Saturday 16 July 2011

Day one

Had the eye opening experience of going into the slums today, was such a shock even with us having a basic idea from the media! The crazy aspect of it all was even though the conditions were the worst imaginable every face I saw were filled with smiles! All the kids stood and waved and I felt so welcomed immediately! As we got slowly towards the centre of the slum, word got around we were visiting and the increase of smiley faces begun, hi fives all around!Swarms of kids almost clinging onto us for dear life. Tash.

Joe and Tasha did us proud today. Dealt with the extreme poverty, conditions and lack of resources with such maturity. We walked around filthy water drains filled with rubbish personal waste and things I can't describe. The shacks made from old containers housing on average ten people in a family. Children in dirty clothes but as Tasha says smiling with snotty noses. The kids loved having their photos taken and then seeing themselves on yhe photo- although i got a bit mobbed...We were taken round by some community workers who gave us some frightening stats life expectancy under 40 in the slums ( that would be me a gonner)AIDS is prevalent young people spend their money on drink and drugs and the slum we visited was half made up of Somalian refugees due to the drought. The water projects are still few and far between, small steps from this project will make a difference. This is just the beginning of an incredible journey. Tasha and Joe have really seen poverty in the extreme and they have
reflected on how much they have.
Kirky

A lift had soon arrived and we were whisked away to the international sports ground, rugby! Uganda vs Kenya, a much anticipated match ahead of us. We soon met , who was very pleased to see us just before leading us into the VIP area(bonus) greeting us was 'wilkiam'- the chairman of Ugandan rugby, accompanied by Ugandan rugby legends and the presidents son! We were placed in front of half a dozen cameras, awaiting our good news.. This was the announcement and Hand
over of 50 rugby balls that we kindly presented to the Ugandan rugby federation, this was live on the Ugandan answer to sky. The reaction we received from presenting these balls was special- as if we'd handed a pot of gold! After the attention from the media and our deed of the hand over was done, we were shown to seats that'd been kindly reserved for us- Royalty!!

This rounded off a very interesting eye opening day.

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