Bobby -
Friday 13th November
This week has given us cause to reflect on some of the differences between life in Britain and life in Uganda. On Monday at morning reflections it was announced that the son of the vice president of Uganda had been killed in a car accident. On Tuesday morning it was announced that a member of the Reach Out staff had been involved in a Boda Boda (motorcycle) accident while making her way from one Reach Out site to another and had smashed her arm. Rhona has seen a boda boda driver being knocked off and the executive director also collided with a boda boda and had to take the driver to hospital with a broken arm. It is a very common and often the only means of transport but they drive recklessly and there are many accidents. There is a nursery school in the same compound as Reach Out and many three year olds arrive by boda, with up to four children on each one. On Wednesday morning it was announced that the son of a member of staff had died in the operating theatre after a car accident. Ironically the person with the broken arm didn't get to theatre as planned because the surgeon was operating on the car accident victim. Road accidents are very common and a major cause of death in Uganda.
On Tuesday, as we settled in for the evening, we received a request to take the landlord's 21 month son to hospital as he had fallen and cut his head badly enough to need stitches. This required a half hour journey through Kampala. I've not driven much at night yet but couldn't turn down the request. Day driving in Kampala is an experience that I may get used to but night driving brings another set of challenges. No street lights, the many potholes are more difficult to avoid, in the busy centres pedestrians are difficult to see, dazzling lights or no lights on approaching or parked vehicles. However the thing that scared me most was the antics of very young children (possibly age 2 upwards) on a large busy junction. As we waited to turn right the children approached the drivers begging for money. This was around 9pm and they were wandering up and down the middle of the road. I was cautious enough when moving off but when you see the children round a large articulated lorry the situation seems intolerable. We don't know how these children live, if they have adults in their lives or if they receive any care.
Life is often harsh here. Although there is supposed to be free education, and in some rural areas schooling is free but very inadequate (100 children in a class and teachers who spend much of heir time doing other jobs), in Kampala the schools are fee paying. We have work colleagues in their 20s who have had to shoulder family responsibilities from their early teens. We know of one man in his twenties whose parents died when he was fifteen leaving his 17 year old sister, and his four younger siblings, the youngest two years, and himself, to fend for themselves. That these colleagues have responsible jobs, pursue their education at weekends and care and support their younger siblings is evidence of their strength of faith and resourcefulness.
This is the blog for Rhona and Bobby Hogg's VSO experience in Uganda. In August 2008 we applied to do VSO and, following an assessment day in London last October, we were accepted as volunteers . Because of the strong Scottish links, we had set our sights originally on Malawi where we spent a week in June 2008 but joint placements are difficult to find and in February we agreed with VSO to open up the search. At the end of March we were delighted to be offered placements in Kampala, Uganda. We are to work for a HIV and AIDS initiative called Reach Out Mbuya (http://www.reachoutmbuya.org/) where, we hope, Rhona's community nursing experience and Bobby's IT experience will prove useful.
We are due in Kampala on 18th September and have committed to spend a year there. We are very excited about the prospect of living in a very different part of the world and working with Ugandans who, from many reports, are fun to be with. We expect there to be many challenges but our stay in Uganda should be immensely enjoyable.
We are indebted to VSO for giving us this opportunity. Our preparation, including 2 training courses in Birmingham, has been excellent and we are confident about the in-country support that we will get from VSO in Uganda. I understand that it costs VSO around £15,000 to support each volunteer. If you would like to make a donation to support our placements in Uganda please visit the Just Giving site through the link opposite.
