Then this time last year, Egypt made further donations of pharmaceuticals, an electricity generator and other hospital supplies – so with any luck it will have everything we need. (I also checked the Rabies antidote is in stock, - although they say they haven't needed to use it for 6 years, so I'm guessing it will also be out of date by now - must stay away from rats and bats!)
Just reading the latest e-newsletter from the charity and getting excited about the options I didn’t realise I had… This is a relatively new project for Original Volunteers, which the manager is proud to tell me means it’s an area where the locals have not yet become expectant of money or hand-outs from Westerners but instead they appreciate the generosity of the volunteers and are more than happy to exchange time and knowledge with those who are willing to do the same. The organisers want it to stay that way and so there are strict rules in place about what is acceptable and what is not; excessive tips or direct gifts to individual villagers for example is discouraged, mainly because in other areas of the world this has led to jealously amongst locals. That said, the project manager has recently started to build a register of local families who are happy to accept volunteers into their homes and teach them the traditional methods in use for everyday activities, such as farming or cooking, which of course volunteers would practise by helping out during their stay, giving them a true understanding of rural life in Uganda. In return they ask only for volunteers to make a £1 donation to the family when they leave.
Uganda is almost identical in physical size to the UK and has English as its official language, but this where the similarity ends. It is found next door to Kenya, on the Eastern side of Africa, right on the equator, which I understand we drive over on our bus journey from the capital to the project (although I’m not yet sure which side of the road they are supposed to drive on).
Like many African countries, Uganda has no shoreline and lots of neighbours (Kenya, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania). Some of them are fairly stable nowadays like Rwanda and Kenya, but some of them not so – Sudan and DR Congo for example are considered by the UK foreign office as dangerous places to go and should be avoided at all costs. Uganda itself has had some turbulent times as most nations have, but apart from some on-going issues still playing out in its Northern regions, the land is relatively calm and attracting more and more eco-tourists each year.
So after some careful investigation it would seem that my friend was not far from the truth when he suggested that smearing myself in Marmite would keep the mossies away - turns out that the smell of vitamin B1 (Brewers yeast) permeating through human skin has been proven to be offensive to many mosquitos and is therefore going to be my first weapon of choice (although obviously not in the sticky edible form, but rather 2x500mg tablets taken twice a day). Another thing to cram into my impossibly small rucksack, along with these other essential items;
You might be wondering why I have chosen to volunteer in a primary school when it is a well known fact among friends and family that I bypassed the maternal instinct queue in favour of extra helpings of sarcasm, control and anal retention... Well it's quite simple, my elder sister is turning 40 this summer and since we are in the habit of taking each other away on holiday to celebrate big birthdays, I offered her a villa for a week in a hot, European country by the sea. To my surprise, joy and now slightly nervous excitement, she turned it down requesting instead "something different …. something cultural, something similar to your previous trips".
So I googled and googled and eventually found a long-running UK-based charity called "Original Volunteers" who run all sorts of projects all over the world. Everything from sports assistance for the disabled in Peru, to teaching English to 400 Ugandan 3-9 year olds in a tiny community called Ruhanga. Caroline is in love with children and I am in love with Africa, so it seemed the perfect choice… I put the idea to her and was thrilled at how excited and keen she was. I wonder whether she will say the same when we have spent 24 hours a day together, without hot running water, swollen with mossie bites and tired from failing to sleep in the heat and sounds of the African jungle for two weeks!
