All entries for Thursday 26 March 2009

Village life

Hello,

I have had a busy week so far. On Monday I went with Sam and Agnes Akubu to the village where they grew up. I met members of Sam’s family. They are building up the area around where they live and have plans to plant pineapple trees, orange trees etc. War here is quite recent with a conflict through the late 80s and early 90s, then the LRA incursions as late as 2004. So many people have been reluctant to settle and make long term plans, so what Sam’s family are doing is really a fresh start.

Their village is not how villages are in England – each family has a settlement with their land around it, although there is a central market / meeting area. Here is a picture of what the houses in the village look like…

If you are reading this and don’t know Sam and Agnes, they are Ugandans from the Soroti area who are now missionaries in Arua, and have been to Coventry amongst other places, and that’s how I know them.

Yesterday morning I did some teaching in the local primary school. I was with Nelson, the science teacher, and I taught year 6 about the heart and circulatoty system. It was a good experience, but unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll have time to go back and do more.

Today I went with the mobile drugs clinic to Wera, another village, and when I came back I had a meeting at the hospital – I met a paediatrician who is letting me shadow him next week for some extra experience of childhood tropical medical conditions (which is mostly malaria!).

I’ll just finish by uploading another picture from my trip on Monday – some fishermen on Lake Kyoga. They were beating the nets with sticks to clean them …

: 26 Mar 2009 16:50 |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem