Hey all!
We have had an exciting and excellent first week here in Uganda! It’s been a very eventful and busy week, so apologies to those who have been eagerly aviating news and updates on the blog, but finally we are getting there. This first week was for us participants a preamble to the work we are doing the next couple of weeks in Kampala, Kasese and Busheniy. This fist week have been both very interesting, but also quite of a culture shock for those of us who haven’t been to Africa and Uganda. The experience of being in a country totally different from ours is hard to prepare for, and even though some of us has been to different continents before, Africa is something else. Kampala is very chaotic and hard to understand, we are also made aware that we are different all the time. On the other hand the country lives up to its name Pearl of Africa. The nature is surprisingly luxuriant and the people are extremely friendly. So even though it takes time to get used to the food and the culture, we are looking forward to this adventure.
The whole delegation of AIMers met at the guesthouse at Makerere University on Monday the 21st of June. We just settled in and prepared for the conference that were to take place the following day.
Tuesday we sat off to Entebbe, to the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre where the conference took place. The theme for the conference was “Sustainable aid”, there were delegates from AIESEC, Leo Clubs, Treasure Life Centre and Lions Club Bergen Student. We had loads of fun, saw zebras, lions and rhinos, and of course had some interesting and rewarding sessions on the subject sustainable aid in Uganda. The first night entertainment was hosted by us Norwegians, we served Vestandslefse and we watched the movie “This is Norway”. Next on the agenda were Hallingkast, Aquavit, and singing Norwegian children songs among other things. This was a success, but we actually had to quiet a little because we kept the lions awake, and he was grumpy. We also taught our new friends the Glow- dance which became a major hit, and the party continued into the late hours.
The next day arrived far too early, but as the Norwegian saying goes “Helt om natten, helt om dagen”(Hero in the night, hero in the day…good translation there…) we continued with sessions and getting to know each other. We learned a lot about sustainable aid, but just as rewarding maybe, were getting firsthand knowledge about Ugandan-, Chinese, Canadian-, Greek- and American culture.
In the evening we had lovely Ugandan food at the beach, with a bonfire and traditional Ugandan dancing and walked home through “ the jungle, the mighty jungle where lions sleeps at night, ahoooo…”
We finished the conference, with sessions that focused on Ugandan culture and I believe everyone was extremely happy with everything we had learned and the lovely people we had met!!
On Friday we visited the Norwegian embassy. We were met by the nice staff and given some very interesting information about Uganda in general, politics, and the very relevant issues regarding the newly discovered oil in Uganda. In the afternoon, we went to visit KCCC (Kamwokya Christian Caring community) which is the place where two of this year projects are based. Had a little tour around the area and met up with some of the people we had spent time with earlier this week. KCCC is placed in a slum area in Kampala and there were a lot of impressions to take in.
On Saturday both the groups Legal Aid and Sponsor a dream had meetings with the staff at KCCC. We got to share our hopes and expectations regarding the different projects, made more specific plans about what our role is going to be while we are here. We are in good spirit and looking forward to continuing the work on these projects.
The piggery group had some meetings with a project part and discussed the plans of our next two weeks. We are facing two challenging and interesting weeks, and have quite a lot to plan. Tomorrow we head out on a 6 hour drive to our host in Busheniy. It is to be some exiting week.
The Lions Quest group has already started their program with a conference here in Kampala before they travel to Kasese. As far as we know it’s going very well.
Our personal documentary maker, Brynhild, have also started her work in a good way, sticking her camera inn our faces all the time. She actually travelled alone through Kampala for one hour yesterday, impressive.
Our leader, Hanna our star, also does an excellent job keeping time and makes sure everything runs smoothly. She gives her all and a bit more for us all the time and have worked 24/7 the last week.
To be continued...
-Elizabeth - Sponsor a dream
-Anders - Pro:Piggery
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