Wednesday 27th of July

This day fully packed with three different, workshops: the assertiveness training, the job training and the creative training. We started with the assertiveness training, which was done via some interactive cases. After a short explanation and some examples, the group was split into smaller groups. These groups were focussing on solving the cases. These cases were for example asking help by passing an obstacle or the stop a taxi and get into the front seat of the taxi. All the cases were based upon real life situations. Remarkably was the different ways of solving the cases. Uncertainty and anxiety played an important role in this. The students indicated during the evaluation that they has learned a lot from this workshop. We hope they can use these skills also in practice.
The job training started with the some sentences which were whispered into the ear of the first student and passing through the entire group. The last student should say he things the original sentence was. As you understand the input was not equal to the output! Important topics which were discussed are: use of your voice, body language and can (and dare) to present yourself with a clear story. This was done via games like, recognize emotions on different photo's and students telling something about themselves. This kind of training was big eye-opener for some of the students. They were not aware of the importance of body language. As we has experienced, most of the Ugandan people speaking with a low voice and always facing down, avoiding eye contact.
After having some rest and some food (or precisely: running overheated to the lunch place, as it was very hot today), we did our creative workshop. Upfront we were not entirely sure how many children would participate at the work shop, but we didn't worried about this. 'We will see what happens'. The participants were split into three groups. One groep were folding figures with paper and sticking 'Holland' tattoo's on their bodies, the other group were painted with make up on their faces and painting the plaster masks, which were made in the third group. During the preparations of the work shop we were not sure whether the children would accept the plaster bandages on their faces. It might scare them. The fear wasn't necessary, the children loved it. There were a lot of children waiting for making a mask of their own face. Despite this big success we really had to stop the workshop, as we were running out of time.
After this long day, we went back to the ICU guesthouse. There a nice dinner was waiting for us. And there was water and electricity (yeaaah), so we could take a warm (or non-cold) shower. After almost 2 weeks in Uganda, you are even exited when there is water and electricity. What a difference compared with Holland!! The rest of the evening we relaxed a bit and did some preparations for the day of tomorrow.

Wednesday 29th of July

This day fully packed with three different, workshops: the assertiveness training, the job training and the creative training. We started with the assertiveness training, which was done via some interactive cases. After a short explanation and some examples, the group was split into smaller groups. These groups were focussing on solving the cases. These cases were for example asking help by passing an obstacle or the stop a taxi and get into the front seat of the taxi. All the cases were based upon real life situations. Remarkably was the different ways of solving the cases. Uncertainty and anxiety played an important role in this. The students indicated during the evaluation that they has learned a lot from this workshop. We hope they can use these skills also in practice.
The job training started with the some sentences which were whispered into the ear of the first student and passing through the entire group. The last student should say he things the original sentence was. As you understand the input was not equal to the output! Important topics which were discussed are: use of your voice, body language and can (and dare) to present yourself with a clear story. This was done via games like, recognize emotions on different photo's and students telling something about themselves. This kind of training was big eye-opener for some of the students. They were not aware of the importance of body language. As we has experienced, most of the Ugandan people speaking with a low voice and always facing down, avoiding eye contact.
After having some rest and some food (or precisely: running overheated to the lunch place, as it was very hot today), we did our creative workshop. Upfront we were not entirely sure how many children would participate at the work shop, but we didn't worried about this. 'We will see what happens'. The participants were split into three groups. One groep were folding figures with paper and sticking 'Holland' tattoo's on their bodies, the other group were painted with make up on their faces and painting the plaster masks, which were made in the third group. During the preparations of the work shop we were not sure whether the children would accept the plaster bandages on their faces. It might scare them. The fear wasn't necessary, the children loved it. There were a lot of children waiting for making a mask of their own face. Despite this big success we really had to stop the workshop, as we were running out of time.
After this long day, we went back to the ICU guesthouse. There a nice dinner was waiting for us. And there was water and electricity (yeaaah), so we could take a warm (or non-cold) shower. After almost 2 weeks in Uganda, you are even exited when there is water and electricity. What a difference compared with Holland!! The rest of the evening we relaxed a bit and did some preparations for the day of tomorrow.

