A walk in the Park?

Today is a Public Holiday – ‘Liberation Day’- 32 years since Museveni came to power (imagine 32yrs of Trump eeek….).  Having a quiet day to plan for the week ahead and acclimatise to being back in Uganda is very welcome.  I used to happily charge straight into ‘work’ but age (no we’re not going to mention THE birthday in this blog), and leaving winter at home, mean it’s marvellous to have a lie-in and a slow meandering day. 

We had a very late breakfast (8.45) then Fred and David, the 2 Managers at the Global Care Soroti Centre, came over to the hotel to agree a programme. We had lots of catching up to do, family news and greetings, photos, and introducing Fred to a Latte (rejected by David).

You would be amazed at the work they achieve here. 189 sponsored children are supported with school and welfare, disabled children are cared for at the Ark or supported at home or school when they are discharged, young people attend the skills centre and some are resident as their homes are too far to travel every day, they have partnerships with local schools – helping with self-sufficiency, feeding (agricultural initiatives), and of course scholastic supplies and school buildings, and they provide guidance and support to a local Disability Support Group (DSG).

Quite a bit of our time with the team will be supporting their work to help a rural community set up another DSG.  We’ve planned a visit to run a workshop (Tom is preparing for the workshop while I write this) with families who have registered with the new group, another day will be in the office working on proposals and the much mentioned ‘logframe’. Hopefully this will be informed by a better understanding of the community needs after the workshop. At the end of the week we’ll go back again to meet with the group Officers. Phew. It’s a 2-hour journey to the village. They are mostly subsistence farmers. Government schools are too far away so children go to a community run school.

We’re having a day with staff at the Ark and visiting children who’ve been discharged home from the Ark, to see how the families are managing. We’re having a day in Atiira with the existing DSG. We’re visiting our son Pete’s sponsored boy who is on a vocational training scheme and several sponsored and ex-sponsored children are coming to meet us at the centre. Part of my role here is to gather stories, videos, audio recordings and interviews with children and young people.

Fred said he thought at first it might be difficult to fill in every day – not any more!

After the meeting we walked into town to buy lunch from the market (blog fans will be pleased to know I had Rolex but it’s gone up to 30p). Tom had an avocado (20p) and a pack of passion fruits was 40p. Maybe they were Mzungu prices. We had a picnic in the park to the amusement of a couple of children. 

Tom bought a cap for the extortionate price of 80p – that will teach him to leave his at home….

We stopped on the way back to chat to some student nurses and a brass band who had played in the Liberation Day Parade earlier today. We took an unexpected detour (all the paths look the same to me – no different from home then) and now I’m having my first African spiced tea in the hotel garden.

The team here work incredibly hard, and have made a huge difference to lives in whole communities.  I’m excited about this week, but challenged to think the staff believe we can help and see things from a different angle. My respect for David and Fred grows each time I meet them. My belief in Global Care is strengthened after just one day.

Tomorrow we’re at a wedding – if I’m still standing at the end, I’ll blog! Fred has a treat for me on Sunday afternoon – I’ll tell you if it happens. Hint – Tom is less enthusiastic.  Now I need to help Tom develop a quick Participatory Development Workshop plan (what??).