A summary of week 1

Ok, So so much has happened since last time I blogged. I've been spending a lot more time at the orphanage and discovered after leaving last Wednesday with both baby sick and wee on me looking after the babies are the way forward. They all wear nappies, require very little entertainment thus making you less tired and also give obvious warning signs were projectile vomiting - although granted I was caught out last week, who would have thought a baby could store so much milk?!

Anyway, the orphanage have been really good and given us quite a few opportunities to go out of the town and attend local schools, villages and even the prison today - but I'll talk about that a bit later. The only thing is that the orphanage is a ministry so there's a lot of singing, clapping and spreading the word of god but that's all good cos they're really lovely poeple and having some sort of belief and faith evidently keeps so many people going and remain positive when they have so little.

Last week I went to two schools, the second I'm returning to this Friday morning and will continue to do so every Friday that I'm in Jinja, which is another five weeks now. There was a significant difference in the schools in both the number of pupils and the facilities. The first school was in a tidy village just up from the main road to Kampala and Entebbe. We didn't spend long there but sat in some sort of assembly on the stage....for those KEHS girls, I finally got to be a guest in an assembly, granted not at KE but you can't get everything!

The second school I went to had this amazing view though of the nile and when I finally remember to bring the connection to my camera to the internet cafe I shall up-load some of my photos.

Jinja and the nile

This school was a lot larger and the number of children in the class and their ages range hugely. Education must be paid for or sponsered here in Uganda and as you can imagine the older the children get the more that fall out of school for obvious reasons.

We went to a prison today and had to take stuff for the prisoners, such as soap and sugar. Initially I kind of begrudged giving the stuff to them but as far as I'm concerned they're in prison for a crime....but how quickly did my opinion change. When we rode up to the gate...on a mo-ped of course, you get everywhere on mo-peds or bodas - we had to go through this huge gate and once through we had to go down this really long dusty earthy track. On either side of us were fields and Perez - one of the guys from the orphanage - told me that all the prisoners work in the fields. They were all dressed in yellow outfits and armed guards were with each group. It's a mixed prison, in fact the second largest in Uganda, and so we saw both women and men. Some of the women had children with them and there were a few houses where I saw children getting washed. Some women enter the prisoners pregnant and so are allowed to keep the children to nurture them and then they are taken from them. The only way I can describe the prison is like the shawshank redemption. Everyone was in uniform, they were all working and they were all outside in a dusty kind of courtyard. The ironany of it was that the big building where they're housed is in front of one of the most beautiful views over Lake Victoria that I've sen so far.

We had to wait for a guy to give us permission to enter, given that we'd not been before. We told him that we'd bought itmes such as soap, flannels, sugar etc, which he was grateful for as he says that the prisoners don't have much, particularly as the government merely fund the prison with beans and maize. What I didn't like though was that he didn't seem that grateful for the items and proceeded to tell us there wasn't enough for all the priosners and they really need bibles which are about 1500 shillings (about 50p) but there's over 800 prisoners! I did advise him though that we weren't exactly rich and what we'd bought today was all we could afford. I think he reluctantly accepted that!

We were allowed in and before we entered the womens prison to "spread the word of god" we had to deposit our belongings to prevent any prisoners giving us anything. We then saw all the men playing volleyball - again like a scene from the shawshank redemption as you could see all the bard above the yard - presumably the cells - where shorts and towels and soforth were hanging out.

The justice system here is nothing like the UK - "they will never lock a rich man up!" is what I've been told!

The women we met today were all on death row but bizarrely were quite content and at peace with their surroundings and their inevitable fate - the death penalty being a shot to the head. I actually found it so inspiring that they have so much faith and belief to be so positive about life. They sang with us and also sang to us and took out their wears to sell as it would appear that they have to buy their own food and firewood etc given the little money the government expends on prisons. The chaplain there also asked us to introduce ourselves - our names, nationality and then proceeded to ask whether we'd been saved?! I had no idea what this meant but apparently it means whether we've found jesus. To save any confusion or conversation etc I advised that I had been saved and had jesus in my heart?! A fact which could not be further from the truth...the last time I went to church was in brownies and that was only so I could hold the flag - which by the by, I never got to do! I was then asked to give a message from god to the women - my message seemed to go down quite well actually!

Following this visit and a discussion with one of the men from Welcome Home - the orhanage - the contents of which are irrlevent - I have obtained some work experience with a ugandan solicitors. The difference from England being that they act as both solicitors and barristers, so the next few weeks will be so exciting and interesting. I'm attending tomorrow afternoon and will probably attend every afternoon after the orphanage I think to help out and be trained! There's another trainee there too, a ugandan, who speaks very good english, so I'm really looking forward to it. I did explain that I didn't have any work clothes but the gentleman said he'd buy me stuff as his children were now all grown up - whether that will come to any fruitition I'm not sure but clothes are so cheap here anywhere I shall see what happens. So I'll be doing a variety of areas of law and the good thing is that it's all based on our common law given that Uganda was previously undr English rule. So will keep you posted on how that all goes.

Been doing very little else other than the above. Have been sunbathing all weekend as the Nile Resort - it really is a hard life - going out more than I ever did at uni, causing a severe lack of clothes but that's not really bothering me as people don't exactly dress up and it's fantastically cheap, I can easily survive on taking about 10shillings out, which is about $5!

Night out at 2 friends

I actually must confess that I am also learning to appreciate english men - well some of them - at least they know how to keep their hands to themselves unlike many of the men in the clubs here but that's just something you get used to and to be fair the only real women that frequent the clubs are prostitues so it's no wonder they may be a little too hands on!

I think I might go and get a peanut butter cookie now - a fantastic substitution to kitkat chunky peanuts over here! Although dad please feel free to stock up on those whilst I'm away, I can guarantee that they won't go to waste!

written by

Laura_Smith on June 15, 2009 from Jinja, Uganda

from the travel blog: Laura's little summer break

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