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Welcome to the site of Megan and Mark Walters!Have a look around and catch up on what were doing around the world.Click on the tabs below to see pictures, a map and read blogs of where we are and what we're doing.There is a very special extra tab 'Wheres Wally'... check it out. If you would like to contact us then Facebook great if not my email address is mark_walters909_hotmail.co.uk, we will look forward to hearing from you. Hope you enjoy the site and feel apart of our travels too, Have fun and look forward to hearing plenty of stories when we come back (who knows when that will be...)
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Thursday 15th - Wednesday 21stThe time went quick in Kisoro and soon we traveled the 9 hour bus ride back to Kampala. Early the next day the team went in a bus to get to the airport. I (Megan) was a little sad after they left as where we were staying reminded me of them all the time, so I decided I wanted to leave asap but... after chopping my hair (dont know what I was thinking). We had the weekend off so we chilled. We explored the walk into the city, we tried to find a internet cafe to research things in the area and report back home but internet signal here is shocking! We played plenty of uno and went to some cafes to feel a little normal for a while. We met Francis at church, which we hope to go to again as it had a nice feeling about it and had some other mzungu's (white people). We got talking about accomadtion and where we could stay so Francis drove us to a house of a friend of his. We went over viewed the flat had a chat over a soda and moved in the next day! Its nice to have our own space; the couple who own it lives next door but they are so lovely and helpfull its great. On monday we had a meeting with Moses from katanga slum. We decided that we are going to start a class for children who cant afford eduation fees 3 hours, 4 mornings a week. At the moment we do not know if they will be able to speak English so may need an interprator. All kids in school get taught and spoken too in English so they are able. Mark and I have been planning how to start teaching the abc and 123. It's cool things to be starting... 14-9-11We stayed in Kisoro for a week starting with a chilled day to get our barings round the town. Kisoro is very different to the city Kampala because there are not many cars; it seems a slower pace of life with many owning food farming land, to see to daily. They dressed very nautral african as apposed to the people in the city, they are dressed more like english people. Lots of ladies carrying huge amounts of things on there heads with babies tied to there backs and men wheeling there push bikes around with massive amounts of things attached/ balanced on their bikes to transport from place to place. It is a beautiful place and really great to see the out of city culture.We visited a place called Potters Village which was just down the hill from where we stayed. Potter Village is a home for babies from 0-2 years. They are loved and fed by the staff and the hope is they are re-homed with there family but if that is not an option then they will be fostered or adopted. They have very good after care once they are re homed too. It was encoraging to see a great place doing well. We also did another smaller medical camp with only our 2 doctors again many people came. The road to get to this medical camp clinic was shocking! Its a road cut into the big hills so one side you are weary of land slides and the other you are scared of falling off the side and tumbling down this hill. It would be fine if it was dry and if there where no places when the cars would slip in the muddy corners, and did I mention we did some of this in a hail storm. It was like being at alton towers but with out a safety bar and security that this is what is ment to happen. We praised the lord we got home safely that night!! We went to see a few water projects with the enthusiastic Jolyon and Steve, it was interesting to see what could happen (hundreds/thousands of people getting fresh clean water everyday) if the plans and hands and funds are there to make it work. that would make health much better for most people if they had clean water.We meet Francis for the 1st time while we where out here but some of the team has known him 9 years and everytime a team go out Francis is the great helper! He is Ugandan so speakes it, knows where to go who to see and has become a great team member and friend. In kisoro we met his parents and his sisters at there boarding schools. It was nice to meet his family.10 septMatoke, rice, irish and millet... mmm... all foods that we have been served every meal and it has only been 5 days but has started to get quite repetetive. Day 2 of medical camp saw another 500 people come to visit doctors, dentists, peadiatritions, eye doctors, HIV testing, blood doning and councelours. another great day at st John's church. Wednesday the team split into 3 groups, 1 going to Fort portel, 1 going to a couple of medical projects the other side of kampala which left a group of 6 of us. We went off to a couple of Slums; the first was called Katanga, which was just unbelievable with 18,000 people living in this community (size of Nailsea) but only have 4 toilets between them all. As we walked through we stopped at a river and were told this is the place people came to collect water to drink, to bath in, to make food with. As we were there