Tuesday 26th of July

Today there were two workshops planned. During the morning session the dream workshop was held. The afternoon was filled with some sport and game activities. The dream workshop, hosted by Mirjam, Hedda and Heleen, had the purpose to let the students of the KSPH to express their dreams. In Holland the small boys have the dream to become a air plane pilot and they tell everyone about their dream. Within Uganda the children have difficulties speaking out their dream for the future. The work shop started with making a dream catcher. Via a creative approach the focus was set on 'your dream'. Shortly after the small groups have started the workshop, we noticed that the KSPH students were very good in making the dream catchers (so the vocational class really pays off)
In the second part of the workshop the students were asked to name the qualities and skills of themselves and of the other ones in the group. This was a difficult step to take for most of the students. But bit by bit the students came up their qualities and skills. By keeping asking questions the dreams were expressed carefully. At the end the qualities and skills could be combined the dreams. For example, one of the students would like to become a taxi driver. One of his qualities was 'helpful'. So based on the quality the dream might fit well for him. All dream , qualities and skills were put into the dream catcher of the individual student. This was the end of the dream workshop. We had a positive feeling about this work shop.
In the afternoon a lot of the students gathered at the sports field (which was leaning down quite steep). Everyone joined the session, it didn't matter whether what kind of disability you have. At the end wheel chairs, crutches and walking frames were everywhere! The children really loved to do warming up session via a slalom with pylons. This was followed by some games. The absolute climax was playing ticker with a ball. The students in a wheel chair were pushed by fellow students. But as soon as the student with the ball came close, the wheel chair students were abandoned by the fellow students. The fellow students didn't want to be cut out of the game, even when this mean you have to leave the other student alone. When everyone was exhausted, we did a cooling down and sang a last song. After that this wonderful day came to an end.

Monday 25th July 2011; interview Joseph & Sula (employees at ‘Riley Packaging’)

Being brothers, Joseph and Sula both grew up in Kampala city. Since their home was located nearby a crowded street, they were spotted by the wife of a British ambassador. She noticed that these young boys didn't go to school. Therefore she arranged the opportunity for both boys to study at the KSPH.

Although they didn't finish their studies, they did become financially independent. Actually the reason for their departure from KSPH was to be financially independent. With the help of the ambassadors wife they set up their own business: a shop. Due to the fact that things didn't work out the way they planned as shopkeepers, the brothers choose to search for a regular job. Eventually they found a job at a packaging factory. With some luck, since the president of the factory visits the KSPH regularly.

Financially independent
The two brothers come from a household consisting of six children. Four of them are disabled. This makes it extra special, that these guys are not only taking care of themselves, but also for their relatives. They have the willpower to work 13 hours a day, and share the believe that they be more responsible regarding their job than they already are.

Challenges
Considering the environment in which the boys grew up, they didn't have the easiest of lives. Most of the time they stood alone without any help of their family. Also the boys learned a lot from not finishing their study. For instance, they were obligated to do a computer course before they could start their jobs.

Future dreams
Since these extraordinary guys are continually looking for ways to grow, they've got clear dreams for the future. Joseph has big schemes such as the buildup of his own copy shop, facilitating the use of computers and printers to the locals. Sula's dream is to become an artist within the music business. He's already part of band, and a carrier would be his dream. Apart from this, he's got other plans to, like a wife, children, having a car for himself, and maybe to set up a small business.

Advice to others (physically disabled)
The gentlemen visit KSPH quite regularly, since one of their sisters is part of the vocational class of the institution. Therefore they've become more or less a role model to the youngsters at KSPH. With pride in their eyes, it's obvious they like the fact they're showing others anything is possible. Being an inspiration their advise to others is to always use your brains and try to finish your study. It'll help one to overcome the barriers in life. Also they advise anyone in a wheelchair to stand up for themselves. Be confident of who you are and where you're from.

