Schoolterm starts

"Finally going to school"

 When highschool students go back to school after vacation or so they may be annoyed by it. But every child, no matter if in the U.K., Germany or Uganda is proud and happy to go to school for the first time.
Abato Junior School opened it's doors for the children of Mpigi, Uganda on the 3rd of February 2014. 300 kids are getting a fair chance to the education, they deserve thanks to Abato Foundation Uganda.

The day starts early in the morning. The children line up and wait for their teachers to take them to class (which by the way is exactly how my elementary school started in Germany).

After wishing a good morning to their teachers they pray together (85 % of the people of Uganda are christian). Prayers are an important part of their daily lives.

The taught subjects are all the ones you may remember from your time in school: Science, mathematics, social studies, computer literacy (which you may actually not remember from your school time, but you can probably imagine how important this subject is nowadays), music and of course english.

With all the learning of course children also have to have some quality playtime. Abato Junior School has it's own playground for the students.

After a long period of playtime you also have to rest a little, and of course drink something to stay healthy.

The team of teachers, which Anne and I will support soon, is always looking out for the children, no matter if in class or at the playground. They are there to serve the children. In the picture you can see the teachers with the super proud founder of the school: Moses.
(a small riddle for you guys: Two of the people in the picture are not really teachers! Can you guess who?)

And just because I love this picture so much, here's my favourite shot from Abato Junior School so far. Isn't she just adorable?

I hope you could get an impression of what Abato Junior School looks like.

The current donations are used to make more school uniforms for the children, buy pencils, chalk, papers and other stuff that's necessary for the classes and to upgrade the building even further.

If you want to know how to donate please get in touch with us!
 

 Julian

Deutsche Version

a little behind schedule

Between university and catching up with Abato

It feels kind of good to finally be able to post something new again. As you guys might have noticed Anne and I haven't had the time to put something new up in the last few weeks. That's because we are both very busy with university projects/exams, working, I have just moved and Anne has suffered a leg injury. 

Eventhough we don't want this to be the case more often we are now in the comfortable position to have alot of new stuff to tell you about...
First thing (equals my next post) would be that school started on 3rd of February and is going really well. Shortly after all the excitement of the starting term Moses and Kirabo had even more exciting news: Their first child is born. His name is Arthur and the three of them are doing really good with their newest challenge called being a small family. We'll give you some details about that later this week. The next Abato-project is also in line. Moses came up with the idea of a tailoring school for women who weren't able to graduate. There women are taught how to tailor so they can earn their own salary later.
You see there's alot of excitement going on down in Uganda. Stay tuned as we give you more information about the listed subjects this week.

Do you have any questions or suggestions? Do you want to know anything specific about Anne and me going to Uganda? Feel free to write a comment or email us for further information!

 Julian

Deutsche Version

Booking flights

Just 11 months in advance

First of all, we wanted to get some information about the prices we'll have to pay for our flights. We crombed through several websites and checked airlines that connect Germany and Uganda. Out of question was that we will fly to Entebbe. The airport is about 4okm from Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Taking the country road, you need about 1 hour (3okm) to get to Mpigi, the city where Moses built up Abato.
Quite soon, there was a problem: No website could show any return flight. We're planning to fly back in April 2o15, after a backpacking trip we're planning.
We decided to get some help in a travel agency. To be honest, the advisor wasn't very helpful. She didn't get, that we have time, but no money. So we're very flexible about the dates, as long as it is as cheap as possible. We're going to visit some other agencies. But we're not in a rush: Airlines plan and publish their flights just 11 months in advance. For us that means, we can start looking for flights in May again. It does not make sense to book an outgoing flight now and later the return flight because it would be much more expensive. Same goes for booking a return ticket now and changing dates later.
So, we have to wait...


 Anne

Deutsche Version

What does Abato do?

Bricks for a school                                                           

After informing everyone in Germany that we are going to support Abato,
one of the questions that came up the most was “What is this organization doing? What’s their purpose, why support them?” 
Well I want to give all of you an example of what Abato does right now. This project impressed me very much and I am proud to show you #Bricksforaschool

Bricks for a school means that Moses and the Abato family started to raise funds by donation to build a school. And when I say build I mean they started at nothing and created a place where children can get the education they deserve.

