A Video of Nansana, created by Melissa Cochran

Here's a video that Melissa made last year. Take a look, and a step towards getting to know the kids.

Ceremonies and Goat Roasts

Well, this past Wednesday was definitely one of the most exciting days of my stay here in Uganda. The official opening ceremony of Extreme College Namayumba lasted for about seven hours. Seven hot, hot, hours. Save for the heat, it was a beautiful day for a ceremony. Three other schools, Bananywa Primary School, Royal Academy, and Jolly Child School attended the opening to show their support for Extreme College. Each school performed multiple songs, dances, and short plays. Seggawa, Job, Joshua and all the others in charge even hired a marching band from Kampala to play during throughout the day!

There were also a number of speeches given by Joshua (the headmaster of Extreme), Dorothy, Seggawa, the chairman of the PTA, the Secretary General of the National Council for Children, and a few others who's names I can't quite remember. The speeches were lovely, as were the plays. My favorite performances however, were the songs. The kids from Extreme have beautiful voices, and love singing. They got so into it! Dan and Brassio were especially talented, and were belting it out and getting their groove on in the first and second rows.

After the hours and hours of speeches, dances, marches, and songs, the ribbon was finally cut at the school was pronounced officially open. Finally the kids were able to relax a little, hang out, and have some fun. They had been working until past midnight the night before finishing up the school building, and clearly deserved some R&R. We ate, hung out, took pictures, listened to music and just, chilled. I honestly can’t think of the last time they got to do that. The building, by the way, looks amazing. It’s incredible how much they have accomplished. They built their own school, how many other kids can say that? None that I know of, that’s for sure.

Thursday morning, I was woken up by the Rooster who resides near our room in Namayumba at four, five, and six a.m. After the rooster gave his final wake up call, and I thought I might actually be able to sleep a while longer, the boda boda driver, who also lives next to us, started working on his bike. I finally realized, at around eight, that I had no choice but to get up and start my day. I walked down to the school to find that the kids had already been up since seven! They seriously never cease to amaze me. Lucky for them, the headmaster decided to give them the day off, after all the hard work they’d put into building the school.

We spent the afternoon hanging around, and looking at all the pictures that Melissa and I had taken the day before. Little Henry borrowed my iPod and started dancing around on the lawn, which was really entertaining. After a while some of the older kids started a pick up game of soccer. One of the younger kids brought a puppy over to me, which was so completely adorable I actually started considering ways to smuggle it back home with me. However, judging by the little red dots on my arms that I discovered later in the day, I think she may have had fleas…

After spending the afternoon relaxing and enjoying the nice weather (it was surprisingly cool, but much appreciated since we were still recovering the day before’s heat), we decided to have a goat roast. Melissa, Nabimanya, Brassio, Dan and I went into town to buy some firewood. While we were getting the firewood, these three men came up behind Melissa and I and began trying to talk to us. It was really odd, and I kept trying to move away. All of a sudden Dan told us to start walking back to the school. Melissa and I were glad to leave, and when we asked Dan who the men had been and what they’d wanted, he told us that they’d been trying to pickpocket us. Luckily, Dan, Brassio and Nabimanya realized what was happening before it was too late, and Melissa and I were able to walk away without getting robbed. Ai yai yai are we a couple of naïve Misungus.

After bringing the firewood back to the school, the boys started preparing for the roast. And by preparing, I mean they began to sharpen a couple of knives, fetched a ladder, and tied the goat up with some rope they had laying around. Thank God I am not a vegetarian, or a member of PETA, or else Thursday night might have been my last night in Uganda. I won’t go into too much detail, but lets just say it was the freshest meat I’ve ever eaten…and it was good too!

All right, I can’t think of anything else to write right now, so Weereba, and katonda akukuume.

Namayumba!

