Wednesday 19th November 2014 written by Jess

So day 3 in Uganda has been amazing! This morning the team got involved and stuck in their jobs, half the team ( Dan Potter, Ben, Nassar and David) went to the St joseph school and finished off their painting from yesterday where they did a brilliant job. 

The other half (Leonie, Joe, Dan Bailey, Adam and me) were in Maya Health Clinic working alongside the workers. Leonie, Joe and Dan continued the massive challenge of helping to dig a 7ft deep hole for the new water storage tank - a huge challenge but they did their bit with a lot of enthusiasm and a little sing song to keep them going! 

Adam and I were helping Silver the plasterer plaster a kitchen area by mixing the cement, so after a morning of a lot of wheel barrowing, digging sand, mixing cement and sweat, Silver had completed two walls of plastering and had plenty of plaster to use for the rest of the day and Adam gained a few man points!!  

Helen had a foot in both locations and did some painting at the school before coming to Maya and helping dig the hole – the perks of being the leader!

Song of the morning: every day I’m shovelling!  

After our packed lunch everybody headed down to St Joseph’s school to run a few hours of activities. The team I was in (Leonie, Ben, Dan B, Joe and Jess) had organised a few crafts for the children to do; on our previous visit we noticed that the classroom walls were slightly bare so we all came up with the idea of getting the children to make their own bunting.  

We gave them each a triangle piece of coloured paper and told them to draw their hopes, dreams and wishes and make it as bright as possible. Then we pulled the glitter out - their faces were a mix between smiles, curiosity and excitement!  

By the end of both sessions we had beautiful bunting and a class covered in glitter. A lot of the children drew pictures of family, home, cars, football teams, even pictures of themselves. In future a lot of the children wanted to become doctors and teachers, one boy even said he wanted to be in the Queens guard in the UK. The other team also did craft activities with their classes.

The only negative of the day was the torrential rain we had this afternoon. It only rained for about 20 minutes or so but that completely flooded any sort of road and houses. Even though it was raining it didn’t dampen anyone’s enthusiasm. 

It was just such a shame once we left Maya to see how much damage that the rain had done to family homes and roads, at one point we saw children wading through water over their knees to get to high ground where it was dry.

All in all it has been a very very good day, everybody is happy and feeling positive and looking forward to more of our Uganda adventure.   

PS from Helen – we are going upcountry tomorrow, to Mityana – a beautiful rural village where John, our host, grew up. It’s going to be great fun, but the chances of internet are low to none, so apologies in advance if no blog tomorrow!