Hello! And greetings from beautful Uganda! =)

Electricity in Uganda is a luxury. It isn't unusual to go two days without and it doesn't tend to stick around longer than 2 hours on good days. Therefore my blog entries are a little elusive and eratic in appearance.

I love Uganda. It has the source of the Nile, lakes, mountains and national parks. It is diverse and fertile and the climate is less extreme than it's neighbours. Unlike Nairobi, Kampala is full of colour, bustle and people carrying everything on their heads. There are markets containing only matoke (plantains) and a live chicken and a pineapple are normal luggage of a bus passenger. You get so used to being charged "Mzungu" (white person) prices, that we bartered a boda-boda (motorbike taxi) driver down so much, we accidently ripped him off. Aah, organised chaos, I love it!

We left the mad traffic jams of Kampala to spend a week at a community project in southern Uganda. Uganda Lodge has a school for 400+ students and is currently building a medical centre with the intention of providing free healthcare, consultation and medication for those who don't yet need the hospital. We had the opportunity to help with the summer school sports day and painting the medical centre, as well as visiting the local hospital and prison. Our help in the hospital was limited to playing with the children in the paediatric ward, as we have no medical skills and can't speak the language (1 of the 30+ different indiginous languages spoken in Uganda). However, on a purely selfish level, it was a fascinating visit. We visited all the wards, where patients with TB have their babies with them and mix with patients with AIDS. Where stitches are done without anaesthetic, where children pee and poo on the floor and posters on the walls claim circumcision prevents HIV. None of that surprised me. What still astounds me is that the hospital has no running water. When there is electricity, water can be pumped to a well outside. All food, clothes and personal care is provided by family and there are only 2 doctors. Almost all the nurses are still in "training".

The doctor we spoke to earns £160 a month, lives in a tiny two roomed house and dreams of a car. The hospital itself runs on £40,000 a month, which is supposed to cover all staff and porter wages, administration, overheads, drugs, materials, everything. Traffic accidents are continuous (and a genuine risk for travellers), HIV positive results are greeted with a shrug (after all, doesn't everyone else have it too?) and the little boys queue up for circumcision. Almost nothing is documented, although if you have an absess cut out of your foot (with scissors) your arm circumference will be taken down for the records. Wheelchairs and crutches are not available, and if you have no money or physical capability to get home to the other side of Uganda, there is no possibility for help. Washing hands between patients or wearing gloves is not possible, due to lack of resources and real awareness.

The prison is surrounded by a hedge, but the more serious offenders can only leave their cell for meal times- a maximum of 2 hours a day. Each prisoner has 0.4 meters space. They take turns sitting.

The children at the school ask questions like "Do you get beaten?" "Does your mum live in England too or is she dead?" and "Can I have your mother?" and here we are complaining about a lack of electricity to 'write home'.

Uganda Lodge is a great project set up by a local Ugandan man and a 70 year old British woman who still stays in the Bandas without hot showers. At first it felt like a lot of uni goers leaving home luxuries for 2 weeks to "go do good in poor Africa" or to "top up their tan before their real holiday in Miami" (as one girl said), but we soon realised there are also some great people working there with real positive ambitions. I'm now very much considering returning to help get the medical centre up and running and use my TEFL. (And play more ukelele and Werewolves round the campfire).

But, before then, two more weeks of my lovely mum! =)