Yesterday in church was really good. Thankfully there was a power cut so the PA system was down meaning just voices for the music and drums, far better than out of tune keyboard and squeeking speakers! At the end of the service Agnes and Leah said they had a song for me and in front of the whole church made everyone sing about how they were going to miss me and asking if I would write and return. I was laughing so much that my cheeks actually hurt a lot! Then they’d made a cake which said on it ‘U’R part of Redeemed’ which everyoe enjoyed eating. Even up to your last day you can learn things and I learned that there is an etiquette to passing around cake. Turns out you serve visitors first, which was my parents, followed by the pastor then pastor’s wife and then the rows of the congregation. Partly to make people laugh and partly as a serious respect symbol when I gave Pastor cake I knelt down which is what women and girls do here to their superiors. I came to Agnes and did the same before then refusing to kneel to Dave! Once the church stopped laughing I did which I think he enjoyed a little too much!

The end of church was far too emotional trying to say good bye to everyone. I started to lose it when leaving Maggie who has become such a close friend. In the end after hugging each other about 8 times she just turned and walked away and didn’t look back. Noticed lots of people asking if she was ok as she walked through church but I had to pull myself together and continue my goodbyes. Not easy at all.

The evening was my community Bible study group who I am also going to miss so much. Thankfully two of my favourites are part of CMS so I will get to see them in my new job which made saying goodbye a little more bearable. When we got home Tiff and I did two very standard activities in our house which were sorting out bills and watching Glee! The packing was nearly done although was attempting to put everything in 2 cases as one of mine has disappeared from the house and so I’d taken a massive unwanted one of Tiff’s. Trying to close it this morning had me beginning to lose my mind and in the end I bought a new case in a trading centre just outside Entebbe and have repacked everything! My full on falling apart came this morning as I left home. Somehow it then hit me and for a large part of the day if I really think about going I just end up crying which is actually what I’m doing right now as well. Thankfully my friend Sam was taking us to the airport and so he just kept asking if I was ok as he knows us mzungu women can be a bit emotional! He actually said that mzungus had taught him to appreciate Uganda because they always don’t want to leave and so Uganda must have a lot going for it!

Although I know it is time to go and that for the time being trips back here will just be holiday, it is still really hard to leave feeling happy. I finished off the work that needed doing (including printing out the full adult literacy curriculum on Wednesday morning; such a huge sense of satisfaction and also delight from Dennis when he saw it!) and I also know that all the things I’ve done here have not been in vain and that I have helped to bring change to Musoto. However even knowing all that though it is still really hard to not feel like I’m about to lose so much by returning to the UK. It is funny how some people have said to me that they think moving to Africa is a huge sacrifice as you go without so much but I genuinely cannot understand and feel so priviledged to have worked in Musoto with wonderful people who have taught me so much about so much. I don’t think I have ever worked in a place that made me laugh as much as Beersheba and that is something I think I will miss a lot. I’m already planning in my mind a return trip within the year and lots of skype calls before then.

So, reading this back I realise how all over the place my mind currently is which I guess should be expected. Hopefully after a couple of days in the UK I will begin to feel normal and start to adjust to life again. But for now, au revoir Uganda, you’ve been great, a blessing and have given me more good memories than I could ever have expected. See you again one day…

Visitors came to visit Beersheba including our new COuntry Director and my old youth work tutor, Jeremy. They were really impressed with Beersheba and what we were up to which is nice when you’re coming to the end of a placement. It was also great being able to listen to the wisdom of Jeremy when I asked multiple questions about theology and UK church life.

