Friday 21 November 2014

Thursday by Joe

Hello everyoooone! Its day 4 here in Uganda and it has been such a long day! Amazing but still long… we woke up about half 7/8 had some breaky and then packed our bags for a long drive to Mityana to stay at johns dads house and visit a rural school, although a long drive we took 3 vehicles so everyone had more room which made it a lot better. All in all it took us about 2 hours and maybe a bit quicker if we didn’t have to keep waiting for the other guys as they were driving to slow haha!
So we arrived at johns dads house at about half past 11, his house is so peaceful and completely different to where we are staying back at Kampala. Once everybody was out the vans and what not we had little walk around the grounds to see what it was like. There are cows, chickens, jack fruits, avocados and so on…I could literally go on forever! We chilled out while we waited for lunch and watched a storm come through the mountains which then hit us as we ate lunch. For lunch we had “rolex”, no we didn’t eat designer watches haha rolex means rolled eggs here in Uganda. It’s basically Spanish omelette rolled in a chapatti witch is actually very nice so more rolex for me when we are back! Everyone went up for more and I believe Ben had a total of 3 chapattis he enjoyed them that much. We finished our lunch and got our kit sorted for the afternoon at a school on a tea plantation and set off.

We arrived at the school and found out there was a slight change of plan and instead of going of in our teams to teach our classes we all had the youngest children for 45 minutes. So with no planning for this what so ever it was time to do what we all do best…WING IT!! And that’s exactly what we done. Out came the parachutes and the footballs and out came the songs haha they loved it and so did we which is always a bonus. After the 45 minutes was up it was time to get in to our new teams and set off to our classroom. The team that I was in consisted of Leonie, Nassar, David, Dan B and myself. We got to our classroom and the kids where literally manic and with no teacher in sight it was a tad stressful as none of the kids could understand English which certainly didn’t help. I’ve never seen kids so happy to see pencils and make paper aeroplanes, its quite sad really but also nice to know that it’s you guys making them happy! The kids got more and more hyper as the lesson went on and still no teacher to be seen it was outside with relays to wear them out. Eventually a teacher came as Helen had seen there was none and that we could really do with one which did make the last 15 minutes easier. After a stressful hour or so it was time to go to our second class WHICH thankfully had a teacher (I think Helen may have scared them a little). When we got into the class we realised that half the class had come into our previous lesson due to the fact there was no teacher and as we didn’t want to give them the same lesson twice it was wing it, again haha. We taught them all how to make paper aeroplanes and then decorated them all and you could see just how much they enjoyed it! After we finished there was ten minutes to spear so we lined the class up (biggest line ever) and tested our aeroplanes... what a result. They loved it. We then said our goodbyes and set off on a twenty minute walk back to Johns fathers.

The walk was lovely with so many sights and so many kids also walking home from school. We saw a tree full of weaver birds and many cows and goats, baaaaa! The kids where a joy to walk with and just wanted to hold your hand, one girl held jess’ hand the whole way back and even ran to catch up with us when we had got too far ahead bless her. I saw one boy carrying two jerry cans full of water, he must have been no older than 8 so I took them off his hands and carried them until it was time to part!


We got back to Johns fathers and once again chilled out after a slightly stressful day and waited for dinner. A cup of tea later and a few cracking jokes from ben it was dinner time. We had chicken, spaghetti, potatoes, onion relish and vegetables in some sort of sauce and as always it was lovely!  We demolished dinner and then another cup of tea and here I am writing the blog while the others are setting up the tent, which by the sounds of it isn’t going to good!haha so that’s it for today really I hope you are all missing us as I know we are all missing you and it has been a pleasure writing this blog for you. See you all soon!














8 comments:

Unknown said...

Its so good to read your blog everyday you make us all so proud good to see your face David love you lots Nan

Unknown said...

Hiya Joe!! Loved reading your blog, even though it made me cry!!! (Happy/pride tears) I can't believe the difference you are all making, it must be so humbling! Keep up the good work, look forward to reading about your next adventure.
Love you Joe!
From, Auntie Lou, Uncle Gra, Chloe and Tommy xxxxxx Take care xxxxxx

Unknown said...

Hi Joe, really enjoyed your blog, amazing!!
I look forward so much, to reading them and looking at the photos each day.
We'er thinking of you all and feeling tremendously proud.
Lots of love Nan xxx

Unknown said...

Leonie, great to see you are all making a difference and enjoying yourselves. Bad news you are out of the cup beaten by Aldershot(None league!!!!) should be fun with Norman tomorrow! To you all keep up the great work, we are all proud of you
Mum and Dad xxxxxx

Unknown said...

looks like the children are enjoying having you there enjoy the rest of your time there love caroline and steve bullivant

Unknown said...

Hi joe
Its great to read your blog,we are so proud of you and the rest of the team
love auntie gail & les

Unknown said...

Hi, it's been great reading your blogs everyday, you are all doing a great job. Nice to see Liam on one of the photos as I know he is the one taking them all. Can't believe you have been there nearly a week already. Missing you Liam, looking forward to seeing all your photos and films when you get back. All ok at home. Lcve mum, dad, Adam and Jess xx

Unknown said...

Hi joe,
I've been reading the blog daily and I'm so proud! Your all doing an amazing job and I can't wait to see you, love you lots xxxxxx