I have been instructed by Mr Lowe on behalf of Aberdeen City Council that we must remove the City coat of Arms from the TillyTravellers Blogsite.
Apparently such usage is an offence to the City.

I have removed the offending Coat of Arms but do feel it is only proper to point out that a major purpose of our visit to Uganda was acting as Representatives of the Community of Tillydrone, a part of the City fo Aberdeen and amongst many reasosn for our visit, was to meet with the Mayor of Kamuli Town and seek his agreement, that we be allowed to take steps to enable a possible Twinning Parnership between the Community of Tillydrone, (Whisper it--------- A part of the City of Aberdeen) and Kamuli Town.
As a part of our visit, we conveyed a Letter of Introduction and greeting and also a Gift from from the Lord Provost of Aberdeen City to the Mayor of Kamuli Town, Uganda.

Ross Grant, a member of the Group has done such a lot of work in Twinning Riverbank School Tillydrone,(Aberdeen)and Bezallel School, Kamuli, Uganda.
As a Group we had hoped that this would be the next stage in helping build relationships and a helpful and fruitful partner links between Tillydrone and Kamuli.
I was honoured to be informed by the Mayor of Kamuli speaking at a Function in honour of the visit by the Travellers that "as Rev Jim, I live in Aberdeen, but my home was now Kamuli and I am now an honoury Citizen of the Kamuli Town.
I would have felt that it was appropiate at this juction in time to have something positive to report associated with Aberdeen.
I am extremely proud of what has been successfully achieved by the TillyTravellers group and I wholeheartedly commend them for their achievements and offer my most gracious thanks to everyone in Tillydrone for all the support that has been given to myself and the project over these past years.
I thank Mr Lowe for pointing out my error and not wishing to offend anyone I have accordingly removed the City of Aberdeen Coat of Arms from this offending BLOGSITE.
(Rev) Jim Weir

Thursday 18th February 2010.
Left Kamuli today after lunch with the school governors, teachers and the town Mayor. As with all things, this ran over time. So we did not get into Kampala until late. Made contact about the safari and got our details. We leave at 06:30 hrs. Need bed now.
Kenneth.

Saturday 20th February 2010.
Back into Kampala after many miles traveled, but well worth it. The trip on the Victoria Nile up to the falls was amazing. I never could have imagined so many hippos along the same stretch of water. As for the Murchison Falls, they are spectacular from land or water. We even had some elephants cross the road in front of us. Today we managed to see some lions and more giraffes, one up close. Each day had over 5 hours driving on some of the better Ugandan roads, and more time in the park. Sore rear ends all round.
Kenneth.

16/02/2010

16/02/2010
Its been more than a week and we have been through so much.

We have had extensive dialogue with the staff at Bezallel, some members have made some wonderful contributions to the school including purchasing 120 mosquito nets, and spending over 5 million Ug Sh on textbooks and other teaching materials.

We have also had a very productive meeting with the Mayor of Kamuli Town to discuss the community twinning programme. We had a formal meeting on Monday and will be having an informal lunch with him on Thursday.

Most importantly we have spent lots of time with the kids and I have fallen completely in love with them.
Ross Grant

Tuesday 16 Feb 2010

When we first arrived in Entebbe and I went into my room I was a little shocked at the very basic room and bathroom. I went under my mosquito net I said to myself “what in the world am I doing?!”
Even though it has been a challenge with being away from home, the horrible beasties and NO RUNNING WATER!! Seeing the children at the school made all the bad things disappear as they are amazing, so enthusiastic and friendly. I have a new friend Hannah; she is 4 and has a laugh that is very contagious. There have been very sad moments but the group has bonded so well that we have laughed every day which had made a good balance in things.
I don’t think I have ever been so excited about a fan to keep me cool at night and a cold shower. We haven’t had running water for a few days so my hair has been disgusting and even when washed out of control (I miss my straightners ha ha) so when we have had running water we have been very excited.
Can’t believe how quickly you can get so filthy because of the dust and so tired I have become with the heat but I’m getting used to it now, another reason for being so excited about running water.
It has been cooler today and right now is raining but I don’t think this will last long.
Need to be up early(ish) so away to bed.

