Day 29: Friday 12th September, 2014.
I woke up this morning just before 7 and sat writing my diary. We had chipatis for breakfast, and we sat eating in the girlsâ room to avoid the mad rush of kids. We sat chopping up names and sorting out all the voting system for the awards. We then all votes and I sat writing away again! We went to sit outside for a little while, and I wrote more in here. Rachel & I headed down to the playground to take photos of it before the madness of later. We chatted away to everyone and before we knew it, it was time for lunch. Theyâd killed a goat especially for us to eat. They asked James & Sam to go and watch it being killed because it was partly their way of saying thank you. I had rice and pasta for lunch! After clearing up, we got ready and cut up out t-shirts so they were slightly more airy, for the opening celebrations.
We headed down to the playground about 1 so we could take loads of photos! They started playing music through the speakers; they started playing âHeroâ and I just burst into tears! We were all madly singing along, and only realised when it got to the second verse that they were playing the Spanish version of the song! Some of the others started crying, and we were all a bit emotionalâŚ
Me & Moses, the head teacher of Buwenda Primary School.
We all had photos with each other and attempted a group one of self-timer (on the first try, one of the little boys walked right in front of it).
"Boy walks in front of camera!"
Tom came to tell us that they were running behind schedule, but eventually we all piled into the classroom with the builders and various members of the community. Martin was the Master of Ceremonies, and talked us through what was going to happen. Some of the children came in and they danced and sang for us.
The children dancing for us!
There were a couple of guys playing drums too, and it was absolutely amazing! The headteacher then made a speech thanking everybody. He is just the sweetest man! The chairman of LC1 did a quick speech next â and it was super quick. Martin talking again, and I was crying already by this point. The Chairman of the Parents then did a big long speech in both English and Lusoga. The councillor wasnât there, so we moved straight on to James & Toriâs speeches. They made me cry even more â especially when I saw Tori welling up, and even more when they started handing out all the certificates!
ALL THE TEARS (and Rachel laughing at the tears)!
I couldnât bring myself to read mine because I knew it would make me cry every more! Quite a few people were crying reading through them. Dan did a speech and Ronald was translating it into English until he couldnât be bothered anymore. Tom then stood up and did a quck speech. His digs at James were hilarious and some things he said and then turned to Faisal and said âDonât translate that!â. He thanked all the builders, gave James & Tori photo frames to thank them for being awesome team leaders, and also to Hannah & Stuart who appeared at different times. When he finished, Martin said something about Tom opening the playground and we all headed outside to see hundreds of children running down to the playground.
Children on our playground.
We walked out of the classroom to this... wow.
It was absolutely incredible to see & I just burst right back into tears again! It was just so wonderful to see how much fun the children were having on the playground, & it made every single second of our hardwork worthwhile. We ran around the playground taking loads of photos and playing with the children. They had speakers and started blasting out music into the classrooms at the bottom.
There was so much crazy dancing going on â it was madly brilliant! I went back to the playground for a while & then it was back to the mad classroom. This one little girl had hold of my arm and was going absolutely mental! I escaped to go and refill my bottle of water just as their bell went for assembly, which was held on the hill outside. We all gathered near the bottom of the hill and James gave us EAP questionnaires. The children mostly went home, and we all filled in the forms.
We then sat outside with some of the older girls at the top of the hill, and played with the cameras. They kept videoing instead of taking photos. Carla arrived and we stood chatting for a while. We then had a massive group photos with all the builders & Sarah.
We then had dinner with roast potatoes, spaghetti, and the goat theyâd killed for us in a stew. I didnât really fancy it. We sat outside the kitchen for a while talking to some of the older girls again. Harvey had bought everyone drinks, which was lovely of him, & we headed down to the classrooms where they had music blaring out! Everyone was dancing madly to the (rather disappointing) music. It kept cutting out too. We did get Rachel up at one point, despite her vigorous protest. All the builders, Vicky & these random Ugandan guys were dancing madly. I eventually gave up with the music and joined Rachel outside. I went back in when I song I recognised came on, and this guy took my hands and was madly jumping up and down for the whole song. I returned to Rachel & we sat outside until the music stopped. It then didnât stop and nobody knew when it had to. In the end, I just went to the room, and to bed.
~Hands down, this was my favourite day of the whole experience by far. It made EVERYTHING worthwhile. Seeing how happy those children were because of the playground we'd built was the best feeling in the world. I don't have the words to describe just how incredible this day was. This diary just doesn't do it justice in the slightest. Opening that playground was one of the best moments of my life.~
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