Kate & Will leaving from Adelaide Airport on 15th December bound for Uganda.


Ian Windebank of Padthaway, Dr Joseph Odeke of Keith and Keith Goodall from Coonalpyn had a very successful trip to Uganda


Ian Windebank is pictured with a group of Ugandan farmers and a heartfelt letter of thanks to Australians who are giving them a helping hand
“Congratulatory Message. Dear Visitors, We are grateful for the knowledge skills and guidance offered to us. We also deeply happy with wonderful support rendered to us. When you go back send our regards to your home people and our dear friends all at Australia. May the Lord Almighty escort you back home. We wish you safe journey. Goodbye goodbye.”


Ian Windebank teaching a Ugandan farmer how to drive the tractor and use the implements

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Kate & Will - Uganda to Kenya 27th Jan 09
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LETTER BY WILL:
 
So we’ve made it safely into Nairobi, Kenya. The past two weeks in Katakwi, Uganda, have been the most productive by far. Having finished up building the mud bricks and fetching the grass roof, we travelled out to Amusia where Dr. Odeke completed his primary education. He has also contributed a significant amount to not only this school but within the entire Katakwi community. The P1,P2,P3 building he funded about 6 years back was in need of some serious repair when we arrived. Although an allowance for black boards had been made, the contractors had failed to finish the job and paint the 1.6 x 4.2m concrete areas. The flooring was also falling to pieces. Large holes covered much of floor. We spent a total of 3 days, cementing the floors, filling cracks in the blackboard, painting 3 of them, and then cementing two steel frame doors into position. We’re not sure if the “black board” paint we purchased in Katakwi will be 100% effective, but it will certainly be a huge improvement compared to the grey coloured cement.
 
Time was starting to come to an end when we began work at the Katakwi Primary School. We put our art skills to the test, and to their limits, when we started an alphabet mural on the P1/P2 building. The wall measured 16.5m in length, so having divided it up into 26 even spaces we began the real work. Three coats of waterbased undercoat, 2 layers of white oil paint gave us a backing which provided an excellent contrast with the colourfull letters and pictures. Having ruled boarders and cut out a makeshift stencil to ensure the letters were of a uniform size, the outline of the capital and lowercase letters was quickly done. Seven colours were then selected and distributed amongst the letters. This task was relatively straight forward, and we were now left with the pictures, which we new was going to be the make or break of the project! Thankfully we had some assistance as we had taken photographs of a similar piece of work in Kampala. The task of outlining the pictures was frustrating at the best of times.
 
Having both struggled through year 10 art, we felt this childrens painting was well out of our depth, particularly because it was on the building facing the entrance to the school! We persevered, and we’re ready to put paint on wall! The process was actually very therapeutic! We chipped away and after about 2 big days the wall was coming to life. Regardless of the quality of the art work, the colour it proved gave the building a lot of energy. The reaction of the parents and children was also encouraging, even when we questioned what the hell we were doing with a paint brush in our hand!
 
The final task was to label each of the illustrations. Other than a little mishap with xylepone/xylophone (dam country spelling!) we nailed apple, boat and cup! For two people that can’t paint/draw to save their lives, the finished product was better than we would have ever imagined. The project also introduced us to the first hard working bloke we had met, a man named Francis, who we became quite close too after 5 long days of sitting by that wall. Another man, Felix the school teacher, also put a lot of time into painting. Both had an eye for detail and certainly made our job a lot easier.
 
I think it was the productivity of those last 2 weeks that made them the most enjoyable of our stay. At the start we kept telling ourselves that “this is their culture”, “stop being frustrated/impatient”, but after 3 weeks of achieving not much we had to be stronger with our words. We both learnt that in order for work to get done we must put our foot down and really speak our minds. “No we do not want to drink ajono at 11am”, “We are sorry but we can’t go and pick up your cousins, aunties, brother”! Many of the people were happy to talk about work and talk about the work they would do “tomorrow” but unless we really pushed our point not much would get done.
 
