Thur, July 6

Up early and into the traffic of Kampala.  It is a city of 8 million people with even more potholes, mini buses, motorcycle taxis, trucks, etc which make for very hazardous driving.  After the city we went to Njeru 35 kms away and all of that took 3 hours.  There we met Margaret Hasasha who is an incredible leader in the community an advocate for women.  She has set up a sewing centre and has received an industrial serger from this ISEE/Rotary grant.  Also runs 3 medical clinics and we were able to supply her with some basic medical equipment.  She likes to get things done and had an ambitious agenda for us.

Today was our first day of presentations and kit distributions and some of us were apprehensive, not knowing if we could remember all of the information and have the girls understand it.

First to St. Apollo primary school where we met the Rich Rose Health Club members, 30 girls who are leaders in the school. The Ugandans like ceremony so there were speeches and the girls sang the National Anthem and school song for us.  We were able to have small groups of 12 year olds which was lovely and then saw the new updated girls washroom with added privacy and a great system for hand washing called a Tippy Tap.

Then off to St. Stephens primary and secondary school to meet with 204 girls. Our group -Linda K, Marie, and myself had 75 12 year olds and luckily a very enthusiastic teacher to translate for us.  The other 2 teams met with the older girls.  They have had some teaching on Reproductive health but learned more and were very interested in the pictures of their body.  They are shy and quiet so only had a few questions but big smiles when they saw the kits.   Up until now they use rags for their period and often stay home so these kits will make it better for them.

Unfortunately we had no time to visit the 3rd school that Margaret had planned and headed back home which took almost 4 hours in traffic.  Our poor driver Apollo must be used to this but it is still hard work.  Needless to say we are all a bit tired but hopefully feeling better about presenting tomorrow.  Good night