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!