On Friday, Matt and I decided to have a break from all the meetings so that we could clear our heads and really consider our options for the future project. We visited the area I first worked in, Namuwongo, and I was amazed at how well it has developed in 4 years! I felt surprisingly relaxed and secure in the area, which was a refreshing feeling as we chilled out by a pool for a few hours.
This morning, we visited Eunice's family. They live in the slums opposite where we are staying and are the most amazing family I have ever met. Eunice is currently writing up her story for me so I will do a blog just on her soon.
The family live in a small box house, with two mattresses to share between at least 5 of them every night. Every member of the family are so switched on, extremely bright and completely dedicated to looking after each other and providing a better future for the whole family.
I handed out a load of clothes which I had packed for their community, including some leggings donated by Chloe from Brislington Christian Fellowship:
They were so happy as I brought out more and more clothes from the bag. They would each jump up in turn when they saw an item they liked and would go behind their net curtain to change in to it. They enjoyed posing in their new clothes and joked around saying they were like models. It was so lovely!
They even have two small children who also live with them - they are so cute!
We were able to hand over some tops for the babies, which were donated by other members of Brislington Christian Fellowship.
The community were so grateful.
Eunice then led Matt and I through the narrow alleys of the slums, back on to the main road where we squeezed in to a matatu taxi till we reached a town called Senge in Wakiso district. This area is sooo beautiful! So calm and very green. It is here that Eunice's brother, Chris, runs a chicken farm which was initially funded by my family.
I was so impressed by what he had done with the money. He led us through a quiet area which has many banana trees and maize plants and then, as we approached the chicken farm, the noise of chickens was overwhelming! He currently has 180 chickens and as soon as he opened the door they all came clucking around our ankles! I was actually quite nervous around them but Matt worked his manly status and grabbed hold of one for a photo!
I was really impressed by the quality of the chickens and he said that he is able to sell about 150 eggs a day to the local community and shops. He showed us all his accounts and receipts and explained that he is now able to give money to his family every week to help them with food, which is fantastic. He has even managed to set up a 'boutique' where he sells dvds, cds and clothes to the local community.
AND he has a small pig farm now too! I was so encouraged to see that he used the money wisely and has used his own initiative to expand.
I even asked Chris about the land in the area, as I was so impressed by the village. He said that the land is very fertile and is around 8 million ugandan shillings per acre - that's around 2 grand per acre - which is a lot more affordable than the site we saw the other day. He said that land brokers up the price if they see muzumgus (white people) so he is going to do some research for us. Great news! xx
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