A week has passed already

Wow, the week has flown by! I feel like we have done so much. We visited a village by Lake Victoria at the weekend where another volunteer has been staying. It was his leaving party. It was gorgeous, we were so welcomed, there were so many speeches and thank yous to the volunteer organisation which was good to see. The volunteer had donated a generator so the local school have power there for the first time. The children were amazed, there was music and we danced all night. It was so nice to see teachers and children all dancing and having fun together, that would never have happened at my school! All the volunteers that went along slept in Daragh's room (the volunteer that lived there) there was 6 of us and in the middle of the night we all heard something that sounded like some kind of animal in the house. In the morning we came to the conclusion it was probably a rat! Uuurgh, I'm glad i didn't see it thats all i can say, we were on the floor!

So this week the work has been interesting. Yesterday we visited a children's home/hospital where children go when they have 'club foot' or when there legs aren't straight. They are operated on there. Or also if they have a cleft lip. We were having a meeting about creating a partnership with them. This is because when the youth league visit many of the villages, there are a lot of children who cannot walk, therefore people see them as useless. It is so sad to see. They believe it is down to malnutrition. The families ask if there is anything that can be done and now The Youth League have formed a partnership with the Hospital and they can take them there. It is a huge step for The Youth League and the communities they work with.

Today we went to a village about 15 km outside of Mukono. A village where the majority of people are HIV+. This is all the people know, they know next to nothing about what that actually means for them. I gave my first talk on what is HIV, how can you become infected. myths of infection, ways to prevent infection and how to stay healthy when HIV+. It went very well, i spoke and Kayiira translated it to Luganda. They asked many questions so it that made it feel very worth while. The majority of the adults were so worried about what would happen to there children when they die. This is where The Youth League are trying to set up another Orphanage/School. They are looking for funding at the moment so i think it will be a while.

I have shown Frank and Kayiira my resources on HIV and they are asking me to make a resource file for their office. They were excited as when they showed me there resources it was literally an A4 page.

So things are going well. I am slowly putting photos up but it takes about 10mins to do each (and thats no exaggeration! So more will come.

I hope everyone is fine and well. Amy x