Two weeks and international woman's day.

So I may have been quiet but with good reason. On the not so great side I had malaria, recovered from malaria then been repeatedly diagnosed with bacterial infection after bacterial infection. Doctors here are so different, for one they are not free. After that you have a full blood test and wait for the results - meaning you actually find out what you have, which is pretty helpful.

We had an epic weekend off. We went to the source of Nile and paddled up to the sign. The shops were even in the river. We then experience Uganda clubbing which to be honest is pretty similar to the uk. But what happened in the weekend is I fell in live with Jinja, it's such a friendly and amazing place.

Now we are back and back to work. Ella and joe taught STIs to the you group, but school has exams, yesterday we litter picked around Busembatia. But today was by far the best we went to international women's day celebrations at Women in Leadership Uganda.

Women in leadership was set up by Cianne who was a team leader last year. She funds it by herself to run adult literacy and buisiness classes for adults, as well as lots of empowerment classes for girl in school. It is so inspiring to see what one woman's vision can produce and change. The sad but is NGOs like restless development have way more funding but a re doing similar work. As she is not registered as an NGO she does not despite truly changing lives.

The thing about women's international day is that here gender equality is a whole new ball game. I know we joke about kitchens, sandwiches and not having opportunities at home, but here women do collect the water, wash, clean, cook etc etc. that is just part of accepted life. Maybe we joke about football being a boys game at home, but here people did not believe that a girl could run a football tournament or be a football fan. Some babies here have bands round their waist to make it smaller. But some of the issues are the same, domestic abuse, rape, marriage. The there are things that we haven't got right yet. Women here know what they want and an LC1 at an event today was a woman, and women know what they want and are determined to get it. Maybe we have that in the UK but I truly believe with funding and support charities like Women in leadership could change the world.

But it has also taught me that what they need is a partnership organisation for the sensitisation of boys, because today it was obvious it will take work in both sides to break down the cultural norms.

But as a farewell on international women's day, women everywhere deserve equality, in how they are treated, what they do and what they dream of. Maybe that is a pretty good inspiration to know when we start this second half.