Today the school grounds were buzzing with people preparing for tomorrow's long-awaited Sports Day. The children have been preparing for this event for weeks! On top of the children's athletic competition, we will also be inviting the parents to school for a large celebration and dance performance put on by the students. I can't wait!
Today I continued interviewing students for the scholarship program. The hardest part of this project is not the time it's taken to interview the students, but realizing that we will soon have to make our decision to award only 8 students with a scholarship when all of them are deserving. The interview process has gotten faster as we've figured out a way to divide the tasks. I have been working with Namatovu to interview the students while the other members of the interview committee have been interviewing their guardians. I would ask the questions to the students and Namatovu would translate. I had to laugh when the students would be talking for at least 30 seconds and Namatovu would look up at me and say, "She said yes", or "He said no.". I can only imagine what gets lost in translation!
Part of the student interview is observing them complete an origami craft of their choice. Once the word got out that I have an art project, I was surrounded with students who wanted to make something. I spent the evening teaching these kids how to make everything from a box to a paper frog!
I also finally took a picture of my little shadow that has been following me around from Day 1. He is not a student, and I 'm not even sure where he comes from, but every morning when I get to school he is by my side within minutes. He doesn't say anything... he just watches. At first I was tripping over him, but now I catch myself lowering my hand for him to hold as we walk around the school compound.