Extreme College is almost completely built! I spent Thursday and Friday in Namayumba with Melissa and the secondary school students, working on getting the school up and running. And yes, I did manual labor. That's right, these scrawny arms mixed cement/sand/water and then spread and pounded it to make the floor of the first classroom. I have two blisters to show for it. The secondary school students really amaze me. They work tirelessly, from sun-up until past sundown. I've never seen such work ethic, and drive in a group of students. They have worked so hard to build their school, and their desire to be there and learn is so evident. I feel as though it's a privilege to be able to work side by side with them. Of course, the girls laugh at me when I try to wash clothes with them, and have to correct my methods at least five times per load. And the boys make no hesitation is pointing out my errors when I try to level the cement or shovel up bricks. But it's all in good humor, and I love it.

I've gotten to know a few of the kids at Extreme. Chamime is a riot, she loves American rap and wears a baseball hat like Lil' Wayne. Nabimanya is hilarious, but also one of the hardest workers I've seen. He's one of the boys who have warmed up to me, and I love joking around with him. Brassio and Sam are also great. Like Nabimanya, they work tirelessly all day, no one needs to tell them what to do, or to remind them to do work, they simply just do. It's really admirable. Sam, Nabimanya, and Dan, another boy I've started to get to know, accompanied Melissa and I into town Thursday night and came back to watch a movie in our room with us. It was a pretty gruesome movie, and in typical boy fashion, they laughed at every scene involving blood and a machete.

On Friday, as Melissa and I were getting ready to head back to Kampala, Sam came to Melissa and told her he was feeling really sick. We worried that it might be Malaria, which he seams come down with quite often, so we took him back to Nansana with us so that he could spend the night there and go to the hospital in the morning. After we got him to the room where he would sleep, I went to put my hand on his back, and realized that he had a raging fever. Even through his sweatshirt, his skin was hotter than anyone's I'd ever felt, and we realized that he was seriously ill. Melissa and Nabimanya took Sam to the hospital the following day where he was hooked up to an IV, tested for Malaria, and given a cocktail of pills. When I spoke with Melissa on Sunday, she said he was doing a little better and that they would be taking him back to Namayumba later that day.

What makes me so sad, is that when I think about myself or one of my friends back home getting sick, I know that we will always have a network of people, be it our parents, friends, or relatives, looking after us until we are well again. These kids don't have that. Most of them won't tell anyone when they're sick because they know that nothing will be done. They don't have the money or the resources to get the children medicine. This is another reason I'm so determined to help raise money for Seggawa and the children. $4.00 is all it takes to buy Malaria medicine for two kids. The U.S dollar goes so far here, and even sending something as harmless to our pockets as $20 would go a huge distance for them.

Anyhow, Eric Courtney, the kids and I spent the weekend in Jinja, which was lovely. I got to see the Nile River, and the source of it, which lies in Uganda. After spending the weekend away, I came back to Nansana and taught English to the P6 students yesterday (Monday). The P6 students were very enjoyable to teach, they listened very well, and did their work without getting too distracted.

After teaching in the morning, I met up with Melissa and her mother who’s visiting, and we went into town to meet with the people from Straight Talk. Straight Talk is an organization that goes around to schools and talks to them about HIV awareness, HIV Prevention, and sexual education. After meeting with them and getting to know some of the kids who travel to the schools to speak with the kids, we were able to arrange for two of the men at the organization, David and Saul, to come speak to the kids in Namayumba next Thursday and Friday. I’m so glad they’re coming because the kids haven’t really had anyone to talk to about any of those things. Many haven’t been tested, and for all we know there could be a few at the school who are too scared to tell anyone that they are HIV positive. It will be good for the kids to learn that they have a support network, and that there are people eager to help and talk them through any difficulties they may be having.

Melissa and I invited David and Saul to come watch the World Cup final at Lido Beach with us on Sunday, which should be really fun. It will be nice to meet some University kids like us, so that next time we’re here, we’ll have some more people our age to hang out with.

Day One as a Teacher at Nansana Community Primary School

Well, my first day as a teacher at Nansana Community Primary School was great! Teaching wasn't nearly as scary or difficult as I thought it would be. The children were all so attentive, and very well behaved. I arrived at the school at 9am, and studied the material for the English class I would be teaching at 11. While I was reading outside, one boy asked me to come into his class and meet everyone. The younger ones immediately came and started playing with me, one girl spent almost half an hour playing with my bangs and trying to tuck them behind my ears.

