Day 17 Friday 30th

Ensigo y'omucungwa is the name of the Malangata project. This means The Orange Seed. Our concept for the new building is that, like an orange seed which falls to the ground and after germination produces a large tree that will in time produce fruit that then may produce many trees etc. we want this building to create job creators and not just regurgitate skills or knowledge. After training and skill transference we are hoping that our students will have a mindset that enables them to pass on their abilities to others thereby completing the cycle. Today we took the new signage to Malangata and cemented the first sign into the ground at the new road entrance. Before leaving Kampala we held a meeting with Ameena who will be setting up the hairdressing salon for us and also training our first students at ENSIGO Y'OMUCUNGWA. It was a very helpful time which has enabled us to cost the salon and work towards training. As with everything we do here, it is dependant on donations. So for this, as with every other idea I need money. After the meeting we set off for Malangata to deliver the signs so that they could be screwed to the wall and also cemented. 

On the way Paul, my friend and trusted colleague here and Simeon managed to buy a birthday cake for Abbi without her noticing. We had sung her happy Birthday earlier and managed to get a local lad to sing her a romantic love song which was hilarious as she stood thoroughly embarrassed and obviously uncomfortable. Abbi is a volunteer from the UK that was with us today. She is game for most things and loved the fact that we cared enough to celebrate with her. The video is now somewhere on Facebook and will be a reason that this birthday is never forgotten. We travelled to Malangata with cake for a later surprise. 

The well is going on well and as we arrived today the engineers had dug by hand to 30 ft. This is a third of the estimated depth to reach the water table. Sim and Helen, the other volunteer decided that they had to experience being under the ground at 30ft so persuaded the workers to allow them to swing on a rope to the bottom of the pit. They remarked on how warm it was down there and we took the opportunity to take as many photos as possible. 

Today as well as being a lovely and exciting day also was one of those days where many things seem to conspire against you. Firstly we left the 2 netballs that we bought yesterday in Paul's office. We only realised this after we arrived at Malangata. As we approached the village I had forgotten, after such a long journey being careful not to drive too fast or erratically, that our load was 10ft tall above the truck. I drove into an overhanging tree branch and bent one of the support arms. As we got closer to Ensigo James, our builder, came to meet us and after removing the sign from the vehicle straightened the pole with a kick or two and announced that it would be fine. We know however, that it will probably rust in time. After the cementing of this sign we went to Ensigo and took a tour of the complex. Sara realised that we had left the vehicle unlocked. This is a no no in Uganda as things will definitely be stolen so she locked the doors and joined the tour. After some time we needed more water to drink as it was an extremely hot day and so searched for the car keys. Yes you guessed it, these things always come in threes. The keys were firmly locked inside the vehicle. The only solution we had was to find 'a kid' and squeeze him through the tiny back window of the pick up. It was hilarious watching 20 people all with different ideas about how to fix the problem. Dis using how to do retrieve them easily.  In the end it as the 4 year old 'kid' that saved us. It then enabled us to all sing Happy Birthday to Abbi and present her with her cake. She wasn't aware at all and loved the surprise. After cutting the cake with a panger- a Ugandan machete- we all shared the huge cake with her. A fun and very productive day. On our return to Red Chilli I had my hand shaken by Francis, one of the bar staff, and he announced the he was glad to see that I shook his hand like a real man and that I wasn't naked like last night. We all laughed as he explained that I had had a short conversations itch him last night, which I had forgotten, in which I taught him a new word (knackered). He was glad I wasn't as knackered (naked) as last night.