It's the Final Countdown!

Hi everyone,

Sorry for there being no blog yesterday, the internet here is very unpredictable!

Yesterday, we had a very mixed day. We started the day at school and saw a very different side to discipline. Alicia and I were waiting for our class to arrive after their morning cleaning routine, when we looked around the corner to see a large group of children being systematically beaten with a stick. It was really disturbing and even more so when the children seemed to take it in their stride as if it was a routine event. The children in the UK should really count their blessings.

After a low start, we received our class and had a really great time. We took them to the field and played some team games. It was heart warming to hear the children laugh, cheer and see them smile so much. It was also amazing to see Agnes, the class teacher, joining in and laughing at the children's antics! Such a step forward.

Later in the afternoon, we visited a local orphanage. This was such a special experience. The children lived in cramped conditions and had no hope of leaving until they were 18, when they would no doubt live on the street or end up being exploited. However, the children had beautiful smiles, danced, sang and played with the balloons and bubbles we took. They were happy souls and we would bring them all home with us if we could.

Today exhaustion has set in. It was our last day at school and what a special day it has been. The children have enjoyed the activities and laughed a lot! When we were leaving, the children told us they had brought us some gifts. They presented us with tons of different fruits and veg; paw paws, mangos, corn, sugar cane and egg plants. These were true gift from the heart. These children have nothing and sacrificed their food to say thank you. We are truely touched by their kindness and generosity. What super stars they are. A young lady from our class called Florence was pleading with us stay and wrote us a beautiful letter. She said that when she grows up she wants to be a nurse, we hope her dreams come true, she deserves it.

Anyway, we are setting off on our long journeys home at 8am (UK time) tomorrow. We have had an amazing experience and will bring lots of happy memories, long lasting relationships and we are humbled by the wonderful people of Uganda.

We would like to thank everyone who has supported us in our Uganda adventure. Thank you to everyone who have donated money and items for our trip. You are truely wonderful people.

Love to all.

Over and out

Claire, Alicia, Claire, Catherine and Andy

The Shandalabanda Team.xxxxx

Wednesday 3rd August

Hi All,

Just a short and sweet one today as I've only just managed to post yesterdays!

We had another great day in school today. The headteacher has asked us to stay for a month (eh, no! I miss my Tomato Ketchup too much!).

We have spent the morning writing letter to the children at St Mary's, so hopefully we will have some pen pals up and running. The children were so excited to hear from the children in England and learn about their lives.

At lunch time I watched a pretend wedding, the younger children had found some flowers, made headbands and were holding a procession through the school grounds while they sang! It was great fun. I was the official wedding photographer (Ledz and Eilidh, I do a good rate!)

We are all exhausted today, so we are relaxing, having some food and getting an early night!

Speak soon

Love

The Gang!

Sorry for the delay

Sorry there was no blog last night, t'internet was down, as was the electricity and most other things around here! Anyway, here it is:
Tuesday 2nd August
Hi all,
I hope you are all well and enjoying the sunshine in England. We started the day with rain, yet again! However, never fear because the sun came out while we were teaching in the tin roofed classroom - think of a pressure cooker and that's how it feels!
Today we feel like we have made a break through in school. The children have joined in with the telling of the story (Talk for Writing) for all those teachers out there!), answered questions and even asked for help when they needed it. They are so used to 'chalk and talk' we feel that this is a real step forward. We continued writing the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff and we did some great Clarice Cliff artwork. Even the oldest and most boisterous boy in the class knuckled down and enjoyed success.
This afternoon we did some serious shopping! We went to Jinja town and visited the local shops. We bought lots of things for school - Maddie, I have bought you a sweeping brush so you can clean the classroom - wait until you see it! Claire B and Catherine bought some traditional Ugandan dresses, just like the one on my display board at school. They looked fantastic!
On our way home, we were stopped in our tracks by a monkey running across our path. The wildlife here just gets better and better!
Speak to you all tomorrow.
Lots of Love
C&A, C&C and Andy of course.xxxxxxx

Back to School

Hi All,

I am pleased to say that today we are back at school. When we arrived at school, the classroom was rather disorganised. When I asked Agnes, the class teacher, what had happened, she said that the children had become quite disruptive during the strike. It took us a while to settle the children today, however it was no problem.

The children began to write their own version of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. This was quite a challenge for them as they are not used to open tasks and independent work. Most of the classes are generally taught as repetition and copying from the board, so our lessons are completely different. The children did well though. We also did some Clarice Cliff artwork, the children are creating their own plates.

We went to Park Villa for lunch (it's not as glamorous as it sounds) and tried some African food; Matoki, poshi, yams, Casva, potatoes and kali.

This evening we have been to a lovely restaurant and on the walk home, we saw a black and green venomous snake (don't tell my mum!). The snake was sat in the road and we nearly stepped on it. When we realised what it was, we didn't run... oh no, we stopped to take a photo!

We've had another great day and look forward to lots more adventures and laughs (we do laugh a lot!)