I spent yesterday afternoon at the home of my friends Dennis and Nicole. Dennis is our Adult Literacy teacher and he’s been married for 4 months. Their home is a 1 room place in Musoto that they separate by a curtain into sleeping area and living room. In standard Ugandan fashion there was lots of food and laughter while watching the tv! Very strange watching English news, realise how out of touch I am with the rest of the world. After we had eaten Dennis started saying the sweetest things about how I had helped him develop. He called me his mentor and said that my time in Africa was well spent and absolutely not a waste. His teaching abilities have improved beyond recognition but I’m not sure I can take the credit! His wife is expecting already which is exciting and it’s nice to see how happy they are as a couple. I also realise that when Dennis thanked Nicole for cooking it was the first time I had ever seen a man thank his wife for doing something. I’d been told men don’t thank their wives as it may make them lazy but instead it seems that it actually helps their relationship – shocking!

The past few weeks have also been taken up with trying to finish the banda at Beersheba. Somehow nothing here is straight forward but there are now doors and windows are apparently on the way. The floor and veranda are not quite in place yet which is a shame as the team from my old church in the UK arrive in about an hour and are expecting to begin painting on Tuesday! Sure it will all work out somehow although I’m not sure how!

The last couple of weeks have been really busy but as I sit here to write about them I can’t seem to remember any of what went on! Perhaps all I did was write lesson plans and health proposals. It is nice to have a few hours to myself before 12 Mzungus turn up in Mbale to work at Beerhsbea. One of them works for Oasis in Kampala and she’s doing my debrief which makes me wonder if I should be thinking anything deep as the UK also want to chat to me to check my brain isn’t on the point of explosion. I think I’m doing ok although I do have a moment of frantic sobbing every so often just to release pent up emotions that I have not realised are building. I think the next couple of weeks are going to be so hectic that I’m not really going to have time to think about the enormity of moving continent but very much hoping I don’t completely crash when I get back to the UK. Everyone keeps telling me to relax my last few weeks and enjoy it but I think I’m going to be too busy!!! It will be nice having Orpington folk here though and as my mentor pointed out if there are people who have seen everything then they can help to process when I’m back home. I seem to have been the most visited Mzungu ever at Beersheba with parents twice, best friend and old youth group I feel quite popular!

Right, my next set of visitors must be nearly upon me so I ought to go and think about putting on the kettle and maybe finding a jumper as it’s about to rain and so it’s cold and under 30 degrees! Perhaps this is part of my reintroduction to the UK…

So apart from starting to wind down and say goodbyes my main activity has been the adult literacy curriculum which now stands at 85% complete! I have ropped in others who will take it off me when my work is done and add their views and thoughts before it is then trialled out by various folks well after I am gone. Eventually it will be properly branded and hopefully sold to other NGOs so that Oasis Uganda can make some money! To get to that stage will be a long time and won’t be my problem but hopefully I have done enough to make it easy for others to continue. It is at this point that I am glad one of my greatest joys is seeing people develop and that handing things over does not affect my self-esteem! Even when there are new plans being dreamed up I am finding I am ok with them not involving me and instead I am looking forward to hearing how everyone else gets on. There is a massive part of me that sort of wishes I could stay in Uganda forever just because the people I work with as so awesome but I know it’s time to come home and at least this is a great holiday destination! One of my friends said they were only releasing me to return to the UK on the condition I found a job and saved for the airfare to come straight back and visit. At least I know I am leaving Beersheba in a very healthy place, in fact I think it is one of the healthiest projects/programmes I have ever seen and I think great things are in store for it.

So in 4 weeks time I will be waking up in Haddenham probably wondering whether the last 2 years have been a dream. I have been advised to savour every moment of the everyday boring things of life which sum up Africa which I am trying to do before many many folk arrive from the UK in my final two weeks and keep me busy! I think they’re coming at the right time though as I’ll be able to show them around and explain what I’ve been up to which will hopefully help me process as well. Right now all I can do to sum up Africa is say that I’m a very lucky girl to have been able to have such an experience and be taught so much by some truly wonderful people. They would probably say I was a blessing to them but I know that the benefits I have received far outweigh what I have given. Truly a great couple of years and I can’t believe I have only a month left, where did all that time go…