Living at the Katakwi Primary School meant that we didn’t have to rely on others to bring the car, or whether a workman would decide to arrive to the job or stay home drinking. We could work at our own pace, worked as bigger days as we liked and had some great company which made to days fly by.
 
 
LETTER BY KATE:
 
My time spent in the hospital was limited but amazing. Although frustrating at times because of a massive language barrier I am getting pretty good at sign language and acting out my questions, often ending up in fits of laughter because when dealing with pregnancy issues you can look quite stupid. You would really need to spend the whole six weeks in there to start to be able to converse effectively with the women. Luckily worked with a really nice training doctor, Joseph, who interpreted my questions for me whilst I provided the care to the women. I did a lot of aids testing and informing women if they were positive or negative. We would see 20 women each day, that was the cut off, if any more came they were told to return the next day (some would have walked quite far and who knows if they had been turned away the previous day). Some came for the first antenatal appointment at 8 or 9 months. So of course my luck would have it the first baby I see birthed in Africa is by cesarean – you wouldn’t read about it!! The mother was Ruth a lovely lady who could speak English well. I got along with Ruth very well and visited her many times and took her some oranges to say thankyou.
 
My next and final delivery was an amazing natural birth, again a boy. A midwife and I were actually the only ones working in the maternity side so were running the antenatal appointments. The family members of the woman in labour were told to come and get us if needed. So about 12.20 a woman came to say we were needed. So half an hour later there was a beautiful baby boy of 3.3kg. Of course weighed using the old school scales.
 
Luckily I spent time in Dr. Antonas’ rooms as I used the pinnards to hear the heart beat and used the widths of my fingers to measure the fundal height.
 
Saw quite a few babies with disabilities within the hospital, made me realise how lucky we are with our health system when there are medical problems needing attention.
 
Few summaries of Katakwi:
 
  • Found my bathing with the frogs at night very therapeutic. One got a bit keen and jumped into my bucket bath and I was rather surprised to witness it’s terrible swimming, was not sure if it was drowning or having a good time so I helped it out again.
  • The lizards are again enjoyable to see around.
  • There are far too many roosters to the population of hens and every afternoon at around 4.30 the chase begins! The poor hens are taken by 2 roosters at once, but they put up a good chase and are much better flyers, and often escape up the tree until the branch becomes too flexible and they fall from quite a distance. Its quite a funny spectacle to watch. I did try and suggest that maybe we should be killing the rooster not the hens to eat for lunch and dinner because maybe it would make sleeping a little more peaceful too. No idea who the fool was who gave the idea that roosters only crow in the morning because of all the experiences I have had the bloody things crow all day and night. Big problem in Katakwi where each house has at least 5 of them, you not only hear your own but you can hear them for miles across the country side.
  • We attended 2 traditional marriages where the man’s family hands over a certain number of cows to the woman’s family (depending on how good they consider the woman to be or how wealthy they are). They were very exciting to attend and very different to our own. The second wedding I will never forget because of the dancing of the children. There were about 30 kids around the age of 8 who ruled the dirt dance floor as if they were all on ecstasy. I have never seen so much energy in one place and the rhythm of these kids was unbelievable. Would have danced with them but they would have shown me up for sure plus they all stop to watch as soon as you do.
  • We got up at 5 am one morning to climb Abella Rock, to take photos of the sunrise. It was an amazing view and proved how unfit I am.
  • Bosco still the best kid. He is also very inquisitive.
  • After attending church 3 times in less than 2 weeks we made up many excuses not too attend again It was often a joke when they would come by to see if we wanted to attend the second mass and we would say we’ve already been to the first! It was a great experience but 3 times is enough.
  • Eric, Jacinta’s 3rd son, plays football (soccer) and we went to watch one of his game. I was expecting just a few other people to be watching but the crowd was plenty and noisy. Most of the guys playing were bare feet and seriously athletic. It was pretty much a dirt field and apparently a few thorns present. Will went to training with Eric and played in the scratch match which unfortunately I was busy and did not watch. He was called the ‘mosquito’ and started in goals, one specky save and then a let through he was put onto the field.
 
