Day six - 2 August 2009

Thank you for tuning in!

I would like to start by giving a quick mention to Kain C+ C's very own Jonathon 'Pancho' Comas. At the last Orphanage we visited we were lucky enough to be treated to some song and dance by the children, which was fantastic. For those who are familiar with Pancho's style of dancing, especially at the Kain C+C Planning Day, it is a sight to behold! He always told me how popular it was and I didn't believe him until I saw kids in the slums of Kampala executing the Pancho!!

Anyway, moving on. On Sunday Jonty, Mini, Jecka, Sowerby, Pat and myself decided to venture out to Jinja for the day before meeting up with the rest of the troops that night.

Jinja is approximately 40 kilometres out of Kampala (I think), although having said that, it took us around 4.5 hours in a round trip so it could have been much longer.

Along the way we were able to survey the sugar and tea plantations that dot the countryside. We were also treated to some fantastic rainforest vistas!

We were on our way to Jinja to tour through some of the rural villages. We had seen some of the massive poverty in the slums of Kampala but this would be our first opportunity to see how the majority of the population in Uganda lived.

Once we left the bitumen road it was a while before we saw it again.

Access to the villages was past a couple of entrepreneurial lads who had filled in a hole in the road with leaves and dirt and demanded a toll be paid before we could cross!

The villages themselves were an eclectic mix of mostly mud huts, but also some much better housing that was clearly owned by more prosperous people from Kampala. It was really quite amazing to see all these people living in mud huts with absolutely no power and the only source of fresh water being a bore located, in some cases, kilometres away from where they lived.

As we went past all to kids ran out of their houses to yell 'jambo!' (Swahili for hello) and marvel at the mzungo (white people) going past their houses. Jonty inparticular was quite popular with many high fives being exchanged between him and the children.

The vast majority of these people are subsistence farmers as it is too expensive to market the few goods they have in Kampala. Transport is by truck or taxi as the only trainline we have seen in Uganda does not work.

Hopefully some of these children will get the opportunity to go to a school and get an education and eventually lift themselves out of poverty that is on par with what we experienced in the slums in Kampala.

Having spent 2.5 hours or possibly more in the car to get back to our guesthouse we settled in to a fantastic dinner cooked by our hosts. Unfortunately there wasn't any left for the rest of the team when they turned up! Thankfully the guesthouse staffed had prepared something for them as well.

It was fantastic to finally meet up with the rest of the team and I look forward to working at Watoto with them.

Thank you all for tuning in to the blog and we'll see you when we get back.

Paddy 'Moose' Walsh