Two weeks ago saw the arrival of Dave who began Beersheba, has been studying for a couple of years and has returned in the position on Regional Manager. He will be taking over my staff and looking at new and bigger things that can be done. Although he’s officially not working yet, he’s been here everyday so far and has several adventures and activities planned. I think football may be quite central to those adventures as the words ‘sports academy’ and ’3 acre field’ keep being mentioned a lot! The staff are delighted that he has returned and even people in the community that didn’t know him last time are very happy that he’s around. He keeps saying I should stay but when it’s time to go, you know. Shame though as I think I’d learn a lot from him but at least with things moving forward there’ll be lots of reasons to visit in the future. So our celebrations for Dave’s arrival also coincided with goodbyes for Gill our country director. She came to Uganda 10 years ago when Oasis was only a few months old and was due to stay here for 5 months. She’s now married to a Ugandan and is leaving because they are expecting their first child. Every mother’s nightmare for their Gap year child! Our hello/goodbye ceremonies were quite chilled out as they were organised by me and I still haven’t understood the formality that usually goes with these things. Apparently there was supposed to be a programme and speeches etc but any programme was just in my head and sort of made up over devotions that morning when staff asked me what was planned! Great time though singing, saying nice things to Dave and Gill and eating lots of cake and pineapple.

The rest of the week was full with the training of new Esteem volunteers and attempting to work out the Local Service Tax for the previous year. Total headache even though at first it looked quite simple; I never thought 2 pages of numbers could finish me off but they gave it their best shot! I don’t think I left the house for anywhere exciting over the weekend and skipped church after the previous week’s sermon had been a minute by minute description of the end of the world – doesn’t sound too much fun!

By Monday I was really in need of a holiday which was good because that was the plan for Tuesday onwards! I began the day taking Dave around town and introducing him to our friendly police officer and reuniting him with folks from Jenga. We then sat and talked for a couple of hours about all things Beersheba and what he should know about people and projects. I then ran for the bus to spend some quiet and relaxing time in Jinja!

I should really have learnt by now that any attempt by me to find quiet and solitude in Africa is sort of asking for trouble. It began as I reached Jinja and the rain began. Thought it wouldn’t be too bad so took shelter, along with about 40 other people, under a bus shelter. Sadly it didn’t have sides and I was at the edge so within a few minutes I was soaked through. The pikkie driver’s promise that the rain was ending soon didn’t seem too based in reality as it got harder and the skies got blacker. In the end I called a taxi guy I knew who came and rescued me although due to the Nile bridge flooding it took him 40 minutes for a normally 5 minute journey. Never been so relieved in my life to get into a warm car and also very glad to lose the guy under the shelter who wanted me to be his wife because I am ‘sooooo beautiful’! Really should have told him to set his sights higher as a Mzungu doing a drowned rat impression really isn’t ‘sooooo beautiful’! Finally made it to where I was staying and a lovely warm dinner and a dvd with my friend were waiting for me. Bliss.

Our next adventure was into Kampala the next day to get ‘Certificates of Good Conduct’ from Interpol so that we can get CRB checks back in the UK. Very crazy system that sees you beginning at Interpol where you collect payment slips, going to the fingerprinting place to get more bank slips then going to the bank to pay. None of these places are near each other so that process took well over an hour. You have to pay in the bank to avoid corruption with government officials who may steal the money. You then return to the fingerprinting place, write a letter requesting finger prints, fill in a comedy form that asked for tribe, father’s name and any deformities you have, before they finally take your prints in an overcrowded and disorganised office! Entertainingly you then have to pay them some money for officer fees which seems to go against the logic of having to go to the bank in the first place! Finally you return to Interpol where your certificate is supposed to be ready in 3 days. We ran into a few problems when the first Interpol lady took our documents which were then required by the fingerprinting people who didn’t believe their boss at Interpol would have taken them! In the end we just hoped for the best, returned to Interpol and explained the issue with fingerprints hoping that there would be some other way they could check for criminal records. We paid more officer fees and were then presented with our completed certificates which she’d printed without checking records because she thought we looked honest!!!!!! If only CRBs were so simple! So I have an official record from the police force of Uganda stating that I have not come to adverse police notice, all without even checking any records! Our trauma of 3 hours attempting to get that done was follwed by a shopping trip to craft shops for my final souvenirs. Super fast trip due to Interpol which was followed by returning to Jinja to a luxury hotel where my friend and I thought we’d treat ourselves for a couple of days.

