Wednesday 27 February 2013

Day 10 - Shopping!

Today we got to put our plans into action and go shopping for the donation and loan items.

The shopping list looked like this:
* 20 mosquito nets
* 8 bunk beds
* 10 clocks
* 8 bags of charcoal
* 1 pig
* 1 sack of maize bran
* 1 sack of potatoes

First we went to a farm next to the school who have pigs for sale. Benedict had picked one out that was the right price for us and looked healthy. We took his word for it and made our first ever pig purchase.

Then we split up with Leckie and Martin going to get the bunk beds and Benedict and I going for everything else.

First we looked for the maize bran. We haggled with a local dealer to get the price we wanted and the right mix for the pig to grow quickly. The mix included cotton, salt and fish. We watched them mix it on the floor in front of us to be sure they didn't skimp on the fish and left the bag for later collection.

Next we purchased the mosquito nets and went in search of clocks. I'm not sure why I was surprised but there were no clocks to be found. Martin is going to Kampala tomorrow and will get them then.

After this we looked for charcoal, finding someone willing to sell us the entire sacks. They are absolutely massive and I had no idea what we were going to do with them, but we paid and Benedict instructed them to hold them while we found a truck.

Then we found a potato seller. Sacks of potatoes turned out to be very expensive, so we decided it best to leave this one. So we added one bag of charcoal to the loan of Mary and took out the potatoes. When she repays the charcoal loan then CALM will look at the potato option.

We had to then hire a truck, which consisted of just approaching a truck driver and bartering a price. After loading the charcoal into the back though it was obvious that the bran wouldn't fit, so we hired a boda boda (motorbike) also and strapped the bran to this.

We had not long been back at Jolly Mercy when Leckie returned in another truck with the bunk beds and several men in the tray. They had been stopped twice by traffic police, one of whom wanted to know why they had a M'zungu in the car. No questions about the men standing in the tray though.

The men set to work assembling the bunks in the dorms and were done by the time we left. In the meantime more trucks turned up carrying things for the construction work that will be happening and work on the playground began. I've been amazed and super impressed at how quickly this has all happened.

Tomorrow we distribute!

Today's tidbits:
* When discussing domestic violence against men, a man on the radio this morning said that if a woman hit him he would just put her in a suitcase and put her outside.
* Naming animals is not common place in Uganda, but Israel has named his cows. One of them is named Brian.
* It's been so dry and dusty here. I told them it was going to rain on Saturday and now they think I am a prophet. I tried to explain it was just BBC weather.
* There are 'not for sale' signs everywhere. This is to prevent people selling land that does not belong to them.
* While at a shop I saw a funeral wreath that read 'Rest in internal peace'
* Several of the children have now drawn tattoos onto themselves to copy Leckie

No comments:

Post a Comment