The Spirit of Giving

So we survived Africa and its crazy drivers driving recklessly at home seems so sedate! We spent the last week in Rwanda chasing down the Prison's Inspector to investigate the plight of 438 children who were born in Rwandan prisons and kept there without any prospect of an education, freedom or experience of the outside world. We were close but our time ran out and it was likely that she was stalling us as we ran around the city! We visited a few more cooperatives up in the east of the country near Akagera National Park. We also visited Lake Mhanza where the President lives. It was so good to swim and to be in water that hasnt came out of a jerry can! Driving back Jumavie cleaned a guy on a bike as his wing mirror exploded the guy seemed unhurt and ran off before Jumavie could kick his ass!

Leaving Rwanda was hard. Vincent was silent and could barely look at us as his eyes welled up! The local kids had given us pictures of themselves and we gave some of us but we hope to be back to see them soon especially Vincent who was such a lively friend who always made us smile and laugh! We jumped onto the bus and watched as we left Justin and Kigali behind. The rolling hills passed us by as some awful films like Crying Freeman, From China with Lova about chinese girl getting circumcised in Tanzania and Army of One were played on the bus. It felt really surreal watching a film like I was at home and then looking out the window as an elderly woman carried a jerry can through the jungle.

We arrived at the border and Mark gave some cheek to the Ugandan customs officer as he was asking for another $50 for entering Uganda even though Mark had paid $50 for entering Uganda when he arrived less than three weeks ago and had only stayed in Uganda for twelve hours - rage! I waltzed in handed my Irish passport, my British in my other pocket, and got into Uganda for free again! Mark on the other hand got his money and passport thrown back at him and was told to re-enter Uganda through Entebbe!

We finally got sorted and headed up to Kampala took another 7 hours of painful driving on dusty bumpy roads - and I mean painful on one bump I was thrown out of my seat so hard I hit the roof more than three foot above me. We finally arrived in Kampala and headed to our hostel in the west side of the city.

Next couple of days we spent in the city meeting up with friends and travelling around before heading to the Ssese Islands in the middle of Lake Victoria to chill and to get our heads around the last couple of months.

After a few days we headed back to Kampala. Mark was loving that people in Uganda didnt call him mzungu so he didnt have to respond with shut up black man in swahili! We visited a slum full of refugees from the Congo, Sudan and Northern Uganda. We met a man Patrick who was from the Congo and had his son killed in front of him because his wife was a Tutsi and his three year old daughter had been raped in the slum a few days ago but thankfully wasnt HIV+. Joe's place Hands for Hope was a really breathe of fresh air for aid work as he encouraged mzungus to come out to assess what was needed then ensure their help would be sustainable once they left which seemed to work weel with a school, library and coops set up. Other aid agencies we met and seen seemed to be focused on securing contract for white people to work and drive around in fancy white jeeps while the people around starved to death and were raped the camp in Goma, DRC was a clear example of this.

On Ssese we met alot of 'aid workers' one French guy was working for MSF in Bunia, in northern DRC which was the heart of the conflict a few years ago and still receives refugees but MSF is closing the massive concret hospital which the built and sacking all their workers what a waste for a country which has little or no hospitals. A group of English teenagers were out building a school with no experience of building work instead they fly out half way across the world to build a school which can easily built by the locals. The one thing that has impressed me the most has been the craftsmanship of Ugandans and Rwandans alike in wood work its really impressive what they can do without any mechanical tools!

For a long time I have been questioning the role of aid in Africa. It has become consumer aid we give a little in order to help ourselves get a t-shirt or hoodie that says Uganda '09 or I saved Africa when in fact these people spend thousands of pounds to do a job which a local with far more skill can do for a fraction of the price! Even sending clothes to africa is a waste of time never give any clothes to appeals that come through your door as it never gets handed out to the people who need it rather it is sold in the local market!

Think its time aid workers got out of africa or at least we train locals the means to support themselves including ensuring good governance and security as a priority.