Yesterday Matt continued teaching rugby and I continued training the dancers. Matt was really pleased with how well the boys did at rugby. They were a lot more focussed and picked up the drills very fast. They were working together extremely well. After their practice the boys normally get changed at their own speed and come back in dribs and drabs, but this time the boys insisted that they waited for each other to get changed. Plus, on the way back from the pitch Brian was crossing the road with Matt and said 'Mr Matt, let us wait for our team. We should cross the road as a team'. They are really starting to understand the value of working together, they could recognise how well they have improved and see that this was because they were more committed and discplined as an individual and as a team (which they have named 'Mr Matt's Rugby Club'!).
The dancers have also been doing very well. They expressed how great it was to be dancing together again. For a lot of them, dance is their only distraction from the dangerous slums and dance has kept them out of trouble. It unites them, builds their confidence, self esteem and morale. Eunice's neighbour has links with a local restaurant which has an outside entertainment space, so they have agreed to let us use the space for a fundraising performance. I have put my own money in to it as I believe they need the encouragement and the boost they will get from a performance. They will charge people to come and watch the show and use this money to invest into their next performance. So far they have just been managing to tick along but I am willing to help them with the fees for the initial fundraising performance, as they need the capital to start the ball rolling for a more sustainable future. They are very excited about the performance and we have sorted out posters and a public mic speaker to announce the event around the streets. I have also given them new costumes so they look professional! The performance will not only be a good self confidence builder for the dancers and fundraiser for the group's future, but will also raise public awareness of the groups existence, in hope that people will invite them to events and celebration occasions in the future.
Today we went to look at land, with the vision of potentially buying 5 acres of land: 1 acre for a building for youth orphans, kitchen, bathroom, church and dance studio. 1 acre for a football pitch. 2 acres for growing food and 1 acre for keeping animals. We had to travel 30m away from Kampala to find land at a cheap price. It will be better to shift the home away from the chaos of Kampala city life anyway as there is too much temptation for the boys at the moment. Village life is so much more peaceful and safe!
We saw 4 plots of land, 2 of which we could potentially buy as they had the better fertile soil. The problem would be the distance from the patch of land to a main road as access would be very important, so we could get to markets and schools. We checked the price per acre (which averages 1,300 pounds per acre), as well as the distance from Kampala, Schools, Hospitals, Water, Power, Markets, Villages and Local Developments. Plot 4 was very wild! I even got my toe eaten by a giant ant! The soil was not good so we didn't bother with that one. The fertility of the land is also key as we would like to start growing food as soon as we get the land, even before the building. At least then they could start selling the food and begin to grow in sustainability. I think we need to keep looking, as we want to tick the box for every one of these things.
Speak to you on Monday. xxx
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