Food storage training in Namabasa went really well - we had just over 20 people there on each of the three days of training, and the remaining two days of training have been booked in. The participants learnt a lot and we had a good laugh along the way. Moses headed up the faciliating, along with two people he used to work with at Action Aid. Here is Moses doing his thing:
The first two days was setting a foundation of understanding group dynamics, hard work, leadership, management etc and the third day had a more specific focus on running a storehouse - how bags should be stacked on pallets, how to keep records of what stock goes in and out, how to ensure the cleanliness of the store and so forth. The training took place in the storehouse itself, with pallets stacked to one end of the room. At the end of the third training day, we presented them each with one of the training manuals that I had created, which they were very excited about! Here's the group posing for a Kodak moment:
In other weekly news, the female volunteers had the pleasure of having dinner at the home of Deborah, one of our lovely Jenga staff members. She cooked us up a feast (as Ugandans always do!) of potatoes, chicken, beef, rice, cabbage and chappati. Oh and fresh pineapple for dessert. The power went out part way through the evening, but we continued on by lamp light and had a very enjoyable all-female evening!
On Saturday night, I had Sam, his wife Debbie and their son Caleb over for dinner at my house. I made lasagne served with bread and salad. After dinner, I set the projector up and we watched The Lion King, which they had never seen before! Caleb was mesmerised. Tiff made a yummy cake with coconut on top and we served it with custard during the film. Mmmm.
Yesterday it was Grace N's 29th birthday, so I took the day off in lieu of Saturday's training, and headed over to her house for lunch with a chocolate cake and presents in hand (she had taken the week off on annual leave). I'm getting quite good at balancing on a motorbike while holding a Tupperware cake container! I had made the mistake of having a huge breakfast of American pancakes at Manna's house a couple of hours beforehand, and was then forced to consume a rather large (even for my generous portion size standards) meal of rice, potatoes, beef and cabbage. Oh and chocolate cake. I was sooooooo full, I felt sick! I left around 3pm and went to Mount Elgon hotel for a swim to try and burn off some of the many calories I had just consumed!
On Friday we have a team of 12 young people from Zoe's church in the UK arriving in Mbale and they will be running a youth conference next Monday and Tuesday for young Christian leaders in Mbale. Luckily I still count as a 'youth' in Uganda, because you're officially considered a young person if you're not married! I may just be forever young ;)
George is doing well and has now become an outside dog - we couldn't really handle his whining in the morning and he was also taking up the 'bedroom' of poor Phoebe (our cat). So now he plays with the big dogs. Most of the time they're nice to him! We are going to give him away to a school that our American friend Nat works out. They have another puppy there called Kathy who they took in recently, so there will soon be Kathy and George. Perfect!
My wonderful family back home have been busy raising funds for some projects here, and I was very happy to tell Michael, one of our staff members today that we have funding for football (soccer) boots for the street kids who have, to date, been playing barefoot! Michael looks after the youth/sports side of things and he was very excited when I told him the good news! My parents have also donated generously to the hospital here and part of their money will also be going to a Christian school in Musoto who can't afford to give the students lunch - which is usually the only meal they will eat in a day. The school is waiting for the next harvest for more food, so in the mean time, the donated funds will tie them over. A big thank you to my brother in law, Chris, and my mum and dad for helping out!
At the moment I am busy trying to arrange all the things I want to do before I leave Mbale in a few short weeks. I know time will fly by and I won't be able to squeeze all the visits and dinners in to the final few days, so I'm trying to get on top of it now! Come August 1st, I will be moving out of my current house and boarding with some locals! I am planning to stay for about a week and a half with Leah in Muluku, a weekend with Rose in Namatala, and about a week and a half with Sam & Debbie in Namabasa. They are quite different areas and different living arrangements, but I'm looking forward to sampling a taste of Ugandan life for the 'average' Mbale-dweller.
I know I still have to do some intro's to more Jenga staff, but I'm starting to get a headache from staring at this computer, so I will do it next time! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates in the near future...
Lou :)
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