So there goes our first Monday to Friday week! I’m not going to lie, right now I feel so unbelievably chilled – watching the sun set from the Guest House Garden with one of the Hampton guys playing the guitar eating the juiciest mango ever :)
We started the week with Martin and Gerald showing us different places in Jinja – Welcome Home Orphanage, quite a rich from donations orphanage with around 70 kids from newborn babies to 4 or 5 years old; Child Restoration Outreach, a street kids charity; Lake Site Primary School, the link primary school to BCS in the most gorgeous setting just above Lake Victoria but pretty poor, broken glass in all the windows and right by the fish port where the smell is a slap in the face!
Tuesday, I went back to Welcome Home to meet the manager. He was supposed to be out for five minutes, but FORTY FIVE MINUTES later, I was still waiting. The way Ugandans treat time (why do something today when you can do it tomorrow?!) can be quite convenient sometimes but other times, like waiting for a bottle of water in a cafe, it can be the most frustrating thing! While I was waiting, the 2 – 5 year olds had be let out of their playground and about twenty of them ran to me shouting and were stroking my arms and legs because of my white skin. It’s strange because you don’t see them as children with no parents because they look so happy!
Wednesday, I went into school with Connor for 8:30am to arrange out timetable and I was finished by 9am! The afternoon we decided to go to swimming at Nile Resort (amazing views over the River Nile but quite a western hotel) as we were MELTING in the heat of the day, and then came the first rain of our trip! It rained it down REALLY HARD for about half an hour, then stopped and an hour later it was bright blue sky again! But since then it’s been a lot cooler and so much more bearable, THANK GOD.
Thursday was my first day at St James’. The Biology teacher whose lessons I will eventually be taking over is called Ben, really nice, and is actually quite interactive with the kids, however unresponsive they are! I’ll be teaching S1 and S2 classes and my first lesson teaching is next Thursday!!!! But fortunately Ben will be there watching! The afternoon was quite interesting as there was no running water in the whole of Jinja from midday until the middle of the night – no running taps, no showers, no flushing toilets, no water to boil to cook! NIGHTMARE.
Today, we had the day off (with running water again!) :) However, getting money from ATMs here is a bit of a mission. Despite everywhere saying they accept Visa cards, so far my debit card works in 2/6 mainstream banks but quite often the ATM machines aren’t working anyway… The rest of the day was spent at the market which smells pretty funky, but we bought the most delicious mangos I’ve ever tasted!!
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