Josie in Uganda: Only 4 weeks of Scotland to go...

It has been a while since I updated you on the progresses made for my year in the beautiful land of Uganda. However, now seems to be the perfect time to explain what has been going on so far this year. If you have read my previous posts (if you haven't, i forgive you) you will have seen that I mention the country 'Swaziland' quite a few times. Well it turns out that unfortunately problems led to my project in Swaziland being dropped. You can imagine my concern when it was only about 4 months until I was flying out to Africa and I didn't know exactly where I was going to be living. Over the next three or four weeks I had many conversations with Project Trust trying to sort out my problem. At one point it looked like I wasn't going to be going anywhere. I was told it could be Malawi, then South Africa and at one point they suggested India. But I have always been quite specific with what I wanted out of my year abroad. I wanted to go to Africa. I wanted to teach. Not so difficult I thought, but it turns out that Project Trust have had the biggest group of volunteers ever and spaces were going quickly. However, just as I was starting to think that it was not going to happen, I was given some very good news: I was going to Uganda (this may not be a complete surprise to those who have noticed just how many times it says 'Uganda' at the top of this blog)

My project: secondary teacher at Children's Sure House in the village of Kiwangala. The Headteacher apparently would like an emphasis on maths and science. Although people who know me would think "Josie doing maths and science?!" I'm hoping that I won't be too terrible. My students will be between the ages of 13-17 learning material equivalent to Standard Grade/Higher. I also get the opportunity to set up extra community projects. So far I have thought of setting up a music group and I'm pretty sure they are going to be absolutely amazing with their African singing and drum playing. Volunteers from last year and the year before have told me how lovely all the children are.

Some of the children at Children's Sure House

As well as finding out what project I was going to, I also found out my partner(s). The three of us all finally met up on the ferry on the way to Coll. Jenny and I had already met before: we stayed in the same house on Selection back in June last year (you can see her in a picture in my first post). We had kept in touch during our fundraising throughout the year and then to find out that we would actually be going to the same project was really strange! There was definitely lots of screaming down the phone when we found out. Holly is our near-newcastle third who is hilarious and a real smart cookie. During our brief time getting to know each other we had the cliché feeling of being best friends that had known each other for years. We ended up failing to socialise a lot with the others going to Uganda and instead spent time just talking.

On the 22nd of July I traveled up to Oban, staying in the lovely backpackers and then travelling to the Isle of Coll early the next morning. Despite the early start and and the reasonably rough sea, training started as soon as we arrived on the island. The week was chock-a-block with talk after talk about teaching, classroom management, culture shock, health, travel and many many more things that I hadn't even considered when planning for my year away. There was time though for everyone to play a game of rounders on the beach on the first night and for the infamous ceilidh on the last night of Training. I also learned the date that I will be leaving Scotland for Uganda and I can now tell you that I will be saying my goodbyes on the 2nd of September. So that means...only 4 more weeks of Scotland to go. My bed in now completely obscured by the mounds of stuff in my 'to take to Uganda' pile. I already know that I will not be able to fit everything into my ruckasack and am prepared to have to sacrifice most of my clothing to make way for all the mosquito nets ect.

With only a month to go I am getting more and more excited but also equally as nervous. The next post may well be coming to you from a small internet café in Masaka, Uganda.