ing Mount Elgon, which was a great escape

from the heat of Kampala. While camping in a

cave, my rucksack was attacked by fruit bats

searching for the bananas that I’d carried for

the journey, so for three days of the trip I stank

of rotten bananas! I’m also getting used to the

local diet, which largely consists of matooke

(green bananas) or posho (maize meal) and

some sauce, often peanut or meat. The senene

(fried grasshoppers) are surprisingly good

washed down with a few bottles of Nile beer!

July to August, 2004

The longer I work in Uganda the more I realise

that progress has to be measured by the little

steps forward rather than aiming for the lofty,

if naïve, ambitions I had when I first arrived. It

often seems to be the case that when progress

is made in one area of work problems emerge

in another! For example, FUGA are making

significant advances with improvements in the

performance of the Medical Health Centre,

a key project for the organisation. We have

received funding from the UK-based retailer

MFI to renovate the Health Centre, the medical

staff have moved into a rented house, providing

more space for patient care, and a new midwife

has joined the team. Patient numbers are up

as a result of improved sensitisation within the

local community, which has increased income

for FUGA to deliver additional health services.

To detract from all this positive news, this month

we received only half the expected funding from

a regular donor making my job of balancing the

books nearly impossible!

I am continuing to meet so many interesting

people, both Ugandans and expats. My social

life in Kampala tends to be a mix of these two

worlds. I feel very lucky that my day-to-day

work is with Ugandans, as I am learning so

much about African life and attitudes and have

made some really good friends. A couple of

weeks ago I spent the weekend with my good

friend, Silver, in his village in central Uganda,

and another good mate, Martin, is ensuring I

make the most of the Kampala nightlife! It’s also

good to have a network of expat mates who

can empathise with some of the frustrations

of working in Africa and help put the bad days

into perspective over a drink or two.

Perhaps the most inspiring person I have

met this month is a young man who I shall call

William. William was abducted by the Lord’s

Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda at

the age of 13. After spending nearly five years

with the rebels as a child soldier, he escaped.

In retaliation for his escape, the LRA returned to

his village and killed his family and neighbours,

burning them alive in their houses. William

survived, as he was undergoing rehabilita-

tion at a government centre at the time. I met

William in Kampala where he was living on the

streets carrying luggage at the bus-park to pay

for food. He is determined to get his life back on

track, and has gained the support of his local

member of parliament, who verified his story.

We are now in the process of enrolling William

in an electronics course so that he can start

up a workshop mending radios, phones and

other electrical goods, while his local member

has provided enough money for him to rent a

room. When I see his determination in the face

of such adversity it really puts my frustrations

into perspective.

September to October, 2004

FUGA, the NGO I am working for, currently has

a proposal being considered by the Japanese

embassy, so this has kept me pretty busy. If

successful, it will be a great boost to the com-

munity and to FUGA and will involve the con-

struction of a community hall and staff quarters

for our Health Centre. However, there has been

a lot of supporting evidence to gather to ensure

we progress to the next stage. In Europe this

task would be fairly straightforward, but not

here! Chasing around for up-to-date statistics,

quotes from construction companies etc was

hot, time-consuming and pretty frustrating, but

we got it finished in time.

Four good friends of mine have come out from

the UK to visit me, so I’m making the most of

Patrick Pringle, an economic consultant, wanted to
do something worthwhile on his career break. He
approached 2Way Development about working
in international development. After three months
of consultation, 2Way Development organised a
12-month voluntary placement for him in Uganda.
He became a health project worker for a community
development organisation that aimed to improve
the people’s quality of life in rural areas through
poverty eradication. 2Way Development asked him
to write a diary of his experience to demonstrate to
new volunteers how his skills were used in a positive
way, and to highlight some of the common chal-
lenges of working in a very different environment.

In the autumn of 2004 I decided that I wanted
to take a break from my job as an economic
development consultant to volunteer in a
developing country. I got in touch with 2Way
Development and met up for an informal chat
about the possible options. I was keen to find
a placement which would give me valuable
professional experience while at the same
time enable me to make a real contribution to
reducing poverty in Africa.
I chose to work for an NGO called FUGA that
works with rural communities in Uganda. FUGA
aims to reduce poverty in rural communities in
western Uganda through its healthcare, educa-
tion and income-generation programmes.

March to April, 2004
My job with FUGA incorporates organisational
development, project management, fundrais-
ing and liaison with donors, so already I’m
getting a real variety of work. From designing
new projects to driving the ambulance, in a
small organisation you have to muck in and get
on with whatever needs to be done.
The first few weeks have been quite a culture
shock, but I have been made incredibly
welcome. On my arrival, the staff at FUGA
organised a party for me, then, at 5.30am on
my first full day in Uganda, I was boarding a
bus to visit the villages where FUGA works. I
will be making regular visits to the project sites,
which involves a six-hour journey to Ntungamo
District, a hilly part of the country close to the

border with Rwanda. Visits to the villages are

usually a little hectic and often involve buzzing

around on a motorbike to visit the various

projects, check on progress and speak to bene-

ficiaries. Many of the villagers are surprised to

see a muzungu (white person) and the children

either come to hug me or run away in fear!

Even though I’ve only been in Uganda for a

couple of months, I am really settling in to the

lifestyle and my job. It’s certainly very different

from my life back in the UK. Adjusting to ‘Africa

time’, keeping your temper in the face of Ugan-

dan bureaucracy, and surviving the hot, dusty

and chaotic taxi-parks all take some getting

used to, but the rewards of living and working

in Africa certainly make it all worthwhile.

May to June, 2004

After four months I’m getting used to life in

Uganda, though there are still surprises every

day! Working with a Ugandan NGO, much of

my work has focused on organisational devel-

opment and putting systems in place. While it

would be great to start implementing projects,

there is so much that needs doing first in terms

of capacity-building within the organisation

and getting things organised. I have been busy

working with colleagues on a new strategy,

undertaking staff reviews and also putting a de-

velopment plan into place for the Health Centre.

It is strange how quickly you get used to

seeing poverty, though every so often I see

something that reminds me why I chose to

volunteer. Recently I met a teenage girl who

is blind and deaf because she was not im-

munised against measles. I also took the body

of a mother of seven back to her family. She

had walked five kilometres to get help for a

potentially treatable heart condition, but by the

time she reached the clinic she was past help-

ing. While such images are distressing, it can

be a powerful reminder of how much we take

basic services for granted back home.

On a lighter note, I’m getting around a lot at

weekends and meeting lots of people – both

Ugandans and expats. I spent four days climb-

Twelve Months

in Uganda

06: Structured & Self-Funding Volunteer Programmes:

Twelve Months in Uganda