Today Charles and Fred our two guards/gardeners were away at Akanyijuka land building a new chicken koop so it was my turn to step up and help out with the chickens. I had never killed and dressed chickens before, but today that all changed. I had the pleasure of assisting Patrick, a volunteer for VCCS, in preparing the remaining chickens for sale. Not the nicest experience, but definitely not as bad as I was expecting. I was talking with Patrick about his brother who worked his way to getting to University in the UK and said that his brother will probably never touch a dead chicken again, just like the majority of us in the west.
In the afternoon I bumped into Maria, a friend of ours who is working in Kabale with the US Peace Core, and she invited us around for dinner. But before we went I took her down to Akanyijuka to show her what we were doing. She did not get to see much as she did not make it past two metres of the front gate – she was bombarded by children wanting to say hello and stuff. Even though she did not see anything she said it was the best of that sort of project she had seen, just how happy the children were; playing and having fun, and how the matrons did not seem like towering wardens. It was encouraging to hear her response. We will have more visits with her, she seems interested in helping the matrons with learning to speak English a little. At dinner we also met another Peace Core volunteer, Scott, who seems like he is wanting more to do than what he is doing where he is placed so we will meet up with him one day and show him the things we are involved in.
