More emails!! Paddy's day & events

Paddy's day wasn't the usual pub ritual I'm used to. I taught four classes on teenage pregnancy and was knee high in work organizing a big free Voluntary Counselling and Testing (HIV) for the community. I did wear green, told people about Paddy & the snakes and finished up having a warm beer from a shack whilst sat on a bench in a small mud road..! The first beer for a good month so needless to say it was well deserved!

I visited the Source of the Nile. It's just outside a town called Jinja, about an hour away from my village - Nawanyago. I don't know why a trip to the source sounds great...when you get there it dawns on you that it's just a load of water in a lake. Beautiful views though and Jinja is a great little town!! It looks like something out of a Clint Eastwood film only the cowboys have been swapped with Africans! Plenty of Indians around, just no cowboys..a few of the lads do walk around in cowboy hats alright though!

Having a well deserved break this weekend in Jinja so I'll get electricity, running water and a hot shower (the first in two months! can't wait! ) Luxury! I've been a slave to the aul bucket and sponge & paraffin lamp up until now. Getting used to it though, and I don't miss too much. I could do with a little bit of variety in food! Can't wait to get my hands on a good steak n vegetables. Doing alright for food but its the all carbs and all the same! Matoke (a banana mash type thing), rice, posho (stodge). We get beans and tomatoes but that's about all we eat.

We've been really busy these past few weeks. All the usual teaching in 3 schools (2 secondary and 1 primary) and some farmers groups, then we had a load of events on top of that. Started with the sports event We had five village football teams battle it out all day for the grand prize....a goat! I've never seen so much excitement over a goat! Screaming & shouting, 2 fights and people too happy to talk, instead they just ran all over the place flapping their arms about screaming! Great craic! I wonder if that'd go down well back home! We then had a video day in a village showing a DVD on HIV, domestic violence and all of that. Terrible, terrible acting but the lads loved it! We brought the TV, DVD and electricity generator for a 3 pm start. The first generator didn't work, nor did the second or third..and we're talking about a little place in the middle of nowhere. 5 hours later we tracked down another generator and got the gig going. 9pm start...African time..no one battered an eyelid! Hundreds of people showed up to our field in the middle of nowhere to watch the video. It went down really well!
We then had a big free HIV testing day. We got 265 people tested and counseled. Headed with our farmers groups to model farms to show them how to get things up and running. That was a great day out! Saw piggeries, poultry projects, banana and coffee plantations, mangoes, passion fruits...you name it! The man leading the visit also fancied himself as a bit of a farming preacher. He had decked out his barn with what can only be described as an alter , complete with fake flowers on it and purple, white and red satin in the backdrop. A makeshift St Anthony's! We didn't quite get the 7 deadly sins but he got a few of them in!! Father Vinny watch your back!

I've started to get to know many more people in the village and I spend my free time relaxing at the videohall watching the footy or Lusoga dubbed versions of Rambo, Snakeman or any other film the guys get their hands on! Power can be scarce but there's great craic to be had sitting in that bin bag lined wooden shack!

No real move on the music as yet - I've been so busy with other things but I should be starting that very soon. I've met a few keen youth and I'm planning to record The Aids Support Organization (TASO) who have a drama group who perform around Uganda. So I should get a few tunes done!!

All in all it's going well. It can drag a little when you're not up for teaching or when you're on time for a meeting and no one shows up at all...or even worse, they show up 5 hours late and all you can do is sit there, smile and wait for the next people to come. But you get used to it all somehow!!
Weather-wise it's been very hot. We're into the wet season now so we get a day or two of rain or a few hours a day but then it's hot again. I'm lucky with our community because they seem pretty welcoming of SPW and the work which is better than in some of the other placements!

Think I'm headed to Madrid when I get back to do a TEFL Course & find some work out there teaching English. Henri and Jeje will be out there too so it should be a great laugh! Don't think I'll make it to South Africa for the World Cup but now that Ireland aren't there I'd rather watch it from here! Looking forward to Dad and Cian coming over for a visit which includes a trip to see gorillas in the wild and a Safari in Tanzania! Got a close friend doing an internship out in Tanzania so I'll be able to meet up with him too!

In the meantime there's a load of teaching and looking forward to playing in the teacher vs. students football match! They're all keen to watch the Muzungu (white man) play!