To sum up...

Ragnhild and Andreas has given me the task to round off the workshop blog with a sum up of the last two weeks here in Ibanda. So, what has this workshop period been like? What will I return back home with?

What we’ll remember from this trip is not how we couldn’t stand any more rice with goat meat. We’ll remember all the things that make Ibanda what it is and all the things that are different, that we somehow ended up liking.

I’ll remember waking up to a blue sky by a rooster’s crow on the first day in Ibanda, meeting a relaxed village in a valley protected by enormous mountains on all sides. The first meeting was breathtaking and beautiful.

I’ll remember the beautiful starry night sky, a clear picture forever imprinted on my mind. It was totally black with an enormous amount of shiny stars blinking down at me. It felt like I was standing in a fairytale-world with the real sky above.

I’ll remember all the sounds of Ibanda. Trucks passing by at night, loudly, as if they just passed by our beds. Howling dogs waking us up at 12 pm and 2 am in the night. A pair of glowing eyes snarling angrily right outside our window through the darkness. The sound of crickets playing loud from sunset to dawn. Parked cars starting up their engines at 7 o’clock, leaving our room filled with exhaust and with no need for an alarm clock. The travelling gospel band holding concerts 7 days in a row, filling the whole village with the sounds of Christ from sunset to bedtime.

I’ll remember all the children calling for us when we walked back and forth from the site every day, asking “HOW ARE YOU?” with big white grins on their faces. I’ll remember their scornful laughs when they pointed at us calling us “mzungu”, excited about seeing white persons.

I’ll remember the chapatti-boy outside our hostel, making the best chapattis in Uganda! And I’ll remember the chapattis themselves, with delicious onions and tomatoes which made me believe I could survive the last five days in Ibanda.

I’ll remember how much I appreciated the flush toilet at the monastery just across the road when the diarrhoea was at its worse. It felt just like heaven!

I’ll remember how much I appreciated being a carpenter in Norway during the workshop days, longing for precise building materials, helpful electrical tools and being able to create solutions that I’m satisfied with.

I’ll remember all the different types of people working together towards a common goal. And I’ll remember us succeeding in giving a project to a village that will develop from it.

It’s been hard. It’s been frustrating. It’s been a physical and psychological strain. But we made it. And we are left back with strength and memories of a lifetime.
It has been great!

Sawa!

Silje

A collection of safety proofed foot ware seen on site: