Day 6: 11^th of August 2011.
Finally back in civilization: power is back in Kampala after 4 days!

Facing challenges doesn’t mean it can’t be fun:

A new day of getting up early. We had to be there at eight O’clock. Too bad the weather wasn’t that great, so we decided to leave a little later so we could remain in sweet dreams for a little longer. Today, we had made four groups to go out on the streets nearby KSPH. The people with a disability could ask a question to strange people, to see what their reaction would be. Olivia, one of the participants of KSPH, wanted to take a cab. But how do you get there when you’re in a wheelchair. And, does a cab even want to stop for you? Fortunately, one did. Also, on request, people wanted to help her. Though, people look at her as if she despise. They rather would want to stay as far as possible from Olivia. The peculiar thing was, she didn’t only had to pay for herself, but also for her wheelchair, which in fact counted as another person. And, in case somebody would wanted to help her, the cabdriver responded that she has got to do it all by herself. Though, she really needed to help.

Alexander did another assignment on getting by yourself as a disabled person in Uganda. His, was to ask a direction. One man wanted to help him, the other didn’t. Maryon, a student at KSPH also wanted to ask the direction. The one that helped her wasn’t very kind and looked at her as if she had a disease which he also could get, only by looking or talking to her. In that way, everyone of the group has had experiences through which we could see how people responded. Sometimes, the situation wasn’t that fun, but we’ve also had a few good ones. After a nice meal, a group of people was keeping busy with baking cookies. Another group played some games such as table tennis and playing cards. During the cookie-baking activity, we sure had a nice time together; we sang and there also was time for a chat. And at the end of the day, Tessa showed a card trick of which the Ugandan men couldn’t get enough. They didn’t like the fact that they didn’t know what the secret behind the trick was.

Andrea and Jelle didn’t join the creative workshops because they joined a project ministry of sports. They went to a slum and played soccer with youth. They brought some soccer balls from the sponsor from Andrea. The motto of the sponsor: ‘throw a ball in a group and people gonna play with each other. That’s the start for connection. Together you achieve more then alone and together you build a brighter future. With the & sign on the ball you connect a few things together. Put a name in front of it and behind and then they will become one’. In this case it was Jelle and Andrea & the kids from the slumms. They experienced how the kids live in poverty, but smile a lot when they play (soccer) with each other. Andrea and Jelle

Back home, we ate and we evaluated the rest of the time still to come. The power went down, like it does every single evening here at the guesthouse, so we had to eat dinner by candlelight, which turned out to by really cozy.

day 7, Friday 14 augustus 2011

This morning we were getting up early to go to KSPH. We painted the bedrooms with the other volunteers from KYC and some kids from KSPH. The rooms smelled like a farm and the walls were very dirty. It was horrible. The most of us didn't had a mouth cap so Jane and Jelle went to the supermarket to buy some.

First we began with scrubbing the walls with a sand paper. So the whole room was dusty. After that we painted the first and second bedroom. In one room were sleeping 32 boys or girls. We didn't finish the third room, because of the smell from the paint. We all were getting a little dizzy. The people with a disability were getting tired and we heard that the painter would finish the bedrooms according to an arranged price, no matter the count of rooms, so we stopped painting.

We had a break to eat with each other. Because of the last day at KSPH, Andrea brought some ‘stroopwafels' and we thanked each other for the days we spend together. Some of them were getting emotional because of our leave. That was a special moment.

After this morning at KSPH, we get home. Some of us were very tired so day got some sleep. Andrea, Tessa and Manon went to the football field at the end of the Bazzekuketaroad. There were local people who danced and made music just like a taptoo. That was great! Everybody was looking at Tessa, Andrea and Manon.... three white woman :P

After dinner we were dressing up for a party in Kampala! It was a party with a dress code: white, so we had to go into the closet :D to pick the most beautiful clothes. At 23.00, our driver brought us to the club. The volunteers from KYC were also invited. The party was really great. We had a lot of fun and learned how to dance by the local people. Also King Laurens got a few lap dances in his wheelchair :D


day 8, saturday 14th august

The day started really relaxed because this was the first day that we slept in, it was our first day off. The fact that we where able to do so was welcome news because we had a tough week
and the day before we had a long night at club iguanna:D.
After breakfast we went to Garden city shopping mall to do some (what else?) shopping...
And we also had lunch there which was strange because it was the first time we had some real western - but still with a bit of an African touch - food for the first time.
After lunch we all split up and we went our separate ways.

There is really not so much interesting things to say about this excecpt for the fact that Laurens and Jelle met an American phisically handicapped in the super market. He was engaged in the weelchair business and distributing weelchairs all over Africa as charity. More on this in one of our next posts since an interview with this chairitable man is coming up next week. After our visit at the shopping mall we went to the craftsmarket, a market where they sell home-crafted products.

It was a really crouded market with a lot of tourists. For the first time in Uganda we really felt like tourists in stead of feeling like volunteers. The place was intended for selling to tourists. We could tell because of the products, the pricing, the negotiating and the many muzungus around. For instance, some T-shirsts they sold had discriptions saying 'My name is not muzungu.' Meaning: 'My name is not whity.' The beautiful thing about the afternoon was what only a 100 meters away we found ourselves a school with so many little, cute, dancing, adorable, lovely, yet very poor children, just seeing the look in their eyes when some of us joined them was really heart warming.

So, after this amazing experience, we all went back to the ICU guesthouse again. We started off with our general routine: eating, evalualing, having endless discussions and having some well deserved beers on the terras.

Yet again, we had an amaizing time, we wish you people at home a very good night. We will upload this as soon as the power comes on again which has been off for about 2 days now. Still, this is the Uganda way of living, we are living it. God speed. Timmeeeehh