Farewell

I am leaving Africa tonight with an intense sense of accomplishment and a deeper understanding of the needs of our partner schools. Not unlike my other experiences here, the fire inside me is burning brighter and my passion renewed. Africa is a magical place and for me, very healing. I am profoundly grateful for the time I have spent here and the people I have been able to spend it with. I have always believed that everyone has something to offer if you take the time to listen, and I have come to learn that sometimes it's the people that have the least that end up having the most to offer. My hope is that my experiences here have sparked something inside of you and has inspired you to take action in whatever way you feel is right. It is too easy to become consumed by the luxuries that most of us enjoy and forget what truly matters in life - compassion for others.

My last experience in Uganda was my first time eating ensenene, or what we call grasshoppers. When it is the season for ensenene, they fry them up in buckets and eat them by the handful. In my opinion, they taste something like how fish food smells, I only tried one....

To be continued....

Final Day At St. Paul School

Before I left Nkokonjeru, Namatovu and Katamba took me to see the fishing port on the coast of Lake Victoria. It was early in the morning, but the port was bustling with fisherman. I met a family there who sent me off with two large tilapia and a bag full of sardines. I continue to be amazed by the generosity and graciousness of the people here. Even when they have practically nothing they manage to send all visitors off with a gift of some sort.

Once we returned to St. Paul to pack up and leave, the children erupted into song and dance as a farewell and thank you for my time spent there. It was a truly precious moment where I was able to sit back and absorb the invaluable impact we have had on these children's lives and their gratitude for supporting their education. 

When the students arrived on Thursday morning, I arranged to distribute the various gifts that the community members of Coyote Ridge Elementary had donated. Their excitement in receiving all of the generous gifts was so great it took awhile to calm them all down enough to capture this photo:

After that, I pulled a few students aside to interview them on camera and get their thoughts on the projects and new school the Mwebaza Foundation has founded. I quickly realized how difficult it was to get them to respond to my questions at all let alone expand on their thoughts. This was a completely different experience than the one I had interviewing the students in Colorado for our first documentary video. From what I've experienced, the nature of children in the U.S. versus the character of children in Africa pose a striking difference. The children of Africa are completely comfortable singing and dancing for anyone that will watch, however I have found great difficulty in getting them to speak about their thoughts or feelings. Conversely, children in the U.S. are incredibly reserved when they are asked to perform, yet if you ask them what they are thinking you will have a hard time getting them to stop! Fortunately, I was able to interview a few parents of St. Paul students as well and they were able to expand on many of the points the students had brought up. 

That afternoon, I met with the newly hired maintenance workers that will be overseeing each project implemented at St. Paul. Identically to the way I have arranged things at Mwebaza School, the maintenance workers at St. Paul will be expected to fill out a daily questionnaire of what was accomplished that day. This will help us monitor the success and progress of each program. Below are pictures of the maintenance workers I met with.    

St. Paul Cook

Orchard and Garden Attendant 

Piggery Maintenance Worker

Once we reviewed the charts, I gathered a team to help me fence the orchard saplings that have been damaged due to neighboring cows and goats that graze in the area.

Newly Fenced Orange Tree Sapling 

Student Scholarship Interviews

My second day at St. Paul was consumed with scholarship interviews. Similarly to Mwebaza School, St. Paul has been allowing many students to attend school for free,which has made it difficult for the school to afford teacher salaries and other school expenses. Therefore, the scholarship applicants we were interviewing were already St. Paul students. Although now, through the scholarship program, the school will be receiving funds for 8 students who have been coming to school for free. Below are pictures of the eight students with their guardians that have received a full-ride scholarship for one year's tuition.

 

 

Penpal Letters at St. Paul

Today was my first official day at St. Paul School and it was jam-packed with pen pal activities. School is supposed to start at 8am, but as it approached 9 students were still trickling in. This is how life is in the village since students have a variety of chores to complete at home every morning before they walk to school. I either subconsciously knew this, or the "African way" has been rubbing off on me, because I took my sweet time this morning enjoying a cup of local coffee and taking a bucket shower behind a wall of thick bushes - although not apparently thick enough because I still caught young children staring at me through the bushes watching be bathe. All I could do was wave, and once they saw me notice them, they giggled, waved back, and ran away. 

