood so we could reach the top of the walls without ladders. These became lethal weapons in the hands of us inexperienced painters. This said our team of 8 people had painted both classrooms with two coats of paint within two hours. This was helped along by the same quality singing that had been such a help at Rukingiri.
After the painting we went out into the field to play with the games. Michael from Global Care Centre showed the children how to play with the ‘parachute’. Michael has mastered this toy, inventing new games and also getting these accompanied by singing and dancing. Whilst this was going on the boys were playing football in new strips, the school choir was practicing their songs and dances and Rachel was playing card games with the younger children.
Part of the group went to visit a nearby home whilst others went and looked at the old classrooms. On these the roofs were starting to fall in, with big holes. The children would be unable to study in these rooms during rain storms.
When it was time to leave, we said goodbye to the children and school staff and started to board the bus. Sam was waiting, a big smile of anticipation on his face, he duly boarded the bus and again sat in the middle seat so he could see the view ahead. We stopped at a nearby community and ensured they got safely onto a buda-buda for the final leg of their journey home. I said goodbye to Grace and Sam as I would not see them again during this visit and do not know when I may see them again.
We arrived back at the Guest house after dark after another wonderfully rewarding day.
In Rukingiri the building team had finished their work. The water tank is harvesting water, the painting is finished, internal doors installed and to all intents and purposes the offices area ready for use. What a result!! The team leave Rukingiri tomorrow for Kampala, where we will meet them on Sunday. This evening they are having a final meal with Rev Moses and his wife.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Soroti – how quickly the time has gone, I cannot believe we are nearly at the end of our visit.
We arrived at the Centre at 9.15am after a lovely breakfast of fresh fruit, eggs and toast. Already sponsored Sam and Jesca and their guardians were waiting for me.
The group split with me staying at the Centre while the others went off to visit Ngora and the School for Deaf Children.
Gillian who is a member of our group describes this visit in her thoughts.
I spent time with Sam, our sponsored child, giving him and his mother, Grace, the gifts we had brought for them. Sam was delighted with the toys and clothes that had been sent to him by Cath’s sons, Jake and Ben. Grace could not contain her smiles at the small items given to her, little things like toothbrush, bars of soap, a sewing kit, may be trivial to us but mean the world to her. We decided that Sam and Grace would stay at the centre until this afternoon and come with us on the bus to Angoram, as that is close to their home at Atira, from there we would get them a Buda-Buda.
Jesca, is a lovely 14 year old girl who is sponsored by one of my sisters, was there with her Father, who is becoming increasingly disabled in his legs and unable to work. She loved the gifts and photos brought for her.
After lunch we all boarded the bus and headed for Angoram, a community which is working with Global Care to build a school, the Ron Newby Memorial School. Last year when we visited the classrooms were in four huts with straw roofs and open sides. This is a community school, built and paid for by the local people. The teacher is unpaid and lives on donations from the community also.
As we travelled to Angoram, Sam sat in the middle seat so he could see out of the windscreen. We think it is the first time he had ever been on a bus. His smile was from ear to ear, Grace sat beside him smiling at the way her son was enjoying himself.
When we reached Angoram the children came out of their old classrooms when they heard the bus and ran to greet us. They gave us a wonderful welcome ceremony, singing and dancing. Paul then thanked them and presented the school with two footballs, an inflatable globe and a football strip for the school team, donated by a Coventry school.
The school football team suddenly increased in size from 11 to about 40 when they heard about the strips.
We then went onto the new shool building and started painting the walls of the two classrooms. The Ugandan builders had watered down the paint so it would go further. It certainly went further, mainly onto the floor. They had also stuck paint rollers onto the end of 2 meter lengths of wood so we could reach the top of the walls without ladders. These became lethal weapons in the hands of us inexperienced painters. This said our team of 8 people had painted both classrooms with two coats of paint within two hours. This was helped along by the same quality singing that had been such a help at Rukingiri.
After the painting we went out into the field to play with the games. Michael from Global Care Centre showed the children how to play with the ‘parachute’. Michael has mastered this toy, inventing new games and also getting these accompanied by singing and dancing. Whilst this was going on the boys were playing football in new strips, the school choir was practicing their songs and dances and Rachel was playing card games with the younger children.
Part of the group went to visit a nearby home whilst others went and looked at the old classrooms. On these the roofs were starting to fall in, with big holes. The children would be unable to study in these rooms during rain storms.
When it was time to leave, we said goodbye to the children and school staff and started to board the bus. Sam was waiting, a big smile of anticipation on his face, he duly boarded the bus and again sat in the middle seat so he could see the view ahead. We stopped at a nearby community and ensured they got safely onto a buda-buda for the final leg of their journey home. I said goodbye to Grace and Sam as I would not see them again during this visit and do not know when I may see them again.
We arrived back at the Guest house after dark after another wonderfully rewarding day.
In Rukingiri the building team had finished their work. The water tank is harvesting water, the painting is finished, internal doors installed and to all intents and purposes the offices area ready for use. What a result!! The team leave Rukingiri tomorrow for Kampala, where we will meet them on Sunday. This evening they are having a final meal with Rev Moses and his wife.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Soroti – how quickly the time has gone, I cannot believe we are nearly at the end of our visit.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)