Redundancy; the end or the beginning

28 February 11  My last working day

I am now finally redundant.

We celebrated with a little drink around the fire although not too much as tomorrow is a school day, literally.  Half of the volunteers are going on safari tomorrow so that will only leave four of us to go to school.

If this is redundancy then I guess I will have to wait for retirement to take a break.  Life is getting busier as the project has grown 6 fold in the last year and now needs some process management.  I have spent most of my professional life avoiding any sort of management and now I am finally redundant it seems this is about to be my new role.  The school had thirty pupils this time last year and now has around 250.  There are 7 seven classes of which three are baby classes of 3-5 year olds middle and top which are equivalent to our infants and P1 and P2 which are like our juniors.  The plan is to continue to expand by one year group each year to P7.  The foundations for four new class rooms are in place and we have desks for the three oldest classes and have just ordered desks for the middle class.

The children are incredibly well behaved compared to their UK peers and will get themselves into class on the bell and make a start on the lesson, even if the teacher is not present!  The resources are pretty limited and learning is often by rote with everything having to be copied from the board, laboriously in English.  As volunteers we help to support the teacher and to bring in and use books, crafts sports equipment and other learning resources which have been donated to help the children and teachers to become familiar with them. 

I am trying to put together some guidance notes and procedure documents for the volunteers and teachers, to enable smooth handovers as volunteers come and go.  We are also trying to set up a data base of all the students to monitor sponsorship, progress and updates for sponsors.  If you want to sponsor a child have a look at the link on the right.  The money goes towards providing, uniform, porridge in the mornings and teachers; funds are also required to keep on adding new class rooms for each new year group.  The latest rooms are still awaiting windows and doors, to make them secure so that books and other resources can be left in overnight.

All a bit serious this redundancy thing but really the fun part is with the children, they are so happy to be in school and to learn, we play all the play ground songs with them and they can pick up the words so quickly.  Also when ever we go for a walk around the plantations or the village they are always greeting us;  we do stand out as beacons being the only white people in the area.  As the project ethos is to discourage giving anything directly to the people, always to the school and community project, we are rarely asked for anything, so we feel sincerely welcome.   

So it is still an early night, to get up for work in the morning, but there is no rush hour or parking problem, just a gentle wake up call from a reasonable 7am dawn chorus, breakfast served in the banda and a gentle stroll through the banana plantation to be greeted by 250 happy children, bring it on.

Morning assembly

Morning clean up; yes the kids clean there own classrooms and play area every day, UK schools has something to learn here

P2 class with dust still settling

Baby class

Middle class waiting for their desks

Bricks and timber for the new class rooms, bricks are made and fired in situ

Mini Safari

Hold on to your hats, this is going to be a long one, skip to the photos at the end if you wish.  And remember this is just the mini one, wait till I get on to the main event…..

We set off in good heart to Mburu National park approx 2 hours away, there were 6 of us in the Corolla, but that is more that comfortable by local standards; taxi’s won’t set off with less than seven passengers, that includes one on the drivers seat.

We got about half an hour down the road, cruising down a hill, it is not unusual for cars and motor bike to free wheel down the hills; when our driver pulled over.  It seemed that the timing belt had gone, one for the RAC perhaps, Ugandan style this involved flagging down a passing motorbike, getting a lift back to the last town, returning with a well dressed, engineer, who didn’t have any spanners, so he returned on another passing motorbike and came back on another with spanner, removed the broken belt, returned on another bike with new belt and mechanic, who would do the changing.  The car was jacked up and propped on the spare wheel, which was flat; the remaining tyres were all slicks; save to say three and a half hours later we were on out way; we finally got to the park at 2pm but still thought we would make the 4pm boat trip and a game drive, but we managed to take a wrong turning and many more, so only just getting to the boat in time.