Our Trip to Nairobi – sketchy!!
 
  • Caught bus from Mbale (Uganda) to Nairobi overnight. We have heard many stories about what a death trap it is since arriving. We had about a 3 hr wait before the bus left from Mbale where we met a guy called Gideon who we became good friends. He had been in Uganda on holiday for 2 weeks staying the Katamonjon (spelt wrong) area. He is from Nairobi. So he helped us out with useful tips and advice about what to do and expect.
  • The bus ride was better spent with your eyes shut and ipod in. I have never passed anything with such speed and close shaves. The overtaking was frightening. The road conditions appalling, no chance for sleep. There was about a good ¾ of an hour where we first thought we were running off the road but the driver had just decided to abandon the road and went off the side using an equally bumpy strip of land. It was pretty cold at night and because of the bumping around most windows had opened slightly. There were so many sketchy police stops, at one point we all had to get off and line up in front of the head lights of the bus with all of our belongings. They checked our passports and scanned our bodies. There was one quick loo stop where there was no way I was getting off. It was dark and many people hanging around trying to sell stuff. Will got off but said he felt very unsafe.
  • We arrived in Nairobi at 4.30am (possibly worst time), still dark and again many dodgy taxi drivers hanging around to rip you off. Gideon told us to put our bags down, told Will to come with him and told me ‘be alert, we’ll be back’. Neither Will or I had any idea where he was going meanwhile I am left with all valuables so I sat on all the bags and held a strap from each whilst deterring the stupid taxi man many times telling him I was fine my friends will be back soon really having no idea where they had gone or when they would return. Finally about what seemed like the longest 20 mins of my life (not that I wore my watch incase my wrist got cut off), Gideon called and said they would be 10 mins. They had walked to the Hilton Hotel to get a good taxi. Will said the area they walked through was extremely dark and scary, especially when he had a lot of money strapped to him.
  • Gideon escorted us to our hotel (arrive 5.45 am) and then said he would come pick us up at 11am and show us the city and his home.
  • Turns out Gideon is from the Ghetto!! Very respected guy too and an unbelievable break dancer. So we spent Friday touring the slums and some of the best sites of the outer region of the city. He took us to where one of the best break dancing groups were practicing and I have never seen such talent, these guys are so fit and strong and shit can they move! It was surprising how welcoming and lovely everybody was to us – most likely because we were with Gideon. We did not carry our cameras in fear of losing them so missed some of the best photos we would have taken for the trip.
  • Gideon took us to his home/slum where we met his parents, sisters, brother and many aunts. They all offered us to stay which we could have easily done but had organised our accommodation already.
  • I was only worried at one stage when we reached the ghetto and before departing the bus, Gideon crossed himself – although not being very religious, I was still wondering maybe I should do that too.
  • Gideon escorted us back to the city later that night so we would be safe and could find our way which was completely out of his way. He is the first person we have met that has offered every time to buy something for us, pay our bus ride and takes forever to accept us buying him something – and yet he is from the poorest region.
  • The next day he met us again to take us to a hip hop and graffiti show. This time we took our cameras. It was at the British council and probably took an hour to walk there. There were many performances all day and the talent was rife. These Africans are good! Unfortunately because Gideon and his friends had not registered we did not see them perform but we got him and one friend before we departed to give us a little show which we taped. There was no break dancing this day which would have been great to see.
  • We have one free day during our tour where we come back to Nairobi when we might meet up with him again. Will and I can’t think what we would have done if we hadn’t met him. It would have been pretty scary leaving the hotel and most likely would have spent a lot on doing a day tour. Money can’t buy what Gideon showed us and his knowledge of all areas of this city. He also showed us an orphanage called ‘The Children’s Garden’. It was a great place in the middle of the slum area. All the kids knew Gideon well as he goes and teaches them how to dance.
 
Anyway it is hard to explain everything but we are just having the best time. I will stop writing now.

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