Kampala, Uganda

Well it was back to the bus station to find our way to Kampala, but on this occasion the kind Mr Bertin came with us and needless to say we were in and out in 5 mins and didn’t pay Mzungu prises!!! We were also pleasantly surprised that we actually arrived in Kampala ahead of our estimated arrival time: wonders will never cease...
Believe it or not but the countryside of Uganda reminded me of home, green fields that seemed to go on forever, marked out by stone walls and ditches lining the road, it was a little surreal but very enjoyable.

As we were early our dear friend Denis was not yet there to pick us up but the bus conductors were genuinely really helpful and let us use their phone to call Denis and let him know we had arrived a far cry from the nightmare that was Dar Es Salamn. Denis arrived a couple of mins later and like a true gentleman helped carry our bags to the white jeep where his friend was waiting to drive us to our hostel. We had finally arrived in Uganda, Kampala and were again reunited with our good friend Denis. We were grining like Cheshire cats as we drove through Kampala and the boys pointed out the various places of interest such as McKerere University (the biggest and best university in East Africa) and the many slums... We arrived at our hostel a short time later and were gob smacked to find Denis had organised a triple room with 3 double beds, a full size mirror, wardrobes, desks and tables and lets not forget the hot showers with actual pressure just down the hall... Oh and facilities where we could get to hand washing our clothes – life was good, no life was great (”,)
We arranged with Denis to meet early the next morning to go and visit UYDEL the NGO that we were going to be working with and we couldn’t wait to get stuck into a new project – after nearly 2 weeks of being idle we were more than ready to start working...

UYDEL – Ugandian Youth Developement Link is a really well organised NGO dealing with youths between 10 and 24 who have been involved in Commercial Sex Work, child trafficking, chil labour drug and substance abuse. The organisation focuses on given these young people vocational skills such as hairdressing, catering skills, mechanic’s, capentry, engineering in order to empower them to be able to support themselves and become productive members of society, while also providing them with councilling and BCC (Behaviour Change Communication). In many cases UYDEL also resettle the kids with their families and speak to community leaders to facilitate a positive response from the community when they return rehabilitated especially in the case of CSW’s.