So with over 2 years of blogging & over 100 posts I have finally decided to set up a new blog! So this blog will now archive everything from Feb 2008 - Feb 2010 a great read & a chance to follow all the events that happened to the ACDT in its maiden 2 years!
From now on all our blogging will be at
http://nikkisafricablog.blogspot.com/
I really hope you will continue to follow us!
Yesterday was a funny day…..I backed out of my gate to drive to the clinic to find a 4 week old puppy outside my gate. I only just saw it as it was the same colour as the road. It was filthy & in a write mess. I drove the car back in the house, grabbed the very smelly puppy, popped it in one of the rooms with some food, drink & a bed & left it whilst I went to work. When I came back at lunchtime it was sound asleep! So then I woke him up, bathed him in some warm water, dried him off, he ran around the garden a bit & then I packed him up in a box & took him to the USPCA to be checked over as he clearly had a skin infection & I was concerned about his distended tummy & some other bits.
In the garden!
With a full tummy, on his way to the USPCA!
He really is a cute little chap! So anyway I am on my way there thinking it will be lovely to see Shaggy again. I had bought him a harness, lead & name tag so that once he was well enough I could go there & take him for some walks. Only when I get there I am told he has died. Apparently 2 dogs died in his pen (including him) on the same day on Sunday, believed to be poisoning from people throwing food over the wall into the pens. To say I am gutted is an understatement. On rescuing him I thought we had taken him to a place of safety but unfortunately even bad people can get to the animals there too.
Shaggy…from this……………
To this………on the road to recovery
There are some cruel people in this world. RIP Shaggy, hope you’ve finally found some peace now xx
I’m so excited! It looks like we may have finally been able to secure a deal with a farmer in one of the villages out of Kampala to provide us with maize seeds which we can bring back to Kampala to be ground into the maize flour we need to feed all the children! It also looks like we may have also found a village supplier for beans!
What is even more exciting is that it looks like we may be able to feed all the children as we hoped whilst also reducing the cost! We have found storage for a term & will be collecting a whole terms worth of seeds & beans in time for school to start! I am so chuffed!!
We could not do any of this without the people who have agreed to sponsor our teachers, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!
Should you know anyone who may wish to sponsor, we still need 8 more sponsors in order to sustain this!
You are all stars & I hope you REALLY realise just what an amazing thing you have done & achieved xxx
I was absolutely thrilled to find myself on Saturday treating horses in Uganda! I was not really aware that there were many horses around this area so to find that there were was just great!! It really made my weekend!
On Sunday I went & watched my friend Rachel complete the Buganda 5km Road Race in Kampala. Buganda is the tribe that is in the Kampala area & this is the first time they have held this event! Aside from the VERY early start in the morning it was great fun! Not sure if they had actually measured the distance before the event as everyone got back extremely quick (think they got the 5km mixed up with 3km!) but it was a nice thing to be doing on a Sunday morning & all ‘muzungus’ who took part were very much welcomed by the Buganda people. It was very impressive to watch people running even in flip flops & there were even 4 people in wheelchairs competing which was great as their chairs are nothing like what you see on the tv but very very basic ones. Shame I have such a dodgy back as I would have love to join them! Well done to all who took part!!
So I made it back to Uganda in one piece & I have to say it is nice to be back in the warm, although I have found myself complaining that I am now too hot!! Typical British person…….never happy!! But nice to be back & to be able to get on with things again!
Before I left the school for the trip to the UK I made plans with Rose for what we needed to do to the school to improve it the best we can whilst we frantically save for our new school. Its tough because we don’t want to spend any money really on this temporary school, but there were some conditions there that were just not acceptable & whilst it will take a long time to raise this money I needed to at least try & make the current conditions manageable. So we discussed laying some concrete & some building works. I went down to the school immediately on my return to see the work in full swing! School term starts 1st Feb so it was important that we got this underway as soon as possible so that it would not interfer with learning time! I was thrilled to see the work! The teachers have been coming into the school since mid Jan preparing each day for the year ahead! We now have 8 teachers sponsored which is just fantastic! We have 8 teachers remaining without a sponsor and so I hope with all my heart that I can find sponsors for them as soon as possible. This is not just for the teachers benefit but also because the more teachers we get sponsored the more food we can buy for the children.
I have made a committment to make sure that all the children that stay at the school all day MUST have a lunch meal, it has previously only been the upper 4 years. This will take effect from 1st Feb & so Rose & I have been investigating the most cost effective way of buying more maize & beans. It looks like we may have found a supplier in one of the villages & we have hopefully secured some storage near the school so we can buy a terms worth of food in one go! We are still going through the figures so watch this space!!
But none of this could of happened without our sponsors!! They have freed up money that the school was struggling to find to pay the teachers. This meant there was very little left for food. If I can get all the teachers sponsored then that challenge is not longer theirs, it is mine & they can concentrate on teaching & giving the children one good meal a day! It costs approx $15 to feed one child at the school for the whole school year! Which is NOTHING, yet a huge challenge for schools just like Ndeeba.
The atmosphere at the school really has changed the last few months, there is hope in the air & the teachers are so much more up beat! It is like they really believe they have a future now, & I just hope that 2010 can be a year of peace & growth for Ndeeba, unlike the huge hurdles that were thrown at us in 2009. Fingers crossed xx
Well to say my time in the UK has been cold is un understatement! It is been FREEZING!! It has been great to see my family & friends & christmas was lovely! I even managed a vampire fancy dress on New Years Eve!
