Good afternoon everyone, Not been in touch for a while, been busy travelling into the villages training. It  has been an interesting time as I have taken muzungus with me on the training course which I do not do very often. It is good to have different pairs of eyes and ears to evaluate the work and get a different perspective. The travelling into the villages was quite scary as it is the rainy season and one road was impassable so we had to go a longer way round from the town to the village, the road of which I must say was not AI. My visitor took a video of me getting stuck in a rut in the road which will be posted soon on U Tube, watch this space!

When I start a new training I always meet the officials of the town, the pastor of the church, my trainers in that area on a preparation visit. I took a muzungu, David, with me and we were invited to my trainers
 ( Charles) home for a meal. Charles has been a volunteer working with me for 7 years, amazing.With it being David's first visit to a village home he was asking lots of questions of Charles and it was very interesting that when he asked Charles why he was still working with me as a volunteer Charles replied that 'as I had never given him any money the programme continued' To understand this statement I need to explain that in Uganda many projects and training programmes are started, the people are paid to attend and all is well until the money runs out, if that happens the people stop taking part in the programme so it all folds, because I had not given the trainers any money in the first place, the situation of it running out has not occurred therefore the programme has continued.What a statement !!

The programme teaches people hygiene and sanitation practices in their homes and it was so gratifying for me to be shown an animal shelter that Charles was building, hens and goats had been kept in the family home at night but now would have their own 'home' The danger there is the snakes coming at night to eat the animals, each situation has its own hazards.

Charles also showed us a bush he had planted next to his latrine ( toilet) which is now used as toilet paper, The very soft leaves of these particular bush is an improvement on the use of hands which reduces the danger of contracting Cholera, Typhoid to name just two.

On a lighter note when driving to Charles home we came to a field David was astonished when I drove across it but that is what you do when travelling in the bush!.

Life here is SO different to life in the UK I hope I am giving you a flavour of life here particularly in the villages. There is so much variety of life styles in Uganda, life is never boring, sometimes very frustrating, you have to learn the art of patience but there is always something different  happening.

Thank you for reading this blog.

May you have a peaceful weekend,

Pat