The following is just a brief overview to show you the progress they have made, there are many more pictures and things to learn about the project…

    Deutsche Version

Let’s start with the place where the school was supposed to be built. 

This picture was taken before they started the construction.

At first Moses and his supporters had to clear the land.

The project is called bricks for a school because they even made the bricks themselves. In order to do so they pressed mud through a frame

and then later it is put on the ground and pulled leaving the brick on the ground wet.

 Many people were involved in building the school.

Together they made a lot of progress in just a few months.

With more donations coming in

they were able to start the construction of the rooftop.

They also focused on the outside looks and painted the school in a beautiful blue.

I cannot wait to be in one of these classrooms with the children.

The building grew and grew thanks to the passion and effort 

lots of people put into the project. 
Today the school is almost ready. They are giving it the finishing touch by now.

Even though they made it this far, there is still a lot that needs to be done. 

It all started with this

and they have come a long way ever since.

If you want to support them you can go to Abato website or contact us. As this project continues Abato does a lot more. Let’s help the children to learn how to help themselves because education changes everything…

Stay tuned we’ll provide you with more information and beautiful pictures of people who are trying to make a difference soon.

 Julian

We've got news

"You're not going there" and "What? That's freaking awesome!" 

Christmas. The whole family comes together and you meet all the good friends that you haven't seen for way too long. Every time Julian and I were nervous, sitting in front of our audiences and telling them about our plan to support Abato. Reactions were as mixed as expected: Our mums were the ones who protested the loudest. At least, Julian and I are good in doing a lot of persuading. Our friends shared our hapiness, were courious and asked many questions.
The first step is done and we are happy about every kind of support; support that we can impart to the children in Uganda.

 Anne

Deutsche Version

I love that song

Soundtrack of our trip

Shortly before we got the message that we will be with Abato in 2014 it was Anne's birthday. I got her a ticket for a concert of the famous german rapper Marteria. 
Shortly after we got the message the we will be with Abato in 2014 Anne showed me this:

The video is a collaboration between   musicians from Uganda and Germany and is shot in Kampala, capital of Uganda. We have officially announced it the soundtrack of our trip!










Julian

Deutsche Version

Looking for the right organisation

"it belongs to my childhood friend and soccermate"

Looking for an organisation that welcomes us as volunteers appeared to be pretty hard. Even though there are alot of agents that offer these kinds of opportunity, many of them ask for alot of money for their service. That's not what I wanted. There are a few that manage to give their volunteers a scholarship (e.g. weltwärts), but most of these organisations don't accept couples and for the few that did we were already too late with out application. A close friend told me to try and get in touch with the organisations directly. We searched the internet for organisations and wrote lots and lots of applications. Our motivation went up and down like a rollercoaster: Some answers gave us hope, but the majority was devastating. After a few weeks we let go of the initial hope to work with (and for) children in Africa. It just seemed impossible. We switched and started looking for any community service outside Europe. And then we waited...

... until Leonard Kazooka wrote me a message via facebook. Leo and I know each other from my trip to South-Africa in 2010. I was a little bit angry with myself that the idea of asking him didn't come to my mind earlier. So I told him about our plans and asked him if he knew an organisation that might need volunteers. Leo is from Uganda and told me about his "childhood friend and soccermate" who is the founder of a charity organisation named Abato. Julian and I immediately checked out their website and excitement came up. It sounded almost to perfect to be true so we hurried and filled in their contact-sheet. 
The next morning I had a friend request on facebook from a stranger. I almost ignored it (because you know - random facebook request) but Julian didn't: The request came from Moses Kalanzi, Founder of Abato Foundation Uganda! Oh my god - NOW I was thrilled! Julian and I put some info about us together and sent it to Moses. And then we waited...
...Every day we checked our inbox several times, everywhere we went we asked each other: "Do you think he already replied?" I expected every message that I got to be from Moses and every message that wasn't made me more nervous and curious. 

Then, on December 23rd, after seven incredibly long days, Julian and I got the answer we were waiting for:
Moses message blew my mind. I got so excited when I first read the long text that I didn't really understand half of it, I just couldn't believe it. We both said in front of the PC petrified. 
Julian broke the silence: "Anne, we are flying to Uganda..."


Anne

Deutsche Version