Uganda Lodge May - June 2014

The kids enjoying their playground

Rich and Edd testing out their swingball

 We’ve been at Uganda Lodge for a month now.  Work and play continues.

Rich and Edd have been working like troupers and their playground keeps getting bigger and better.  The kids are loving what they’ve created and Kim and I painted a plaque for their Playground so they have marked their territory.

Kim and I made a volleyball court and net.  The boys were laughing at us saying we could never dig a hole.  Well we did – but it was the kids at playtime that came out and did a lot of the digging! They seem to love getting involved in the hardwork – we are happy to let them! 

 

We used some rope and string to get the outline and then some banana bark fibers braided in order to get the strength down the middle of the net.  Now we are awaiting some volleyballs from volunteers arriving this week.

There is always something to do and you can go to classes if you want, and I spent a day or two in the classroom and have made some timetable suggestions to the headmaster which has now placed PE on the timetable as it should have been! This has meant that more volunteers can get involved in the PE classes and helping out here which is a bit more enjoyable than sitting in the back of the classroom. This mean the students can now enjoy our completed volleyball court:

I also intend to so some phonetics teaching before I leave, as this is not in the program and it should be.  Otherwise, it’s been little jobs here and there, like making coat hangers out of waterbottle tops for the classrooms, milking cows and making posters.  I taught a small group how to play kickball this week too which was fun.  Then we turned into into kickdodge ball!  I've also written a list of games that can be played on our height adjustable volleyball/tennis net and court.

A common game here played at breaktime is a form of dodgeball.  The ball is made of plastic bags tied tightly together to make the ball, and then a set of stones on the floor.  The aim is to pick up the stones and hold in your skirt as the ball is thrown end to end with the aim of hitting you! If you pick up all the stones without being hit, you win! It’s really good fun, but these kids are brilliant at it and I felt like a fool!!!

Tuesday this week was a  public holiday and Jordan (volunteer coordinator), Maria (long term volunteer from Spain) and Rose (coordinator) put together a treasure hunt which was a bit of fun, and as Maria is from spain, we fired up the pizza oven and I made her Spanish Tortilla which was delicious.  With the oven still hot, we made flapjacks too!.