i wanted to send this out last night but there is a real power issue here. must have something to do with the 'energy filled' kids. quote, end quote, for you matt. it goes out quite often so i lost my file, and of all people, i forgot to save it. twice. before i start, thank you again to everyone that donated money to make this possible. nothing gets done without building materials and labour. the material costs came from you and the labour was my contribution. my arms and back hate me right now, but it was well worth it!
ok, so the reason were all here is to build. we constructed a teachers house that has 2 bedrooms, a bath, sitting area and a study. these structures are just as, if not more important than building a school or a house because they have to attract good teachers. the way Watoto does this is by offering nice accommodations since they live there all year round.
the village is called Suubi and its beautiful. its posted on a hill so there is a nice breeze and the view down is amazing. its still very hot during the day since Kampala is 5500 feet above sea level and directly on the equator. Suubi has 110 houses, each consisting of 8 kids and a nanny / mother. there are plenty of kids to play with at lunch! we usually eat lunch in 10 minutes and then walk around the school yard and play soccer or just hang out with the kids down at their homes since they are all out on lunch as well and we have an hour to break. the little kids finish at 1:00 for the day and are usually waiting for us outside of their houses. we start to kick around a ball, and about 20-25 kids stand and watch. once we say..."come and play" they RUN into the game. its as if they are waiting, politely, for the invite! we take foot balls and soccer balls with us and leave them behind when we have to return to the build site at 2:00. Suubi also has 2 schools (1 primary and 1 secondary) a medial center and a general store. its quite the place. all of this has been built by teams like ours in 6 years. its pretty amazing. these villages are where the kids from the orphanage go after they are 3 years old. the days this week were long and physical, not my style!!! a few of us canadians here downloaded the original hockey night in canada theme song so we play it in the morning on the bus to get us going! its pretty funny, all of the others here just laugh at us as we cheer like were at a game. the house we built is a duplex as you will see in the pictures. forming brick lines at 8:30am to get bricks down to the walls was tough but a good wake up. we built the left side and another team build the right side. we started monday and actually finished it yesterday (thursday). breakfast is at 6:30 every morning and the bus leaves to the village at 7. it can take anywhere from 40 minutes to 2 hours to get there since the traffic is so crazy. you think the 401 is bad - 3 million people in kampala and a whopping 2 total street lights. the rest is chaos. we often have to wait for the bus as it comes from the city because of the traffic. welcome to africa, where the motto is 'hurry up and wait.' we build all day and usually leave at 4 unless were behind. yesterday i was building a wall and looked over at one of the local workers. he had his rubber boots off and i guess his feet were sore and blistered. he was making a pair of socks out of paper from one of the the empty bags of concrete mix. he wrapped up his feet then put his boots back on. was sad to see that so the next day i brought him in a pair of my socks and told him that i saw what he was doing with the paper the day before and that my socks should help him out. his face was priceless (kinda like rinaldi's when he won the $35 million) and he was very thankful. our deadline to finish was yesterday so we stayed until 5 to put up the last rows of bricks. today is our dedication day. we go back to the village for 11:00 and the village people come down to our build site and we raise a plaque and hang it above the door. after that we have an hour or so to walk through the village again and say bye to the kids we met during the week. a lot of the kids actually remember us day by day and are now calling us by our first names. we also take candy for them at lunch as well. you have to be careful not to give too much or they expect it every time so what we usually do is give it to the mothers and they can distribute it evenly amongst the kids of the house. the candy i brought definitely went a long way! thank you stewart! after the dedication today we are going craft shopping. friday's apparently are the best markets and the cheapest as well. from there we come back, shower and regroup and then watoto is taking us out for a thank you dinner to a french restaurant in the city, a nice gesture. saturday is a bit of a wish wash day. some are going on a rafting trip up the nile (from what i hear its pretty scary). i passed. the rest of us are taking the bus through the slums of kampala. here i thought i had already seen the worst parts, when in fact there are actually extreme poverty areas. we can hand out candy and what not there too. after that, sometime in the afternoon, we are going to relax around the house here. 2 of the locals that work here are actual masseuse's and have their licences. they do give massages here at the house so that will be a nice treat after a long week. some pretty sore arms and backs! their prices, ready for this, is 10,000 schillings per hour. that's $5 US dollars. umm, yea i'll take a 3 hour massage please. $15, done. sunday is church again, which i am going to sneak out of. a few of us here are just not going to go in when it opens. we'll find something to do close and wait for the others to get out. no big deal but not sure if we will be allowed so its a covert ops mission. after 'church' we go back to burbi village, which we visited on saturday last weekend, to sit with a family and have lunch. they have offered to make us all a meal. the afternoon will be spend there playing with the kids of the village. then, safari monday! not sure if there is a PC at the lodge but i will send a note if there is. if not, thursday night for sure when i get back - with some more pics. on a side note, we have little lizards here running around the house. they sneak into the bedrooms. i found on in my bed last night. haha. their harmless, kind of like a gecko, and somewhat cute. must check my bags before i leave! there are pictures attached of day by day progress of the build. i have tons more but didn't want to send too many as the internet here is very slow. lots of people wanted pictures of the kids so i attached a few of my favourites as well, again i have tons more to share when i get home. some from suubi and burbi village. enjoy!
