Some Work To Do and Some Visits

Monday morning saw the end of Miriam's graduation activities and a start on Wakisa issues. I spent the morning with Vivian and Anne Start (the lady from Belgium) catching up on what was happening and what had happened at the site. I also had a look at the vegetable plot just down the road and all the vegies (cabbage, tomato, corn, beans, carrots) were growing luxuriantly. I wont't go into the building works much because this is covered in Vivian's Sept Newsletter which I will send out shortly. Suffice to say that things are progressing. I did chat briefly with Francis, the builder, and he explained that building in Kampala was much more difficult and expensive now because the City Council had vastly increased their overview and progressive inspection of new works because of the poor quality of previous works.

Because of the building works, no rainwater is being collected in the 10,000 lt tank and given that it's the rainy season at the moment, that's an issue that I'll be trying to address. So after lunch, I went looking for a water transfer pump and was successful. Then the skies opened up again and I got caught under a bus shelter for 30 minutes! I then visited Miriam at her work and was shown around. It's a private medical clinic and even though the facilities are way short of what we have in Australia, they do offer a good range of services including general medical, cardiology, dental, laboratory, imaging and all sorts of specialist consultation and a small amount of surgical work. Miriam finished work just after 4pm so we went to a cafe for what ended up being dinner and a chat.

I went to Wakisa at 9am on Tuesday morning with a rough plan but unbeknown to me, the ladies had organised a full day of visiting school kids. The first were Dorcas, Sarah & Mary at Buloba Primary - they were all very excited to see me again and showed me all around the school including their dormitory and classroom. Mary was initially very shy but after just a few minutes, she came out of her shell and was quite animated! They start their final external Primary 7 exams in 2 weeks time, so are studying hard.



We then moved on to Buloba Senior School - it performs very well in national exams and is very well kept - I was even told that we were not allowed to step onto the grass! We'd come to see Justine who has a very sad story and she was very reserved. However, she is preparing for the equivalent of our School Certificate and is studying more than hard - all these kids have the same daily schedule - can you believe it!
4.00am - wake up
5.30am - first class
10.40am - breakfast
11.00am - classes
1.00pm - lunch
2.00pm - classes
5.20pm - personal duties like bathing
6.00pm - supper
7.00pm - classes
11.00pm - bedtime

Betty, Geraldine & Dinah

Next we traveled the short distance to the Kings School Budo to see Aaron and check out his laptop situation - he needed some extra software. Then on to Mrs Kawuma's place - she is an old friend of Vivian's who always seems to have some ex-Wakisa girls staying with her. At the moment it is Betty who completed a Hospitality Course a few years ago and Dinah who has been sponsored to university to do a Business Administration degree. Betty had been working in a restaurant run by Muslims - they treated her badly and so she felt she had to leave - she is now trying her hand at raising chickens and had bought 100 chicks just over a week ago. A supporter in Sydney sent me with a laptop for Dinah and she was very excited to hear that she would soon have one to help with her uni work.

The last call was to Patience at Vision College. I personally sponsor her and she is also about to sit for her external Senior 4 exams.

We got back to Wakisa just after 5pm which was just as well because Christine, one of the girls doing uni, was to have a small operation the following day and Vivian asked if I could take her to Mengo Hospital and make sure she was admitted OK.

Wednesday morning was a bit of a waste of time because it rained heavily until just before lunchtime. I had wanted to go to town to buy some siphoning gear but it was not to be. So I discussed sponsorship admin issues with the ladies. After lunch I was just about to head to town when Vivian came and said that the hospital had called to say that Christine was in theatre and could I go up to be with her when she awoke. When I got there, Miriam was there with the same idea - they are good friends. She was in quite a bit of pain when she came out of the anesthetic but was soon provided with some painkillers.

Soon after I was off to town where I got some plastic hose and an old padlock to act as a weight. Back at Wakisa I needed to siphon all the water out of a storage tank, so I showed some of the girls how it was done - I never miss an opportunity to teach some science! There was also another tank which remained empty, even thought we had had a lot of rain in the last few days. It turned out that leaves, mud and a growing weed were blocking the inlet to the tank from the downpipe - a couple of minutes work cleared that up.

And a further check on Christine wound up the day.