Once everyone (at least almost everyone) had arrived, we began to distribute the pen pal letters written by the students at St. Paul's partner school, Coyote Ridge Elementary. For more information regarding this partnership, please click here.

Students receiving their pen pal letters

After we assisted the students in reading their letters, we began instructing them to write their own. At St. Paul, the student's English proficiency level is much lower than that of the students at Mwebaza, so they needed much more assistance with composing their letters. Nonetheless, each student diligently wrote out their letters in their best English and nicest handwriting. 

One by one as they had finished writing their letters, I took them outside to take their pictures that will be attached to their letters and delivered to the students of Coyote Ridge. 

Namatovu and I traveled back into Kampala this afternoon to get the pictures printed so tomorrow the teachers can organize each picture and attach them to each respective student's letter. As we drove closer and closer into town, more and more people kept staring. I realized this is not only because I am a "mzungu" (white person), but because Namatovu is a lady and she was driving! We must have been quite an odd pair driving alone through town, although it gave me strong sense of satisfaction, knowing she was breaking down gender barriers just by learning how to drive! 

Arrival at St. Paul School

 Yesterday's attempt to find internet in Nkokonjeru, the town nearest St. Paul School, was futile. Even though I have a transportable internet modem that uses a very popular cell phone carrier’s network, there was not enough service to actually use the internet.
We arrived at St. Paul School yesterday afternoon and most of the children had already returned home. As we approached the school I could see the red roof of the new school poking out through the treetops. Then the trees and bushes parted and I laid my eyes on the incredible transformation that has become of St. Paul School! The new school building towers over the old school structure that is still where the students are taking classes until the roof of the new school is completed. The students will begin to use the new school even though it is lacking window and doors. Of course, we had budgeted for windows and doors, but the costs of construction exceeded our expectations, so the installation of windows and doors will have to wait until we can afford to do so.

St. Paul School Compound

In front of the new school (behind the old school) is a field full of leafy green vegetables that the school is growing for student lunches. And above the garden are five EnviroLoo toilets, which are in fact the first EnviroLoo toilets to be installed in all of Uganda! These toilets are waterless and waste-composting. For more information on EnviroLoo, please click here. Attached to the bathroom structure is a 500-liter water tank that is connected to a double spouted hand washing station.

EnviroLoo Bathroom Building

Hand Washing Station

New School Building (not quite finished)

Old School Structure 

Yesterday morning I packed up all the amazing beaded jewelry Caro made, said goodbye to my family in Gulu and departed for Kampala. I had originally planned to stay in Gulu until today but because there was still so much to accomplish at Mwebaza School before I leave for St. Paul School tomorrow, I had to leave a day early.

Today I met the newly hired maintenance workers that will be overseeing all of the ongoing projects at Mwebaza School. Samuel Lubega, Namatovu's brother, has been overseeing all of the projects at Mwebaza School so far, but on top of his job in Kampala it had become too much work for one man. So we hired a local man to oversee and maintain the egg-layer chicken program and a local lady to oversee the garden and orchard. Today, Lubega and I reviewed and explained the duties that each one will be expected to fulfill on a daily basis.

           

After we explained their duties to them, we worked as a team to fence each individual tree in the orchard. We have lost some trees since the initiation of the orchard program due to goats and cows grazing in the orchard and eating the saplings. These fences will protect the remaining trees from any further damage. 

While we were fencing the trees I made a VERY little friend! 

