By Michelle
Breakfast seems to be the only let down of our new hotel, lack of choice but good food, so mustn’t grumble. Graham liberated a bunch of bananas from breakfast, so we could eat them at lunch. We have 4 poster beds with nets around, it’s all a bit Arabian nights! We made our way to the Masindi Municipal Offices, after having driven onto what looked like the playing field we expected to be coaching on, just to be told that we would be coaching on the field we had just left! Unpacked the bus with our kit and waited for the primary school teachers to arrive, Hannah, Yusef and I made our way to town to buy lunch and sort out some money. We came back to 10 teachers being coached. The morning session went well, Hannah and Graham set up a game with around 20 local children who turned up, whilst I played catch with 5 little ones. We went back to the hotel for lunch, as it was a 2 minute commute away from the coaching field!
The afternoon was to be spent coaching the secondary teachers, the first turned up just after 2, alone, Rich started coaching him, whilst Graham, Yusef and I waited for more to turn up (the rest of our team had gone to town, as we were only expecting 4-8 teachers this afternoon). Graham coached me with some more bowling, I was getting the ball on target, so Graham suggested I tried a run up to bowl…this is where it all went a bit pear shaped, I will get there one day! Eventually another teacher arrived so Graham took him off to start coaching. 2 teachers arrived in shirts and ties, they thought they were going to a meeting so insisted on going back to change into other clothes. They arrived back about an hour later, one of them not having changed his clothes! Hannah also had a bit of coaching from Rich and James today, the NCG (Non Coaching Group) will be no longer at this rate! We had 5 teachers this afternoon, lots of attention for each with the 10 of us coaching…2 more teachers arrived at 3:45, 15 minutes before the session was due to finish, Ugandan timing is great fun!
We were going to the Family Spirit Orphanage this afternoon. We were on our way there when Hannah realised she had lost her bag, with passport, money, phone etc in. PANIC! Everyone searched the bus for it, no success, back to the hotel to look for it, not there. Making our way back to the school where Hannah had been to visit, when Mike “found” the bag inside his, suspicious! Panic over, back on track to visiting the orphanage. When we arrived, Joseph couldn’t get much passed the entrance because of all the children running towards us, reaching through the windows to shake our hands to say hello. Getting out of the bus was also a challenge, as every child wanted to be holding our hands, arms or touching our legs! It was completely overwhelming but they all were so excited and lively that we didn’t have time to think about the situations they had found themselves in. We found ourselves with 4 or 5 children attached to each of us as we walked over to watch the cricket match that was going on out front, Yusef joined in, whilst coaching the girl batting with him.
So many smiling faces around us. One girl, Whitney, took Yusef and I on a tour around the orphanage. They have pigs, chickens, rabbits and vegetable gardens, it was now that we found out that Yusef fears pigs! Whitney was a very good guide around the orphanage, explaining that they are having a new block built for the girls to sleep in as at the moment they are cramped in the existing building. The children here are sharing beds, sometimes 3 or 4 to a bunk in the 3 tiered bunks, there are few mosquito nets to protect them from being bitten and the bedding is not in great condition. Mike had explained that we had a certain amount of money that had been donated to spend on the orphanage, it was decided that the money would be spent to buy mosquito nets and rice, both much needed items for the children. We have since been informed that mosquito nets for these 3 tiered beds are unavailable, so we will buy plastic chairs instead, the orphanage can then hire them out and raise money from this.
We all sat at school desks outside the front of the buildings, whilst a large group of the children marched to stand in front of us, to sing. They sang many songs to us, dancing as they sang about Jesus, God, love and being orphans. We had been joined by a number of the smaller children on the seats, some sitting on our laps singing along to the songs being sung. Two girls sitting with Rich and I were excited to be allowed to wear our CWB hats during the entertainment. The boys that were hanging onto James’ arms have re-named him Jack, as one had commented that James was as fat as a large Jack Fruit, a comment that the rest of the team found hilarious! James is now known as Jack within our team! The suitcases full of clothes, pencils, pens, balloons etc were moved from the bus to the orphanage office, these seemed to be gratefully received. The balloons were handed out by Whitney, as she attempted to organise the smaller children into class lines, there was far too much excitement around the balloons!
Whilst the children were distracted with the balloons, we made our way to the bus to leave. It was a visit that none of us will forget. It was a difficult but interesting experience to spend some time with these orphaned children, many of whom were so desperate for our attention throughout our time there. It is difficult not to bring our own Western values and experiences to a situation like this, but it is important to accept that we are visiting a very different culture and they have their way of doing things and we have ours. I am not convinced that our way is in any way better or more effective than here and am sure to think about this trip when I am back at work in a few days time.
We arrived back at the hotel to discover that the electric was still not back on, they seem to have numerous power cuts throughout the day and night at our hotel. Quick shower and change and off to the restaurant for dinner. Food was lovely again and enjoyed by all. All of us, other than Alan, made our way into Masindi for a pub crawl…Mike and Jack taking boda-bodas (taxi bikes) not realising that the rest of us decided to walk! We met them at the first pub in town, drinking black Smirnoff Ice, wondering where we had been! After a drink here we moved to the next pub, just to leave again because there did not seem to be any room, crossing the road we went to the pub opposite for a drink. A lot of laughter was to be heard from the group of Muzungu in this pub, as a rather drunken local had joined us to tell us about his father called David. Using Yusef to translate, Hannah tried to explain that she has a brother called David, but the man would not accept that there was anyone else in the world called David, as this was his father and his father has a diploma in education, it was an interesting conversation! Veronika and I asked to use the toilet, we were led out the back across a back yard, by mobile phone light and asked if it was to urinate, we confirmed this. The lady pointed to a corner of the yard saying that we could urinate here as the toilets were very dirty, we decided to pass on this option!
We made our way back over the road to the second pub, to discover that out the back was a dance floor and pool table. We all made our way to the dance floor and enjoyed a few hours of cricket related dance moves/shapes to the very Westernised R&B music! Yusef was throwing some seriously cool moves, to be kept up with by Jack! It was a fun night to say the least, to be followed by a very amusing walk home, involving impressions and Veronique almost falling down a hole…it was lucky that Yusef was there to save her. Back at the hotel just after midnight for a few hours sleep before more coaching tomorrow. Tomorrow is my nephew’s second Birthday…hope you have a brilliant day Sam, I will come and see you with a big Birthday hug and presents for you and Isabel from my adventure when I get back xx
PS: Yusuf’s brother is stable and on the mend so great news there.