there was a lady washing her clothes, children were stood in it and a guy washing his bike in it. We saw a number of little kids weeing straight into the water they were drinking out of.We arrived at this slum (and actually anywhere we went) with a cry of mzungu, and little kids running over just to touch us and hold our hands; they were also fasinated with my tattoo and fighting over which person could hold the hand with the tattoo. This was great playing with the kids all the while knowing how dirty these kids are and how much they smelt. We met a guy called Moses who showed us around and started to explain his story... He grew up as a kid in this slum but unlike most of the katanga people, got an education and is now spending every day in the slum to educate the kids who can't afford to go to school. The more we listened to him speak the more we were convinced of his obvious care for the slum and importance that the kids get an education. Megs and I were very impressed with him and will look to work with him when we are next in kampala. During this time in the slums the local Rev. Micheal bought lots of rice, sugar and soap to take round for different people in the community (mostly old women, who is not only housing and looking after her kids but also has as many as 14 grandkids running around too). It was such an amazing time to see inside their homes, to meet the real people and to offer what we could which at the time was a smile and encouragment. We spent thursday afternoon in central Kampala for a smoothie and slice of cake and also went to a craft market (I had to restrain Megan saying we've not got any more space in our bags to buy anything more). Thursday night we got together with the wider team who were involved in the medical camp to have a huge meal and a thank you. We then went out with the British mzungu's and Francis (our Ugandan friend) to say goodbye to some of our team leaving early friday morning tofly home.Friday came and we set off for Kisoro in the south west of Uganda picking up Jolyon (Holy Trinity Vicar) from the airport. We set off at about 9am and after a very long drive got to kisoro at 6pm just before dark. Thunder, lighting, terrencial rain and a power cut is what welcomed us to Kisoro which is where I leave you know...Until next time... Mark and Megs 5-9-11Hello all2 flights, 2 curries, a pizza, 12 hours later with not much sleep and we have arrived in Uganda! The flights were... fine, the curries were not, the pizza was good the lack of sleep not so much.We were met by Francis and Ian and got on our way to join the others for more food. It's about an hour drive into Kampala from Entebbe airport which gave us a great oppurtunity to look out the window and soak up the culture. We were pretty speachless by what we saw... chicken, cows, goats, pigs are all animals I previously have looked after and it is strange to see them eating out of rubish piles, ankole cows with huge horns walking alongside people cutting through traffic and the poverty was unbelievably bad.We met up with Rev Micheal in Kampala, his family and the rest of the team from England to eat some patato, beans, rice and beef (good feed). We arrived in Uganda the day before the team (from Nailsea) and the local church got stuck into a medical camp, supplying all the drugs and resources for the treatment. We started at 9am and carried on through until 6pm when it started to get dark and not be able to treat patients or let people test their new glasses, which Megan and I were doing most of the day. We were in charge of the medical stock, moscito nets, malaria tablets and the 3 sandwhich boxes of glasses which we like to call the opticians. We served the people who got perscribed the strength of glasses from the doctors, enjoying stuggling through the language barrier and having pretty decent conversations with the locals. Get this, we even got comments like... thank you doctor, bless you your a great doctor. Pretty scary the thought of megs and I being anything like a doctor. We finished day 1 of the camp with 500 people seeing a doctor, a nurse, a dentist, a health practitioner (what ever one of those is), a councellor, an hiv/aids testing station or a councellor. All pretty manik but ended the first day bouncing around the church hall with a couple of families of some little kids. After the illnesses, the pain, hearing people's not nice stories and the lack of sleep it was all pushed aside to see the joy on the kids faces by dancing, showing them pictures of themselves on the camera and letting them hang off us as we played with them.We have both greatly recieved a culture shock but have enjoyed every minuite of the experience so far. It is now 10:28pm, we are ready for sleep and are preparing ourselves for another day of medical camp tomorrow.We leave for kissoro on friday and do not know what the internet provisions are down there so here is a post and some pictures for you to enjoy for the time being. Megs and Mark 3/9/2011Just woken up this morning, looking forward to the flight today at 9pm. We will try and update this blog as much as we can but we're not really sure what we are going to expect until we arrive. The place we are going to in Mozambique told us specifically 'don't expect anything' and in doing that anything is a bonus. Have fun x x x
