Monday, June 30, 2014

Monday!

Hello all,

Today was another busy day in Rukungiri- we got off to an early start at school with all of the Groton and Bishops students arriving in tandem from different parts of the village after another night of home stays.  We gathered in the staff room for a quick meeting and then got started with the music, dance and drama group after the Bishops students had their weekly announcement period in the school's church.  We learned two Ugandan songs which we will perform the day of the festival which is quickly approaching- our program is leading up to a series of events this Thursday which should be a great time not to mention a fun way to get the entire community involved.  We were initially a little confused when learning the first song because it sounded like the lyrics involved a "tuna" rather than "true love", which was, as it turns out, the song's subject.  It took a few tries before we realized the song wasn't about someone's undying love for a fish but rather their soul-mate.  We got a few good laughs from this!

We had break tea and then from there ran a crafts session which was again in preparation for the fete this week.  During the session we had students pair off and work on both snowflake cutouts which we thought would be a fun activity, as well as representations of home.  Some students portrayed their homes or showed a comparison between school campuses.  Others displayed items that made them think of home or family members.  One boy drew himself singing and playing on the guitar in front of friends.  On the day of the fete we would like to represent the students' interpretations of each others' homes and their respective homes which should be really interesting.

The students also got started on a paint project today.  Mr. Reed got us all going on painting one of the classrooms which was definitely in need of a facelift.  About half of the Groton students got started on it today and so far, progress has been great.  We'll continue rotating people through to get it polished and clean by the end of the week!  Some of the students commented on how many of the Bishops students observed as they painted.  It's something that I have noticed during our time here as well- if there is an activity going on, you will always have someone watching what you are doing.  It's a little strange initially especially when you're not used to an audience!  Over time though you get used to it.  It's nice when those watching can also jump and in and pick up a paint brush or join the game too.

The day wrapped up with lunch followed by a games session that the Groton students planned.  We ran four stations and then rotated through.  Afterwards the girls went up to play net ball which is a popular game here in Rukungiri.  The girls walked over to the primary school pitch up the hill and were immediately followed by a massive cluster of primary school students who came out to watch and cheer them on.  Kei and Tyler also tagged along.  They ended up front and center as the game started with a 5-year-old between them, each holding one of her hands.  As the sports kicked off so did science club with Mr. Reed and three Groton students, Angus, Diva and Sunny, building a battery with the help of a large group of Bishops kids.

A quick update on the home stays: everyone is three nights in and so far so good.  The students are all fairly close to school and some live down the road from each other.  The weekend was a nice time to interact more with the families and get to know some of the extended family members.  In most cases, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and the many many cousins live within throwing distance from each other.  Coming from a family spread across North America, I find this so comforting.  I'm jealous!  I love the Ugandan culture of neighbors and family being the same and how people come and go from each others' homes constantly.  I noticed this over the weekend especially.  I went back to stay with my previous host family for a few days.  When I was here two years ago I was matched up with an incredible family who I quickly got attached to (I will always refer to them as my Ugandan family- my home-away-from-home).  It was such a joy for me to see them all again and to have the opportunity to spend time together- something I never thought I would be able to do after my last visit.  It was so special to be there and to adopt the Ugandan way of life for a few days- I love the emphasis on family and community, the willingness to chip in and help with chores and all the singing, dancing and laughter that comes with the onset of every day.  Every night after dinner we would play a couple of pop songs on someone's phone and dance around the living room in the dim light of the torch positioned strategically in the corner of the room.  The home stays are such a unique part of the trip and while everything is so new and different here, I have been so impressed with the students' efforts to jump in and enjoy Ugandan culture.  What better way than to live with a local family?  It has been so exciting to witness each step of the process and I commend everyone for giving it such a concerted effort!  It's not always easy to overcome culture shock and just go for it, but everyone truly has.  We have until the end of the week for home stays and then we'll all be back together again for one last night at Jim's before we move on from Rukungiri.  A few of us were remarking tonight on how fast this week already seems to be moving- it's crazy!  We'll have to make the most of it.

I hope everyone's well at home.  We will keep you updated even throughout this week as the kids finish up their home stays.  Stay tuned for more pictures and blog posts.

Bye for now,

Christina

Another take on Saturday...