I taught the English class in one of the buildings which the secondary students had actually built, bricks included. The students were incredible well behaved, much more so than I remember the students in my classes ever being! I read the students a story (Mr. Chameleon and Mr. Elephant) and then had them answer a set of questions. The chalkboard the had at their end of the room (there are two classes in the building, one at each end, but with no wall or curtainto separate them) appeared to be nothing more than a wooden board painted black. I would love to find some chalkboard paint and make them a new one. I can probably find some supplies in Kampala this weekend in fact.

These children could really benefit from some updated materials such as chalkboards and textbooks. The teachers here work with what they have, and do an incredible job with the limited materials. I've decided that I'm going to start raising money for the school once I'm back in Boulder. It would mean the world to these children. The children I asked today all had dreams of becoming doctors, farmers, nurses, musicians, and lawyers. Right now, staying in school is the most important thing for these children, but with the school having limited resources, they need all the help they can get.

Teaching a Reading class in the afternoon was so much fun. Once I began asking the students to read out loud, I began to notice that their reading levels were quite varied. So instead, I went around to each student and read a paragraph out of a story with them, helping them with the words they didn't understand. The books I used were slightly more advanced, and getting some simpler and more structured reading books would be really beneficial. I think I'm going to look for some books like that next time I'm in downtown Kampala as well. I would love to go to some elementary schools in the Boulder area to see if they could donate any of their books to the school. I have so many ideas for how I can help the school once I'm back at CU. I hope that those who read this become as inspired as I have. If any of my Boulder friends feel moved enough to come on board with me in raising awareness, supplies, and money, I would be so grateful =)

Americans Have Watches but Ugandans Have Time

Today was my first day as a volunteer at Nansana Community Primary School, as well as their Secondary school, Extreme College. Starting tomorrow I will be teaching English, Reading, and Writing to primary classes 4, 5 and, 6. This will be an adventure in itself seeing as I've never taught before! However, after talking with some other volunteers, Melissa and Cindy, I'm pretty confident that I will be able to adapt to the position as teacher quite easily. The students already call me Teacher Kristin (and yes, Kristin not Kirstin, but I'm hardly concerned about that!). The entire school holds approximately 400 students. Many of these students are orphans whose parents have died from HIV/Aids. While most of the orphans have been taken in by members of the community, 80 or so live at the school.

Seggawa oversees the entire school, and was very welcoming when I met him today. He immediately introduced me to the children and gave me a tour of the primary school. I learned that since most of their donations go towards teacher's salaries and food for the children, the students have taken it upon themselves to build each additional school building or dorm that the school needs! It's incredible, they have such spirit and drive. They even make the bricks themselves. I'm so inspired by these children, they have such respect and appreciation for the teachers, and for learning.

I also met with Dorothy who is the director of the Primary school. She was very welcoming, but promptly wrote up my schedule for me. If all goes accordingly I will be teaching at the primary school three days a week and at the secondary school two days a week. After touring the school, Zach, another volunteer and I, went to grab some lunch at a hotel down the road. After finishing our lunch, we boda boda'd to a taxi park and from there took a taxi to the Secondary school, called Extreme College. And yes, it was my first boda boda ride ever! Although I was wearing a skirt, I refused to sit sideways. I bunched my skirt up in between my legs, said a quick prayer, and hopped on. The motorcycle took off and there was no turning back, so I clung on for dear life. However, it was rather thrilling and not nearly as terrifying as I'd expected!

So after taking the taxi to Extreme College (i love the name), Zach, Melissa, Cindy, Eric and I sat down for a meeting with Seggawa, Dorothy, Job and the rest of the teachers to discuss the grand opening of the secondary school which will be held next Wednesday. Each volunteer, including myself, is expected to give speech at the ceremony. I've never given a speech before, so this should be interesting. Not to mention, it will be in front of 600 people, one of which will be the Vice President of Uganda! Wish me luck!