In most of Africa, electricity is a luxury that no one can rely on and many live completely off the grid, with only kerosine lamps to illuminate the darkness of night. Night before last, I barely published my blog post before my computer died. I tried to charge my computer at a local school yesterday, but there was no power. Today I'm writing to you from a very westernized coffee shop in Gulu Town that is running off an incredibly loud generator.
Yesterday was wonderful, full of adventure and good people. Mama Paula had arranged for me to visit two schools on the outskirts of town that have just started up to serve the children of each village. I am always open to visit any school that may become a partner school down the road!
The first school I visited is called Pentecostal Parent/Junior School and has only been open a few months. It is deep in the village and it took a half an hour motorcycle taxi ride along small muddy bike paths through grass taller than me to get there.

The land that the school is on was originally only a church, but the community begged the land owner to start a school because there was no school in the area, and their children were not being educated. Currently, the school is serving only baby and middle class (preschool and kindergarten), but they would like to expand to create a daycare and primary school. I met the land owner, two of the school board members, and many community members that came out to greet me. It is clear that this school has some work to do, maybe one day we could assist them!

Middle Class 

Left: Land Owner, Komakech Charles  (Board Member), Kilama Hillary (Board Member)

The second school I visited was called Oitino Royal Nursery and Primary School. It was very remote, but not as difficult to get to. This school is operating a full nursery program (baby, middle, and top class) and primary classes 1-3. There are 6 teachers and currently 66 children. This school was also built on the request of the community and the community helped construct the solid brick classrooms! I was very impressed with their Village Savings and Loan Association program that the school started to help the parents, so they can afford school fees. Community members invest any little excess money they may have, and that money is given to others in the community as a loan, then the interest is split among the people who invested. It seems to be a very successful program. The school also provides breakfast and lunch for the children and has a large garden on the property to do so. It seems like this school is already doing very well, but there are always ways to help improve.

Oitino Royal Nursery and Primary School 

Left: Mama Paula, Me, Reverend Robert (School Director), Head Teacher Jennifer, Staff

This morning I woke up while it was still dark and prepared myself for what was supposed to be a 6 hour bus ride north to Gulu, the land of the Acholi. However, as soon as we reached the outskirts of Kampala, the bus broke down and my 6 hour trip turned into 9.
My first trip to Uganda, and Africa at large, was through a study abroad program based in Gulu. I stayed with the same homestay family for one month and I grew very close to them. My homestay mother is an angel on earth. She is always giggling and smiling, even at her old age while she strains to take care of her three young grandchildren whose parents (her children) have died. She only has two living children now of the 8 she bore, a son, Noel, who you may remember me mentioning in past blog posts as our solar panel contact here in Uganda, and Caroline, a daughter, who is my age (24), but already is raising two children of her own. Every time I'm in Uganda, I always have to take a few days to visit Gulu. Last year when I was here, Caro was eight months pregnant with a baby girl. She confided in me that life at home with her husband is bad, he verbally and physically abuses her and she often goes to bed hungry and can feel the baby tossing in her stomach. This broke my heart, and we cried on each others shoulders in a hot and crowded hospital room waiting to see a doctor, along with 10s of other pregnant women.
I knew I needed to help her, and I knew she could make amazing paper beaded jewelry. I told her that I could front her the money to buy supplies and if she could make a couple hundred necklaces, I would buy them from her at a good price and sell them in Colorado at our Mwebaza fundraisers. She eagerly accepted the chance to make her own money and not be dependent on her husband, who spends most of the families money on alcohol. When I returned today, she was just finishing up the last of the beaded necklaces. She had made over 400 pieces from scratch! And the detail and artistic design of each piece was amazing, like nothing I'd ever seen being sold in any market in Africa before! I am falling asleep tonight with a happy heart, knowing that I have played a part, no matter how small, in empowering someone so dear to me who has endured so much suffering.

2013
Noel
Mama Paula, Caro
Joann, Joshua, Gabrielle, Samuel (Caro's first born)

Caro with all her amazing beaded jewelry 

         

Caro and her two children, Samuel and Ruth.

                                                         

Interviews on Interviews!

