The Babies' Home!

On Friday I went to “the Babies Home,” aka an orphanage/school. Surprisingly, it was better than I had feared, but I was still surprised at some of the things I saw. There were 13 orphans there under the age of 3. We got there early in the morning, so we could help them to bathe and dress the babies, and then we just got to play with them for a while. The babies were darling. But once they are dressed in the morning, the pretty much spend the rest of the day in this nearly-empty room that has just two mats on the otherwise concrete floor. The women who run the orphanage are busy cooking and cleaning, and don’t get to spend much time with them. When its time to eat, all the babies who are able, hold their own sippy cup and are given porridge (cheaper than milk). In the past they’ve even been given raw eggs! (we’ve talked with them about that). I became especially attached to little Grace, who caught my eye right away. She loved to be held and cried every time you’d try to put her down. My heart went out to these little ones who receive little stimulation day in and day out, and simply lay on the floor for hours. We are so blessed. Maybe little Grace can come home with me… :)

Little Grace

Paul

Babies on the floor for hours

Darling baby

Trip to Jinja...Take 2!

Jinja is the city we went rafting in last weekend. This weekend there was district conference in Jinja, so we decided to go a day early and do a little more shopping and touring. We left late morning on Saturday, and went to eat at the Source Café again when we arrived. I had a real legit hamburger, and it was so good! I loved it. After shopping for a bit, we took bodas (motorcycles) down to the source of the Nile. They took us on a boat to where we saw the water that comes up from underground and creates the Nile River where it meets Lake Victoria. It takes 3 months for that water to travel up to Egypt. It was actually one of the coolest things I’ve done/seen so far.

That night we stayed at the same hostile we were at last weekend. While we were there our country director got in touch with the mission president. Apparently he had talked with her about organizing the first-ever youth conference in Uganda. He invited her over to discuss it, and I invited myself to tag along J. When we showed up, it turned out to be a huge dinner for all the leadership in the district. We were very underdressed, but were fed a delicious African meal and I got a chance to meet President Jackson-the mission President. I started to miss being a missionary so much I was ready to make a nametag and start contacting.

The next day we went early to help set up chairs for the conference. A choir of primary children sang the prelude music, and it was so touching it brought tears to my eyes. I was reminded of the truthfulness of the gospel in every corner of the world. I loved listening to the children sing “I am a Child of God” and “Book of Mormon Stories” complete with actions. Also while we waited for the meeting to begin, I pulled out my Ensign to read. Two little boys came and sat next to me. I pointed out pictures to them of the Prophet, Temples, and Scriptures. They loved that Ensign, and it must have entertained them for at least 30 minutes just looking at the pictures. I wondered how many books they’ve seen in their lives. They were darling.

Our weekend was complete when after the conference we watched two LDS weddings, and the opening of a mission call. It doesn’t get much better than that!

The ride home wasn’t quite as wonderful as I was squished in a car with too many people and a man with a live chicken sitting next to me… but overall, it was well worth the weekend!

Sarah and I at the source of the Nile

I'm so excited to be on the Nile

The cute boys who read the Ensign with me

I love the almost-American food in Jinja

Literacy Class!

Sarah and I have also decided to start teaching English classes down at the LDS church. They are open to the public, 3 days a week. The idea for the class started when a woman approached me after church after hearing that I was a teacher. She asked if I could help her learn to read (my favorite thing!). With some more asking around, we found that many people have a desire to improve their English skills. On our first day, we weren’t expecting many people, so we stood on the street for the first 20 minutes or so and just recruited people. We got about 20 people that first day to walk off the street and into class, plus a few members and investigators (If only missionary work was that easy!). I put together a phonics assessment, and learned that most people (minus the girl who had talked to me) were fairly proficient readers, but their speaking abilities have room for improvement. We’ve developed a class that incorporates some phonics skills, but mostly focuses on vocabulary, accents, and common communication topics. In talking with the elders in the area, they’ve agreed to take on the classes after we leave, so that they can continue to benefit the people in the area.

This is a short clip of me teaching class one day….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFphZKnLz3M

The Science Project-Pilot Seminar!

This last Wednesday we did our pilot session for the big upcoming teacher trainings. We did our all day (8-5) training with a small group of about 16 teachers, plus a couple of the CCTs and school inspectors. SUCCESS!

The day started out a little frustrating, since on African time 8am really equals 9:30am. So we started much later than planned, but it ended up working out really well because I think we might have run out of information had we not. Sarah and I each did 3 trainings. I taught about higher-order thinking, teaching methods, and assessment. We also had 2 break-out sessions where the teachers rotated to different science experiments we had set up. Part of the goal of the training was to show teachers that you can use local, inexpensive materials to teach science. As we’ve observed in schools around Mbale, we’ve seen that teachers typically teach by lecturing at the board and having students copy. They often say it is because they don’t have the funds for supplies. The teachers seemed to love all that we did, and had great comments and questions. There was some sort of mix-up with the people that the district hired to serve lunch, so we had a lot of downtime waiting for lunch to show up. I asked the teachers if they’d like just a break to relax and chat or if they wanted to keep going while we waited. They all voted to keep going, and asked all sorts of questions. “How do you manage difficult children?” “What do you do for lower learners?” “In America, are your disabled students completely inclusive?” Sarah and I hadn’t planned to talk about any of these topics, but we just went at it. For a while my notes all went out the window, and we shared ideas and struggles and it turned into a great meeting. They really seemed to treat us as professionals and took copious notes. Overall, the day went well and with just a few slight modifications, we will begin the actual seminars this upcoming Tuesday.

