An Email from Mrs Welch in Uganda

Well we arrived in Masaka village Sunday expecting no luxuries and that is exactly what has happened! Monday we visited St Joseph's Kyassonko primary school to talk to principal and parents re the installation of tank and organic garden. This is the one your kind donations made possible.

Anyway the tank was assembled on site and the agreement of the parent body to assist us to lay the base for the tank by Tuesday was made. We were invited into each class so they could sing songs for us and this caused quite a sensation as apart from a few Italians, these children have never seen white skinned people at their school before. As you can gather we are in the remote region where neither tourist nor volunteers go. As I am writing this, I'm sitting outside the Suubi (hope) Education Centre -and I have no less than 10 littlies sitting around me watching and reading the words they can - very little English is spoken by anyone here!

Tuesday at St Joseph's was amazing. We arrived about 8.30 and already there were about 50 parents carrying the bricks needed for the base of the tank. It was quite an amazing sight to see women with babies strapped to their backs carrying bricks. They certainly showed their appreciation by the sheer number that turned up to help.

The garden equipment was handed over and the students from P5 & P6 showed their digging skills by swinging the hoe as well as any full grown male! The double digging etc was explained via David our interpreter and later in the week we will visit again for the next stage in the garden.

The hospitality here is just as good as it was in Bujagali, except they eat motoke (steamed green bananas) every meal!!. Just as well we visited a real supermarket while in Kampala and we stocked up on our sort of food, well as much as we could. While the power has been recently connected to this centre, it was down when we arrived, so the first few days were a bit tough. Anyway it has come back on but due to power sharing you never know what time of day or night it will work -life in central Uganda!

Each afternoon the village women have been coming for macramé bracelet making. 26 turned up on Tuesday and it was chaotic, but all had a great time and didn't want to leave. Wednesday, while in the middle of sanding back the inside of the centre, 15 women arrived instead of the 3 who were to come and learn the double knot to take back and show the others. Today was no different, while still painting, many arrived for another lesson.

Last night was amazing. There were at least 50 children who just arrived and so a spontaneous concert began and the entertainment continued until 9pm when David asked them to leave. Meal times here take a bit of getting use to - lunch at 3pm and dinner at 10pm!!

Well it's now 6am Friday and I am still watching the sun rise while getting this email off before we return to Kyassonko school on our way to Masaka city for a real bed and shower before touring the next week. The plan is to go west and then south into Rwanda to the genocide museum, with Queen Elizabeth National Park on route for a look at animals in the wild.

Hope all is well for you and thanks for the emails. Please keep them coming as it is always good to hear what is happening outside Uganda.

Love to all Annette

For further updates view the blog on the HUG website: www.hug.org.au