Advice to government
Finally they have some tips to the government regarding their policies as well. First of all, current schools for the physically disabled are highly expensive, and should become cheaper, in order to guarantee their accessibility. Also life for one in a wheelchair is truly expensive, since they make a lot of costs regarding transport, guides (help getting in taxi, or during shopping), purchase and maintenance of wheelchairs etc. Facilities as reducing taxes for the disabled, or offering free wheelchairs are highly recommended. Finally since inequalities do emerge a lot in daily, another advise would be advocating equality.

Monday 25th of July; interview Florence (entrepeneur)

As a middle-aged women ‘Florence' started her school carrier at Kampala School for the Physical Handicapped (KSPH). Here she has learned the profession of sewing. After finishing, she started to provide sewing lessons at the KSPH. By now she has her own small enterprise, in which she offers sewing courses to anyone interested, with or without a handicap. The courses are attended by 15 students with a disability in the morning, and 8 students without a disability in the evening. She is now the proud owner of 5 sewing machines. Remarkable is the fact that KSPH recently started providing start-up packages to newly graduates of vocational class at KSPH. Despite the fact that Florence was not eligible for this, the KSPH provided her a sewing machine retroactive.

Financially independent
Being a mother of three children, and raising her parentless cousins, it almost seems impossible to gain enough money to be independent. Yet Florence is doing amazingly well. By providing her courses she earns even enough to reduce the college fees of the disabled students up to 50%, and she arranges all their transport.

Advertisement
One of the key factors of Florence's success, is the way she makes her organization known. First of all, she pays exceptional visits in her neighborhood in the search for women with a disability. In order by doing so, she offers them a potential carrier. Secondly, she advertises on the radio. Finally she profits a lot from mouth-to-mouth commercial. She even has costumers from outside the city.

Challenges
Of course her road to success didn't come without any barriers. One challenges she still has to cope with on a daily basis is the problem of transport in Uganda. In order to meet her contacts in time, as well as doing her groceries at the market, she needs a guide and a taxi. This is obviously highly expensive.

Future dreams
Florence's plans for the future are to expand. She already owns a small piece of land behind her enterprise, so it would be ideal for her to share her expertise on sewing with as many potential students as possible. Also, as a part of the expenditure, she would love to have her own shop to sell the handmade crafts from her and the students.

Picknick at Sander's place

Last Saturday we went to the place where Sander, the owner of the guesthouse where we stay, lives. Besides us there were 5 students of KSPH and 3 girls of KYC. Getting there was, of course, an adventure itself. Lots of traffic jam, big holes in the roads and beautiful nature around us. As we got there we prepared the lunch and Tim showed us the place he stayed at, that night. He also showed us the toilets, something that was another shock to some of us. Big insects were hanging above us.. Part of African adventure... After an delicious lunch the people who were going to give the workshop arrived. It was an group of people who give shows in Africa, as well as in Europe. That afternoon they tried to learn us some traditional dances and to play some traditional instruments. We were split up in two groups, one group 'dance' and one group 'music'. After an afternoon of practicing we performed to each other in small groups. During diner the group who gave the workshop gave a show. It was an great experience. While the sun was getting down, the monkeys looked down on us and played and an show was given to us, we were having another great meal.

After this, a few of us went out to a club. We danced all night and had a great time.
Jolien

Tim is staying home!

To bad, i got sick on the second day of real work.
But now i can give you some more detailed stories about our time here in Uganda!

The flight was really good, i guess i have never had one better than this. It's so much fun to be on a plane with 9 other people u know (or maybe we didn't know each other that well). We killed some time watching movies, tv programmes and listening to music. Also the food and drinks were good, and plentifully! Maybe this food wasn't the best preparations for Uganda.
We arrived very late, and 2 taxi's took us back to ICU. We had some needed rest :)
The next day sander showed us the best parts of Kampala, we had some nice dinner afterwards. Most people decided to go for the pepper steak. I'm really sorry is didn't go for that as well.. it was soo tasty. That night we went to the Ndere dance/music show at 6PM (Which started at 7PM according to Jane).
It was really fun, even after the power losses (we are used to it now). I made a lot of nice pictures, to bad i can't share them all with u guys. we finished the evening with a multi cultural dance! Off course (as dutch as we are) we had to start a polonaise.. and everybody joined in :D.