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20/08/2011Hello all we are pushing on with the project currently nameless writing all the important details including a mission statement a vision a strategy etc we are writing and designing sponsorship forms profiles for the kids and CSRs (Child status record) dont worry I didnt know either what one of those was until now we are looking into opening a few bank accounts buying a house and turning it into a school all the while doing our accounts to make sure we can afford all this. For those who dont feel as rushed in their lives and feel like they have punctuation, below is a copy slowed down just for you.Hello all, We are pushing on with the project, currently nameless, writing all the important details including a mission statement, a vision, a strategy etc. We are writing and designing sponsorship forms, profiles for the kids and CSRs (Child status record). Dont worry I didnt know either what one of those was until now. We are looking into opening a few bank accounts, buying a house and turning it into a school, all the while doing our accounts to make sure we can afford all this.Its a busy time for us, which it looks and feels very much like a full time job. Apparently we didnt want to go travelling with the hope of a nice rest. Instead we were looking to fill our time with wait for it an unpaid office job! But we couldnt imagine anything more enjoyable or worthwhile to do with our time that is of course except for white water rafting and quad biking followed by an evening cruise next weekend.With 44 days left in the country (minus 2 days recovering from the rafting) we feel we have not long to do our work and enjoy the beautiful Uganda. We can already see time flying by. I suppose that is a good thing, perhaps it means were having fun. I said before that it was rainy season nothing has changed it is still rainy season, which continues to mean thunder, lightning and torrential rain. It seems like the weather plays games on us. In the morning there will be the most amazing sunrise followed by clear skies, shorts and a t-shirt. Then we leave the house for work at 7:20am, enjoy the morning until clouds, within a matter of minutes, come flying over just to give us a 20 minuite down pore and then clear up as though nothing ever happened; just leaving us dripping from head to toe.Next blog titled fish in a disco, Megan and Mark.11th October 2011So we havn't updated, it seems for a while. Lots has happened since we last spoke. We have had some very incouraging meetings about the project in which we are starting (the school in the slum). When we decided to start this school project 3 and a half weeks ago, we were using an office of a guy called Moses, we bought some school supplies like wall charts, flash cards, coloured pencils etc. Moses then identified 15 kids in the katanga slum that didn't go to school as their families couldn't afford the fees. We have been teaching 4 days a week originally with the help of a translator and another ugandan teacher (paid volunteer). We have been progressing with the kids and have had our first official meeting (with agendas and everything) on monday 10th in which we spoke about where the 6 meeting members wanted this organisation to go. Megan and I wanted to meet with the others involved as we wanted to make this project something bigger and wanted to make sure that it would be a sustainable project even after we leave (which is in 1 and a half months). We first talked about getting in another teacher who speaks both ugandan and english to replace Megan and I while we can do lots of needed paperwork, make proposals, do the organisations accounts, write profiles for each kid, and do some backround research into the child's family. We would like it to be a project that teaches kids that can't afford school, eventually has a health, care and social worker. The project will also have a 'drop in' centre, which gives the kids that do go to school space to do homework and catch up in their school work (every child living in the slum has 1 or 2 rooms and rarely have a desk or a chair to sit on to do their work, they often have numerous brothers and sisters making lots of noise and it getting dark at 7pm means there is not much time to do extra studies). The projects aim is, in the longrun, to have these kids sponsered to go to a local school, full time. Which will mean that the school we run will act as a catch up class to get the kids to a same level or as near as we can to kids learning abilities their own age.Because of all this (english teachers always hated me starting a sentence with because) we thought it was a nessesity to moving location, out of a small office and into a house double the size still in the katanga slum. We have options to buy or rent the new building with it being hugely more appropriate to buy the place out right. We have electricity bills to take into consideration, food and drink for the kids snacks, and volunteer wages for the 2 teachers (despite them being volunteers they are putting in 14 hours teaching time a week plus preparation time each evening for each session). We have the help of our good friend Francis (the social worker) to help us with child profiles and back round information. He is one member of the 'commity' along with Megan and myself, Moses and Joshua (the people with the vision) and Afisha who has been put in charge of the project for the long term and is one of the teachers. We have a lot of hard things to think about and lots of intense work to do and a lot of hours praying over the next 1 and a half months to make sure this is a good and right thing for us to invest time