This is a completely different trip to any other one I have been on. I signed up to do volunteer teaching in Uganda for 8 weeks with a charity called Réalt, which organised teachers from teacher training colleges to go abroad to teach. For this trip I had to do some fundraising, get a lot of vaccines, and attend workshops before the trip. Altogether six of us went away but we were based in two locations. Mbarara and Ntungamo.
We flew from Dublin to Amsterdam then on to Kampala the capital city of Uganda.
We stayed in Bishop Steward College, which is a teacher training college. We stayed on campus in our own two bedroom house. We then taught in three different schools near by including a special needs school. In each school we were able to develop a part of the building. We floored two classrooms in one school with concrete and plastered the walls. We plastered the outside library building in another school. And we created a sensory room in the special needs school and floored a room for the deaf class. We tried to paint as many walls too with literacy and numeracy signs. Below some photos of some of the projects.
Weekend Trips
- Fort Portal: We came here for a safari. Even on the way to Fort Portal we saw baboons running along the road. We stayed in Yes Hostel- Youth Engagement Service. Money made through the hostel is used to fund 30 HIV positive children and their education. We had dinner and drinks here in the town which has a busy nightlife. We then headed to Queen Victoria National Park for a boat trip and game drive. We saw elephants, wilder beasts, hippos, crocodiles on our boat trip and then got extremely close to lions in the jeep with their cubs. The sun was setting and we could stand up through the sunroof for our ride! Such a great experience.
- Kampala: the capital city of Uganda. We stayed in the Annex City Hotel which was really nice. We headed with our group and the American peace corp students. We ate in Garden City, spend an evening in Mayfair Casino and ended in Bubbles O’Leary nightclub which is very popular.
- Jinja/Mbikko: Here was a trip I had organised with Trocaire, as a women's shelter called Twezimbe Centre, run by nuns, is located here that is in memory of my late Granny Josie. Here women can get loans, learn new skills, meet other widowed women, and have a safe space. We visited the source of the
River Nile and took some pictures. Gandhi ashes were spread here. It takes four
months for the water to reach the end of the river Nile. We stayed in the Nile Hotel
that was decent- no wifi. We went to Wakisi where the sisters have a new outreach programme in the rural area.
The CBHC project is training Village Health Workers and the Education for Life
projects have started giving seminars to the rural schools. We also visited St Denis' school too.
- Lake Victoria: this is the largest like in Africa. A lot of parasites live in the water here so you are advised not to go into the water. However we did do a white water rafting weekend in Jinja. This was the best experience compared to other white water rafting I've done in other countries. It was very well organised and lots of guides on stand by too as these rapids are very fast and powerful. I also did a bungee jump over Lake Victoria- the scariest thing I've ever done and will do in my life!
- Lake Bunyoni: this is the deepest lake in Africa. No fish or animals live here because it is too deep. We rented boats here (tree trunk boats) and had a fun time out on the lake.
- Rwanda: We had to organise our visas while staying in Uganda which was difficult. We needed passport photos and a print out of the visa. We managed to do this in Mbarara. (In future have spare passport photos they do come in handy) Crossing the border is frustrating as you have to pay in dollars to get in ($30) which we didn't have so we had to buy dollars off the black market there. (again have some dollars no matter what country you visit- it seems to be the most powerful currency). Rwanda have brilliant roads and
it is a very clean country. The border is 78km from Kigali. We stayed in Discover Youth Hostel. Its lovely and very tourist friendly. We
went to the genocide museum which was very good and it is free to enter. It’s gives information before
during and after the genocide, pictures, bones, clothes and a burial grounds
that has 250,000 people buried there. Upstairs it has a museum of different
genocides around the world including the Cambodia genocide that me and Paul
visited the year previous. We
went to the Presidential Palace where the former President of Uganda lived
before he died in 1994 when the genocide started. He died in a plane crash that
was shot down by rebels. We
then went to Hotel Des Mille Colliens that during the genocide saved over 1000 tutsis
and is the hotel based on the movie Hotel Rwanda.
- Sipi Falls: We stayed in Sipi Falls Resort which is on the border with Kenya. These huge waterfalls you can hike down to and go into the water, just not too close as the waterfall is very powerful. We did a coffee plantation tour also which was good. We made our own coffee and bought some to bring home.
Food in Uganda
- Rolex- rolled up egg/pancake mixture. So nice! Made using a pan and usually a gas cylinder cost about 50c.
- Pineapples, avocados, bananas, sweet bananas
- Rice and potatoes are very popular as main staple for dinner
- Matoke which is boiled banana
- Posho is a maze flour porridge
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