The Village

Today we are off to a village out in the sticks. We will be there for over two weeks, returning to the Smile House on the 3rd of November. While we are there we will be living in a house, but without hot water or internet. We are going to be working in a local school during the weekdays and going to the village church on the Sundays. The school has about 30 children, of primary age, and we will be teaching English and maybe Maths and Games. I am very excited for this project and am looking forward to getting started!

As there is no internet I won't be updating this blog until we return. I also want to thank everyone at home and all of my family for all of your support and prayers. It really encourages me as although I am really enjoying it here it has been hard getting used to it at times. So thank you again and I will let you know how the village goes when I get back!

Church and Faith

It is refreshing to experience the Christian faith in a completely new culture. Living in the Smile House, all of the volunteers are Christians and they are very open about their beliefs. Every weekday at 8.30 we have morning devotions with everyone and it is really interesting to share in their faith and have Bible study and discussions together. As I have mentioned, one of the ways they express their faith differently from western Christianity is how often they pray and how fully they believe that all good things come from God. Also, they are a lot more open about their faith than I notice people, including myself, are in the UK. God is not just someone they meet in church or in their private devotions but He is in their lives everyday. Often in normal conversations God or faith will be mentioned, maybe a Bible verse or words of encouragement which I find amazing as, the way I see it, in the west God is quite separate from the everyday conversations and experiences. Personally, I often feel like talking about God to non-Christians in England is seen as 'preaching' or trying to 'convert' people - because of widespread secularism in the west. I enjoy the freedom of religion here and although it brings its problems, it is refreshing compared to how secular the west has become.

The outside of KBC

Me and Kathryn outside Kampala Baptist Church

We attend Kampala Baptist Church here which has about 300 people at its English Sunday service - it also has a service in Luganda with about 150 people. I particularly enjoy the worship, there are great musicians and usually about 6 or 7 singers leading the songs with a male worship leader who is a brilliant singer. It is so lively and joyful - they even dance and smile and everything!

The inside of KBC

Ken and I play guitar and sing so we were introduced to the music group and we were asked to come along and play in the small Saturday service last weekend. At the practise we soon realised that they play everything by ear and don't use sheet music or read guitar chords as we do at home. This will take a while to get used to, but it is in line with the general laid back attitude we have encountered many times here! The service went well and it was really fun to play with the band. We recognised a couple of songs but most were new to us, so hopefully I will be able to bring some new songs home to England! 

Culture Shock

There are so many new things to get used to in Uganda which is interesting but can also be difficult at times. For example, on Saturday morning I did my washing by hand for the first time... It was a lot harder than I thought, and I did have pretty sore hands afterwards as I had been warned! But it was a good experience and at least I didn't have to wash in the pouring rain unlike Kathryn - I wish I had taken a picture!

Beef and vegetables with rice and avocado

Anther thing to get used to is the money. In Uganda the currency seems to be pretty inflated as it is about 4,000 Ugandan shillings to the pound. It is very weird carrying around 20,000 and 50,000 notes! However, the cost of living here is a lot cheaper than the UK - the food is cheaper but most notably the travel is much less expensive. For a taxi ride to Kampala it is about 1,000 shillings (about 25p) and a Boda ride is seen as expensive usually 2,000 or 4,000 shillings for a long journey (50p or £1).

Beans, vegetables, rice and avocado

The food has taken me a while to get used to but I am much better with it now than when we first arrived, I think I just needed time to adjust. In the Smile House we have 3 meals a day with breakfast being cereal or toast and dinner being the main meal of the day - it is quite similar to the UK in this respect. The cooked meals are the most different, they usually consist of rice, potatoes or pasta with a kind of stew which contains meat (sausages, mince or beef) or beans, as well as some vegetables. The sauce is a mixture of boiled down tomatoes and stock of some sought. This taste took me a while to adjust to but now I really enjoy meals and I think that that distinctive taste will make me think of Africa if I ever have it in the future!

Finally, the weather here has been a big change of course! Most of all the heat, especially in the middle of the day, can be sizzling! In the last few days the highs have been about 28 or 29 degrees. Evening is the coolest and often people stay up late and you see loads of people out in Kampala in the evening. It gets dark here at about 7 every day which is when it gets cooler, and when the mosquitoes come out!

Just Keep Digging

Today, the three of us and Innocent went to a local school called Ruth Mother Care to do some digging in preparation for a new school building to be built. In future we will also be doing some teaching at this school but today was just digging!

Ruth Mother Care - Inside of old building

Ruth Mother Care - Outside of old building

We had our first Boda-boda ride, to get us to the school, which was really fun but slightly terrifying! Boda-bodas are motorbike taxis and the drivers are a bit crazy - although all the drivers around here are a bit crazy!

Ken and scary Kathryn with a machete! 