Robyn xxx

Monday 15th February 2010.

It has been a busy weekend. Saturday was the school shopping trip to Kampala, with the group leaving the hotel at 07:00. The party I was with on the hire taxi (14 seater mini bus) arrived back at 23:50). However the trip was successful for the school. The results of which was evident today when all the books were catalogued. Sunday was attending the church service, were I was invited to share the word (preach) and then onto Jinja to see the source of the River Nile. While there, those that had travelled from Grampian Fire Service started their journey home. Which they have made ok, as we received a message to let us know that they were back. We also had a good meeting with the Kamuli Town Mayor about the work with the school and possible moves forward.
Kenneth.

Monday 15th Feb. 2010
Hurrah
We finally had showers again today after threatening to move out of the hotel. It was sheer luxury to stand under a shower even if it was cold. I have not had to stand in a basin and wash since I was a child. The stories of how we managed are to become the stuff of legend, but I fear they may remain within the group.
We were in the school this morning again and seen the children receive their new text books. In the afternoon we had a very positive meeting with the Mayor of Kamuli and he is happy to accept and approved our plans for a twinning agreement between Tillydrone and Kamuli.This is exciting news for us.
Des has arrived safe and we were happy to see him safely here.
Bill and Elaine and Carol texted us from Amsterdam and they will be safe home by now.
In a few days time we will begin the move up Kampala and then we will begin to make our way home to Aberdeen. Thanks for looking in and please check again
JIM

Wednesday 10^th February 2010.

Well, after the long flight and drive, we arrived in Kamuli. The next day we visited the school and I was struck by the improvements that have been carried out since I was last here. The classroom are completed and being used, as is the new chicken coup, with 100 chickens providing eggs for the school. The kids are as full of life as always, but since school is in session, we are being swamped with attention. Today we have time with time with the nursery, P1 & P2 to show some DVD’s. The older classes did this yesterday afternoon.

Kenneth.

It has been really hot here and I for one am finding the going tough. It is 10:30 at night sitting in the hotel room. I got in at 9:30 and was hoping to be able to have nice cold shower, They don’t do hot showers in Kamuli, but the water is still off. It was off at 6am this morning and still has to come back on. Try washing, shaving and brushing your teeth with a small bottle of water and to top it all off, I had just soaped my face to shave and the power went off. There I was razor in one hand and torch in the other and a sink with a bottle of water.

It is great to see so many folks again but it is still so hard to see the state of this country. It really is heart breaking to see people living i mud huts right next to the hotel where we are staying. Our hotel; is very basic but what about them?. We are all fine but really tired. Three of our party return home to the UK tomorrow and one member, Des will join arrive and join up with us on Monday. We will try and get some updates done soon

jim

Thursday 11^th February 2010.

It is taking some time to get some internet access, so I am just creating these notes on a document to upload at some later point. Today we visited the HIV self support groups. It was as heart breaking and heart warming as I remembered and expected it to be. The groups still find it hard to continue to support themselves doing hand craft, since there is not a local demand for it and they have problems moving the goods to where they could sell it. The groups were smaller since many of the members of both had to travel to receive their treatment, or they would lose it. However the original group have set up a nursery and primary school to P5 to give those orphans that cannot go to school elsewhere some form of education.

Kenneth.

Friday 12^th February 2010.

Today has been a fairly quiet day, but it started off very warm for me. We picked up the 120 mosquito nets that the folks from the Grampian Fire Service had ordered for the school. I was in the back of the bus and they were packed in all around me. Surrounded by packed nylon netting in an already warm bus, why me? The nets were handed out after there had been a full school assembly. This was the first for the year, so the results for the election of the school prefects was announced, with the kids involved being sworn into office. Head teachers are as bad as Ministers about springing things on you; I was introduced to give the closing prayer of the assembly without any notice. Ah well, it was ok, I did not fluff any words. The rest of the day now is to relax, since our hoists are finding the hot oppressive.

Kenneth.