My original plan was to loop round back to Tanzania through Kenya to collect my bike, but a chance encounter had led me to promise to return to an orphanage/school on Lake Bunyonyi. And so, rather than head east, I hit the road heading west instead to find out what I had signed myself up for.
The last and only time I had visited the place, all I had seen was a few of the classrooms. This time I got a full tour and a bit of a history lesson. The orphanage was founded in 2009 by the local pastor after several children were abandoned to the church. As more and more children were left, the numbers grew and a school was built on the site too (with help from Kerry West, a tourist at the time who has since gone on to set up a charity to help out). In 8 years the orphanage has grown from 10 children to 65, with another 30 day students from the local area.
Unfortunately, the amount of money to support it has not increased in line and they are really struggling to keep their heads above water. Classrooms have too few (or no) benches, no electricity, and there are no textbooks (at all). The dormitories for the children are overcrowded (8 children to a bunk bed), and there is not always enough food to go around. Teachers are on half pay most of the time (full pay is only $50 a month) and they not only teach but help to wash, dress and cook for the children too. In short, there is a heck of a lot of work to do to get this to even a just a basic, stable baseline, but despite all of that the children are lively and energetic, and seem happy in the family they have landed in.
So what could I do? I’m not a teacher, or a doctor, or a civil engineer. I was a management consultant! So I did what all consultants do; put together a spreadsheet, a powerpoint deck, and started telling people what to do as if I knew what I was talking about.
In fairness, in the month I was there we did actually achieve a decent amount - we got the old goatshed and kitchen demolished, and new ones put up, put new blackboards in, got proper outside lights rigged up, got 20 tonnes of earth moved by hand (not my hands) to clear space for a new dormitory that Kerry had got funding for, got fencing put up around some of the land they use for cattle, got a laptop as a precursor to starting some technology education and did a whole load of food shopping (the poor tuktuk was struggling!).
Best of all though I managed to pick up a set of speakers. When I plugged them in for the first time outside, and fired up 'Happy' by Pharrell the reaction was incredible - kids running in from every direction to start dancing - and they didn’t stop for four solid hours! Way more stamina than I had…
A couple of weeks in, Kerry herself turned up with Rosie, Melinda and Janet and they painted the school, bought more food (including a load of chickens to replace ones that were stolen), and distributed little crates to each of the children with toiletries, school equipment and some small toys. Needless to say the kids were chuffed, and we had a bit of a party to celebrate - out came the music, a few crates of soda and much dancing was done!
I completely lost track of time there, and a month whizzed past before i had even realised. They took fantastic care of me - tea and chapattis every morning, and so much food the rest of the day that I had to beg them to reduce the portion size. But with my visa and my travel money rapidly running out I couldn’t stay there forever. I finished up my powerpoint deck (I wasn’t kidding about that) which captures most of my observations and thoughts, and I fully intend to see them through once I am not living the life of a drifter.
Before I left though, there was just time to attend the christening of Bannet and Allen’s daughter. I had been ducking their weekly invitations to church the whole time I had been there, but this time it was too important to miss. It seemed ok (though conducted in the local language Rukiiga so I couldn’t follow it) and there was a lot of singing and dancing, but at the three and half hour mark I broke and snuck out of the back. No one seemed to mind too much.
From Uganda I had a choice - back to Tanzania via either Rwanda or Kenya. The most pressing factor was that The Zebra was not in a healthy state. Smoking heavily, a rickety exhaust and just a couple of days earlier the suspension had fallen off (I fixed it, but still). There are no tuktuks in Uganda or Rwanda; I knew there were some in Tanzania and I had heard there were some in Kenya, so my only chance of getting spare parts was in one of those places. Via Rwanda the distance to Tanzania was 200km, whereas the border to Kenya was still 800km away. For once being cautious, I opted for the shorter route. As it turned out, I don’t think it made a difference - I was in for a nightmare journey anyway...
