Yesterday was one of the least productive days I've ever had, just waiting for someone to turn up who never did. I was going to go and make an inventory of all the science equipment but then it turns out they already have one, although it is slightly out of date. I was going to check through it all but then the girls came to clean the lab so I got out of their way. Today I'm meeting the biology and chemistry teacher at 2pm, and then the physics teacher at 5pm, so I'll probably actually meet both of them at 6pm or something like that. African time. It's maddening.
This morning, after a lovely breakfast of a banana and jam sandwich, a group of us walked to a nearby village about 30 minutes walk away to help a child-headed family in their garden. The family are AIDS orphans - the oldest boy is 20 and he's in grade S4 at the school (so taking O-level type things soon). Recently the URF built them a house and also a drying rack for their washing up which helps prevent diseases. When we got there the first thing we had to do was collect water. Although boreholes are available in a lot of Uganda, this area doesn't usually have good groundwater and it often tastes very salty. So despite the fact that water from the "surface wells" (actually just muddy ponds) can spread diseases, they drink it because it tastes better. They do usually boil it first, but they water their plants with it before it's boiled. We walked for about a mile down a hill to this pond and then had to carry all the water back up again. It was a very authentic African experience :-S. I wish I knew how to carry the water on my head but last time I tried I ended up spilling the whole jerry can full of water over my head so I didn't try this time!
On the way to this little village we passed through Kyetume again and I stopped to buy a soda as always. A very drunk man came up and was hugging me and shaking my hand and shouting how happy he was to see me, and then he was asking me for money and didn't seem to understand "no". Luckily Charles and Martin, who live in the house next to ours and work for the URF, were with us, and Charles dragged the guy away.
One thing I've found really funny since I've been here is how many people ask how the queen is. When I mention the royal wedding they get very excited and say they all watched it! They must have all crowded round some of the very few TVs there are here. I wonder what it looked like through the eyes of the desperately poor people around here.
It's about 2 o'clock now so I'd better head off to my meeting :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment