I can't believe it's the start of the second week already. The time has just flown by and so much has happened.
This morning got off to a slightly rocky start as Lauren had found a cockroach in her bed at 3am and had been up since. I somehow slept through her entire ordeal.
There's been a slight health scare in the volunteer house. 2 of the girls had been helping a man this week who has turned out to have tuberculosis. Neither of them have been vaccinated for this. On inspecting my immunisation sheet nor have I. Will need to look at that when I get back to England.
We did outreach again today, with Edward and Ronald. We had the funniest conversation with Edward at the first house. He couldn't believe that we keep dogs as pets, allow them in the house, feed them well and treat them as companions. In Uganda, dogs are not important and people don't use vets. If a dog falls sick they will let it die. We then got on to the topic of Lauren not eating meat. Edward did not understand why she wouldn't and asked what she would do if she came to his house and he served it to her. We had come to the end of the conversation when he had a though, "do you eat pork?" He was also amazed that we didn't slaughter our own animals and that they don't resemble the animal they came from when we get them.
At our next house visit there were children from other families hanging around marvelling at the mzungus, as they do. One of the girls had quite bad scarring on her chest from boiling water. Edward says that sometimes parents will scald children with water or oil as punishment. He can't be sure if this is what happened to this child but it's possible.
At the next house we were given a pancake. I was able to ask about them this time. They are made by kneading bananas into cassava flour, shaping into a disc and frying. They really aren't very nice, but were at least a little nicer fresh. The woman who makes them sells them to the school to fund education for her 3 children/ They are all doing well. At 10 shillings per pancaked and 200,000 shillings per school term she must make a lot of them!!
The next house was that of a woman who has taken in some orphans. Watching the youngest running around, laughing and wondering what life had in store for him was heart breaking. I have hit the point where I have absorbed enough for what I'm seeing and hearing to really sink in. The children in this house had not done well last term due to contracting the measles, but are expected to improve next term.
The final visit was truly heartbreaking. There is a 13 year old girl called Dorothy there. Her father had 2 wives. She was born to the first wife, who died in childbirth. The second wife was now caring for her as they father has to live elsewhere for work. As Dorothy is only her step-daughter and not her real child, the step-mother uses her as a kind of domestic servant. She walks 6km to and from school and has to dig in the field before school, fetch water and look after her younger step-siblings. She is regularly late for school and never has time for home work. Ronald said that she often comes to school unwashed and unfed.
While we were there, the step mother looked annoyed at having to take time to discuss Dorothy, while Dorothy looked frightened and had huge bags under her eyes. While she is 13, she is only in primary 4 due to not being able to focus on school work.
I've made some enquiries about sponsoring her to board at the school. In short, for her to finish primary school (3 more years) as a boarder would cost around £1000. I'm seriously considering trying to do this. I need to do a little more research though into career paths, high school and feasibility
I feel such anger at her step-mother. I don't understand how anyone could treat another person like this, let alone someone who has been through such hardship and has no one left to turn to. She has even refused to purchase the holiday work book Dorothy needed and had not bothered to pick up her report card..
Back at the school it seems that everything we do is funny. We opened the gates for a car and suggested we'd be good security guards. Edward just laughed and informed us that was not a mzungu job. A mzungu job is typing under shelter apparently. It was also quite amusing to them when we returned our own plates to the kitchen. It was met with cheers of "well done" and riotous laughter when we said "thank you for cooking" in Luganda.
At another stage we got into a conversation with Israel about women's roles. I've been finding it very difficult that women kneel on the floor the whole time we are in their home. Izzy was wondering, would we not submit (kneel) to your husbands when we serve them food. This led to a conversation about the fact that my boyfriend is the main cook in our house. He doesn't understand how this happened or why we are not willing to take on this traditional role. this ended with "I will never marry a mzungu". I refrained from saying that one would never marry him.
We returned to the house to find that the windows had been opened wide by the director's wife, Juliette. She was giving our room an air out as it was "not fresh". Kate joked, "Do we smell?" to which she just answered "mmmm". Haha. Oh well, temps in the early 30s, no running water, slum visit, etc are a pretty good excuse I think!
This morning got off to a slightly rocky start as Lauren had found a cockroach in her bed at 3am and had been up since. I somehow slept through her entire ordeal.
There's been a slight health scare in the volunteer house. 2 of the girls had been helping a man this week who has turned out to have tuberculosis. Neither of them have been vaccinated for this. On inspecting my immunisation sheet nor have I. Will need to look at that when I get back to England.
We did outreach again today, with Edward and Ronald. We had the funniest conversation with Edward at the first house. He couldn't believe that we keep dogs as pets, allow them in the house, feed them well and treat them as companions. In Uganda, dogs are not important and people don't use vets. If a dog falls sick they will let it die. We then got on to the topic of Lauren not eating meat. Edward did not understand why she wouldn't and asked what she would do if she came to his house and he served it to her. We had come to the end of the conversation when he had a though, "do you eat pork?" He was also amazed that we didn't slaughter our own animals and that they don't resemble the animal they came from when we get them.
At our next house visit there were children from other families hanging around marvelling at the mzungus, as they do. One of the girls had quite bad scarring on her chest from boiling water. Edward says that sometimes parents will scald children with water or oil as punishment. He can't be sure if this is what happened to this child but it's possible.
At the next house we were given a pancake. I was able to ask about them this time. They are made by kneading bananas into cassava flour, shaping into a disc and frying. They really aren't very nice, but were at least a little nicer fresh. The woman who makes them sells them to the school to fund education for her 3 children/ They are all doing well. At 10 shillings per pancaked and 200,000 shillings per school term she must make a lot of them!!
The next house was that of a woman who has taken in some orphans. Watching the youngest running around, laughing and wondering what life had in store for him was heart breaking. I have hit the point where I have absorbed enough for what I'm seeing and hearing to really sink in. The children in this house had not done well last term due to contracting the measles, but are expected to improve next term.
The final visit was truly heartbreaking. There is a 13 year old girl called Dorothy there. Her father had 2 wives. She was born to the first wife, who died in childbirth. The second wife was now caring for her as they father has to live elsewhere for work. As Dorothy is only her step-daughter and not her real child, the step-mother uses her as a kind of domestic servant. She walks 6km to and from school and has to dig in the field before school, fetch water and look after her younger step-siblings. She is regularly late for school and never has time for home work. Ronald said that she often comes to school unwashed and unfed.
While we were there, the step mother looked annoyed at having to take time to discuss Dorothy, while Dorothy looked frightened and had huge bags under her eyes. While she is 13, she is only in primary 4 due to not being able to focus on school work.
I've made some enquiries about sponsoring her to board at the school. In short, for her to finish primary school (3 more years) as a boarder would cost around £1000. I'm seriously considering trying to do this. I need to do a little more research though into career paths, high school and feasibility
I feel such anger at her step-mother. I don't understand how anyone could treat another person like this, let alone someone who has been through such hardship and has no one left to turn to. She has even refused to purchase the holiday work book Dorothy needed and had not bothered to pick up her report card..
Back at the school it seems that everything we do is funny. We opened the gates for a car and suggested we'd be good security guards. Edward just laughed and informed us that was not a mzungu job. A mzungu job is typing under shelter apparently. It was also quite amusing to them when we returned our own plates to the kitchen. It was met with cheers of "well done" and riotous laughter when we said "thank you for cooking" in Luganda.
At another stage we got into a conversation with Israel about women's roles. I've been finding it very difficult that women kneel on the floor the whole time we are in their home. Izzy was wondering, would we not submit (kneel) to your husbands when we serve them food. This led to a conversation about the fact that my boyfriend is the main cook in our house. He doesn't understand how this happened or why we are not willing to take on this traditional role. this ended with "I will never marry a mzungu". I refrained from saying that one would never marry him.
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