Monday.. it was a bit of a shocking start.
Hope was driving us to KYC. She started of rushing over the bad roads close to KYC (we were thinking she was joking..). Then she rammed a wall, almost had an accident with a car and 2 boda's.. to finish with a real accident with a boda. The traffic officer told her to continue her way.. so she decided to give some gas and drove over the boda!
Jane couldn't take it anymore and decided to stop here.. we got a different driver called Eddy. He is really cool :)
But still manages to scare us from time to time with the chaos on the Uganda roads.
Finally reaching KYC we saw a little heaven in the middle of the slums. It was really nice!
We met the youngsters, played volleyball with them and did a little workshop and introduction.
After a lot of hours we went back to ICU.

Tuesday.. for me a really bad day.
We were going to paint KYC.. it was all very basic and the room wasn't ventilated that well. So after 2 hours of painting, Jolien and i felt a bit sick.
After some rest, pineapple and melon we felt better. We asked a researcher of KYC to show us around in the slums. So him, me, Jolien and Ivo went into the slums (we didn't bring any water... stupid!).
We saw so many awful things, also the air was really filthy and smelled very bad. It really impressed me, even shocked me.
After coming back after a very difficult route I was feeling really sick. So sick that I had to puke during the ride back. (Sander was wondering if I had hit a boda doing it, too bad I didn't).
Coming back to ICU I went straight to bed, sleeping the rest of the day.

 
Wednesday.. I stayed home sick.

Me, Mirjam and Ivo stayed home sick.. so we had to find some fun at ICU.
The others went on home visits, they really enjoyed them!
That evening I was feeling really down and everybody was noticing.. I went to bed early to get some good sleep.

Thursday.. let's try it again!

This morning I was feeling great again.. I had eaten some food and was ready for the day.
We were going to sell clothes at KYC and it was supposed to be really busy! When we arrived at KYC there were actually people waiting for us! So we unpacked all of the clothes really fast and started doing business. We made a decent amount of money out of it.
After the market sale we had some lunch (I had bread, because I really dislike the local foods). For the afternoon we had planned to play games with the local children. A lot of them had turned up! It was really fun :), but I was feeling bad again..

Today Hedda and Naomi also got there hairs done! The result is really nice :).

Friday.. home again.

I wasn't feeling that great again.. so I am staying home today.

- short interruption while speaking with Sander-

He convinced me to stay, so today I will hang around with him, his wife Sarah and the 2 kids.
I will join him at his plot in Mukono. Tomorrow we planned to have a pick nick there. So I will stay there for the night.
But first we are going to take the kids from school, shop for the pick nick and drive there.

See you guys later!
Tim

welcome to Uganda!

15th July 2011

At 7.00 / 7.30h. we supposed to be at Schiphol airport, unfortunately one of us arrived at 7.50h. Which caused stress at the other group members. Two funny theatre girls entertained us while waiting with some songs and making group pictures.

Flight took us in 8, 5 hours to Kigali, Rwanda. There we waited for one hour before we left to Entebbe, Uganda. In Entebbe Jane was there to pick us up from the airport together with two drivers. Our luggage was placed on the rooftop of the van, which was very strange to us...

Then we arrived at ICU guesthouse in Kampala. When we arrived there the light was out for at least one hour. So we had to find our ways in the dark.

16^th July 2011

This morning we were given some extra sleeping time so we had breakfast at eleven. Jane arranged luxurious breakfast. After breakfast Sander gave us a Kampala sightseeing tour by van. We were impressed by this city, the people, the crowd and the traffic. We had diner in downtown Kampala. After diner we left for Ndere danceshow. We enjoyed the show and even we danced a typically Dutch dance (polonaise) with several nationalities.

17^th July 2011

This Monday was our first volunteering day at Kawempe Youth Centre (KYC). KYC is located at the slums of Kawempe, Kampala. There we meet the children of KYC and KSPH who are joining us these two weeks. Hann - one of our volunteers - leaded a dialogue session about being disabled. Which has already lead to more respect for disabled people.

While being at KYC the people of Kawempe come to see us and call us Muzungu (white people). Lots of children were waving to us and joined us playing soccer.