Friday 6th June
. We awoke early at 6 am to another day at Suubi 2 childrens village in the making. The day dawned clear with few clouds in the sky and it was obvious we were not going to get the cooler more pleasant temperatures of yesterday.
‘The Mission Watoto team’ from Brisbane, decided to ‘adopt’ us so we now feel very much involved in their wonderful project. Once at the building site, the day started with the gathering of the Watoto builders and ourselves on the kindergarten site and James the supervisor outlined our tasks for the day. This was followed by a short prayer from Walter and then he asked one of the young men to lead off in a Ugandan praise song. It was wonderful and as Warwick had his camera at the ready, we have it on record.
The team was divided to work on both the house 34 site and the kindergarten and good progress was made with all team members making steady contributions along with the many Watoto helpers. We have learnt many of their names but unless they wear the same shirt on the next day we do get them mixed up still. We have many laughs over the pronunciation of their names and they of ours.
Work for the day was completed at 3.00 pm. As we had been in the full sunshine all day the knock off time was a welcome respite. This is the last day we will participate with the team on the building project so Warwick was happy to dispose of his gumboots to one of the Ugandan workers who had been making do with a pair of jandals. Most of the others have gumboots or track shoes.
We had the usual bumpy ride home to arrive at 5.00 and a welcome shower. In many of the villages on the main road they have three or four sets of judder bars to slow the traffic down. Not just one speed hump at each set, but as many as four about a metre apart. Makes for a surprise if our driver does not see the first set in time. Today we followed a truck laden with small diameter tree trunks and on top of the pile that was well above the cab level two men were perched enjoying the breeze. We saw a similar sight yesterday but it was a truck full of the local cattle, about 20 in all and most with turned up horns about 3 feet long. A man was perched on a rail above the cattle and waved to us as we passed by.
There are no footpaths either in the city or the country towns and the locals, including young ones on their way to school in their clean and tidy uniforms, all walk on the shoulder of the road with cars, trucks and motor cycles roaring past a few feet away. Ranks of motor cycle taxis are found seemingly at every corner in the city and bicycles, equipped with a padded seat on the carrier are also a means of taxi transport. Although we have travelled the same road six times in the three days there is always something new to be surprised at. Today was a hairdressers, a shed about 2 metres wide with a sign ’Ladies and Mens hair cutz, All cutz done’.
It is also interesting to see 3 butchers within about 50 metres of each other. The butcher in a white coat and the carcase, or what is left of it, hanging on a hook open to the dust and fumes of the passing vehicles. Again the shop is hardly more than two metres square. One of the team purchased an aluminium tray of dried grasshoppers on the way home today and we all found one minus legs, sitting on our plate before dinner. Warwick was not game to try but Chris and most of the others did!!!!!
The bus stops to pick up ice for our coolie bins at a shop about half way to the village. On the first morning a team member handed some cardboard cut out dolls to some of the friendly, curious kids on the roadside. On the following two mornings the children plus cut out dolls have been waiting to greet us again!
Each year over 80 teams visit Watoto to assist in some way at the villages and schools. About 70 % of those teams come from Australia and a few from new Zealand. To sponsor a house and the infrastructure of paths and retaining walls etc costs Aus$38,000 and for one room of a classroom block or kindergarten Aus $20,000. We have seen many school signs as we travel the roads, and the majority of these are church based. We understand that few are solely for orphaned children as is the case at Watoto but many are for fee paying pupils.
