They are fund-raising  some extra money for us and they have a fantastic website  that you may wish to look at   http://www.kateandbeninafrica.com/?p=42

Kate and Ben’s  experiences at Uganda Lodge

For a week in mid September, we spent time at Uganda Lodge through the Ruhanga Community Development Project. This, as many of you know who contributed to our fundraising efforts, was the primary reason for our visit to Uganda. We were devastated that our time here was cut short, mostly by the delay in our purchasing the car in Kenya and a dedication to meeting others on a time frame later in the trip, but we were happy to have been able to make it to the Lodge at all this month. For those of you who don’t know, we stumbled upon this project via Lonely Planet’s Thorntree forum and Ann Macarthy, who is the UK Ambassador and the lifeblood of this project, got in contact with us to give us more information on Uganda Lodge. We found out that it was in it’s infancy, and that she fundraises in the UK to develop the project further each time she comes to Uganda. Uganda Lodge is owned by a man by the name of Denis Kasiba Aheirwe, and as a local in the area, also identified the need for a development project for his local community. Ann and Denis teamed up and the Community Project was born- the community development art and crafts centre and computer room having recently been finished. You can read more on this project on our ‘Volunteering’ page.

Uganda Lodge itself operates as a bar and meeting place for locals, and accommodation place for visitors. We had heard mention of other events like video nights and functions being held in buildings onsite (a big open area where we did our morning yoga!), but were given the impression that these haven’t happened for a while – though they hope to get them organised more regularly. We stayed in one of the bungalows – of which there are four on the property and it was perfectly lovely. It was a big room, with a double bed and a big double mosquito net that protected us from the many insects in the area (drawn by the light – not many places in the area have electricity), and a small area off to the side that was set up as a shower. Unfortunately no toilet down that end of the property yet, but a perfectly good long drop further up towards the road. As funds permit, Denis is in the process of constructing a toilet right next to our set of two bungalows at the lower end of the property. People also camp – we had one group come through while we were there: Stuart, Fiver and Merryl, and their perfectly fantastic Landrover Defender on an overlander trip from South Africa to Germany. We have since run into them again, all because of our meeting at Uganda Lodge.

The setting of Uganda Lodge is fantastic – most of the staff are wonderful, and attend to your every need with a smile amidst the stunning rolling hills of the area. Denis took us both on a hill climb not long into our stay, and it truly demonstrated how amazingly beautiful Ruhunga is. There isn’t much else in the area for potential visitors, but it is on Kabale Road, on the way to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and the mountain gorillas and makes for a good rest stop on the way.

The Lodge has a bit of an identity issue at the moment – it’s at the time when it’s defining where it wants to go – of course there is the bar and support for locals, but the community centre and schools are also deemed important and there are not enough resources to finish each of them around the same time. Some parts of the Lodge look a little tired, and they are hoping to fix a huge hole in the ground that sat directly outside our banda (and is currently being used as a rubbish bin) but the area has ENORMOUS potential and with development in each of these areas, by staying here you’ll be supporting local community projects and local business. Definitely watch this space.

When we first arrived, we were unsure as to where we could donate our skills. We knew of the community centre, and we knew of the nursery school that Denis had built on his land to help neighbouring family’s children attend school from an earlier age than they had been previously. What we didn’t realise was that Denis was also keen and in the process of building the next stage of schooling –the first two years of primary school in a P1 classroom, also on his land. To this, you can also add a project of building new toilets for the nursery school (also to be utilized by the primary school children on completion). Now the way it is in Uganda, and many other African countries we’ve come across, is that you buy materials for building when you can afford them, and labour you pay whenever you have the materials AND the money to pay for labourers/engineers services. When we arrived at Uganda Lodge, we found that Denis had engineers working on the building, but had run out of materials. Given so many of you voiced your hope for the money you donated to go towards education, we thought the primary school building was the perfect opportunity for us to help with this very thing. Over $AU1000 was spent on hard stone, bags and bags of concrete, timber, thousands of bricks, trailer loads of sand and reinforced steel rods to reinforce windows. These materials will now put the primary school room close to completion when the labour is available and there are the funds to help pay for the engineers. But we’ve donated solid materials and these will be used to help Ruhunga and the local children in the area develop their education.

