Sunday Night

St. Theresa from a neighboring hill
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This past week was kinda busy. In between life skills classes and the rain were meetings, p.e. class, english class, guitar, going to the market for food, washing clothes, lesson planning and cleaning house.

How the day can be so long sometimes shocks me awake. When our lives are so short. Its like a mini-miracle. Hehe, is there such a thing as a mini-miracle matre? prolly not. The joy of more time. As a time conscious american i'm happy when there's more time. Then bored when its too much time. But these days, here in uganda, there's just time.

-time to sit and drink tea
-time for NGO's to develop
-time for backpedaling development
-time for workshops
-time for cultural exchange
-time for personal reflection
-time to wait in traffic
-time to wash clothes by hand
-time to greet every person you pass on the way to work

I like the feeling of this open time, I don't think i had it before. Especially since i was in school. My entire days were blocked.
Mornings: School
Afternoons: Work
Evenings: Homework
That's definitely still true for Ugandan students, but i wouldn't say the same about most adults in the semi-village area i live in. An example: if it rains in the morning, it means it's time for them to plant and not go to work. I know the same is true for me as a volunteer. My work centers around everyone else and no one i know has a definite schedule. I'm starting to like that.

How do you think you would feel coming from american time to ugandan time? I struggled. I'm struggling. But i'm feeling so much better these days. I think cause it feels like home now.

Rainy Season

Rain on the tin roof woke me up around 5 this morning. Figured it was a nice time to read and make rice atole. Besides, the bug noises were bothering me and i kinda wanted to see which irritating and possibly gross insect was flying around my room. Never found it.

Walking down the road to the bus stop i met a teacher from a nearby primary school. As we maneuvered our way around the mud and puddles he told me that the rain was disturbing them because the day scholars don't go to school when it rains.("Disturbing" here refers to anything/anyone that causes problems or is a source of irritation)And since most of them are day scholars at this primary school, there were hardly any students at all. Teachers don't have time to repeat the lesson, so when the rains do stop and the students come back to school, they are potentially missing a whole rainy season's worth of information!

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.

Finally Rained!

Its been hot hot and hotter than hot. And it finally rained this morning! As i was on my morning walk. Of course.

It was really nice, i haven't walked in the rain(without an umbrella)in a long time.

:)