Exploring Kampala....

So, aswell as working in the day, I've been exploring my neighbourhood and new City in the evenings and at the weekends. Now I'm getting more used to the traffic chaos, I'm enjoying walking around my new neighbourhood.

Namuwongo market area

I've been struck by how friendly everyone is. My walk to work in the morning takes less than 5 minutes, but during that time, I'm greeted by about 20 people all saying "hello, how are you?, are you fine?" It's a bit of a contrast to my London commute...!

I've been spending some evenings relaxing at the guest house:

and am getting used to the (currently) fairly frequent power cuts:

A slightly freaky photo of me reading my kindle during a power cut...

Other evenings, I've been out and about. Little Donkey is a brilliant Mexican restaurant up the hill from where I live:

Further afield, I went to a nice steak restaurant last week and also to a BBQ on the other side of town up the hills, which was fantastic fun. I also went to a Jazz bar called JazzVille last week, only they had stopped playing jazz! - but it was a nice bar nonetheless:

Enjoying the beer (but no jazz!) at JazzVille

I'm also (very slowly) getting used to the boda-bodas (or motorbike taxi - called boda-bodas as they originated as bicycles with large panniers, used for smuggling goods across borders via rural footpaths (border-border)). To help with this, on Sunday, I went on a boda-boda tour of the City. Here are some pics:

The old taxi park (known locally as "organised chaos")

The Bahai Temple - one of only 8 in the world and the only one in Africa

Jack fruit!

Sampling the jack fruit

Nakasero (food) market
 

The Gaddiffi/ national mosque:

 

 

 

 

View of Kampala

Local lunch
 

The King's/ Mengo Palace

My first week at Hands for Hope

Ok so my first week isn’t quite finished yet, but I thought I would write a short update to say a bit more about Uganda Hands for Hope and my week at work so far.

Hands for Hope (HfH) is based on the edge of the Namuwongo slum and works with the community that live there, supporting the most vulnerable families. Around 15,000 people live in the slum, many of them refugees from northern Uganda, the CR Congo and Sudan. 90% of people there live under the absolute poverty line (less than 75p a day). I went on a community walk there yesterday with one of HfH’s social workers and visited some of the families that HfH works with. Although I had seen images of the slum and met some of the children, nothing quite prepares you for the level of poverty you witness when walking around this vast area and it’s difficult to describe it in words.

This video (that Stew put together last year) captures this and the work of HfH well.

 

HfH was set up in 2008 with the aim of providing support to the most vulnerable children and families living in the Namuwongo slum. It currently supports 300 children and their families. HfH run a nursery school (where I’m based!) and funds children to then attend a local primary and (soon) secondary school (the first HfH children start secondary school next year). It also support the families via a livelihoods programme for women, an afternoon youth programme, a library and health related activity (e.g. health checks, HIV/ AIDS awareness).

I have spent the week meeting the staff (HfH employs 17 staff, including teachers and a team of social/ outreach workers) and learning lots about the organisation (Tammy, the current general manager/ administrator, who I am taking over from, is providing a really great handover!)

It is still the school holidays here and, during this time, HfH runs a holiday club for all of the children.

 

Jean Marc, one of HfH's ambassadors talking to the children at the holiday club.

 

This is the final week of holiday club and HfH fundraised to take all of the children on a day trip. So today we went to Wonder World, an amusement park here in Kampala. This is the second annual trip for the children (last year they went to the zoo in Entebbe) and for many of them it was the first time they had left the immediate surroundings of Namuwongo or been on a bus or on any rides. It was a really fun (and tiring!) day. Here are some pics:

excitement on the bus!
 

queuing to get in....

Lunchtime!

Geting here....!

I’m writing this whilst sitting in the sunshine outside the front of the guest house where I’m staying, listening to the drums and singing from the church just up the hill. I’m a little tired having stayed up until around 1am drinking tusker (Kenyan lager) in a bar in town and then being woken up at 5am by a chorus of the neighbourhood dogs.

The flight here was fine, though I did end up sitting next to someone who (briefly) worked in housing at Newham. Spending the first two hours of my time away talking about landlord licensing, community gardens and Games-time health and safety issues was not something I had anticipated…..

The journey from Entebbe airport to Kampala takes about an hour and I got a real sense of the area, how green the surroundings are and the chaos of the roads! I was quite excited when we stopped for the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, to drive past (along with about 20 cars). Apparently, though, this happens quite frequently.

I’m staying in an area of Kampala called Namuwongo in the south east of the city, where Hands for Hope is based. For the first month I’ll be living in the guest house that Hands for Hope uses for volunteers to stay before moving into a flat round the corner when Tammy (who is currently doing the job) leaves.

 

The guest house

Felicita who works in the guest house with her daughter Joselyn

There’s four of us staying here at the moment, me and thee volunteers (Dev from Devon and Danna and Einav from Israel) who are currently helping at Hands for Hope’s holiday programme.

Brian the dog also lives with us - !

I’ve had a little explore of the neighbourhood (whilst trying to dodge the traffic!). We found a nice coffee shop yesterday. There’s a fruit and veg market, a few shops and bars, the main hospital in Kampala is here, there’s a swimming pool nearby and a Mexican and an Indian restaurant (yet to be checked out!).

Namuwongo Road

Namuwongo Road

 

Last night I ate at the lovely sushi restaurant in the centre of town with about a dozen other people from Uganda, Australia, the UK and the States.  I’m now off to spend the rest of the day pottering around and maybe heading to the pool before starting work tomorrow morning.

 

Sitting on Tammy's balcony drinking a G&T (good for deterring mosquitos apparently)

 

 

Getting ready to go...

This Friday, I'm flying to Uganda to live and work in the capital, Kampala. I've set up this blog partly for myself as a bit of a journal and also for anyone who is interested in what I'm up to. I thought I would just do a short post before I go (so there's something to look at if you log on!).

For the next year or so I'm going to be general manager of the NGO, Uganda Hands for Hope. I'll write more about the charity when I'm there but, in the meantime, there's lots of info on the website or you can "like" the facebook page (see link to the right of this blog).

Since leaving work at Newham at Christmas, I have been spending lots of time with friends and family as well as preparing for going away. I am now vaccinated against pretty much everything it is possible to be vaccinated against (and the two anti-cholera drinks were about as tasty as they sound...), have spent quite a bit of time in Uganda House on Trafalgar Square and far too much time on the phone to banks and mobile phone companies.

I've also used going away as an excuse to go out and have some parties - two work leaving dos, a leaving London party and a family dinner. Here are a few pics from those (sorry Newham peeps - I forgot to get my camera out of my bag during our time in the Eddie!):




The (previous) community engagement team at Newham

 

 

 

 

Thank you to those that celebrated with me and for all the good wishes, cards and pressies. Hope you enjoy following this blog.