Initially our focus was to be on the community centre, but we found the education of children at the critical ages of 4 and 5 to be of higher importance at the time. Having said that, we still helped out with the centre. Ben in particular, put his IT skills to good use and re-programmed and de-bugged all of the donated computers, and instructed the newly appointed computer trainer on some of the programs he intends to teach. To that, we also printed signs to go in each of the bungalows advertising the internet access at very reasonable rates to both guests and volunteers. Although these were more practical, we found that we had come at a time when we could not do much more than what we did in the time we had – although it was a lot of fun helping Denis source and purchase the building materials from local stores and markets. The community centre is ongoing, and will always be able to use a hand if you want to volunteer in Africa, and particularly Uganda. There will be the computer room, a sewing centre to help teach local women tailoring (still in the pipeline), and of course, the Ruhunga Community Development Nursery School and soon to be Primary School as well.

We promise to add more photos as we receive them from Denis and/or Ann on the progress of the primary school. The photos attached are of the site and some of the progress already made with the materials we purchased on behalf of all who donated money. We hope you’re happy with the decisions we made – the children were beautiful and deserve every chance of education in the world. Thanks to you, they’re one step closer to getting it!

FINISH BUILDING TOILET BLOCK

PUT IN WATER TANK AT UGANDA LODGE

FINISH BUILDING LAST BANDA in COMPOUND

LANDSCAPING GROUNDS AT LODGE

PUT UP  MARKET STALLS / SHOP OUT FRONT

FLOOR & WINDOWS IN NURSERY SCHOOL

SOLAR FRUIT DRYING PROJECT

MUSHROOM GROWING

UPGRADING  NURSERY CLASSROOMS

FRESH WATER FOR THE LOCAL VILLAGES

INTRODUCING NEW POTTERY METHODS 

May 2009 OPEN LETTER TO POTENTIAL VOLUNTEERS & SPONSORS

Arrival in Uganda A few visitors arrive in Uganda arrive by bus from Nairobi, after a journey lasting anything from 10 – 20 hours, depending on how many breakdowns they have on the way, or hold-ups from accidents blocking the road!  They will be dropped off near the city centre, usually at the individual bus company’s offices.

 Most of our volunteers and tourists fly into Entebbe Airport (EBB) and its preferable to book for either Denis  or another friend of  Uganda Lodge to meet you.  They will be waiting for you outside the terminal and take you into Kampala – a journey that takes approx one hour. It is not very easy to find your own way into the city centre.

 If your flight arrives early in the day then we can take you straight to find the correct bus and ensure that you will be dropped outside the gates of Uganda Lodge. If the flight arrives after lunch its advisable to stay in a hotel in the city centre overnight and we can book you into a clean cheap one that is centrally located.

 Don’t forget to have ready US $50 for the visa when you arrive at the airport. If you wish, we can provide someone to travel on the bus with you for £20 extra per journey (60,000 Ugx)

 For visitors arriving before lunch and going straight to the project:

 One person: £40 covers airport pick-up, transfer to bus station in Kampala City via a foreign exchange bureaux and bus fare to the project

 Two people: £55 covers airport pick-up from Entebbe transfer to bus station via a foreign exchange bureaux, and bus fare to project for two people

  For visitors arriving after lunch time and staying overnight in Kampala

 One person:  £55 covers airport pick-up from Entebbe airport and transfer to Kampala city centre, visit a foreign exchange bureaux, overnight stay in guest-house, pick-up and transfer to bus station and bus fare to the project 

 Two people: £75 covers airport pick-up from Entebbe airport and journey to Kampala city centre via a foreign exchange bureaux, overnight stay in hotel, pick-up and transfer to bus station and bus fare to project.

 If your budget runs to it, you could book a car and driver to take you right down to Ruhanga but this will be about £220 in total if you arrive on a morning flight, or £200 from a city hotel.  (Car Hire is expensive all over Africa, and this has to cover the return journey for the driver – including the fuel)

 INFO FOR THOSE CHOOSING NOT TO HAVE ASSISTANCE:

 From the airport – get a taxi to Entebbe Town and then a shuttle bus to Kampala City. Next find a special hire (private) taxi or a Boda-Boda (motorcycle taxi) who will – after some bargaining – take you to find a bus going to Rukingiri or Kabale (via Ntungamo) . They go from several different places in the city; you will need to check and double check with man actually selling tickets – (not with a tout) – that that bus does indeed take that route.

