Nikki’s Blog

I really don’t know what has been happening recently with my blog, I’ve been writing posts, saving them & then they disappear so I hope this one works!

Well its a heavy raining day in Kampala, there was a massive storm last night with thunder like I have NEVER heard, it literally kept shaking the house, & I HATE thunder ever since I was a little girl!

Anyway its now raining & pretty grim but on a happy note today is a net day!!  I am about to leave to drive near to a place called Kimuli which is towards the east of Kampala to distribute 150 nets.  I love net days!  I have about a 3 hour drive ahead not helped by the weather & Rose from Ndeeba Primary is coming with me to help!  I have the car filled with nets & I’m just leaving to collect her!

We are giving the nets to children who are cared for by HORD (Hope for Orphans & Rural Development).  I heard about the charity from my very good friend Erin who did some volunteering with them earlier this year.  We heard that the children did not have nets so we decided that this ways a great place to donate to!

So I am off now, hope I don’t get too wet!!

This year was the first time I had been here for the end of term graduation.  There is a nursery at the school consisting of 2 classes, the Baby Class & the Top Class.  Once the children complete Top Class they move to P1 which is the first class in the Primary School system. Normally I would be back in England so it was great to be here for this event!

Rose advised me that she had invited all the parents & that I was to be Guest of Honour!  I have told Rose now that I cannot be guest of honour any more!  I feel so much part of the school that I just want to now fade into the background, but Rose was adamant that I had to do this for the parents but that it could be my last guest of honour experience!

So anyway I arrived as requested at 11.30am on the Sunday, it was a lovely day & the school was a hive of excitement!  Being such a small space, the whole place was packed!!  One of the first things I saw was the school hall! When we built the temporary school I requested that each of the 5 classrooms in the block were separated by wooden partition so that if needed we could open all the partitions to make one big room.  This was the first time an event had been held & so the first time I had seen the ’school hall’  It looked fab!!  They had made a small wooden stage at one end out of old wood, it was really wobbly & had holes in &  at certain points during the event the children were wobbling away trying not to fall down the holes, bless them!  Then I had to sit near the front all the children behind & then the parents on seats behind them.  It looked amazing & I was so proud of them all!

When I graduated it was one of the best days of my life!  I had always dreamed of wearing the gown & mortar board that I cherish my graduation photo as it was the day it really happened!  As I entered the hall at Ndeeba Primary I was totally speechless as I saw 40 children aged about 5 years in imitation graduation gowns.  Apparently this is a tradition I have been missing! The gowns were so cute & the mortar boards were like black shower caps with a black square attached.  I could have cried, they looked so proud!  Today was the day they graduate from Nursery to ‘Big School!’.

The whole day was amazing, they had prepared songs & poems, each of the classes performing, even the babies, there were speeches from the Head Teacher Justine & from Rose the Director & then I had to speak whilst Rose translated!  then I had to do the formal graduation ceremony! The children had to remove their hats & form a queue whilst I had to put their hats back on & give them their certificate.  Some of the children received presents from their parents, when I asked what was behind the wrapping paper they all told me it was loaves of bread, which was just so humbling.

The festivities lasted the whole day & when it was over everyone was on a high!  The most significant thing for me was seeing this whole event unfolding in a small wooden shack in the middle of the slums & feeling overwhelming proud of all of them & being so honoured to now be a big part of their lives.  I HOPE so much that we can find sponsors for the remaining teachers & I hope one day we can build them the new school they deserve!

The choir in their costumes donated my mum!

 The official graduation!!

I am just getting ready to go to the school, they are having an end of term ceremony for the children & parents, the sun is shining, we’ll be squished into our little wooden school & its gonna be fab!

We now have 6 teachers sponsored, I am so thrilled to receive such great support!  I would love so much to have all our teachers sponsored by the end of the year!

If I can get all the teachers sponsored it will release enough money to give more of the children a school meal each day which is so important to me!  It costs approx 7000GBP to feed the 450 children who should get a meal thats less than 16GBP per child for the whole year!  Currently only approx 300 children receive a school meal, the rest being sent home for lunch of which is likely to be a cup of tea as the people in the slums really have nothing.  Plus our amazing teachers will get a regular salary which is the lease they deserve for the work they do!  

If you know of anyone/business/organisation that could sponsor a teacher for 50GBP per month please let me know!!

At last I have my ’special pass’ which is what the immigration give here whilst they process your official work permit.  The whole process has been a nightmare taking much longer than i expected but I guess doing something for the first time is always a learning curve!  Anyway I have it & it is valid for 3 months so it means I can start doing some private chiropractic here to earn some money!  You get given the special pass whilst you wait for the official permit, its a very long & laborious process!  I am so relieved to have got it as my savings were running dry & I was resorting to borrowing money from ‘the other half’ which is not something I am comfortable with so yay!!  I can now earn some money!  I have taken on a small room near where I live to work from & I am also able to work at a local clinc in another part of Kampala, so now I just have to slowly build up a patient base!!