Love to all

Claire, Alicia and the team.xxxxx

We got a bit 'ratty' today!

Hi all.

Wow! What a day. We got up this morning and got some pikis to Church -a motorbike taxi (don't tell my mum!). We spent 2 hours at Jinja Christian Fellowship Church. There was A LOT of singing! Andy had to get up on stage and do a speech. While Andy was on stage, I saw something in the corner of my eye run across the floor. Alicia and I both screeched rather loudly, shouting, 'mouse!' Then it ran in front of us and we realised it was actually A RAT! We were laughing hysterically with our feet up on the chairs. The Ugandans were intrigued with our hysteria and told us not to worry because it had gone! We didn't listen to any of Andy's speech and we promptly left! Sorry Andy!

This evening, we have been on a Sunset Nile Cruise. What an amazing way to spend a Sunday evening. The views were fantastic and the food was delicious.

Back to work tomorrow - yippee! We're looking forward to another fun-packed week.

Lots of Love

Claire and her cruising friends.xxx

P.S. Sorry no pictures tonight, the internet is very slow. I'll try to add some tomorrow.xxx

Good News!

Hi all.

We have good news today, the strike has been delayed for one month while discussions take place, so we will be back in school on Monday!

We have really missed being in school and seeing the children working hard.

We have been marking the children's work and it's really interesting to read about the types of tasks the do during their day. They start the day at 7.30am when they sweep the compound and the classrooms and slash the grass. Who needs a caretaker hey?!

Today we have had a relaxing day. When we got up, we went out for a walk and visited a place called Gately on the Nile where we had breakfast. We spent hours watching the beautiful wildlife in the gardens. We've seen dragonflies, finches, pelicans, Uganda cranes (a little like a vulture), beautiful flowers, cats and dogs. We then took a walk into Jinja town and enjoyed a cuppa in Flavours cafe.

When we returned back to the hotel, we enjoyed watching a baptism and wedding. They were both very grand and some of the outfits were very interesting!

We are waiting for Cathy and Claire to return from their whitewater rafting experience, hopefully in one piece. I'm sure they have had a wonderful time. We are then off for a meal in a local restaurant!

Tomorrow we are going to church and for a sunset cruise along the Nile.

See you all soon

Love Claire and her Uganda friends.xxxxx

It's Friday!

Hi all,

How are you?

We've had another disappointing day today, however we have made the most of a day off school. We got up early to find out that the strike over pay was still on. Cathy and Claire B were able to go into school to teach today as they are working in a school in the town centre and lots of children are still sent to school regardless of the strike. The children are mainly taught by prefects instead. Our school, however is a village school so all the children help on the farms and at home instead during the strike. So Alicia and I stayed behind to prepare resources for next week and things to leave behind when we go home. We had a productive morning cutting out 120 stars and writing poetry! Very civilised! We then visited the Act4Africa office where everyone was working very hard (you can pay me later for that Andy!)

This afternoon we headed down to Jinja town and passed by the teachers' union to show our support. We also visited the market where they sold everything from fried Talapia (fish) to tupperware boxes. It was a really bustling place however I'm not sure I'd like to buy anything from there.

During our walk around the town, we met a beautiful little girl called Bella, she was sat on the street playing with rubbish while her mother worked on a stall. She was intrigued by the Muzungu's (white people) that were passing by. We stopped to chat to her and her mother and Bella cried when we left. Her mum shouted after us that she wanted to come with us.

We are waiting to hear from our headteacher about whether school will reopen or not on Monday. If it does not reopen, we have arranged to work in a privately run school in Jinja that accommodates the orphaned children in Uganda, so we will be able to support the teachers and children there too.

We are missing the children of Budondo Primary greatly, but support the teachers in their fight for more pay. The teachers work under very difficult conditions; 80 children in a class, no resources, long hours, poor accommodation and very little money. We wouldn't stand for it in England!

That's all for now!

Speak soon

Claire & the Act4Africa team.xxxx

Disappointment

Today has been a disappointing day. For the first time in Ugandan history, the teachers have been on strike. I really don't blame them though. The teachers here teach from 7.30am - 5pm for £69 a month. Ridiculous. However, this means our teaching has come to a standstill for today. We are really disappointed. As things stand, we are not teaching tomorrow either, however we are drawing up a plan if the teaching doesn't start up again on Monday. Our time here will not be wasted.

Today, we have used the time to get some well earned sleep and prepare for the rest of our teaching. We also met an amazing lady and her newly adopted little girl. Christina came over from USA to work with street children in Uganda. While she was working, she came a cross a 4 year old little girl called Mikisa (which means blessing) in a sewage dump. Mikisha was close to death and weighed 9kgs. She was taken to hospital and when the orphanage found her mother they found out that the little girl had contracted Malaria at the age of 1 years old and was so poorly that she had a stroke. Her mother could not pay for treatment and so abandoned her in the sewage dump. Christina fell in love with the little girl and has decided to adopt her. Her adoption papers have just come through and she is now waiting for immigration to clear her to go back to the USA. What a life changes / life saving story! Some people are amazing and selfless. I take my hat off to Christina and wish Mikisha a happy life. She will need lots of physio and special care when she reaches America. The picture above is of Cathy (one of our teachers) and Mikisha playing in the pool. That is a smile that will break hearts.

