15 February 2010

A Good Year in Country


Pauline Muto, Valentino and Pauline in our compound. Thanks amber for a great snap!


I was the timekeeper at this Teacher Trainers workshop in January.
An ineffective one....It really is difficult to stay on schedule here. Maybe close to impossible. I'll admit i was one of the stragglers during our morning/afternoon tea breaks. It was hot in that room.


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I was happy to give a tour of kampala to the newest group of volunteers in country. It was a re-freshing day and fun to see uganda from new,excited eyes. It made me smile and get a nice happy feeling to answer their volley of questions and watch their eager interactions with Ugandans.

The lifeskills program at the university is going well. I'm teaching secondary teachers and counsellors. They are young and old, male and female, nuns and priests, non-religious and from all over east africa. Its a great classroom dynamic and they really challenge me to be a better teacher and communicator. The class takes 11 weeks to complete and there are 4 classes total.

Im starting to teach P.E. to the P1s and P2s at St.Theresa. There are so many of them! How do P.E. teachers do it?! My hat goes off to you. I'm going to try and teach the older girls (P5,6 &7) how to play frisbee. I've been playing a lot here and the Ugandans i've taught really seem to enjoy it. I've heard there's a program that donates frisbees so i'm going to check into that and see how many i can get for the schools.

My guitar class is going well. Its every tuesday with a brother and father at my church. We're learning some easter music and i'm kinda nervous to play in public! yikes. When i get nervous my hands start shaking and i can't hardly play at all. uh-oh. We'll see how the service goes~

I've been teaching Valentino and Pauline to say "Codi" when they come in my house. Cause they started walking in at all times, quietly sneaking into my bedroom scaring me half to death. Its a swahili greeting. And the response is "Karibu." Which means "welcome." I've also been telling him to cover his mouth when he sneezes, coughs or yawns. And the other day i didnt cover my mouth while yawning and he called me out on it. In Luganda. He's 5.

3 comments:

  1. ahh Celeste. Its incredible how blessed we all are in our family. We all have set goals, dreamt dreams, loved love, and we have done it all. Everything we have set out to do and we have done it. I miss you so much, but I know you have people over there that are taking care of you while I cannot. Its already been a year almost! Isn't that crazy! Celeste! Applause to you! One more year and again I will be writing to you! You are growing in Africa. Africa is growing with you. The sun is starting to come out in Texas and warm everything. I love you so much. did you know that?

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  2. HAPPY VALENTINES! a uno de mis corazones~
    what a nice 'job' to have, being a guide to the new valentiners. i am sure it took quite a bit of planning to make sure many things are covered in a short period of time, but what joy to live it! It is your '40 days in the desert', stepping out of your normal routine, 'fasting' from the comfort of routines. It seems like your lifeskills class is doing the same, and don't we love challenges! ;)
    ms. arista! you slid in -guitar class- YAY!!
    when did you start? sounds like a great idea and i bet they love having you in their singing group! Learn Pan de Vida! and all of you get on youtube. You can thank your brother Stefan for that~ he created a youtuber...
    FRISBEE!!! may be the only sport i can follow.
    and possibly play. Let me know if i can help with getting some frisbees for the students. I know your time on the internet is short and infrequent.
    well, got to go...here in this 'on time' piece of the earth, off to work!
    and, in agreemnt with Stefan, yes, our family is blessed! spread it around~joyfully!
    te amo, con carino, be good

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