ok, so the reason were all here is to build. we constructed a teachers house that has 2 bedrooms, a bath, sitting area and a study. these structures are just as, if not more important than building a school or a house because they have to attract good teachers. the way Watoto does this is by offering nice accommodations since they live there all year round.
the village is called Suubi and its beautiful. its posted on a hill so there is a nice breeze and the view down is amazing. its still very hot during the day since Kampala is 5500 feet above sea level and directly on the equator. Suubi has 110 houses, each consisting of 8 kids and a nanny / mother. there are plenty of kids to play with at lunch! we usually eat lunch in 10 minutes and then walk around the school yard and play soccer or just hang out with the kids down at their homes since they are all out on lunch as well and we have an hour to break. the little kids finish at 1:00 for the day and are usually waiting for us outside of their houses. we start to kick around a ball, and about 20-25 kids stand and watch. once we say..."come and play" they RUN into the game. its as if they are waiting, politely, for the invite! we take foot balls and soccer balls with us and leave them behind when we have to return to the build site at 2:00. Suubi also has 2 schools (1 primary and 1 secondary) a medial center and a general store. its quite the place. all of this has been built by teams like ours in 6 years. its pretty amazing. these villages are where the kids from the orphanage go after they are 3 years old. the days this week were long and physical, not my style!!! a few of us canadians here downloaded the original hockey night in canada theme song so we play it in the morning on the bus to get us going! its pretty funny, all of the others here just laugh at us as we cheer like were at a game. the house we built is a duplex as you will see in the pictures. forming brick lines at 8:30am to get bricks down to the walls was tough but a good wake up. we built the left side and another team build the right side. we started monday and actually finished it yesterday (thursday). breakfast is at 6:30 every morning and the bus leaves to the village at 7. it can take anywhere from 40 minutes to 2 hours to get there since the traffic is so crazy. you think the 401 is bad - 3 million people in kampala and a whopping 2 total street lights. the rest is chaos. we often have to wait for the bus as it comes from the city because of the traffic. welcome to africa, where the motto is 'hurry up and wait.' we build all day and usually leave at 4 unless were behind. yesterday i was building a wall and looked over at one of the local workers. he had his rubber boots off and i guess his feet were sore and blistered. he was making a pair of socks out of paper from one of the the empty bags of concrete mix. he wrapped up his feet then put his boots back on. was sad to see that so the next day i brought him in a pair of my socks and told him that i saw what he was doing with the paper the day before and that my socks should help him out. his face was priceless (kinda like rinaldi's when he won the $35 million) and he was very thankful. our deadline to finish was yesterday so we stayed until 5 to put up the last rows of bricks. today is our dedication day. we go back to the village for 11:00 and the village people come down to our build site and we raise a plaque and hang it above the door. after that we have an hour or so to walk through the village again and say bye to the kids we met during the week. a lot of the kids actually remember us day by day and are now calling us by our first names. we also take candy for them at lunch as well. you have to be careful not to give too much or they expect it every time so what we usually do is give it to the mothers and they can distribute it evenly amongst the kids of the house. the candy i brought definitely went a long way! thank you stewart! after the dedication today we are going craft shopping. friday's apparently are the best markets and the cheapest as well. from there we come back, shower and regroup and then watoto is taking us out for a thank you dinner to a french restaurant in the city, a nice gesture. saturday is a bit of a wish wash day. some are going on a rafting trip up the nile (from what i hear its pretty scary). i passed. the rest of us are taking the bus through the slums of kampala. here i thought i had already seen the worst parts, when in fact there are actually extreme poverty areas. we can hand out candy and what not there too. after that, sometime in the afternoon, we are going to relax around the house here. 2 of the locals that work here are actual masseuse's and have their licences. they do give massages here at the house so that will be a nice treat after a long week. some pretty sore arms and backs! their prices, ready for this, is 10,000 schillings per hour. that's $5 US dollars. umm, yea i'll take a 3 hour massage please. $15, done. sunday is church again, which i am going to sneak out of. a few of us here are just not going to go in when it opens. we'll find something to do close and wait for the others to get out. no big deal but not sure if we will be allowed so its a covert ops mission. after 'church' we go back to burbi village, which we visited on saturday last weekend, to sit with a family and have lunch. they have offered to make us all a meal. the afternoon will be spend there playing with the kids of the village. then, safari monday! not sure if there is a PC at the lodge but i will send a note if there is. if not, thursday night for sure when i get back - with some more pics. on a side note, we have little lizards here running around the house. they sneak into the bedrooms. i found on in my bed last night. haha. their harmless, kind of like a gecko, and somewhat cute. must check my bags before i leave! there are pictures attached of day by day progress of the build. i have tons more but didn't want to send too many as the internet here is very slow. lots of people wanted pictures of the kids so i attached a few of my favourites as well, again i have tons more to share when i get home. some from suubi and burbi village. enjoy!
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