 About 4 hours or so after leaving the bus park you will reach Mbarara town, and then Uganda Lodge is about 50 kms further on (about another hour or so) You will begin to see hills each side of the road, the Lodge is on the left hand side of the road about three three kms after Itojo Hospital and just before Ruhanga Adventist School.  Ntungamo is another 10 kms further on. Most regular drivers now know it when requested to stop outside.

Just speaking good English can be of great help and it is not necessary to hold a TEFL certificate although this could be useful, and you could then take formal lessons in the senior schools.  Alternatively you can hold English conversation classes with small groups and just give the students conversation practice.  In the Nursery School the main aim of parents is to get the children learning English quickly and the more volunteers that go into the classes teaching nursery rhymes, action songs and words from books and pictures the faster they will learn

We have a series of interactive educational DVD’s that are translated into Runyankole (the local language of Ruhanga) and especially when these are facilitated by volunteers they can teach both adult groups  and  children many basic living skills. See www.tme.org.uk

Arts , Crafts, Music, Dance, Singing, Sports

We will assist volunteers with any of these skills and interests to set up informal classes either for children outside of school-time, or to work with existing women’s groups.

Office Based Skills

IT,  Computer Skills,  General Office Work such as accounting, letter-writing, designing posters, marketing  and  general Business Studies are all subjects that need to be learned by staff and suitably chosen villagers.  Knowledge of how to cost  projects and writing proposals would be a really useful skill.

Trades and Vocational Subjects

All building skills (design & planning, bricklaying, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, roofing, painting, plastering etc)  can be utilised, as  can trades such as welding, mechanics, tailoring,  knitting, beautician

Health and Medical

Our DVD’s will help to educate local villagers in such subjects as healthy eating, clean water, diarrhea, and why children suspected of having malaria should be diagnosed earlier rather than leaving it til its too late!  There is a hospital only a few kms away – yet every month young children or pregnant women or those weakened by HIV ae dying unnecessarily.  It would be possible to offer help in the hospital, depending on your previous experiences and interests.

Other Ideas

If you have been able to raise some money over and above your weekly food and accommodation costs, then we can discuss before you go how you would like to spend this money. You may like to research and start up something to generate an income such a small animal project,  buying seeds and starting up the growing of new varieties of vegetables. Fruit drying using solar drying cabinets, mushroom growing or a pottery kiln and wheel are other ideas.

Building upgrades at Uganda Lodge, such as concreting the nursery school floor and adding glass windows, completing the toilets,  upgrading the large hall, adding better fencing, are all things that need to be funded.

Our idea is to discuss beforehand (preferably during a telephone interview) with volunteers what they would actually like to do while they are staying at Uganda Lodge.

There is no limit to the length of time that a  volunteer can stay at Uganda Lodge.  We are asking all visitors  to pay 210,000 Ugx (£70) per week for their accommodation and food, and any profits from this goes immediately back into helping the community or to continue upgrading facilities at the Lodge. This could be negotiable for long-term volunteers

Age Limits for Volunteers

We can accept unaccompanied volunteers over the age of 17 years but Uganda Lodge is also suitable for children to come with parents,  provided they are adaptable and willing to interact and work with the local children. There is no upper age limit but as the ground can be uneven you must be reasonably mobile.

Qualifications

No specific qualifications are required. Anyone who speaks English and has a western education can be of help. However if you have a particular skill, interest or trade, then we can tailor work for you to do around these activities.

Ntungamo District is a very green and fertile area, not the arid brown of many peoples imagination, so rainfall can on occasion be very heavy. After a couple of hours the hot sunshine soon  dries everywhere up again.  Its difficult to pinpoint a wet or dry season as although I have been many times it varies from year to year.

It is in an ideal position for visitors as although its in a rural area well away from large towns it is right on the main Mbarara-Kabale Road. This means buses and public taxis from Kampala going to Rwanda, Congo etc pass the gate as well as more local ones that can be flagged down at any time.  The journey from Kampala takes approx 5-6 hours

Thus its easy and cheap to get into Ntungamo (a medium size town about 15 mins away) or Mbarara (about 1 hour away) Here you have small supermarkets, internet access, Banks with ATM machines, and permanent markets.

Next to the Lodge and across the road are banana plantations and then hills rise up to the skyline so its  excellent for hill-walking.  Within easy walking are many small farms, mini-trading centres, four schools and a hospital is about 4 kms away