Me and Innocent

Me and Kathryn

When we arrived at the school the children started shouting and hugging us which was so lovely, they are primary school age and are really well behaved. Ruth, who runs the school, is great. She is firm with the children but is so kind and caring, and they never uses corporal punishment which is apparently very common in schools around here. For most of the day we were digging holes in the ground as the foundations for the structure of the new building. It was very dirty and REALLY HOT, but it was good to do some physical work and start on a new project. Tomorrow we will be finishing digging the holes so it is ready for a short-term team to come and build the structure next week.

First Impressions

The Smile House

Today is our sixth day in Uganda, though to me it feels like longer. We are settling in well and our friends living here keep reminding us that this is our home now as well as theirs which makes us feel very welcome and comfortable. We have all been getting on well and no arguments so far apart from how long certain people spend in the bathroom... This week we have been taking it slow to get used to our surroundings and adjust to the culture, and although I want to start getting involved in the projects, I can see that this is sensible as it is a huge change.

The Living Room

We have been getting used to the Smile House which is very nice - it even has internet and hot showers which is brilliant! However, next Saturday we will be going out into the sticks to work in a village school for about ten days so no home comforts there! I am very much looking forward to that and I will write more about it soon.

The Kitchen

As well as being a home, the Smile House is also where many local volunteers come to work in the week. We have daily devotions with them at 8:30 every morning which is really nice and encouraging. Us Gappers were talking about how wise many of the local people are, and how much they trust in and rely on God. Even the things they pray about helps me to get an idea of how different this culture is from the west. Firstly, they pray a LOT more! They thank God for everything - for example, getting from place to place safely, everything we eat, everything we have, every new day and for keeping us safe every night. I hope this is something I can take home with me and use in the future.

The view from our road

This week we have had a few meetings with the volunteers and project leaders to do with children's work. We have been discussing the children's clubs, holiday camps and school teaching. I have learnt so much from their experience and wisdom and although it sounds a bit crazy at times, with up to 130 kids at one club, I can't wait to get started.

Yesterday we took a walk through the local area with Jacob - one of the volunteers. It was such an experience to walk through the community and I see why people say that being there in person is so different to just seeing the pictures. It isn't a slum area but it is still shocking the level of poverty that, you know exists, but it hits you when you walk through it and see how many people live in it. It was funny and lovely to see the little children waving at us shouting "muzungu!". The children are so beautiful but some of them break your heart.

Arrived

Ken, Kathryn and me at Heathrow Airport!

Late Thursday night - or early Friday morning - me, Kathryn and Kenneth arrived at Entebbe airport. We were met by Innocent and Shevan, who are two of the volunteers at the Smile International centre, and Alex, the project manager, and his wife Bennie. We arrived at the house at about 2.00 in the morning and went straight to sleep as we were shattered after a long journey!

Innocent, me, Kathryn, Ken, Alex and Beni met us at Entebbe Airport

We had a lie in on Friday and then went into Kampala with Innocent to do some shopping. We went to the supermarket which wasn't too different from the ones in England, then e went to a market selling fresh fruit and veg which was weird to see compared to what we have in England, and made me think how processed and manufactured a lot of our food is.

I really enjoyed driving though the streets of Kampala and just seeing all the people and how busy everyone was. Also seeing the children coming home from school was lovely! It made me realise that no matter where you are we are all the same and people are just people - which is a comforting thought when we have just arrived in this new and completely different place!

After a nice meal we went to bed and had another lie in this morning because it is Saturday and it is everyone's day off. I felt a bit sick today - I think it is the adjustment and the malaria tablets - so I have been relaxing and mostly sleeping.

It gets dark here at about 7 and sometimes there is power in the evening and sometimes there isn't. Last night we played a game of rummikub in the dark and eat dinner by candlelight!

The people here at the centre are lovely and very welcoming. We have had a good couple of days but I know it will take a while to adjust to the new surroundings. I am looking forward to church tomorrow and will update this again soon!

Tomorrow!

This time tomorrow I will be in Uganda! Such a surreal thought but at the same time I feel like I have been waiting forever. 

At the moment I am in a hotel at Heathrow airport, all ready for my flight tomorrow at 12.30pm. I will be meeting Kathryn and Kenneth beforehand and then flying out together. My only worry is that my luggage is more than a bit over the weight it should be - I need to learn how to pack better! 

I met the team of Gappers - Kathryn, Kenneth and Anna -  at our training week in September. It was great to finally meet them as they were lovely, and we discovered we are all introverts so it will be interesting to see how that works out! Anna will be coming to join us in a few months time so we will be a team of 3 until then, but we will be keeping her posted until she arrives!

Anna, Kathryn, me and Kenneth

 Looking forward to tomorrow but nervous at the same time... Although the thunderstorms waiting in Uganda sound exciting!