The internet here is VERY slow and VERY unreliable so we quickly realised our intention to update the blog daily was not going to be realistic. But hey, this is Africa.
We are having a truly amazing time and so much has happened it will be impossible to try and fill you in in one session. Probably best that I leave out some of the details as Rosie and Kat (in particular) will be very jealous that I have managed to get on the blog again! The girls are all currently upstair washing off the dust from our first day at Najjera Progressive Primary. The day ended with a (very competitive!) netball match; us against a team of 11 year olds who played with bare feet! We won but I am sure the return match tomorrow will yield a different result as the referee was very easy on us.
When we arrived this morning we had a tour of the entire school. The ages range from 2 and 3 in the nursery class, up to 13 in the Upper Classes. The classes were a delight and all had been trained to greet us with 'Good Morning our dear visitors'. There were as many as 80 children in some classrooms but all seemed very attentive. We will find out for ourselves tomorrow when we are teaching some lessons! The girls are all assigned to teaching PE so no doubt tonight will be spent planning some fun activities.
After the tour we planted the trees we had bought for the school and each had one named after us. Two of the Primary classes witnessed this and were able to tell us the many benefits of trees to humans as they have been studying the environment.
Before lunch we had a little free time so decided to head out into the playground where many of the younger children were. We taught them the 'Hokey Kokey' which was good fun. Many of them simply just wanted to touch us so we all ended up with huge numbers of small children at the end of each arm. We watched the children lining up for lunch with their bowls; they seem so much more capable at a younger age than children in England. Even the youngest children were lining up to carry a large bowl of hot food back to their classrooms, with virtually no supervision. They are just used to doing it.
Next we had our lunch and as with Ssaku School, they had put on a fabulous spread of African food for us. I think we had all worried a little in advance about the food but it really is tasty and there is lots of variety. It is very carbohydrate heavy but we are becoming accustomed to it and everyone is eating well.
After lunch we painted the main hall which was good fun. It was a different experience to our painting at Ssaku as the children did not join us, but they are much younger at Najjera. We still have more to finish tomorrow but we have made a good start.
So, given that we finished with netball it has been a pretty full on day. As I said earlier, tomorrow is going to include some teaching and lots more interaction with the children. They really are so excited to have us there so I think we will be worn out by the end of Thursday!
There are so many other things that I could write about but I think one of the girls will want to post about our time at Ssaku School. Given the tears we had when we left I think they thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
I would love to upload some photos but I really think it would be asking too much of the facilities here (and my patience!), so we'll have to do that upon return to the UK.
Bye for now!
Miss Gill (as in 'G' for goldfish)
Things are very disorganised in the Barker household today. We haven't even started packing yet! However, we have been making very good use of our time this weekend by eating at every available opportunity. Don't get me wrong, I like bananas. But I am not mega enthused by the thought of bananas (sweet or savoury) for every single meal for the next two and a half weeks. So, last night was a chniese takeaway, this morning a full English and I am now wondering how much cake I can fit in over the course of the afternoon. Hopefully they won't want to weigh me at the airport! 
Three Days!
Fuh-fuh-five days!! Wo0o0o!! We had our final meeting today to discuss any last minute things and to confirm meeting arrangements for monday. Mrs Barker suggested that on monday morning we should set up a ring around, effectively a phone call conga. Yup, I've sat here for the last 10 minutes and thats the best description I can come up with. I said regardless to whether anyone needs waking up I think we should do it anyway :)
SEVEN DAYS TO GO!!
Not only are bananas the world’s favourite fruit they are the oldest domesticated food crop and fourth most important staple (basic nutritious food in a traditional and typically poorer diet). If all the bananas grown around the world every year were placed end to end, they would circle the earth two thousand times! Only rice, wheat and maize feed more people.
Banana growing in Uganda is estimated to date way back to 13 A.D. The people of Uganda attach strong cultural, social and economic values to the growth and production of bananas. Uganda is often referred to as the Banana Republic, producing over 8.6 million metric tonnes (30% of world’s production) and is a leading producer and consumer. 90% of what is produced is consumed locally.
With well over a hundred different species of bananas grown in Uganda here are just some of the types we may try; musa sapient, musa paradisca, musa accuminata and musa balbisiana. Whilst we are in Uganda we will definitely be trying matoke (steamed green banana) and plantain (sweet desert banana).
Tess and I completed 10 laps around Talkin Tarn today. Each lap is 1.3 miles, making the totally distance of our sponsored walk 13 miles, the equivalent of a half marathon.
Days to go!! Before we set of for our African Adventure :)
Last Saturday the team headed off to Morrisons on what I can quite safely say was the hottest day of the year... so far, fingers crossed. In our Uganda hoodies, (I know you haven’t seen those yet) photos will be up soon, we made our way to the tills with our buckets and began the six hour bag pack.
