Notes from Uganda: Week 2

This is the second in a series of weekly updates from QUEST award winner Hayley Maxwell and her collegue Jessica Robinson, who are currently in Uganda helping to build rural classrooms.

We have moved to our new base in the Crane Paradise ‘Hotel’ in Mukono, where we will be staying for the majority of our placement. Mukono is a small town north west of Kampala. We explored the area last week with Jimmy, the Building Tomorrow employee responsible for our school site at Nakaseeta. We had an ‘orientation’ establishing accommodation, local restaurants and amenities. The town is certainly less glamorous than Kampala but has everything we need.

Many of our plans have been disrupted by the unseasonally heavy rains and you may have heard about the fatal landslides in Uganda at the moment. It is very unusual to have this much rain. It normally arrives in a burst of an hour or so, but recently it has been pouring for whole days at a time. We had hoped to go to Gita today to meet the students at one of the completed schools but flooding put paid to that.

We have been completing the drawings for the new school (thank goodness for the Gifford laptop!). Yesterday – against all the odds including broken plotters, miscommunications and ‘Uganda time’ – we printed four full sets of blueprints ready to be delivered as our planning application to Mukono District Council.

We met the Good Earth Trust at Makerere University to discuss the implementation of the interlocking soil stabilised bricks (ISSBs) which we want to use as building materials. Having surveyed some changing rooms and auditorium seating constructed from the bricks, we feel confident the ISSB technology can be used to great effect. Training is required at our site both in how to make the bricks and how to build with the bricks before work can start. We plan to test a number of sample bricks for compressive strength and durability properties at the University.

We took a break on Sunday afternoon and strolled around Kampala, taking in the sights including the parliament building, National Theatre and crafts market – there’s always time for a spot of shopping! We are becoming ‘Uganda-fied’ travelling by matatu (local minibus taxi), immune to splatterings of red mud, with Jess even picking up the local dialect which is always greeted with a smile! (“Webale nyo sebu – thank you kindly, sir”). We have become hard bargainers on everything from soap stone sculptures to exchange rates.

The rain has delayed work at our site. Building Tomorrow held a meeting to discuss plans for the school, which was attended by 26 members of the local village – very encouraging. Site clearance is now due to take place tomorrow. Fingers crossed for better weather!

It was Hayley’s 26th birthday yesterday, and we treated ourselves to dinner at Krau Thai – maybe the only Thai restaurant in the country. Delicious! We travel to Jinja at the weekend to mountain bike round the source of the Nile, and meet Soft Power Education, who are also building schools using ISSBs. Next week we shall visit John Nisbet at Pallisa to assist with his projects.

Now to find an internet café!

Hayley Maxwell and Jessica Robinson
Hayley and Jessica work for Gifford and are part of a four strong team currently in Uganda. Hayley is an ICE member and won an ICE Quest Award to assist with her trip.