Most of the area in which I am looks, from a distance like rolling pasture land, all farmed and cultivated with many cows and crops; it is only when you look closely that you see the crops are often bananas and pineapples and the cows are the large horned Acholi that you realises it is not the English rural idyll.  When we entered the gates of the national park, it all changed to scrub land and almost immediately we ran into zebras, antelope and warthog; there are cheetahs in this park apparently; and a pride of lions was spotted there in 2008.  We got hopelessly lost and the heavens opened, adding further to the uncertainty of the track worthiness of the car over the potholes and puddles.  It was great though just to be driving along and have to stop to let a herd over Zebra cross, generally followed by antelope.  The monkeys and baboons generally kept their distance; although the warthogs were quite lugubrious in crossing the road and looked very fierce;

We eventually found the right point on the lake to catch the boat, too late for any lunch, and managed to get on.  I was particularly excited as I have always wanted to see Hippos in the wild and sure enough they were the fist thing we came across, a particularly antsi male who opened his mouth to us on cue, we had hardly sat down, he then rushed at the boat, and leapt out of the water creating a great splash and huge consternation on the boat; the guide was at pains to reassure us stay no hippo had ever hit a boat.  It took a while for the passengers to settle down.  I managed to get a photo and continued snapping at the group and got my favourite of the mother and baby, which is what daddy was probably so protective about.

The rest of the boat trip was peaceful, there are about 300 hippos in the lake and we had ample opportunity to watch various groups.  Because of the rain there were no large crocodiles out of the water but we did see a couple of small ones.  There were lots of see eagles looking down imperiously over us and apparently we saw a twitchers dream of a bird, the African fin foot, which is very rare. The lots of birds, the most memorable of which were the malachite and pied kingfishers.

We returned to land and an interesting trip to the loo passes the warthogs, who for all the ferocious looks are really quite chilled, Hakuna Matata I guess.

We were all starving and so gave up on the game drive; but I hope to return and camp over night before I leave.

The splash the hippo made!

The african fin foot, for all you twitchers

Hakuna Matata

cycling and polling

We had a holiday for the Elections.  I managed to get the bike sorted and go off for my first independent trip off to Itojo and beyond, It was great to get started but the bike was some what uncomfortable and the seat kept tipping up, I managed to get to the top of a hill and just enjoy the peace and scenery.  I think the site of a Mazungo woman on a bike was a little alarming to the locals, or it may just have been my hesitant riding style due to the seat and lack of brakes, but I got plenty of comments; apparently it is the local belief that women cannot ride bikes as they are not built for it.  Builders are the same around the world.  I managed to get the seat sorted at a repair shop on the way back, but too late; will definitely wear the cycling shorts next time.

I decided to help collect the water, unfortunately my bike developed a puncture, and there is no pump or repair kit on site so I have to take a local bike.  This is again a new style of riding, no gears and very upright.  Still no brakes to speak of, the handle bars pointing in a different direction to the wheels and soft tyres so pretty wobbly until I got used to it, the seat was bliss though. Again it caused much hilarity to the locals to see a mazungo on a bike, encouraging one young buck to decide he needed a lift and jumped on whilst I was wobbling along, needless to say with no brakes, steering or balance we ended up in the hedge. I haven't included any pictures of the track, save to say that I would have preferred my other bike, and had to resort to pushing on most of it  even though it was down hill.

 This is the source, it is good clear water, but at least a kilometer from the lodge, mainly down hill, so it all has to be carried back up.  Hopefully the new supply will be slightly uphill to ease the carrying burden.  Two of these 5 gal containers are strapped on to a bike, not mine, and cycled back up the tracks and on to the road, and then up a rickety ladder 20', into the tank. It makes you very aware as you are having your shower how much of someone else's sweat has gone into providing it, sometimes smell is good.
I 

Yesterday was polling day and this is the polling station, at the secondary school up the road.  The voters move around a wide route to make and cast their vote, to provide privacy in place of polling booths.  People seemed very positive about coming to vote and dressed for the occasion.  I spoke with a couple of 19 year olds who were very pleased to be voting for the first time

My Valentine

We went to see the gorillas; it was amazing, an over used phrase I know, but it absolutely was.  They are sooo big and we couldn't see a whole one, they were just chillin in the forest, grooming them selves and each other, we could see a huge silverback and another large female and a smaller one came around the back of us.  We were about 5 meters away.  We could hear them sneeze, fart and make a very low rumbling noise, as we left one of them made the beating chest noise, just to let us know who was in charge.  The trek there and back was about 4 hours and very steep, we were lucky the the rain forest did not live up to its reputation and so it was not too slippery, however it did live up to its name; Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.  It was so exiting and terrifying when we came to an area/trail of flattened forest and the guide said that this was new gorilla paths.  It may have been my most expensive Valentine, but so worth it

photos at last Hurrah!

