Monday 25th October – School & Home visits and more painting

Monday 25th October – School & Home visits and more painting


Today we had a lie in with breakfast at 8am. The plan was that the building team; Steve, Tom, Like, Dennis and Dave, would continue working at the centre while the others went off with Moses B and Rev Moses on home and school visits. We would meet at the Guest house for lunch and then continue with this plan.

The Building team left for the centre just as Moses B arrived, Steve dropped us off at site and then left to get the things we needed for the day’s work, so while we waited we carried on painting the inside of the buildings. Part of Steve’s job was to go to the bank with Rev Moses and change some money, we found out later that they had to queue for 90 minutes to do that. This meant that the others were waiting at the Guest House that length of time until Rev Moses arrived back. One thing is certain in Uganda and that is that whatever the plan is it will change.

The group eventually set off on a home visit, this was to the family of a sponsored child where the guardian had recently, voluntarily, gone for a test and the result was HIV positive. Dr Tom spoke in private with the family while the others walked around the area. After this they visited Vision School, as the group arrived at the school the children poured out of the school to greet them.




Moses B was not well, suffering from the affects of malaria, so he had to leave and go back home to rest.

Gillian’s impression was: “we went to visit Vision School and as we arrived, the children and teachers all came out. It was fantastic to see so many happy and excited faces. We did a few activities with the children like, blowing bubbles, throwing Frisbees and a clapping game. Dr Tom also played his penny whistle and we danced, linking arms and spinning around. We presented the school’s headmistress with a world globe, some footballs and a bat.








In the afternoon the group visited Rushusha Salvation primary school. Here they played games with the children and taught them how to play with the parachute, even Rev Moses joined in. Rachel was befriended by a young student who was also called Rachel and for the afternoon big Rachel had a shadow in the form of little Rachel.


Back at the centre, Dave sat in a dusty room using generator that had been brought from the UK to power a laptop whilst he tried to update the blog using a mobile internet connection. The connection was slow but it shows how small the world is becoming. The generator will be a fantastic assets to the centre as most days there are power cuts.



The building team’s objective for the day was to finish the painting and start installing the guttering and pipe work for the water harvesting system. Water is very expensive so the more rainwater that can be harvested and used within the centre the more money is saved. We got as far as getting the first section of guttering installed and the big water tanks ordered.

When the main group finished their school visit they came back to the centre, this time leaving the bus at the top of the track so there was no danger of it sliding into the ditch again, and walking to the centre. As we would be leaving for Kampala early tomorrow this was the last opportunity for them to see the centre. Suitably impressed with the days progress, some last photos were taken, the tools put away and we headed back to the Guest House.

Dave and paul stayed behind to speak with Rev Moses, Paul to talk Global care stuff and Dave to get into the Bee House and look inside the bee hives and see what African bees do.







In the bee house there were 26 wicker hives, two of which had colonies of bees inside. The bees in the first hive were fairly calm when I took the cover off and the colony was quite large, the bees themselves being noticeably smaller than those we see in the UK and quite black in colour. Having taken some photos and videos I think the bees started to get a little agitated by the camera flash, so when I opened the second hive them were a little ‘feisty’, so by the time I had had 3 or 4 ‘nips’ around my right ankle and an increasing number of angry bees at my head I decided discretion was called for and a strategic withdrawal was made out of the bee house, followed by 50 or 60 bees. Rev Moses was quite wise and gave me advice from about 70 metres away.

The evening meal was a buffet held at a local guest house with Rev Moses and his wife as guests. Moses B was too sick to attend, which was a great shame as he had helped us so much during our visit. This was a nice informal affair and a good way to say thank you and goodbye.

Tomorrow we get up at 5am to start out trip back to Kampala, staying their one night to visit Gertrude’s school, before then travelling to Soroti on Wednesday.