Today we completed the scholarship interviews and selected the lucky eight applicants that will be receiving a full ride scholarship to Mwebaza School for one year! As I mentioned in a previous post, the students we interviewed are already attending Mwebaza School but cannot afford the school tuition, so they have been attending school free of charge. This has made it difficult for the administration to pay for teacher salaries and general fees required to run a school. The money that these eight scholarships provide will help the school pay for these costs. It also made it easier to decide who will be receiving the scholarships, since the students who did not receive a scholarship will still be able to attend school as they have been. The great thing about awarding scholarships, even though many students have been attending Mwebaza for free, is that it promotes the importance of education within the community.

 

The rest of my day was filled with video interviews of students and parents in the community. I asked them to speak to the benefits they have seen come from the work the Mwebaza Foundation has done. I was impressed to learn that many students have taken the skills they have learned at school in the gardens and with the chickens and implemented them at home! The picture below is of a small garden that a Mwebaza student has started at his grandmother's house where he lives. Keep an eye out on the Mwebaza website for the final video with all my interview footage!

As the events of yesterday wound down to an end, all the teachers agreed that there should be no school today, so there wasn't any school today! Everyone was moving slow this morning, so Namatovu, Katamba and I sat down for a late breakfast and discussed the requirements for their USA visa applications! We have flown Namatovu out to Colorado before and would like to fly both of them out next year if everything goes according to plan. Any time we talk about coming to Colorado, both their faces just light up with excitement! A trip like this would not only benefit Namatouv and Katamba, but would educate and inspire the communities we work with in Colorado too!
This afternoon, Namatouv, Katamba, and I met up with a friend of mine, Noel, who has become our contact for everything solar here. He is a local technician, so when I told him we would be installing solar arrays at each new school he volunteered to help us in any way he could. He ended up finding us a great company, Ital Trading Ltd, that can install the system as designed by our Colorado solar contact, John Tembrock. Today we met at the Ital offices in Kampala. We reviewed the solar quote and I purchased a few key solar items with a $4,500 USD grant the Mwebaza Foundation received earlier this year. There is still much more to purchase before we can install the entire solar array, so the owner of Ital offered to store the items for us until we are ready for installation. So considerate of him!
I'm so glad to know we are working with a reliable company from start to finish. I was a little concerned when Namatovu and Katamba said that usually when you buy solar power parts here in Uganda they will throw in an additional flat screen TV or something. I don't know how that all works. I guess it's a secret of bargaining I don't know, but when we entered the Ital office and the owner sat us down, offered us coffee, and reviewed the quote and design for us, neither of them seemed to mind that there was no flat screen wrapped in the deal.

Sports Day

Today I woke up and it was raining! This delayed the school march through town by an hour. However, I'm not actually sure if it was the rain that delayed things or if this is just another example of everything running on "Africa time." We marched from Mwebaza School to the field where Sports Day was held. But when I say march, it wasn't just the school marching through town... there was an entire marching band leading the way! I will say it wasn't the safest of events with motorcycle taxis passing by on either side of kindergartners, BUT more dangerous things have happened.

Once we arrived at the field for Sports Day, the students divided up into their respective teams: the Cranes (Uganda's National Bird), the Doves, and the Eagles (of course I was an Eagle). The morning was filled with different activities from relay races to balancing bottles on their heads. In the end, the Doves won and were awarded a goat!

After Sports Day we returned to Mwebaza School for an afternoon full of dance performances put on by the students. They also asked me to give an impromptu speech to the parents and community members that were there. I got up on stage, but before I could begin speaking they had wrapped a goat skin around my waist and asked me to dance for them! I grabbed a few students and staff and tried to imitate how they move their waists as the parents were hooting and hollering. After that, I was able to speak to the community on behalf of the Mwebaza Foundation. I know that the administration of Mwebaza School struggle to get the parents to support their children's education at times, so I focused my speech on the importance of consistent education.

Today was also graduation day for Top Class (Kindergarten). After they dressed me in a graduation gown, I was instructed to pose with every parent and graduate for a picture. After pictures, it was time to enjoy a very rare treat - cake time!