and money into. In megan's words 'we are enthused' as it is a project which is needed within this community and will beneft huge amounts of kids and households. We will appreciate all sorts of prayer regarding this whole project and we thank you all for sponsering us on our cycle ridewhich will go a long way towards helping these kids.Thanks again... M+M 27th september 2011We started in katanga slum on monday. We have around 11 children, though we have to split them into 2 group as some are older and have been to school for a little but as parents couldnt afford the school fees they could no longer go.We have James, Alex, Lillian, Christine and Doreen in the older group they have done some school previSo we havnt updated, it seems for a while. Lots has happened since we last spoke. We have had some very incouraging meetings about the project in which we are starting (the school in the slum). When we decided to start this school project 3 and a half weeks ago, we were using an office of a guy called Moses, we bought some school supplies like wall charts, flash cards etc. Moses then identified 15 kids in the katanga slum that didn't go to school as their families couldn't afford the fees. We have been teaching 4 days a week originally with the help of a translator and another ugandan teacher (paid volunteer). We have been progressing with the kids and have had our first official meeting (with agendas and everything) on monday 10th in which we spoke about where the 6 meeting members wanted this organisation to go. Megan and I wanted to meet with the others involved as we wanted to make this project something bigger and wanted to make sure that it would be a sustainable project even after we leave (which is in 1 and a half months). We first talked about getting in another teacher who speaks both ugandan and english to replace Megan and I while we can do lots of needed paperwork, make proposals, do the organisations accounts, write profiles for each kid, and do some backround research into the child's family. We would like it to be a project that teaches kids that can't afford school, eventually has a health, care and social worker. The project will also have a 'drop in' centre, which gives the kids that do go to school space to do homework and catch up in their school work (every child living in the slum has 1 or 2 rooms and rarely have a desk or a chair to sit on to do their work, theyoften have numerous brothers and sisters making lots of noise and it getting dark at 7 means there is not much time to do axtra studies). The projects aim is, in the longrun, to have these kids sponsered to go to a local school, full time. Which will mean that the school we run will act as a catch up class to gett the kids to a same level or as near as we can to kids learning abilities their own age.Because of all this (english teachers always hated me starting a sentence with because) we thought it was a nessesity to moving location, out of a small office and into a house double the size still in the katanga slum. We have options to buy or rent the new building with it being hugely more appropriate to buy the place out right. We have electricity bills to take into consideration, food and drink for the kids snacks, and volunteer wages for the 2 teachers (despite them being volunteers they are putting in 14 hours teaching time a week plus preparation time each evening for each session). We have the help of our good friend Francis (the social worker) to help us with child profiles and back round information. He is one member of the 'commity' along with Megan and myself, Moses and Joshua (the people with the vision) and Afisha who has been put in charge of the project for the long term and is one of the teachers. We have a lot of hard things to think about and lots of intense work to do and a lot of hours praying over the next 1 and a half months to make sure this is a good a right thing for us to invest time and money into. In megan's words 'we are enthused' as it is a project which is needed within this community and will beneft huge amounts of kids and households. We will appreciate all sorts of prayer regarding this whole project and we thank you all for sponsering us on our cycle ride to help these kids. ously. They are aged between 7 - 12 and do know there abc just about, they hadn't learnt about putter letters together to make sounds and words so they have started with Mark. Mark has been teaching the older ones and they are being taught about adding and subtracting in maths. So that leaves me with the younger who I am starting from scratch with. Their concentration is poor so we do songs quite alot and change things often. I have Tracey, Godfrey, Vicent, Jovan, Patrick and Sandra. The kids seem to have enjoyed the 1st couple of days as the turn up early to school and greet us with big hugs. I think especially the older one are so greatful to be learning instead of hanging about all day, doing nothing. We have help which is great, two interpretors at least for the first 3 weeks. We have just arranged to give the children a drink and a snack every day at break time which will cost about £1 a day to give them all something.We went out last night to a guesthouse we have been to before for a drink and to watch a football match, it didnt finish till 11pm and thats when we found out most taxis dont work late. Except our trusted taxi driver alex who we have used a few times already. It's not very safe for us to walk round by dark.Love to you all...
