I have realised that I have not kept up with the tales of things being carried on the back of bikes. Yesterday we saw a pig being transported between the driver and the passenger on the rear, how it stayed still we do not know!
Today started at 8am with breakfast and it felt like a weekend having had an extra hour in bed! Our bus was being serviced today before the long drive north to Gulu so Godfrey turned up with a different bus at 9.45 at which point we boarded for a long morning of driving.
We started by going back to visit Bbira, one of the Watoto villages, we saw the schools; the Kindergarten; and houses in which a mother lives with 8 children aged 2-18.
We then moved onto one of Watoto’s other sustainability projects, a chicken farm, which we were shown round by Joe, the manager. Watoto bought the land 2 years ago with 1 building on it, however when examined closely the building was seen as not fit for purpose so they set about building a new barn- this was a costly process and a big project but one of their major donors, an agricultural company gave them a lot of equipment and they were up and running during 2013. They currently have 7000 birds in the barn and get around 4500 eggs per day which are taken by truck to the villages for the children. This is an intensive way of farming and some of the group didn't like the way the chickens were so crammed in with no access to outdoor space.
Watoto has plans for 3 more barns on the land they have meaning they will have nearly 30,000 birds on site and it would start to produce an income for the charity.
After this visit we got back on the bus to go to Suubi. Subbi got so big there is now a Suubi 2 with its own primary school. However, between Suubi and Suubi 2 there is a section of land that Watoto were not able to purchase, this land remains in small pockets in the hands of locals. Watoto has sought to improve their lives by helping with water and light but there is still a clear divide between the children living in the 2 villages and those who live on the land between.
We saw again the goat farm and the work that goes on there providing for the Watoto children.
At the top of the hill in Suubi there is the church which is an amazing circular structure with glass walls and a tin roof and alongside it, girls and boys dormitories. Watoto provide education to students who are not part of their programme but who pay for the quality education that they provide.
We left Suubi to many happy faces and waving hands- the children here go to school from 8am-5pm Monday to Saturday and so have the opportunity to receive a large amount of high quality education. Driving back to Kampala most of the group fell asleep before arriving at Garden City, a big mall, for lunch. Most of the group chose to eat in a steak house where the food was amazing and yet still so cheap! We spent a small amount of time in a supermarket picking up some supplies for our journey to Gulu on Sunday and also some of our favourite food items to bring back to the UK.
Another craft market next to Watoto central was our venue for a bit of Friday afternoon perusing whilst Ian met with one of the local pastors about another exciting project idea.
We’re now back to the guest house for some rest as tomorrow we leave at 7am to go to Jinja, the Source of the Nile. The road has work being done on it so we have been warned it could be a slow and painful journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment