Posho and Beans

I have decided that my new favorite food is posho and beans...it's like grits...but dry grits in a clump with pinto like beans. yeah it sounds gross, but it's really good. well, and i'm really hungry, so that helps. but still it's good. i might get tired of it soon though because we will be having it everyday at school. but i still have dreams about it at night. that may be doxycylene's fault though.



they aren't lying about doxy...CRAZY dreams. and i keep waking up thinking I'm at my bed at the AOII house. I guess because that was my favorite bed ever. and I miss me some alpha loving pis. alpha love to all. I rocked some semi-formal shirt from the redbirds stadium...you know...we came , we scored, we made it home..haha. everyone likes it. except they call it AOT-T. don't worry beck and whitney...don't worry yet at least. tee hee meghan.



So, the kids here have made a song out of Mzungu how are you! I'll sing it for you when I come home. And I'll have it on tape. They are so funny. I taught them Patty cake yesterday. They can't say the words but they like slapping my hands and rolling and throwing them in the pan. boo and chuckie...that was your favorite when you were little too.



And thanks to everyone who let me know about Eli...which I think might have been everyone..YAY!!! I am so excited!



Yesterday, we got up early and went to the Children's Village where Musuna and I will be teaching. It's about 30 minutes from our house by car. And the roads are ROUGH. all mud and big potholes. The children were beautiful. But I think they are scared of us. They are very shy...until you bring out a camera and take their picture. Then they go insane! I think it might be their favorite and my favorite thing in the whole world is to hear them laugh when they see themselves on film. Most people do not have mirrors...much less cameras, so they don't know what they look like so it really funny to them when they see it in the camera playback.



The children's village is not exactly what I expected. Once it is finished it will be incredible, but now there is only one permanent classroom and it still is without a door and proper lighting. The other classrooms (of which there are 2) are made of sticks and leaves. They sit 4 to a desk. I have pictures to describe this later. But they are so happy to learn it doesn't matter. Yesterday we gave them pencils, toothbrushes, and toothpaste and they were so grateful. They have nothing. Most live in huts made of mud and sticks and plantain leaves. They walk a long way everyday to attend school and never complain. Americans should be more appreciative of what they have. We have everything. Even the "at-risk" kids that I worked with in Austin have everything by Uganda standards...but still nothing by American standards. It's ridiculous.



The first aid room is definitely in need of repair. All the supplies are locked in a cabinet that the key has been lost too, so right now we having nothing but what I bought. Hopefully that will change soon. I have to buy some more supplies today. Many of the children have a fungus on their heads from sleeping on the ground. It's easily treated with an anti-fungal...just not affordable for them...but only $1 or $2 US dollars here. Very cheap.



After we got back from the Children's village we came back to the house and re-organized our room and then I went to chat with Gertrude, our cook and housekeeper. She asked me to teach her some gospel songs. She is a very good singer. She wants to be a professional singer, but there is not much hope for her here. A man took her in and paid for her education up until P7 (7th grade) because he took interest in her music, but then he was found to be corrupt and stopped paying for her education. She wants to go back to school so she can major in music at the university. But first she has to finish high school. Her school fees are less than $90 a semester I think maybe we can do something about that but I didn't say anything to her about it. I have learned that Americans make a lot of promises here and never follow through, intentionally or not. So I won't make any promises...just follow through.

Anyway...I taught Gertrude all the verses to Amazing Grace, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, and Jesus Loves Me. We were having trouble with one part of turn your eyes...so I wrote the music our for her so she could see where to sing high, low, or stay on the same note. She had never seen music before. So I have begun daily music lessons with her. Yesterday we learned the celf symbols, notes, time signatures, and how to draw and staff. Today we will learn the notes on a staff. I wish that I had staff paper because I am drawing it on notebook paper now. But it still works. She is teaching me Lugandan in return. Did I mention that I love it here? (p.s. britta-church) =)

Our friend Ivan, who is also part of the hired help for our house took us into town last night to try the internet but it was all out. Ivan is GREAT! He is twelve and very smart. He is our bodygaurd most of the time. He takes us everywhere in town and the village. Sometimes his friend Bugunda Guma joins us. We are going to buy them a soccer ball because that's what they want more than anything. Everytime Ivan takes us some where Musuna and I buy him a treat like a Coke or a potato chips (called crispies here). This is a luxury for him. Everytime we see Ivan we say Ivan OoooooK! because he says ok in the sweetest accent. On our way back to the house we bought roasted chicken and what I thought was beef...WRONG...it was liver..or undetermined origin...YUCK! Ivan ate it for me! We also bought roasted corn and I put butter spread on it when we got back (p.s. the butter here does not have to be refrigerated because it never melts...a little scary). Doreen had never had corn with butter...she will never have it without again. The power went out last night because it is very spotty here..so we had dinner by oil lamp. It was still great.

I love Uganda
Peace and love!