Saturday, 13 August 2011

The Open Day

Yesterday we had the open day for the playground, even though it won't actually be finished until Thursday (if it stops raining enough today so that we can get the final coat of paint on). It was a lovely few hours, and the kids sang loads of songs and danced for us. There were a lot of welcome songs, and thanks, and they got us all up to dance which was quite amusing! I think I will have "We are happy, happy happy happy, happy happy happy, happy to see you" in my head for a long while yet... Millie and Tom's son (about one year old I think) kept getting up to attempt shaking his hips with the girls, haha! At the end, they presented us with baskets and baskets of fruit, and loads of sugar cane, and a lovely framed certificate of appreciation. We're never gonna eat all the fruit, and keep leaving it out in the hope that the kids at Lwannunda school will take some of the 40 odd avocados, but it was such a nice gesture. :) It had been a big rush to get there though, since it was due to start at 11am, and at about ten to we finished painting, jumped in the truck and rushed back to get changed. We had the open day yesterday because it's their last day of term, but Carla invited them all back to play on the playground on Thursday, when we'll be back from Lake Bunyoni and everything will be dried and finished! :) Can't wait to see them playing on it!

After the 'ceremony' finished, we played the school at netball and football, which was interesting... we'd all been quite terrified of this netball match, since none of us could even really remember how to play! By some miracle we actually won, but then we did have to remind ourselves that we were playing against primary school kids. Thankfully it was quite a short game! We didn't do so well at football, and by the end of the day Tom had a broken toe, and Brad a dislocated toe.

That evening we went into Masaka for the awesome buffet bbq at Cafe Frikadellen. The bbq was amazing, however getting there was not quite so successful. Kate and I got on a boda boda together (motorbike), but we broke down at the bottom of a big hill. We helped him push it to the top, to much local amusement. I suppose 2 white girls in dresses pushing a motorbike up a hill isn't something they see a lot. Anyway, once at the top he filled up with petrol, only to break down again at the next hill. We got off and he drove off, so we got another boda, not realising he was waiting at the top of the hill for us, looking quite angry. Our new boda driver at least knew where Frikadellen was, unlike the others, but wanted to stop at the market on the way. We'd been trying to preserve our dignity in dresses, in a place where showing thigh is something we'd been trying not to do. However, as we got off the bike at the market, we faced even more laughter (we were laughed at at the petrol station, as we realised local women in skirts and dresses sit sideways on bodas, but we were too scared to try that) as we're pretty sure Kate flashed a lot of the market! Oops...

We all stuffed ourselves with meat at the bbq (minus the veggies and Brad who went for street food), and then headed to the Vienna Guest House for a drink before returning to Lwannunda on the truck, which now has a painted bar around the bar. It seemed like a great idea at the time, until 16 of us (we had visitors that day) had to sit on the back with bags, unable to touch the sides! Usually we'd sit on the bar, but we ended up having about 5 people standing and grabbing each other, and the rest of us crouching/kind of lying in the back as we bumped our way back from Kitengeesa. Haha.

The rest of the week has basically been painting. On Thursday I got up at half 6 to go for a run with Sami, however it became apparent rather quickly that I hadn't ran since May. Oops. Also got quite lost. Haven't been for a run since, but Sami seems to have got quite into it. Thursday was generally quite an 'interesting' day. As well as the truck bar painting, I also managed to get quite covered. Sami and I got a bit too into painting and painted our faces, only to be reminded that it can take about a week to come off... Luckily, baby wipes and lots of scrubbing meant we didn't have to use kerosene! I wasn't so keen on using a highly flammable liquid to wash my face, if I'm honest! I still don't understand quite how I got my hands so blue though. Oops!

Tom and Carla were told at lunch time that they'd need to have moved out by the morning as people were coming to knock the building down! So Brad, Ellie, Tom and Carla were going to move into our rooms, however they're now staying in the room behind, as the woman who never stops singing is apparently on holiday. Didn't stop Tom breaking out a song early this morning just to annoy us though!

We also had the goat discussion on Thursday, deciding against slaughtering a goat. Mattias was so keen to do it, but we had our doubts about how successful it was going to be; it would be awful if he killed it wrong! Also since we're staying in Masaka tonight and going to Lake Bunyoni tomorrow, we'd have wasted quite a lot of it.

I picked up my tailored dress and trousers today. Apparently they take a different measurement in Uganda, because Claire's trousers are a lot shorter than mine, but I'm hoping they'll fit as three quarters! If not they kind of fit me, haha. Fingers crossed Claire!

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