Obule-Angoram has received an eclipse

Our day started in a rural village.  Followers of last year’s blog may remember Betty, who was appointed by her community to run a nursery school because it was too far for these little children to walk to the nearest available nursery.  Today we visited the nursery.   

They meet in a church building – a mud and pole structure with a leaking thatched roof.  They have benches to sit on, and proudly produced the 2 books I gave them last year.  That is all they have.  The parents have stopped paying for the children to attend so Betty no longer receives a salary.  She has her own home and family to look after as well.   They have no books, no pencils, no blackboard, no food.  Betty cannot afford the 60,000UgX for training (about £15).  The children were dressed in rags, without shoes and were shy and afraid of us.  They are wary of strangers.  Some had never seen a Mzungu before.

We went with James and Hannah who are working at the Global Care centre in Soroti for 6 months, and David came too.   Before we left the office I rummaged in my remaining bag and asked David if felt pens would be a good thing to take.  Only if you’ve got paper, he said. Fortunately I’d taken some colouring sheets so they went too.  As we sat facing the children we tried to engage with them.  The room was dark and dusty and the main light shone from Betty’s smiling face and her welcoming assistant.  She was excited to see us again and pleased that we could visit. Our minds struggled to deal with the situation.  We sang to them, Tom played his whistle and we tried to get them to dance, they sang to us, we drew with them, we even threw a Frisbee.  But it was a losing battle.  

On this trip, most children shout at us, wave, smile, and want to touch us.  This morning my heart felt that it would break before I could get a flicker of pleasure from the anxious little faces staring up at us suspiciously.   This is their life.  This is the start of their education – how different from the nursery classes our own children attended where they had purpose built rooms and gardens, and too much choice of what to play with.  Where there was no shortage of learning materials as well as play equipment.  And how much would it cost to train Betty and supply the children with basic materials?  A lot less than taking my family out for a meal!

 

In complete contrast, we visited Angoram school next, where we have seen massive changes and improvement over the years thanks to school partnership projects, the generosity of UK donors and hard work and commitment from the local community. This year they have extended the teachers’ accommodation to 6 huts and are eating the cassava they planted in the field I saw last year.  But – they still need another concrete classroom. We were treated to the choir and a drama which basically informed us that to everyone’s amazement, the school had received an eclipse!

Tom will write about the very long meeting (1pm – 4pm) we attended next. See drtomgoesglobal.blogspot.com. We ate a very rushed lunch/tea back at the centre and some of us went to see the parachute in use with the wonderful Odongo Michael in his village. 

Unfortunately the rains came before we could play much, but we had a cup of tea and mandasi (bit like doughnuts) at Michael’s house while the children played outside with a new football (thanks to my friends at work) and skipping ropes we brought out last time.

So it has been a mixed day. On the one hand we are very encouraged to see money we have raised and play equipment we’ve taken out being put to good use.  We love to see happy children in a great educational or social environment, and know that in small ways we and our friends and family have brought even the tiniest spark of improvement in a child’s life.  On the other hand, we are faced by the enormity of the challenge to find the most needy and vulnerable children and for those in positions of authority to make the right decisions about where to spend what little money is given.  How can UK and local budget holders decide who receives help, and who doesn’t? Which child can be sponsored and which can’t? And once again I’m challenged by the comfort of my own lifestyle, and the seemingly impossible levels of poverty at which people here not only manage to survive, but like Betty, give up their own time to improve life for those worse off than themselves.