Very posh place where the ‘tents’ were made of brick on 3 sides, had comfortable beds, a sitting room and were plumbed in with a shower that overlooked the Nile. The only tent like feature was the canvas front door! Beautiful view and very peaceful. Our couple of days there included me going shopping again and then playing chess for the first time in 20 years (I lost) before sitting down for a quiet dinner at the restaurant. There were several monkeys around the place which enjoying jumping around and so when I saw something fall off the roof at first I assumed that was what it was. Then as my brain slowly processed (slower than usual due to the gin and tonic I’d just consumed) I realised that monkeys don’t usually have tails that long and bodies that small and it was then I realised it was a snake and a rat. Jo ran in to tell the waiters and I sat calmly expecting that when she returned it would have slithered away into the forest never dreaming it would instead be heading towards the light, people and my feet! Jo came back out the restaurant just in time to tell me it was under the sofa in front of me about 2-3 feet away! I don’t think I have moved that fast in a long time as I jumped on my sofa and in odd sounding words yelled things like ‘Jo, what do I do!’ Gin and adreneline are not a good combination when attempting to make quick, life and death decisions however I think I was amusing to the people inside the restaurant who couldn’t see the snake but could see me waving my arms around in a panic! My movements seemed to scare it off and it changed course and came past me not at me, it was following the rat that had run past a little while earlier but somehow on concrete they can’t move as fast. It went behind some sun lounger mattresses where it remained until the waiters saw it and 4 of them bashed at it for 10 minutes until they were sure it was dead. It was only the following morning when they’d laid it out across the ground that we were told it was actually a black mamba and if it had got me I would probably be dead! 4 foot snakes are pretty scary even when dead so I didn’t pick it up like Jo did but stayed far far away! After that I think we gave up on any ideas about quietness and prepared to return to Mbale in the afternoon.

Saturday was Jo’s birthday and so I spent the day cooking which was great as I rarely do it these days with so many other cooks in the house. Managed pizza and garlic bread from scratch along with banoffee pie – yummy. I even got to suggest the movie so top night as far as I was concerned!

Today I am back at work and have spent my time preparing things for the team coming in a month. Trying to work out final budgets and timetables is a bit of a challenge when nothing gets planned here that far in advance! Tomorrow is a working from home day where I will be cracking on with the adult literacy curriculum which is so far 66% completed. The day I print it out is going to be great!

Well power has gone off probably thanks to the storm we just had so off to go do something that doesn’t require a computer…

My final entertainment of the day was our interviews for more Esteem volunteers. We had asked our health promoters if any of them were interested in being Esteem educators and a few volunteered. Instead of our normal way of getting them to write a presentation and present it to a few adults we thought we’d see if they sink or swim by letting our football team loose on them with permission to ask any questions they liked! Both the people we saw that day did really well but the top question had to be ‘if you circumcise an old man do they die?!?’ Classic!

So apart from my entertaining Monday life has continued as normal. We held a HIV awareness day in Musoto yesterday that tested 46 people for HIV. In the past we have held these days at Beersheba but the last one tested 130 people with 2 testing positive. That sounds great to have such a low result but those two were already known to support agencies and everyone else had been to several HIV awareness days and were quite clued up. We decided therefore to move them out into the community to see if we can access new folks. Out of the 46 we tested yesterday 3 were positive and had never known their result before. Obviously it’s terrible that anyone tested positive but it has shown us that out in the community is a more needed place than on our site among our neighbours. We are planning another 2 events this year at other points in the area in partnership with other churches.

