Dan and Jodes… in Gulu, Uganda

Being on duty in a Ugandan school: ordering all latecomers to sweep the dirt and rubbish with their ‘stick brooms’ which creates a blanket of dust; ordering other late comers to mop the cement paths with buckets of water fetched by them (from the well) using old school jumpers; participating in a hair length inspection where all children with hair longer than a few millimetres had what locks they had hacked to ‘shame them’ into getting their heads shaved that night; then supervising those long-haired rebels to sweep and mop the pit latrines. I can’t describe the smell that lingers, especially on a hot day when only a small amount of diluted soap is used for cleaning. Thankfully my classrooms are on the other side of the school, but pity to the infant classes who face these overbearing pits.

We visited a quarry in Gulu yesterday. Nothing should surprise me anymore but this place did. All labour is done completely by hand! The workers burn fires on top of the hard rock to soften it slightly, before smashing it up by hand. The women and children then manually smash up the larger rocks into smaller rocks and sort into piles for selling. Hours of pain-staking hard work in the hot sun. One jerry can full of small rocks (which I can’t imagine how many hours labour went into) is sold for about 35 pence or 55 cents.

Here is the long-awaited vehicle – very exciting! A huge thanks to everyone who helped make this car possible! A Toyota Hilux twincab. Dan got it from Kampala this week. Drove back at night – and what a drive that was! Not only did he dodge the crater-sized pot-holes but it was also a challenge to see (let alone avoid) the many pedestrians walking along the roadside that seemed to blend into the night. The speedometer had been wound back (I thought you just read about these things), mechanic spotted that – so a good reason for a discount in price! Perfect timing with some building work around the corner on site and the wet season looming.

You don’t have to walk far in Gulu to find litter. Welcome to our disposable society where plastic glasses, beer/liquor sachets, plastic bags, milk cartons and literally anything that was consumed seconds ago is thrown to the ground. In fact it is a hard task to find rubbish bins that are accessible! Ironically though, the mess that greets you on the street is a far cry to how clean and sanitary conscious locals are within their homes. Every morning locals sweep inside and outside their modest mud huts or cement houses – they even sweep the dirt road out the front! And they meticulously wash their hands – always before AND after eating – do we in the west do that? It is no wonder I received a cheer from my neighbour when sweeping the verandah, she was probably glad this ‘slob’ from the west was finally taking pride in her home!

Helping to undo some pipes to investigate why the borehole is not working…

This solves the big enigma: what comes first?

Dust, boda bodas (motorbike taxis), pot holes, no road rules (well – just honk), black outs, sales assistants willing to sell you anything, late night shopping every night, haggling for good deals, Hallelujah shop names – welcome to our shopping area…