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With George on my 1st
visit to Ndali |
This post could not be written without a
tribute to George, the incredible Ndali barman who very sadly passed away on
Tuesday. He worked at Ndali for 17 years and was a huge part of the Lodge. He
was remembered by all the guests whether for his stories about working for
Uganda Hotels and serving Idi Amin, his “spine-stiffening gin and tonics” or simply
his kind and caring demeanour He will be greatly missed by everyone at Ndali and the Lodge will never be the same.
The first task of the week was to pay the
school fees for the sponsored students – something which takes almost an entire
day! But with that done, Ivan & I could move on to slightly more
interesting things.
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| Julie & Aunt Susan |
On Tuesday evening we had three guests from
Wisconsin, one of whom, Julie, was a returning guest. She decided to come back
to Uganda with her Mum, Barb & her best friend, Janice. Julie loves
travelling and is very passionate about giving back to
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| L to R: Janice, Julie, Barb, Aunt Susan, Cordelia, James |
the countries which she
visits, she gives talks in America about the places she’s visited and people
she has met whilst on her travels. From a combination of people who have been
to her talks, friends and colleagues they collected a huge amount of school
supplies which can’t be bought here, as well as receiving donations with which
they bought more school supplies in Uganda – they have been giving these out to
schools on their trip. They had money left over with which they decided they wanted to "do something bigger" - they chose to donate
$500 to the building of Aunt Susan’s. This is a huge boost to our funds and
means that we should be able to start construction within the next month. So a
huge thank you to Julie, Barb, Janice & all the people who contributed to
their collection.
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| With John & James the 2 students sponsored at Aunt Susan's |
I visited Aunt Susan’s on Wednesday with Ivan, it
was great to be back and to find out how the school is doing. They currently
have 104 pupils, including 39 in the nursery. They also have a P7 class this
year, which is the final year of primary school and the year in which students
take exams in order to secure their place at secondary school – we hope that at
least some of the students will be able to continue their education beyond
primary so watch this space for news on their progress.
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| Some of P3 with their new school bags |
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| Nursery Students |
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| P4 with their new books |
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| P1 with their new pencils |
On Thursday I visited Aunt Susan’s with
Julie, Janice & Barb to distribute some of the supplies which they brought
and to pass on the news of their donation to Susan & James. It was
wonderful to see the students’ faces as they were presented with school bags,
pencils, books and footballs. So thank you again to our visitors for their huge
generosity – it has already made a big difference and will continue to do so –
again, watch this space for updates on the progress of the school construction.
You can see more photos of our visits to Aunt Susan’s on our Facebook page.
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| Saying goodbye to the kids |
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| Barb dancing with some of the students |