Hopefully we will have a better day tomorrow as we have ended up spending 251,500 Ugandan shillings today - Oops! But that's another story!

Lots of Love to all

Claire and her friends.xxxx

I've been Tangoed!

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone is well and enjoying the sunny weather - thanks Jo for pointing out that it was raining here and sunny there! This evening, we decided to cool down after a busy, hot day in the local pool. We had been sat down for 10 minutes when the sky burst and the largest raindrops ever decended on us! Typical!

I am however getting a lovely tan; it's not from the sun, but from the orange dust off the ground. I'm turning oranger and oranger! Tango advert here I come.

Today, the children have really engaged in the work. It is difficult to get them to communicate. They are really scared to answer questions - that tells you something about the way they are usually taught. However, today we had great fun acting out the 3 Billy Goats Gruff and singing Old McDonald! Lots of smiles and laughter all round!

Above is a picture of our hotel - the lap of luxury! Well, our hotel is not far off this!

Have a great evening. I'm hoping for some sunny weather when I'm not teaching (it was scorching while I was singing Old McDonald dressed as a chicken!)

Speak soon

Love to all

Claire.x

Day Two at School

Hi all,

It's good to see so many people joining the blog, thank you for your lovely messages!

After another early start (yes I am tired already!), we set off in our rickety van to school. We were greeted by lots of happy, smiley faces. We stepped off the bus and started teaching at 8.30am. The children had already done one hour of cleaning in school - I like the idea of Poppy and David sweeping the floor before I arrive to school!

Our first lesson was to design a t-shirt. The children were reluctant at first, but when they got started, they produced some beautiful work. We gave them felt tips and crayons to use, this seemed to be something new and excited the children a lot.

In the next lesson, we introduced traditional tales to the class. We read 'Three Billy Goats Gruff', which they loved. We all designed our own trolls and made 'Wanted' posters. Again, the children found this a challenge but enjoyed using their imaginations.

We then repeated these lessons with the second P5 class. This was much more difficult. There were children of the age of 15 who found it a chhallenge to share their ideas.

The teachers are really beginning to relax with us. I am absolutelyblown away by the children's happiness when they are arriving to school with no shoes, ripped clothes and pencils that are only a few centimetres long. They have to walk several miles to school and have no lunch provided for them. Most children play netball and football at lunchtime rather than walking home for dinner. The school canteen is a little hut with very little food in it!

I have had lots of amazing experiences already, the only downside is the toilets. The school toilets really need a sprinkle of Mrs Nolan and possibly even a toilet pan! Squatting is not for me! Too much information?!

This evening, we have had a lovely walk in Jinja town centre where we have seen birds that are bigger than people! Beans and rice are also delicious!

Off to bed soon.

Thanks for reading.

Love to all

Claire.x

Day One at School

The Mancunicans have arrived in Uganda. You can tell because -IT'S RAINING!

We had an early start this morning, we were up before the breakfast was ready. We headed off to school at 7.30. Budonda Primary School (also known as St Stephen's) is a beautiful drive away. We drove through shanty villages and up red roads.

On our arrival we realised we were working on Ugandan time, the headteacher hadn't arrived!

When we figured out which class we were teaching, we were thrown straight in. The class was split into 2 groups; one of 50 children and one of 60 children. We told the children all about England and they told us about them. We sang songs and had some good laughs.

The children weren't quite sure what or who we were, but by the end of the day they were singing and dancing with us.

What a great day! We're looking forward to tomorrow. Tea and bed for us tonight as the travelling has caught up with us.

Speak soon.

Love to everyone.xxx

Airport antics

Arrived at the airport unable to lift my luggage! Checked in fine with a lot of help from Ms Atherton! Thank you to her for stopping me from crying!
Passport control was amusing, the new body scanner will never be the same again!
Just having our last decent meal, if you can class burger king as decent!
All aboard!
See you at the other end.
Claire & Alicia.x

Today's the day

I'm packed and ready to go!
Heading off to the airport soon with a case that's too heavy to lift and hand luggage that has the strangest contents ever! Border control are going to love me!
See you all in a few weeks. I'll hopefully blog on Monday when things are settled.
Take care everyone.
Love
C.x

Two days to go!

Hi Everyone,
Well, it's getting closer to my trip to Uganda and the nerves are starting to set in. Thank you to everyone who has helped raise the money for the trip, especially the children at St Mary's C.E Primary.
I'm hoping to blog as much as possible while I'm away, but internet access is limited and not always reliable, so cross your fingers!

See you all soon.
Happy holidays to you all
Miss R :)