>13th December 2009

>Hi Everyone,

Well you’d think that things would be beginning to slow down towards the end of my time here but its been another busy week in Jinja. As well as SALVE work I have been participating in the Jinja pantomime which had meant four hour rehearsals all week and then our two big performances this weekend. I have to say it’s been a great success and was lots of fun. On both nights we had wonderful audiences and its been lovely to see all our hard work paying off as well as raising lots of money for charity! I’m sure I’m going to feel at a bit of a lose end next week now its all done and dusted.

(Me, Sarah and Tom as the Chorus)

(Wishee Washee, Twanky, Emperor and Princess)

But on to the penultimate week of my SALVE internship. As I discussed last week we were looking into SALVE’s registration in Uganda, so on Monday Mike, myself and Harriet went back to the Community Development Office. Where we met one of the Community Development Officers and discussed our situation. he advised that we continue trying to get CBO registration and once we have that it would be easier to get a recommendation and certificate from them to take to the NGO board to become an NGO. As part of the process he said he would look over our consititution for us to ensure that it corresponds with all the Ugandan requirements and notified us that the Probation Officer and District Health Officer would need to come and inspect the SALVE house at soem point during the registration process. Mike arranged to meet with Peter, the Community Development Officer, later that week once the consitution had been looked at to discuss any necessary changes. In the afternoon I attempted to meet with Victoria and the women involved in the bead project to discuss their progress. But unfortunately after waiting over an hour for them with the Joy School Matron no one had arrived and i had to leave to attend rehearsals. But I will of course be returning for their next meeting where hopefully they will have lots of beautiful paper bead necklaces and bracelets for me to take back to the UK.

On Tuesday I went to Kampala in order to meet with the very kind people at Gustro Ltd, who are a publishers i have been liasing with about buying a selection of readers for the SALVE children. I didnt have the greatest start to the day as the heavens opened on my way to to the taxi so I had quite a damp journey to Kampala. But by the time I arrived the sun was shining and I soon dried off. Everyone at Gustro was more than helpful sitting me down and bringing me a wide selection of books from different ranges they do and suggesting particulary good stories. I decided to go with the Oxford range which usefully has questions at the end of each of the books which will help check the childrens understanding and they are more culturally relevant so i hope they will enhance the children’s enjoyment when reading them. They even gave me a 25% discount so I was able to afford a lot more books from each level than I had thought so decided to buy some childrens books on health and HIV/AIDs and a range of books on science, geography, world religion etc to help with their studies.

(Gustro Ltd in Kampala)

(New books for the SALVE Library)

On Wednesday a book which I had ordered from the UK about teaching street children finally arrived. It contains some facinating information about the usefulness of teaching life skills to street children and how it should be done. So I spent most of my day using this and the World Health Organisation mosdules on teaching street children and other internet based research to work on the resource i have been putting together for the street clinic and workshops. I have tried to give possible lesson and activity ideas and soem information about teaching street children and the methods that would be particularly useful.

After moving house on Thursday morning (I am now staying with Harriet for my final weeks and a half) I met with Mike to discuss his meeting with the community development officer. There are some minor changes that need to be made to the constitution but they are all quite superficial and mainly about to changing the way some of the sections are referred to as the Ugandan’s use slightly differen phrasology. Mike and I also had a good discussion about all the children and other SALVE issues, I really am going to miss our meetings. I then spent the rest of the day putting the finiahing touches to the street clinic resource and making notes for my handover document for the next interns.

Having not been at the SALVE house all week due to everyone but Mike being away visiting relatives in the villages I decided to go to Bugembe on Friday. I wanted to deliver the new books and also see the boys as they were going to teen missions at the weekend. It was actually only Helena, Tiff and Robert that had returned but we had a nice afternoon together and Mike’s mother and surrogate garndmother to all the SALVE children was visiting so it was lovely to see her again. When it was time for me to head back to town they would let me leave without a massive bag of mangos from Mike’s mother’s garden and I have been making my way through that over the last couple of days. I arranged to go back to the house on Saturday morning to say goodbye to all the boys but when I was on my way Mike called to let me know that not all the boys had returned yet. So Mike turned up at Harriet’s house in the afetrnoon with all the boys so we could have a catch up and say farewell which was a lovely surprise for me and Harriet. You could tell they were all really excited about the prospect of Teen Missions and I hope they have a fabulous time – though we will miss them of course.

(The boys before they headed off to Teen Missions)

So there you are another week over and just one more to go, though I am really looking forward to next week very much as it is Harriet’s wedding on Saturday and we are all very excited about helping her and Topi celebrate their special day!

Lots of Love,

Esther xxx

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