No words.

Something happened in my friend's placement community which I want to share with you. Her placement partner, who is Ugandan and comes from the community they work in, was abandoned by his mother at the age of two and brought up by his Aunt. Last week she had a miscarriage. She lay in a bed at the local, poorly stocked, under-staffed clinic and bled to death because there was no one to take her to a hospital. In a final injustice her husband and nephew had to carry her blood soaked body back to their house on the back of a motorbike. She leaves behind five children, nephews, nieces and a devastated husband on suicide watch. She was 36.

When things like that happen , aside from the awful loss and sense of hopelessness, its a real slap in the face for what we do here. What right do you have to stand in front of a class of students and tell them to go for STD testing at a clinic which they associate with that kind of treatment? How can you possibly tell people that you understand their problems?

Sorry but I can't be cheerful all the time.

Just keep swimming...

March has flown by and I can't believe it is already the 21st. I am over a third of the way through my time on placement already! After thinking seven months would be a very long time to spend on placement the reality couldn't be more different. Next months school lessons stop in early April due to exams and don't begin again until late May when I will only have two months before we begin pulling out of the communities! Because I am always thinking ahead it sometimes feels like my time here is already over, I have to keep reminding myself that I still have four months to go.

Life in Busede is mostly good. Some things which seemed like a fun challenge at the beginning have now become just everyday life. Living without water and electricity takes its toll on your mind and body after a while and the total absence of things to do outside of teaching is a little grueling. Those who are talking of sending me packages I would kill for a copy of The Economist, should keep me busy for a couple of days at least! Not that I don't have a lot to do. I teach about eleven school lessons a week on average, work with the out of school youth groups, connect people with the health center, organise events (pictures next week I promise) do paperwork and I spent most of Friday walking around dust roads with a backpack full of a thousand condoms and a wooden penis! The problem is, when all that is over for the day, there is literally nothing to do but read or play cards. Our radio only picks up stations in the local language so my iPod use has doubled since its purchase! I have read all four twilight books (I'm sorry I finally caved), Captain Coralie's Mandolin, about five random books as well as listening to two Harry Potter's and Guards Guards on my iPod. (On that note a HUGE thank you to my brother for downloading those for me, they have been a god send!)

On the work side of it though everything is moving along swimmingly. Some of our efforts to get the out of school youth groups registered, which allows them to access a load of government resources, is starting to bare fruit and every primary school child I teach in Busede now knows how HIV kills through the innovative use of a game similar to British bull dogs. Happily condoms are now rolling into the county after months of prophylactic drought and I'm actually managing to get them out to the people who need them. I'm going to keep trying to make the most of my time here so that I can really enjoy my traveling when it's all over: a (hopefully) well earned reward :)

Love to everyone and I should be on here next week for a chat.
Anna
xxxx

Joan

So today is a national holiday in Uganda: "woman's day". It seems to me to mean a lot of shouting on the radio and no lessons in school; if it has any other purpose I remain oblivious! So I thought I would use it to tell you all about Joan who lives next door to me (don't worry the narcissism will return and I will do another post to let you all know what I've been doing).

Joan is the oldest daughter of the family which live next door to us in the grounds of the Sub County at Busede. She gets up at about half six most mornings and helps her mum wash and dress her two younger siblings. At around half seven she sets off to walk for 45 minutes, barefoot, to school where she stays until the afternoon. Sometimes we walk together. We don't speak each others language so other than some point and click phrases we walk in silence. Neither of us seem to mind though, its nice to have the company.When she is not at school I have seen Joan sweeping the house, walking her crying younger brother round the compound to calm him down, weeding the garden with a huge hoe, carrying water on her head back from the bore hole, cooking and running to the shops to buy milk for the family's breakfast.The other day we were walking to school together and Joan started to cry. I don't know why, maybe she stepped on a stone or somebody said something hurtful to her. I crouched down in the dust, wiped the tears from her eyes and took her tiny hand in mine.
Joan is six. She is the little girl in blue on the picture below.

Life for children here is full of contrasts. They are allowed more freedom than their European counterparts can imagine, but in return they are expected to work damn hard. Joan has a relatively good life. A house which keeps her dry, a dad with a decent job, a mother who loves her and the chance to go to school. Many children here don't even have that. Apart from anything else, it really puts things in perspective.