Our First Vacation!

Last weekend we took our first vacation day and headed to Jinja. Its about two hours away and is quite the tourist town. We left Friday morning and ate lunch when we got there at this place called “The Source” café. Jinja is where the source of the Nile is, so lots of things are named after it. The food was DIVINE. It was really Americanized, because there are Mzungus everywhere in Jinja! I had a milkshake, and it actually tasted like one! We all loved it. We spent the rest of the day shopping, though I think we only covered about 2 blocks. We were so excited and interested in all the little souvenirs…we definitely looked like tourists J. I felt like I got a ton of things, but only spent probably $50 US. After our shopping excursion we headed to the hostile we were staying at for the night. It, too, was the most Americanized place I’ve seen since I’ve been here (its run by mostly Australians). Our room was really nice, and we had a great dinner there (I ate a B.L.A.T.- bacon, lettuce, avacado and tomato-mmm!) After hanging out in the lounge for awhie, it was time to call it a night.

The next day began very nervously. We were going to raft the Nile river. I’ve never been river rafting before, and really didn’t know what to expect. In fact, it had taken some talking-into to get myself there. I mean, lets be honest: parasites, crocodiles, drowning…all legit fears. It made me feel a touch better to hear that no one had died since this company we went with starting rafting. Okay, I said, so maybe I’ll be scared out of my mind but at least HELP won’t have to send my body back! That morning they gave us a breakfast of Rolex (like a breakfast burrito) and fruit, and we headed off in our life jackets and helmets.

The part of the Nile we were rafting was about 30 minutes away. When we got there we divided into groups. I went with my friend Sarah, and Andy, Remmick, and Kate. We hopped into a raft and met our guide, Alex (although he jokingly told us for the first 20 minutes that his name was Mzungu.) He had us start in still water and we practiced things like emergency procedures and listening to his voice commands. Then it was time to go and meet my potential death. (Does anyone think I sound like Caryn when I talk like that?)

The first rapid we came to was a Class 5. That’s about as big as they go, but I was surprised because I had expected bigger. We were the last raft to do it, and we watched two others tip over before we went. Great, I thought, why don’t I just get out and swim now J. So we headed over the rapid and somehow came out of it and were still in the raft! It was a miracle! We were definitely celebrating. The next rapid, Class 3, came soon after and we man-handled that one too. After that, we had a long stretch of still water. Alex gave us a break from paddling, and would paddle the whole thing himself. We had water fights with the other rafts and made our own raft cheer. I think we thought we were pretty cool.

When we met rapid number 3, I was feeling pretty confident and ready. But, as is typical when you get cocky, we were humbled and tipped the raft. For a minute I was caught under it, but Alex called out to see if anyone was there, and he had that thing flipped and me back in it in record timing. Andy was near me too, but the other three had drifted off somewhere and were eventually brought to us. One of the things that made me feel the safest were these tough guys in rescue kayaks all around us. They would hit the rapids before us and pick up anyone who had fallen out. We’ll hear more about them later. :)

I remember thinking before the next rapid, “Heavenly Father, I would really feel loved right now if maybe we didn’t flip on the next one.” And I know I’m loved because we didn’t! I was feeling pretty good again and in the next section of still water they had crackers and fresh pineapple for us, and we had time to reapply the sunblock (although apparently that was pointless because even though I put sunblock on 4 times, my legs still got burned). On the next rapid we flipped again but I came up in open water instead of under the raft, so I was feeling great! But when Alex saw me he said, “Actually! (he always called me that) RELAX!” Then a kayak came and brought me to the raft. Alex told me, “I watched your face just before we flipped, and you looked terrified!” The phrase, “Actually, relax” became a catch-phrase for the rest of the day.

Well if you’re still reading this terribly long entry, the rest of the rapids were a blast and there was no more flipping. After the last one I got out and decided to swim to shore, and I couldn’t believe I was actually in the Nile. The whole time the scenery was beautiful. Occasionally we would see villagers coming down to the river to get water to cook or bathe with. I pondered about the differences in our lives as I looked into the water and it was so brown you couldn’t see any depth of it. But this was their only water source. In fact, Alex told us we were lucky to get to raft, because in the coming years the whole Nile will be shut down and damned so that the water can be used for electricity. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I was glad I got to go.

Serious about rafting

I don't want to die