At last I have uploaded these photos, I have found the secret, which is extreme patience, approx half hour per picture, I haven't worked out how to order them so excuse the ramdomness of the selection

They are of the project compound, where I am living.  We do have running water but you can see in one of thephoto it is delivered by bicycle and carried up to the water tank.  We have electricity most of the time, and when we don't it is very dark.  The food is pretty good, I have even developed a liking for goat curry!  there is plenty of delivered at regular intervals and the fruit is fantastic.  It can get chilly but there is a fire every night where we can sit, watch telly and play pool, and guess what I came pretty close to beating the 2nd best player in Kenya!  I know he was very good, because he set up all my shots so I could keep up with him; there are some real gentlemen still in the world, thank you Patrick

The work shop where I do my sewing classes

my walk to school

the water delivery with one of the tanks to be filled

my room, the loos are at the rear , you can see the 'hand basin' on the left

my lunch time view, beats Pathfinder house any day, you can just about see the hills behind, at last my room with a view

the evening fire

photos at last Hurrah!

At last I have uploaded these photos, I have found the secret, which is extreme patience, approx half hour per picture, I haven't worked out how to order them so excuse the ramdomness of the selection

They are of the project compound, where I am living.  We do have running water but you can see in one of thephoto it is delivered by bicycle and carried up to the water tank.  We have electricity most of the time, and when we don't it is very dark.  The food is pretty good, I have even developed a liking for goat curry!  there is plenty of delivered at regular intervals and the fruit is fantastic.  It can get chilly but there is a fire every night where we can sit, watch telly and play pool, and guess what I came pretty close to beating the 2nd best player in Kenya!  I know he was very good, because he set up all my shots so I could keep up with him; there are some real gentlemen still in the world, thank you Patrick

The work shop where I do my sewing classes

my walk to school

the water delivery with one of the tanks to be filled

my room, the loos are at the rear , you can see the 'hand basin' on the left

my lunch time view, beats Pathfinder house any day, you can just about see the hills behind, at last my room with a view

the evening fire

settling into school

I have had four working days now, and I know why I had to stop helping at Meldreth PS, my back is killing me. I am now doing mornings only and am setting up classes in the tailoring workshop.  I have managed to get all the machines going, there is one electric, Jones machine, relatively easy to start; the next is a hand singer machine of relatively  modern design but still took me two days to work out how to thread it as it had been left in reverse, and the last was also a singer of the old shuttle spool, which I do vaguely remember using probably with my grandmother, which I eventually got going too.  There is also a treddle machine.  (OK non sewing readers can wake up now) Save to know this was a major achievement.  I plan to start the classes to teach the women to sew,  making school bags for the children who are currently using any flimsy plastic bag to carry their lunch and books in, multi practical me thinks..

I went to the weekly market in Ntungamo to get fabric, needles and thread to teach the women to sew.  It is a weekly market of everything, I didn't take my camera as we were told it was full of theives, I think referring to the ned to haggle rather than mugging, so I will next time, hopefully let you see.  This local town appears to have most of what we might need and it is fun poking around all the various stalls to find things.

I will write later about teaching methods but the children are incredibly well behaved considering they do a 7.45am-4pm day, they have little in resources and every thing has to be laboriously copied from the board in english.

I wanted to upload some photos of my lunchtime view and walk to school through the plantation as well as my room and the rest of the centre, unfortunately it keeps failing to upload possibly because the files are too big, I try to compress them but still not having much success, all ideas of a solution welcome.

thanks again for all your comments, I have to go now to play volley ball, yes this is a hand eye ball coordination sport, I even played badminton yesterday!