SMB 2014 visit report – days one to three

Day 1:

(In their words…)

After having arrived at in Entebbe we arrived in the early hours of the morning. After having spent a night in Banana Village, when we woke in the morning before we had breakfast, some of us saw some monkeys playing in the trees. We had a very tasty breakfast before heading off to a hotel in Kampala to change our money into Ugandan Shillings which was a much swifter process than it would have been in England.

Once all of us had changed our money we went off to have some lunch which turned out to be very western as all of us had pizza except Tilly, who had a burger and Immy who had a sandwich. The food was delicious but ordering and seeing the menu was very different due to the fact that the price was thousands of Ugandan shillings. As Dodie wasn’t with us she doesn’t know about the very traditional food so don’t tell her!!!

Once everyone had finished eating we got back in the bus and headed to the Ugandan craft market where people bought everything from sculptures to purses to clothing. The stall holders were very different as they were prepared to barter which is pretty much unheard of in England. Additionally, they were desperate for you to come to them to buy something, so often stall holders were prepared to go lower than others which was interesting to observe.

When everyone had purchased everything they wanted to, the group split in to travel to Mityana. The drive was not particularly long but as we found out pretty quickly the roads were not great to drive along!!

Soon we arrived and we were divided into 5 different groups to sleep in; Venetia, Immy and Elizabeth, Livvy, Tilly and Billie, Nat and Archie, Patrick and Oli and Tom and Joe. The rooms themselves are very nice but the showers are sadly not so good as the water is predominantly cold and the pressure is not great either but it all adds to the experience!

Day 2:

We woke up at about 7.30 having suffered in the night with loud music, and had breakfast at

7.45. We collected all our things together in our rucksacks and set off for Makonzi. I can tell you the bus journey was awful, he dust got everywhere; Tilly who was sat next to an open window was orange by the end of the journey! It looked like some very bad fake tan! The bumps too were interesting to say the least. When we got there we were practically swarmed by children, especially when we were getting out of the mini bus. We were taken to james’ (the head master’s) office where we dropped off our bags. Then he gave us a tour of the school but  not before we saw the St Mary Bourne School pictures on the wall. And most of us were in the one from Mrs T’s class. We saw the paw paw plantation, the piglet project, the kitchen, and there the year 6 students were all preparing our lunch. We saw where the new teachers’ accommodation is going to be built.

Then we were divided into three groups. The Three little pigs group, the little red hen group and the lion and the  mouse group. We read the story, although the lion and the  mouse group acted theirs out and then we had cfrat activities for them all.

There were little pig masks, little red hen friends, the cat and duck and pig and then some made paper plate snakes.

At lunch we tried matoke, made of plantain bananas, and they had killed one of the pigs so we had pork, potatoes and rice. It was a really good meal. The children all had porridge at lunch time and matoke at 4pm.

Despite it being boiling hot we played football. Oh yes, we had an assembly where we introduced ourselves, Dodie was near enough to remind us of what to say and waht to tell them and the school choir sang and danced.

Day 3: Afinnet and MSS

Today was amazing we went to a charity funded place called AFINNET which stands for African friends in need network. They help boys and girls aged from 14 to 23 who have dropped put from school  for varies reasons such as; fell pregnant, couldn’t afford to send their children to school anymore, didn’t pass their tests so had to leave ect. We was welcomed by john and he was so welcoming and everyone was so kind and positive even though they had very little to work with! We had a tour around the school and saw all the different skills they learn in hope to use them to find a job when they leave. The skills include; catering, hair dressing, computing and carpentry.

Aagin we had groups who worked in carpentry – they made trains with Mike, sewing and we made bags with Jo and then the other group helped students with computers. After the lunch the made us we went to see Michael’s house. It was lovely because he was so proud of the garden including the animals and the he gave us some sugar cane and 2 pineapples. Some of the group stayed behind and made hand puppets and the afinnet girls really loved them.

Then we went down to Mityana Secondary School, we met the headmaster called Sammy and walked around the school having a quick look. We toured with two biys, Bruno and Joel and they sat and talked to us. We were introduced to three teachers, James and Silver had been to stay in St Mary Bourne and Benson who hopes to come with a small team this yeat to visitTestbourne.

It was the best day yet.