So today and tomorrow I’m working from home and then Friday is yet another public holiday during which I may well work as my plan for now (middle of the afternoon) is to go and visit a craft fair that is in town which will help my souvenir count go up quite significantly! Currently debating whether to stop by the bank on the way or whether that’s just asking for trouble! Either way I’m off shopping…

Our gardener Peter came to tell me that he’d found some baby snake eggs and by the look of them they were cobras. We lost a dog to a cobra just before I moved in here so they make us a bit nervous and having met my first snake only a few days ago I’m over the fascination. Peter had decided he wanted to keep the eggs to show my housemate as he thought she’d be interested! I texted 3 people to say we’d got cobra eggs and all replied instantly – Jo gave a list of instructions to solve the situation, Tiff said we should get praying as snake are often seen as spiritual here while Viv’s instructions were ‘get photos!’ In the end I got photos and then our night guard opened one of the eggs up and we watched it squirt like a cadbury’s creme egg. Funny thing is that it reminded me of when I was a child and I was told that the more bright yellow the egg yolk was the more free range the animal was. I remember a cake mum made that had used extremely free range eggs that had come from a farmer patient of dad’s, this cake nearly glowed in the dark! Well turns out we have free range snakes as that egg was luminous!

So that was part of the excitement of yesterday and today was my last day at home so I planned to work really hard. The morning sort of began ok except for a sick cat who has not made a sound all day which is worrying when normally she doesn’t shut up. I managed a bit of work until I was told that the inside of the house needed to be sprayed against snakes. Not entirely sure why my room which is far away from the front door needs protection and why we can’t just spray around the doors but apparently every room needs doing and then the house needs to be sealed for an hour against the poison. That led me on a cat hunt because I didn’t particularly want her being finished off whilst hiding away. Finally found her just as Peter said he’d spray in the afternoon instead! So I managed a little while longer before being told the neighbours house was on fire. Wasn’t quite sure what he meant until I looked out the window and saw that in fact our neighbours house had smoke pouring from the roof. The house is rented by American friends who are currently on sabbatical in the US for several months. They’ve lived there for 15 years and so it’s a hugely blow to them. It took a while for someone to raise the alarm and even longer for the fire service to get here. Turns out there is only 1 fire engine in Eastern Uganda but at least it’s in Mbale. However there is no mains water system to plug into and so it kept having to leave everytime it ran out of water. In the end it was about 5-6 trips to get enough to put out the flames. Thankfully the rain came and helped out a bit but was a bit scary watching an 80 foot column of smoke and 20 foot flames. Before the fire brigade came I had asked our housegirl whether the service existed here and she had said they would not come which had prompted me to try and phone my housemates to ask for any suggestions! Although there is a road between us and the neighbours there are several trees in between and so my housemates hurried home and we began a quick packing session in case our house went up as well. Quite funny looking around your room and genuinelly trying to answer the question of ‘imagine your house was on fire and you could only grab a few things, what would you take?’ Turned out to be my computer (photos and adult literacy curriculum!), contact lense solutions, passport and money. Later on I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten my guitar! Thankfully between the rain and fire service our evacuation plan was not needed and so bags were unpacked and in true English style we had a cuppa to relax our nerves.

And so after all the craziness and upset of watching a house burn down I went back to work and made a video of our holiday programme to send to the church that raised money for it. My attempt to be super organised and high tech failed when I discovered that you can’t send files that big over the internet and so therefore the royal mail will have to help me out through a friend who leaves next week. Well it’s now 10.30 on a Friday night and I’m exhausted after my day of activity. In the end the house didn’t get sprayed that’s another adventure for Tuesday when I’m going to Musoto for some peace and quiet, I hope…

