Visit report – October 2019

A group from Testbourne visited Mityana in October 2019. They kept a diary of their daily activities and a selection, in their own words, is included below.

Day 1 – Saturday 19 October 2019

We flew to Brussels then to Entebbe on a different flight. We all felt very tired when we arrived at Entebbe.

Day 2

We all brought gifts for our friends and family to say thank you. This experience was fun and difficult as it was a new experience and it was fun to bargain, experience the new culture and look around at different shops.

Day 3 – Mityana Secondary School

At the beginning, all of the buddies were really shy but towards the end became more confident around us. They were all very friendly and they took us to a room where we filled in a sheet about them and ourselves.

As it’s a boarding school, we were fortunate enough to see their accommodation. We were interested to find that they sleep 30 people in a room.

Everyone’s best part of the day was an activity we did which was carrying.   We walked with our buddies down to spring on the other side of the hill with our jerry cans (20 litres). Then we filled them, this took ages, some filled them to the top others did not! Then we headed back to MSS and it was up a steep path (really steep) and slippery (really slippery) and our buddies were not allowed to help us and they laughed at how difficult we found it.

Day 4 – Mityana Secondary School

Once we were in the class we joined halfway through and we were doing algebra however our buddies said they normally would do work out of a textbook with no teacher. Weirdly at the end of the lesson teachers would walk out of the class and the students would stay where they were.

Day 5 – Kawoko

Then we drove around to 7 different families in the community and looked around their houses. Then we gave them bags with soap, sugar, oil, salt and rice. They were really grateful for such small gifts and it was really humbling to see how they lived and how many people lived in each house.

One family we visited had a woman who in her past had polio and because of that had lost her legs. She met us at the door and escorted us into her home. To get around she used her arms to carry the rest of her body. She seemed so thin.  And there was a young boy who had also came with us from the primary school who she later said to be her nephew. He also had sight problems. All we did was give them a little (salt, soap, rice, oil,…) but they seemed so pleased by the tiny amount. And they were so happy that we had visited them, taking time to come.

Day 6 – Kindergarten and Afinnet

We were greeted by the whole school singing and dancing to us. Next, we separated into three groups and did activities like reading to them, colouring in and making bracelets for them.

We then walked over to the Afinnet college to help paint the hairdressing classroom.

PS We have been set the task of a secret ‘random act of kindness’ for one of the members of the team. Gifts letters, surprises have been landed on doorstops, at the table, in the bedrooms and no one knows who!

Day 8 – Namutamba hospital for disabled children

We then had a tour around the hospital, we saw the surgery room , plaster room, the over night dorms , physio therapy room, toilets and showers. We then went to the garden where the kitchen which was a shed.

We then went back to hall where we were introduced to the teachers , some patients and volunteers from Germany. We then went up to the front so we could introduce ourselves. After this we sang a song where we all had to sing along and danced. We then made some handbags with the students and then made a bracelets from sweets which they were very confused about to start with.