But my plans were to leave the UK today, but due to the snow we had last week it looks like I will be here till the end of the week. The snow really was more than expected & the freezing cold weather has kept all the snow on the ground with some pretty evil ice to add! It unfortunately meant that we had to cancel the ACDT Charity Bowling Challenge, & the meeting to launch the 2010 Row for Life, plus I had to cancel a lot of my animal appointments, so I am staying a few more days to make sure I get to see all the animals that were booked in as it means the world to me to keep them ticking over as best I can!
So today is Sunday, the snow is still everywhere, its beautiful but frustrating!
So tonight I leave Uganda for 3 weeks back in the UK, and the current weather on the island is not making the trip that appealing. As I’m writing this there is lovely sunshine here & I am wondering WHY am I leaving this!!
I’ll be staying at my mums for Christmas & New Year & then running my animal clinic during the week of the 4th Jan. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone but I will miss a lot of things here! I feel very contented here being able to use every day to do something rewarding that can really help people, but there are somethings I just won’t miss! The animal rights thing again reared its ugly head again on Friday. As I am driving along the road I see a small pick up truck that has been pulled over by the police. In it were two cows on their sides squashed together & tied down to the floor of the truck. As you approached them it looked like they were dead but as I got closer I could see that they were in fact breathing, very much alive & suffering greatly. As has become a habit for me now, I stopped the car right by the truck & let rip on the driver. The police man said ‘look even the muzungu (white lady) thinks its cruel’! I was reassured that this man was being locked up. But you know someone, somewhere is doing the same thing to some other poor animals. I really have to do something about this.
When I return in Jan we have 2 weeks to get organised before the start of the new school year here. Rose & I have been trying to put together a plan of action to make some improvements to the current school but we also need to always remember that we can’t spend too much money on things that will not be there when we build the new brick school. So we’re looking at short term improvements to make the conditions better until we have raised enough money for the new school.
Comic Relief have begun distributing their nets in Uganda & in Feb/Mar I have been invited to be part of the next phases of distributions. I do have some issues about how they charged people twice as much for nets as we do but ultimately it will be a great experience to be part of a BIG distribution to see how things are done!
So today is final organising, packing& then wrapping up warm ready for the journey back to the UK later tonight!
Mrs Bobbie Thompson & John Christian
We are so grateful for all the donations we receive but often we do not receive the email addresses of the donors which is such a shame as I would like to personally send an email & keep that person informed as to what we are doing!
In particular right now I would like to contact Mrs Bobbie Thompson & John Christian who have recently made significant donations to our work, but I do not have their contact details.
If anyone reading this knows them or if they are reading this PLEASE contact me through the website!! Thank you xx
In Uganda, stray dogs are normal, all looking dirty & a bit on the thin side but working together in packs to look after themselves & find food. It has been one of the things I have struggled with a lot since coming to Africa, the way that animals are looked at very differently to what I am used to, & as an animal loving vegetarian, also very differently to my own personal beliefs of how we should care for animals.
I get very angry sometimes here, when I am surrounded by religion, & people who ‘believe’ & yet when I used to go to Sunday School when I was a child I was taught that animals were Gods creatures. Surely if you really do believe in God then you should be respecting Gods creatures, not contributing to their suffering. I am not a religious person, but I have learnt here alot about how people can be religious, but not ‘good’ people. I strive to be a good person, despite not being religious. I think my way is the better way.
There are many ways here that I see animals suffering…….the chicken bike, where about 30 chickens are tied to a motor bike to be transported. Still alive, tied upside down, sometimes their heads dragging on the ground or their bodies being burnt on the pipes. The cattle truck, where they are crammed into a truck so tightly that some fall, some have their limbs trapped & are bleeding or being trampled on, children throwing stones at dogs, kittens being thrown about like toys & like yesterday whilst driving back from the net distribution, 20 live chickens tied to the roof of a minibus as it hurtles 120kms per hour down a bad & bumpy road, or the live pig tied to the rack on the back of a bike again like I saw yesterday. Sometimes being here can be so heartbreaking.
A short while ago I kept seeing a dog as I was driving into town, that just stood out as been so much worse than all the others. He had no fur at all & was obviously suffering from sever mange & he just looked in so much pain & was so thin. Around the same time I learned that there was a USPCA (Uganda Society for the Protection & Care of Animals) in Kampala. I contacted them about the dog & also to volunteer my service to treat any animals that may have some movement problems. They are just a small group of people on a small plot trying desperately to help the animals of Kampala. They have no transport so they asked if I could use my car to transport the dog, of course I agreed.
On the day itself I was nervous about catching him, but despite a few nervous moments we caught him. Bless him, he smelt so bad & he was filthy. He was totally lifeless in the car, just totally weak & surrendered. He was totally lost of any energy. I was so please that now he would be getting treatment. We named him Shaggy. The photos below were taken that day on my phone.
This week I went to see Shaggy again & I was amazed at what I found. Firstly he is white!! When I went up to the pen, he was bright eyed & jumped up at the fence he was so full of energy, I had tears in my eyes. The feeling was amazing & the work they have done in putting him back together is just fantastic! These were the photos I took this week.
I love Net Days, they give you the most amazing feeling that you have made a difference, but none of this could be possible without the support of all the people who buy nets…………so I want to say THANK YOU!! To everyone who has bought nets, the gift you give really does make a difference!
It was a lovely day yesterday, once the storms had settled, Rose & I were welcomed with open arms in the village where we were distributing, all the children waiting & the carers as well. Many of them had travelled some distance to come & get their nets & their gratitude of what we had done was overwhelming.
HORD is a small community organisation that helps orphans in the district of Kamuli to find foster care for the orphans in the area. They are doing an amazing job & we were proud to help them in this small way.
All the children & Simon, the Founder of HORD