Other small creatures that have taken up my time have been 200 children who came to our holiday programme last week. We also had our Gap team come from Kampala who were great. We had thought we’d aim for 150 children but day 1 was 174, day 2 was more and by day 3 we’d given up counting once we reached 200. It was a great 4 afternoons looking at issues around Education and various Bible characters alongside craft and games. Some truly amazing pieces of art work especially on the day we looked at Daniel where the lions were given stunning manes made out of wool! Our Gap team of 4 girls managed to do several bits of the holiday club in Luganda which is pretty impressive after only 6 weeks in the country, I’m still struggling with the very basics of any language! Sadly the girls managed to pick up food poisoning on the Sunday night they arrived which took out 3 of them for several days. Despite that they got involved most days even if they weren’t up to top energy levels. On the Friday I decided their training day could be from my house instead of trekking all the way to Musoto. Being my house also meant chocolate cake, pringles and lots of tea. Not sure we packed as much into a training day as they normally do but they had fun! On Saturday I convinced them that a day by the pool was a far better way of spending the day than climbing up a mountain especially after several days of sickness. The weather was terrible and was cloudy and rainy for a lot of the day but somehow swimming in the rain was still enjoyable. In the evening the plan had been a movie night with volunteers from Jenga, another NGO. Sadly the power company didn’t agree and so it was a long dinner and chat by candlelight.

I managed to make church for the past two weeks which entitles me to at least the next 2 weeks off! Not entirely sure what the talk was about either week except that they were long! At least I’ve started taking along paper and a pen and writing lesson plans for my adult literacy curriculum so it’s not a complete waste! One thing I definately miss from the UK is church.

Other than those exciting events the rest of life has been attempting to get my head around leaving Uganda in 10 weeks. Can’t believe it’s actually that soon and know it’s going to fly by. I’ve told a few of the staff who weren’t impressed at all, still haven’t told others including my pastor as I don’t want to see their faces. My big task to finish is the curriculum so this week I’m at home everyday ploughing through it and also using it as an opportunity to begin to withdraw from Beersheba and get people used to my absence. So today my lesson plans have included health and safety and the life of Jesus, hoping to get through human trafficking and domestic hygiene before the end of the day leaving savings and family planning for another day! So back to before the thunder that is currently rumbling over the mountain turns to rain and knocks out the power…

So the royal wedding was watched with americans and palestinians and involved me explaining quite a lot about British culture and the crazy way we do things. Got a bit homesick seeing London especially as it looked sunny and we’re now having rain. Nice day though and very glad I took time off to watch it even if my Irish boss thought I was mad!

My biggest acheivement in the past two weeks is probably sitting through and understanding a training session on finance for NGOs! I now know what cash flow is and charts of accounts. Pretty impressive I think!

Other than those exciting things my week has looked pretty normal and so now it’s time to begin our film and eat the cake that I just made and decorated with Christmas toppings for want of anything else! Who says you can’t eat a snowman cake in May…

So in order to finish in August I have to get on with various projects that I aim to finish by July such as our Adult Literacy curriculum. In total it’s 4 subjects over 5 terms with 8 lessons in each term making 160 lesson plans. In the past two weeks I’ve managed about 15 so a bit of a way still to go but thankfully a lot of resources have been put together by previous volunteers and it’s just a case of formatting them in the same way and taking out any part that requires good literacy at the beginning of the course. The biggest challenge I think will come when I attempt to write the lessons for agriculture epecially the ones on animals. My knowledge of goats, chickens, pigs and cows doesn’t go much beyond how to cook them which isn’t really what we’ll be aiming at! In order to get this done and to ensure that staff at the project don’t rely on me too much I’m now working from home 2 days a week which hopefully means I’ll get a lot more done and saves me being on motorbikes which still scare me quite a bit.

Alongside work being busy but good my other adventure has revolved around my house mate Tiff who managed to slip on our kitchen floor and break her elbow. It was a Friday night and so all x-ray machines had been witched off for the night. In the end she was admitted to a local private hospital who gave her lots of strong painkillers which sent her a bit loopy. Quite funny to watch her say ridiculous thing but not fun seeing her in so much pain. In the end it took them nearly 24 hours to decide if it was broken or not and to put it in the hugest plaster cast I think I’ve ever seen. The final chaos was when the bill came and £100 had been added for 10 minutes with the doctor. Turns out it costs 120,000/- (£40) to have a baby at the hospital and 400,000/- (£130) to have a couple of x-rays and a quick appointment. We managed to get about £30 off when we argued our case and talked about mzungu pricing but it was still a bit of a rip off and annoying.

