For The Rain, It Raineth Every Day

Typing this, I can barely hear myself think  - we’re now into September and Uganda’s rainy season, and the noise on the school’s tin roof is deafening.  It’s also hampering my outdoor painting tasks somewhat, so I have a few minutes to jot down an update. I’ve been meaning to post this for a few days now, but the final few working days of the project have been manic.

Last weekend, Alice and I made the trip to Kampala to spend the bulk of our investment on textbooks for the school. The kinds of textbooks the school needs are not only more expensive, but harder to find in bookshops outside Kampala and, as it turns out, anywhere – over 1/3 of the books we’d been told to look for were now out of print. Bit of a hassle, but with the help of a friend with excellent local knowledge even better haggling skills, we came home with two very heavy boxes of books and far too much craft market shopping.

Relatively light traffic for Kampala...

Alice posting the school's application and our letter of recommendation for government computers

Bought, referenced, logged and ready for the start of term on Monday!

Attempted matatu selfie with Champion Bargainer Ronald

Our Central Pot hand washing tanks are now complete! I mentioned these briefly in July, but these hand washing stations were funded by a grant from the central charity that allows for more expensive water and sanitation investments. However Dalek-esque they look, they will guarantee student access to water for hand hygiene throughout the year, irrespective of the dry season.

Library refurbishment continues at a rate of knots. We’ve moved bookcases, swept a floor dirty enough to host a small ecosystem, made notice boards, made posters, painted Maths & Health Corners, and had new tables delivered.  We’re expecting the remainder of the new furniture this week, and once the notice boards are up, we’ll be filling them with posters, leaflets and advice on either maths support or health advice sourced from local NGOs.

Our homemade notice boards

Lots more to do this week, particularly with sprucing up the nurse’s newly bat-free office, but I’m really looking forward to the next post, when we’ll be completely finished!

PS -there are one or two new photos from Lake Bunyonyi, pinched from Alice, including one of my rather ungraceful attempts at a rope swing.