MR. HOBBS' UGANDA PAGE!!!
August 2008:
As we are leaving soon we just thought that we would put our first message on the page. We are both really excited about our trip.
We also wanted to thank everyone at Magor for the support that you have offered us over the last few weeks. In total we have managed to raise £8000. A huge part of this came from Magor. We are loking forward to keeping you informed about the work we are doing.
September 2008:
I’m sorry that it has taken so long to update you as to our adventures in
Well we have been out here for 2 months now and a lot has happened in that time. During the first three weeks we had the group with us and we planned and ran a retreat week for all of the orphans that Edith’s Home sponsors. The theme for the week was Noah’s Ark and the groups did craft, drama and music sessions based around the topic. In the afternoons the groups did sports activities. On one of the days the group went to a place called Jinja which is the source of the Nile and we visited a beautiful place called Bujagali falls which is a series of waterfalls. After the group had left we moved into our house which is lovely. The house is in the grounds of Ngora School for the Deaf and has two bedrooms. Life in Uganda is very different to the UK and things take far longer to do so people get up vey early. We have to get up at 5.30 in the morning! Between this time and 7 we have to boil the milk and water for our breakfast and sweep the house. All water and milk has to be boiled here before it can be drunk to make it safe. This takes a very long time on a charcoal stove. We are also now working at the vocational school and doing a variety of tasks. Nicky has set up a bible study that meet twice a week. I am teaching English once a week and am also setting up some sports clubs. I have also been asked to work at the local primary school one day a week so am very busy. The primary school in Kobwin is very different to Magor. Because the weather is so hot the classrooms have no windows or doors. The biggest difference however is the size of the classes. An average class size in Uganda is about 60 but classes can reach 200 children with 1 teacher. The biggest class I went into was 150 children. Can you imagine being in a class with 150 children? Hopefully I will be able to update you again soon. I hope everything in school is going well.
Mr Hobbs
Last time I wrote to you Nicky and I were busy adapting to life in
I am now working one day a week in Kobwin Primary School running sessions on behaviour management and helping the staff to learn how to use a laptop that has been donated to the school. Hopefully I will be able to do a little teaching as well. I expect it will be very different to the UK. I have been asked to run the behaviour management sessions because the Ugandan government has just outlawed the use of the cane so the school are keen to learn how we manage behaviour in the UK. In the Vocational School I have been given two main roles. My first role is teaching English to try and improve the students results in their written exams. My second role is to try and help with the development of the school because it has only been open since February. I am really enjoying this role and am finding it very interesting to work in a school that has only just opened. Exams are a big part of life in Ugandan schools. These include the Yr 6’s who are taking their Primary Leaving Exams. These exams are very difficult! If the students do not pass the exams with a score of 60% or over then they cannot go to secondary school and they will have to stay at primary school and repeat the year. Sometimes there are 14 and 15 year olds still in primary school because of this. Nicky is now busy helping in the office with the charity and working in the hospital. Malaria is a huge problem in Uganda and as many as 110,000 children die every year because of it. This means that the children’s ward is very busy and often the children share a bed with another child. The parents of the children sleep on the floor. As one last comment the students at the Vocational School are very grateful for the sports equipment that was purchased with some of the money that we raised from the school. The laptop is also a very popular gift and Rose the charity’s secretary is very happy with it. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your half term. Mr Hobbs December 2008 One week now till Christmas and I’m sure that you are all now very ready for the festivities. I have also heard that it has been very cold in the UK over the past few weeks. I hope that the final few weeks of term have gone well and that you have all enjoyed yourselves. Christmas preparations are different here. It is almost like Christmas is not happening at all. There are no decorations in the houses and the shops are the same as usual. There is occasionally a Christmas carol on the radio but that is it. The strangest thing however is the weather. Because Uganda is now in its dry season the weather is hot with clear cloudless blue sky’s every day. It stopped raining in Ngora during the second week of November and has not rained since. It will now remain dry until February when people hope that the rains will return. We have been invited to spend Christmas with a local family so will get to see what a traditional Ugandan Christmas is like. We are both looking forward to it.
Although the schools have now closed Nicky and I are still very busy. Last week we helped on a Kumi Diocese Youth Conference that had 900 people present. The event was amazing and was led by a team from Toxteth in Liverpool. The event had preaching and worship songs during the morning and then workshops in the afternoon. It was a really good event. There was also a lot of interest in the Alpha course so Nicky and I are now leading Alpha leaders training in January of next year.
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year.
Mr Hobbs
April 2009
We have now moved into our final four weeks in Ngora working for Edith’s Home so I wanted to write one final entry to let you know what we have been doing for the past 4 months. The Christmas holiday in Uganda lasts a very long time and we finally went back to school at the beginning of February after two months off.
During the holiday though we had to run the retreat week for the sponsored orphans. The event was a real success and the focus for the week was Daniel and the Lions. The students discussed the story and produced pieces of work based on the story. Some students did art work others wrote the story out and one group produced a drama. For the rest of the week we played sports in the afternoon and the students had talks on succeeding in school and career guidance. The week ended with a meeting with their guardians to thank them for the support they are offering the orphans during the school holiday. We are now planning for the final retreat to be held in the last week of April where the focus will be the story of Joseph.
Life at school has been very busy. I was given the role of acting head teacher in February and have been trying to improve the school administration since then. The role has been good fun and I’m looking forward to using my new skills when I come back in September. We have also been preparing the land in the school for crops and I have been in the gardens using a hoe and an axe to cut down trees to clear land. Dry season finally ended at the beginning of April so we are now ploughing the land using Oxen. We will then plant Ground Nuts (which are like peanuts), Maize (which is just like sweet corn but not sweet) and Beans. The Maize will be dried out and then ground into a flour that they use to make Posho which is the main food of Uganda.
The final project that we are now undertaking in the school using some of the money that we raised is a water harvesting system. We are going to use guttering to collect rainwater in a huge 2000 litre tank that will then provide water for the school during the dry season. Eventually we would like to build an underground tank that can hold 40,000 litres of water this could provide the school kitchen and help irrigate the land.
As I said at the beginning of this entry we are leaving Ngora soon to travel in South Africa and Namibia and then we are coming back to the Vocational School in Ngora for two weeks. This trip has been an amazing experience and I can’t wait to tell everyone about it when I come back in September.
Mr Hobbs