Our other house news is the arrival of Korah, our german shepherd puppy who is about 6 weeks old. Very cute and fluffy and not hugely popular with the other dogs who seem to have sussed out that she will be top dog one day and so they are attempting to teach her respect and fear while she is still young. The cat has also been trying to teach her manners but doesn’t seem to be having the same success she’s had with the other dogs. Not entirely sure the cat will survive Korah once she grows a little more.

This year is going so fast that we’ve made it to Easter, feels like we only just had Christmas and very aware that with only a few months left it could all go very fast. My Easter weekend has actually been very quiet as I haven’t been feeling great and need time to catch up on sleep. Did manage to go out yesterday to a bbq which was nice but after 2 hours I was exhausted and needed my bed. Even today I skipped church which I feel a bit guilty about but 5 hours when you’re not on top form is not a lot of fun. So now it’s Sunday afternoon and we’re all lying around lazily. Tomorrow is also a day off work but I may do some bits from home as I’m taking off Friday to watch the royal wedding with some friends. There may have to be a bit of explaining our strange customs as most of my friends are not Brits and will probably think the whole thing a little odd!

Right, I think that’s everything I’ve been up to in the past couple of weeks so until next time…

After a morning in church I did very little for the rest of the day apart from watch several dvds of Black Books which is a great show that should really be more famous than it is. Monday was another day of the health promoters at Beersheba and included my housemate teaching on first aid. It was also the first chance we had had to look at the results they had been getting from their visits. They were so please to know they were on target to meet 1350 homes this year and also that 55% of the people they visited changed their behaviour in some way. What was also nice was that we know we have 32 health promoters active in the community and remembering to bring back their paperwork. One of my jobs this week is to look at who is not doing anything and give them a call asking if they’re still interested in being a health promoter. Not a nice job but will show people we’re serious about work.

On Tuesday my boss came to visit which is always nice. We chatted a lot and in the evening she stayed at my house and we chatted even more! The outcome of our chat was that I need to take a holiday and some days off as I’m very tired. We also discussed how long I would stay in Uganda, still not sure of a decision except that it shouldn’t be made when this tired.

Wednesday seemed like half a day at work as after lunch I came up to Kampala to help with the orientation of our new Gap year team. Crazily small world as I know one of them from Orpington! So the past few days have been trying to answer questions that 18 year olds have when they first arrive in country. It’s funny being one of the people with the answers, usually I’m the clueless one. It’s also strange seeing how fresh faced and young they are, I remember being like that and believing that I could change the world in my few months overseas! How much I have learnt!!! Today we moved them into their house just outside Kampala which required several hours of scrubbing the kitchen and killing the multiple baby cockroaches that had taken up residence in the cupboards. Thankfully the girls new housegirl turned up and seeing us working immediately joined in and did a far better job!

So tonight my friend is out on the town and I’ve just returned from dinner at my boss’s where I finally met her husband after 18 months in the country. Dinner was HUGE and involved half a pig roasting in the oven, very tasty, very filling. Tomorrow I’m back off to Mbale with lots of extra things that I’ve managed to pick up this week including a new computer for work, books and chocolate from home that the Gap team brought out from Oasis UK – now that’s a supportive NGO! Monday I am planning on sleeping in although I’m not sure how possible it’ll be with our housegirl’s 1 year old who has a good pair of lungs on him. Might have to escape to the pool just to get some peace and quiet.

Right it’s now after 10pm and I’m exhausted so it’s bed time even though that sounds really lame for a Saturday night. Maybe next time I write I’ll have had some sleep and might be more coherent. Here’s hoping…