13/02 – 17/02 You’re pretty when the sun don’t shine <3

So the main event of this weekend, VALENTINE’S DAY!

But before that – a brief overview of our weekend, SWIMMING! It’s been boiling again so we’ve had the laziest weekend by the pool meeting the other gap year AVs – there’s about 30 of them staying in villages around Jinja but at the weekend they all flock to Backpackers so we’re getting to know them!

For you family members who would like to know the state of my bed area:

HOMELY ORGANISED CHAOS :) (Maman, note the bottles of water, deet, and travel first aid by my day pack! Bruv, the use of the woven bag. Marianne and Emran, your beaming faces over my bed! Old Man, the slightly red English skin tinge on my shoulders, YOUR FAULT.)

Friday night we experienced Ugandan Karaoke and Stand Up Comedy. It was TERRIBLE. The ‘karaoke’ was people dancing on stage and miming badly to reggae Ugandan music, and the stand up comedy was all in Lugandan so we didn’t have a clue what was going on except when it was obvious they were doing a ‘we hate gays’ sketch!

Sunday evening we went out to meet some friends, both English and Ugandan, and the boys from the Guest House were all acting very suspiciously – they were being mysterious, all huddling together and whispering – and Marianne had already found paper cut out hearts all over her pillow. Turns out they’d picked a girl’s name out of a hat and had to do a cheesy anonymous romantic gesture! When we got back to the Guest House, on the communal chalk board outside the kitchen he’d written the song lyrics ‘JENNY <3, You’re pretty when the sun don’t shine, I’m coming out to meet you, I’ll be there to make you mine. <3 xxx’ for EVERYONE to see! Rachel found a mirror on her bed saying ‘…so that you can always see your beautiful face <3 <3 <3’ (VOM). Sophie had a quote from ‘The Notebook’ - ‘I wrote you 365 letters, IT’S NOT OVER’ with a pile of 365 pieces of torn paper each with a letter from the alphabet. Liberty had the lyrics from ‘Hero’ written on individual pieces of paper - ‘Would you dance if I asked you to dance? Would you run and never look back? Would you cry if you saw me crying? Would you save my soul tonight? PS. I can be your hero.’ Livvy had a Queen of Hearts card with the poem ‘Diamonds are red, Clubs are not blue, Olivia is lovely and my heart is for you’ – naturally written by Connor! The cheesiness was INCREDIBLE, but it totally sums up the environment of the Guest House: everyone gets along so well, up for a laugh, and really look after eachother.

Monday I went into school for a short 2 hours to be told I’m not teaching S2 this week… So instead I went to the street kids project now named ASCO (African Street Children Organisation, it’s just completed the process to become a CBO and on it’s way to being a registered charity) and helped clean up the rented room. We sanded down all the walls, cleaned out and reorganised boxes as well as feeding, washing and entertaining the kids. The week’s aim is to clean and equip the room with desks, tables, chairs, lockable cupboards etc. and art materials to make paintings, t-shirts, frames and postcards which can then be sold to help sustain the running of the project. Eventually – when the project has enough money and is well established but this won’t happen for a long time – there will also be a hostel attached to it in order to get the kids off the street at night where they’re exposed to paraffin abuse and to just give them a roof over their heads!

Tuesday morning we were again back at ASCO, we painted the dingy dark room a bright blue and cream colour, although painting with the kids was a bit of a mission! They’d get bored half way through doing a section or paint blue over the cream or just painted themselves so we had to send them with the boys to play football while the girls were left slaving away!! A lick of paint does make all the difference though.

Then Son Rise in the afternoon! We met baby Steven who’d been isolated for the last couple of weeks due to measles. And I saw Brenda smile for the first time!! She’s been looking miserable since I started as she’s still recovering from TB and an ear infection but she seemed actually happy!

Wednesday, I went with the Ollie and Joe to Deseret Community School which is a rural primary school outside of Jinja. Originally, Connor and I were supposed to teach at Lake Site as part of the BCS link but due to them still illegally using corporal punishment on the kids (that was definately not a pleasant experience to watch, it was the first and only time I’ve cried since I’ve been here) I refused to go back and in the end, the link has been cut and we’re looking at other schools/projects BCS can support. So Deseret Community School is basically one permanent  brick building for 2 classrooms and 3 tin shacks at the end of a long dirt track. I turned up with Ollie, was introduced and then sent to a P3 class in the brick building to teach English straight away! I spent an hour and twenty minutes explaining and doing exercises on ‘There is’ and ‘There are’… but the partition between the classrooms is a tin barrier with open space at the top so all the time I could hear Ollie’s P4 class repeating ‘OX-ygen’ and ‘phototheeeeesis’! But I really enjoyed the overall experience and they will pretty much welcome me at any time of day there, they’re pretty desperate for any help. Really simple ways to help the school would be to buy them new blackboards as theirs are flaking bits of dried plants painted black stuck to a wall.

Friday I plan to visit Valley View, another really poor rural primary school which was recently inspected and was told they have to invest £25,000 in new buildings otherwise the school has to close. Charlie and other gap year students from last year got involved with Valley View and built them toilets with help from the Bujigali Trust and made them lesson timetables etc. so it’s obvious it’s a school that needs a lot of help!

I apologise for the essay… !!

Loveee an’ ting