This morning we went with Lee to one of her very remote village projects. She wanted to show it to me to see if I was interested in giving some money to the project. The village was so remote, it was an hour mutatu ride and a 30 minute bodo bodo ride. Great fun to find the place, but very far out. The people on the main road were excited to see so many white people passing on motorcycles.
Once we arrived the schools director took us for a tour. At present they are renting a small house and using it for 4 classrooms. The other classes are taught outside under trees in a temporary structure. There are 300 kids there and they have nothing. The project really needs to be built from the ground up.
When I asked the director what the biggest need was he told me that they need permanent structure and some more land. They have also started a latrine but need money to finish it. To buy the land is inexpensive but to build the school is very expensive. The cost of everything here in Uganda has doubled in the past year and a half. They told me to finish the latrine was 70 000 shillings so I gave them the money on the spot, but when I handed it over they guy looked at me funny. Apparently we had a miscommunication and the latrine would actually cost 700 000 shillings to finish. I didn’t have the money on me but am ok with giving it to them later. I don’t think I will invest in the project because there is far too much to do and they don’t seem to be the most organized people.
We also stopped at an orphanage school on the way back, which Lee also runs, but the director wasn’t there. When we arrived I was so excited to see that the kids were wearing bright yellow Tim Horton’s uniforms. On the back they had numbers and the name Timbits across. Apparently another Canadian volunteer brought them, but it was great to see them all wearing them. We did a quick tour, took some photos and went to find our way back to Mukono.
Because we were deep village we were at the mercy of passing by boda boda’s to pick us up. Luckily there was a truck passing by who offered us a ride. Two got in the front and Sarah and I stood in the back of the pick up. As we drove down the road people were coming out of their homes to wave at the passing white people in the back of the truck. We were definitely the superstars of the village that day.
This afternoon Coline and I went back to Nalusse to finish painting the masks. It took another 3 hours to finish them and we were sweating the whole time, but it was nice to see the kids happy with the outcome. As with last time, they really enjoyed the feathers and wanted to put a ton of them on. The class was a lot more crazy than my last students so they got a bit out of hand. One of the kids threw his shoes on the roof and they had to lift a small kid up there to walk across the iron sheets to get it. I thought he was going to fall in on us. In the end I got some great photos of the masks and a good group shot of all the kids.
Off to do chimp trekking tomorrow and can’t wait to get out of Mukono and see more of this beautiful country.
Jenn
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