Arrival In Uganda.

With today being so quiet in the office, I thought that I should take the opportunity to commence blogging. Wyndham, HYT’s supreme big cheese here in Uganda and thus my boss, had set me three tasks for the week. I hear that so many tasks puts me working very hard by HYT standards. My first task is to start preparations and planning for the ‘Grand Audit’, which I shall bore you at great length in my later posts. Secondly, I am to organise the process of renewing HYT’s registration as an NGO with Uganda’s National Board for NGOs. My final task is somewhat obvious to you: to kick off my career as HYT’s premiere blogman. Proud of my new title, I begin...

But what do I tell you? Do I tell you, as seems to be the norm in one’s first HYT blog, of the landscape, of the amazing rich red colour of the all-pervading dust and of the colours of the glorious African sunset? Or should I write to you about the people and the culture, of how kind, courteous and astonishingly relaxed Ugandans are? Alas, I shall do neither. Instead, far more importantly, I will pass on the juicy gossip here in our Jinja office and then update you the progress we make on our current projects before looking ahead to our latest project.

Beginning here, in Jinja, I can tell you that yesterday was a busy day. Besides the usual business of updating accounts, reviewing budgets and discussing the finer details of the week ahead, our first day saw us preparing for the bureaucratic and administrative nightmare which will see HYT’s NGO registration renewed. This took most of the morning, scouring dusty files for documents forgotten since our last renewal three years ago, updating fading forms and drafting letters in the clunky far-too-polite language necessary. By early-afternoon, undeservingly proud at having successfully sorted out three of the twelve necessary components, we decided to break for lunch. On our return, Harry and I began the ‘Grand Audit’. This is to be our main focus for the duration of our three-month attachment. In short, we are to visit thirty of HYT’s previous projects and report on how HYT’s constructions are faring today, up to seven years since tools were downed by HYT. Harry and I intend to have most of the necessary admin for such a large task finished by the end of this week and hopefully arranging to start visiting locations by the end of next week.

Moving further afield, I am delighted to report on progress made in Mutai. Here, HYT is constructing a classroom block and laboratory hybrid. Harry, Wyndham and I visited the site on Saturday and were pleased to see that the walls are almost fully up, putting us ahead of schedule.

Meanwhile, our work on the Rotary Project is drawing to its closing stages. Indeed, hopefully by the end of this week if not next! Here we have constructed ten water tanks, eight pit latrines and nine washrooms, vastly improving sanitation, hygiene and comfort for over one-thousand pupils across the five schools.

Looking ahead to our upcoming projects, I’m sure that you share our excitement for our fifth ‘One Village at a Time’ project which will commence in October at St Andrew’s Senior School in the district of Kamuli. The main effort of this project is to be the training of eight local Ugandans in HYT’s pride and joy: ISSB technology. With these trainees becoming HYT-qualified builders, they may utilise ISSB technology to bring about long-term development through the construction of new facilities not only at St Andrews but in the wider community also.

As always, the team here in Jinja are looking forward to keeping you updated.

Henry