Back to school! - a new school.

Same thing as last entry - I'm on s time limit, please excuse my spelling!

Because our original project fell through: unfortunatley there were a lot of money problems and not much structure at all, Molly and I found another school to volunteer at: Kawolo C/U Primary School. It is about a 15 minute walk from our house. The school has children from nursery to P7. When we went to ask about volunteering the staff were so welcoming - one even greeted us with a hug! They have made it very easy for us to settle in and teach.

So, I teach P6 english, it is a class of around 30 - 40. They are at that age when I can have banter with them and have fun in class. I help with P4 science which is actually so funny, so far I have taught them about common crops and garden tools. Exciting stuff! P4 is my biggest class, 50-60. You would think that it would be difficult to control them, but it's not at all, they are all really hard working and love it when I speak to them in Lugandan. My P5 english class is my favourite. There are about 40 - 50 of them and they are so funny! It is difficult not to have favourites, but I just can't help it! I don't make it too obvious though. Molly and I teach P3/4 PE which consists of us playing 'duck, duck, chicken' (they don't know what a goose is), 'stuck in the mud' and all the primary school games we loved but are too old to play.

School day starts at 8 and finishes at half past 3. Break time is at 10.30 - 11.00, where we get tea and bananas, mmmmmmmmm! And then lunch time is from 1.00 - 2.00. For lunch we have a standard Ugandan meal: posho (maize floor) and beans. Most of our volunteer friends hate posho & beans, but Iquite like it. :)

I am really enjoying helping out at this school, it i a place where I imagined I'd be spending my gap year. I love it.

In other news...

About 2 weeks ago I got very sick - sicker than last time - I got malaria. Bad times! Malaria is an awful disease because it tricks you into thinking that you are fine and dandy but you're not. One weekend I was really sick, then I got better, then I was sick, then I was fine and then I thought I was going to die. I was sweating so much but i was shivering, my muscle and bones felt like they were exploding, I was being sick, my head was sore and I had a major cough. So i had to go to my local clinic to get a blood test. In the room I was in there was a 4 year old tumour from 1986 in a jar. Not really what I wanted to be seeing at that point if Im honest! So they took my bllod (she cleaned my middle finer, but then pricked my other finger...) and it was positive for malaria. Luckily malaria is simple to treat. So after 4 days on various pills I was better. Ithen went to Kampala to my own doctor who took more of my blood and told me I had bilharzia. So I then had to take more pills which were actually rank, they were so difficult to swallow. On a more positive not - I'm certainly getting my moneys worth for my medical insurance!

On the 20th of Feb the Presidentual elections took place. The ballot boxes here are large see-through tubs and to make sure that noone sees who you vote for you do your paper in a basin. Very official. The elections were relativley peaceful, only 2 people died. And, as predicted, Musevini got back in for his 25th year. There was a bit of bother with the Kampala mayor elections. The NRM candidate got accused of cheating. Noone is 100% sure if it was the oposition that made people ballot stuff or if it was the candidate himself, but anyway they are revoting on the 2nd of March.

For Isla and Richards birthday we went to a Korean restaurant which was amazing! We thought that we would have to sit on the floor but there were wee chairs and then there was a big gap under the table for our legs, so it still looked like we were sitting on the floor. It was lovely.

Molly and I found a dead rat on our floor. It was disgusting. The smell was awful. The rats actually just won't die though! We put poison on food for them and they dont eat it and then we got killler traps and they somehow manage to eat the food without setting the trap off. IT IS ANNOYING,

But yes, nothing else has really happened, we are staying at school until the holidays which start around the 20th of April. However I have to leave Uganda soon to renew our visa. It's a bit of a pain because it is right in the middle of term and I am really enjoying my project. But I am going to Kenya for a wee while. Maybe this time I'll see more than just Nairobi Hospital :)...