Tuesday 30th June: Day 2 of Uganda training

The day began with a sleepy start which included people trying to hide Sam's 18th Birthday card under the breakfast table (as a result of Christian's bad planning skills). Lucky for us it seemed that Sam was completely enamoured with his birthday banners hung up with plasters, as in Uganda we are not blessed with the simple necessity of sellotape! (We learnt the hard way).

Good news!! The bus didn't break down today, but it seemed like everyone was holding their breath throughout the journey as if preparing for the worst. The competition is definitely intensifying between us as we all believe our teams are the best. Yet, this does not take away from the complete enjoyment of the kids faces when the see you. It is almost as if you leave a piece of your heart there every time you leave, along with a bunch of kids hanging on to your arms! ( which many of us found today including ourselves). It was interesting to see the kids fascination with our skin and our hair. The kids were so excited when Jazmine S let down her hair and the children instantly grabbed it and put it over their own heads. It is amazing to see that the children who have nothing act like they have everything.

To end the day the whole team enjoyed a relaxing trip down the Nile in a "banana" boat. We found it completed hilarious how Mr Loizou claimed he nearly pulled a muscle moving in the boat- this is our "supposedly" P.E teacher. We saw some beautiful wildlife along with learning fact such as the Nile being 4 thousand miles long and it taking 3 months for water to reach the Mediterranean from the river Nile. It was an incredible trip and it was nice to find out more about the beautiful country we have arrived in. 

We are now ready to enjoy some dinner and we hope Sam enjoys the rest of his birthday!

Amy and Olivia 

Monday 29th June : First day of Tag Rugby Coaching

First day of coaching begins, after a heavy downfall of rain through the night which woke up most people, we were all ready for eggs on toast at 7:00am and Robert was ready and filming his blog by half past. By half 8 we had all set off in our 4 groups to our first school, nerves and excitement filled the bus however it was laughed off when the bus broke down in the road, which didn't please Mike at all but everyone else had a laugh out of it, especially Mr brown and Mr Loizou. The better bus turned up and rescued us from the side of the road, which then eventually took us to our schools to start the training.

We came across a few dilemmas when visiting the schools like Sams group not being able to visit their second school meaning they had to wait 3 hours for the rest of us to return. Also, Christians group began to walk into their schools without their kit which I think they would of struggled without, however it was a brilliant first day and we all quickly became engaged. After we finished with both schools we travelled  back to Jinja backpackers with tanned faces and sweaty tops ready for a shower, but on our travels home we picked up each group and when James and Chris group waited in the van for Aaron's group they heard a stampede of children running. They made their way to the van and surrounded them. Jazmine and Chris opened their windows to say hello and nearly ended outside on the floor, the kids jumped and pulled their hands and arms in excitement. When we got back Sam, Brandon, Scott and Mollie had been sitting for hours playing with cards waiting for the rest of the group, we had all reunited and spoke about our day. 

Now everyone is showered and changed sitting around waiting for food, the boys are arm wrestling but Jasmine got involved for the girls. Robert showed his muscles and Mollie had found 3 new loves......the dogs!

From both Jasmine L and Jazmine S 

Sunday 28th June 2015: Uganda!

Having all boarded the plane safely the ripples of excitement started to spread amongst the Welling School party. This consisted of bars of dairy milk and starburst at the ready for take off. All seemed to be going so well until Olivia and Amy realised that their dairy milk had slipped off the tray and onto their seats and had melted nicely! Mr Brown had the last laugh as he sat in his exit/extra leg room seats and realised that Miss Faragher had successfully booked and paid for two normal seats at the extra cost of £100 due to the wrong seating configuration on the online check in! However, Mr Loizou was relieved!

We all enjoyed the delicious plane food, in flight entertainment and the bumpy turbulence. When the seat belt sign was switched off, Christian, Sam, Aaron and James wasted no time and were already making friends with the Ugandans in the galley at the back of the plane.

After 8 and a half hours we landed (with a bump) in Entebbe at about 10pm local time. We queued for immigration where they took our landing cards and placed them neatly on top of the 1000's of others cards which had clearly been there since Mr Loizou and Miss Faragher's recce in 2014! Once we were all through we waited for all 36 bags. The bags were loaded on to trolleys and we pushed them through to the car park where we met Mike and some of the Ugandan Tag Rugby Trust team. Our bags were loaded onto a bus which left for Jinja and we sat on another bus which took us to a local hostel for the night.  Fish and chicken were provided as a light bedtime snack at midnight and at 1am we all headed off for some sleep before our early departure the next day.

Breakfast consisted of fresh fruit which was so sweet it tasted like it had been dipped in honey, eggs and sausages. Mr Brown enjoyed one piece of plain white bread.

We set of on our drive to Jinja at 8am and likened the journey to a theme park ride experience with the addition of a few close shaves, goats, cows and chickens in the road. We arrived safely at Jinja backpackers late morning, ahead of schedule. After an introduction to the area we had an enjoyable lunch and went to a local field/rugby pitch  where we met the young leaders. Here we practiced some drills, techniques and games which we will use tomorrow. Apart from Sam, crashing in to Uganda's very own Usain Bolt, Scott showing off his diving skills (minus the pool) and Jazmine eating good her insect repellent we came away unscathed. We then walked into Jinja for a refreshing drink where the group made lots of friends with some local children. Then we retired back to the backpackers where we planned for tomorrow, ate and waited for some water so we could shower! 

Scott served dinner (see pics)!

That's all from Team Uganda for today.