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24/10/2011We go to a hotel, just down the road to where we live, to get our internet. In this hotel we buy a few things ranging from just a soda to a full meal depending on how long we are staying there. One evening recently we Skyped back to my parents and decided to experience their fine dining facilities. When we eat out, even though a good size meal only cost £2, we try to make sure we are hungry and ready for the food we are about to eat. It was 8pm (our time) and it was dark. We took a seat and the lights came on, they weren’t any ordinary lights, these were flashy, multi-colour, in your face type of lights that made you think you should be back in primary school sliding on your knees at the end of term disco. To add to the imagery, over the table we first sat under, there was a red light shining into a real life glimmering disco ball. We quickly moved.We found ourselves in a disco waiting for our fish and chips, which eventually came out. 1 plate was put before Megan of chips, and then the second with the fish came out, both with plates on top to keep the food hot. To Megs horror one of the plates had a tail sticking out in between the plates at which I quickly took of the top plate and unveiled a fish, head and all. I swear Meg let out a squeak and a tear or 2, followed by a statement of, ‘well you’re going to have to get all the fish out for me.’ Fish in a disco… great. We later that week decided to Skype Megan’s family; horrified by our experience of just a few days before we decided to make it to the hotel with plenty of time to eat before we get transported back into our childhood memories with the disco ball and sore knees. We arrived, sat down and ordered something that didn’t have a head and a tail, a vegetable curry. Mmm… this is going to be perfect. Sun is slowing setting in view and we wouldn’t have fish eye balls staring us down while we are trying to eat it. The waitress disappeared off with our order off to the kitchen and didn’t come back, at least not for a very long time. We waited, playing a spot of Uno to finish our game before food arrives. 45 minutes later and we start to wonder if waitress has made it to the kitchen to even place our order; and worse yet the sun is 15 minutes away from causing those multi-colour lights to appear again. The sun does set, however, the lights don’t come on and the food by this point is an hour and half late and we haven’t even seen any member of staff or waitress to speak to them about our food situation. Instead by this point we are sat in the dark, not playing Uno any more as we can’t differentiate between the colours we have in front of us. A lady does come in which we politely ask, ‘is our food on its way?’, ‘there has been a problem she kindly replies.’ My head is now shouting out A PROBLEM AND YOU JUST TELL US NOW. My mouth said otherwise, how long will it be? Anyway… 2 hours after we had ordered, our vegetable curry is here. Yay! A lot of it was missing, from what the menu said, but we were not going to wait any longer in which we were so hungry the food was all gone in 5 minutes flat. The disco lights did eventually come on after sitting in candle light for 10 minutes (some would call this romantic, I just call it annoying). To top off the evening we went inside and there was no internet to Skype…. ahhhhhh. This has been an evening of endurance and patience.
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