I am very pleased today to launch our new look website!  There are still a few tweeks we need to do, but its ‘live’ & I am thrilled with it!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Norman & Justin for all their help with this site & the original one!  From the outset, our website & all its hosting was donated to us by Norman & everyone & Universal Savings.  Having a website has been the most amazing tool & I am so grateful for this amazing donation of this new site!  Both Norman & Justin have done all the work for this site in and around running their own businesses so it is a great & very generous donation to the work we are doing!  You guys are the BEST!!

We now have 3 teachers sponsored & 2 more teachers are about to be sponsored!  When I told the first 3 teachers that they were being sponsored they cried.  It was very overwhelming for them to think that someone in another country actually cared enough about them to agree to sponsor them!  It is such a humbling thing to be able to try & do for these teachers who are just amazing!  They have families of their own & often a couple of months can go by without them getting paid & yet they have to pay rent, feed themselves & their families.  I just don’t know how they do it, I really don’t, but what I do have is total admiration for their dedication to the children & to the school & their ability to survive despite the odds often being stacked against them!

We still desperately need more sponsors so if you know of anyone/business/organisation who might be willing to sponsor a teacher at Ndeeba Primary School please let me know! The future of this school surviving is dependant on my finding sponsors & I am committed to helping these amazing teachers & pupils to the best of my ability!

A MASSIVE THANK YOU to those people who already are & are about to sponsor a teacher, your support is overwhelming xxx

Its been a very busy time here in Kampala these last few weeks!  The main focus has been around formally registering the charity here is Uganda which I am pleased to say has now been done!  The process has taken a number of weeks & has involved many visits to lawyers & going from this place to the next trying to get together all the requirements which I have to say have been a nightmare at times!

One thing that is a problem here in Kampala is just the basics of getting anywhere! Kampala is total chaos, whether it is day or night!  Driving anywhere can take forever so you start in the morning with your to-do list & then you can spend most of the day stuck in traffic getting nowhere!  So the smallest task in the UK can become a total saga to complete here!

Anyway after much perseverance we are all official here in Uganda which is great but my main problem has been my work permit!  The imigration keep moving the goal posts when it comes to the requirements but I think I am getting to the end of the work permit journey!  Well I hope so!  I am here on my tourist visa at the moment which will take me till end of Oct so I still have time to spare & I THINK I am close to getting this elusive permit!  Believe me I will be shouting it from the rooftops once I get it!

Well firstly CONGRATULATIONS to Martin for completing his marathon!  For anyone who has done a marathon you will know that amazing sense of achievement when that finish line comes into sight!  I think I will remember the finish line of the London Marathon 2007 for the rest of my life!  So I am totally grateful to Martin for the dedication to training & for completing his marathon to raise funds for the ACDT!

THANK YOU MARTIN!!

A while ago I was contacted by Martin Rodenby to ask if he could run a marathon to raise money for mosquito nets for the ACDT.  It is the most amazing & humbling feeling when a complete stranger contacts you like this & words really cannot express how grateful I am to him for considering us & our work!

Having done the London Marathon myself in 2007 I know the training & dedication that goes into the months of preparation & that is why it is a great honour that he has put himself through all this to raise money for us!

The marathon is this weekend & I asked Martin if he would submit a small blog entry to tell us how he is doing!

The marathon is on Sunday!!!  I am terrified if I am honest.  I am now tapering and will start carb loading on Thursday.  I feel fit and strong, and ran my last significant run last Wednesday and that was great.  The biggest run I have done is 21.5 miles so I will be going into the unknown which is the scary bit, plus everyone tells me 22 miles means the dreaded wall.  I am one 20+ mile short of where I had planned to be, but a minor hamstring twinge meant a couple of weeks of light training in August.  I am trying to remain positive, telling myself that I will feel fantastic once it is done and that I can have a celebratory Guinness (or three).  I just hope I get there injury free now and we will see how the day goes.  I’ll be thinking of those Kids in Uganda when the going gets tough – keep up the good work out there.

On behalf of the ACDT I would like to wish Martin GOOD LUCK for this sunday & hope above all he has a great run & more importantly enjoys every bit of the experience!  It is a great achievement!

If you want to sponsor Martin you can visit his fundraising page at http://www.everyclick.com/martinrodenby 

Thank you so much Martin & all your sponsors for supporting our work! 

 xxx