Hi friends,

The plan for the first day of our weekend was to drive up to a fishing village on Lake Edward, although I wasn’t sure what to expect. Saturday was also our first day waking up at the home stay. My breakfast consisted of tea and a bean stew with meat. As I was eating, I realized that even if we left at that time (8:00) we would still be late to meet the rest of the group (which was at 8:00). I casually brought up the time, but to my surprise my buddy and her sister just smiled and said, “Yep, we are going to be late!” Alright, no big deal, we would be five to ten minutes late, I thought. However, the time ticked closer to 8:15 and the sisters were still piling more food on their plates. At 8:30, everyone was finally finished. Then my buddy announced, “Now we will bathe!” So, after twenty more minutes, we left to go the school. We were a full hour late, and although I was greeted by many sassy comments from my Groton friends, not a single Bishops student or teacher seemed perturbed. Apparently, many people had only arrived ten minutes prior. One thing I still have not grown accustomed to here is the unhurried and go-with-the-flow attitude of the Ugandans. If I were ten or fifteen minutes late to meet a bus at Groton, it would have already left.
            So, after a stressful start to the morning, we all departed for Lake Edward. The two hour drive left many tired and car-sick; which should probably be accredited to the state of the roads. Picture the surface of mars compressed into a seven-foot wide path (two-ways!). Somehow vehicles always manage to squeeze by each other, but a motorcycle did lightly strike our van. At one point, we stopped in a village twenty minutes from our destination and witnessed a truck haul up a relatively steep road, only to be stopped by a man who jumped out of the passenger side and stuck a log under the tire. Needless to say, driving in the U.S. and driving in Uganda are two different things.
            One of the cool parts of the journey was driving through a national park and seeing a variety of Ugandan wildlife: water buffalos, impalas, baboons, and even an elephant. We stopped at the Congo/Uganda border and crossed over by foot, so all of us have officially been in at least two African countries. To any of those who have read Heart of Darkness: we had a quick look into the Congolese jungle and it is extremely foreboding.
            After the border-crossing, we hopped back in our vans and drove to the restaurant in the fishing village and ate a lunch comprised of your typical Ugandan meal plus some type of fish, which according to those who ate it was very good. Kei Nawa grossed everyone out by eating his fish’s eyeball. “It’s pretty good,” he claimed, but I still think/hope he was joking. Soon after lunch we moved outside to watch a singing and dancing performance by a local group of kids. Although us non-Swahili-speaking folk had absolutely no idea what was being said, this is what I gathered: four drunk men stumble around for a while, find four bird-women, gain sobriety, and engage in a very exuberant and exciting dance. Feet were the instruments of choice but drums and maracas were also being played in the background. Second part of the performance: a tyrannosaurus rex, turtle, and lion are hunted by four poachers who are then taken down in a rather aggressive beating dealt by protectors of the wildlife. Although the whole thing was confusing it was definitely entertaining and impressively performed by kids ranging in age from about 6-20.
            The final leg of the trip was a ten minute pit-stop at Lake Edward. One of the fishers briefly explained the lifestyle/work there. We milled around for a bit, saw some hippos, and jumped back in the vans. Mid-way through our return, the radiator in my car gave out and we were forced to ditch on the side of the road while white smoke filled the air. Unfortunately, it was just water vapor and nothing exploded. There was also a cell-tower across the road from where we broke down, so we were saved ten minutes later. Pretty disappointing that nothing more radical happened.
            We got back to Rukungiri around 6:30 PM, and I think I can speak for everyone by saying we were pretty tired. I ate dinner, chatted with the fam, and headed off to bed.
We are missing all of you! Unfortunately we don’t have to opportunity to get in contact with friends/family while we are at the home stays, but on Friday I’m sure everyone will reach out.

Musinbegye (bye)!

Grace Liggett

Sunday



Sunday, June 29

Today was the first real day of down time for everybody. Saturday evening, we made sure all the kids made it back to their home stays after a long day of traveling to the fishing village, and left them to spend their first full day with their Bishops families. After a much needed lazy morning, I went out to do some errands with Michael (one of the Venture Uganda trip facilitators, native to Rukungiri) and ran into a bunch of Groton kids, out for a hike with their buddies. I was thrilled to see them – in fact, I was beyond thrilled to see them, for a few reasons.
Firstly, I miss the kids. Jim’s House is not bustling with laughter in the evenings anymore, and although adult time is nice, I have enjoyed getting to know these kids on a deeper level – being able to decompress with them at the end of the day, stumbling upon a spontaneous game of mafia, and watching them navigate this culture that is so foreign, so outside of their range of experiences, has been incredibly rewarding to me as an observer, teacher and learner of this adventure.  Over the past two weeks, I have seen countless examples of why these global expeditions are so valuable – reinforcing why I was initially interested in becoming a trip leader. I often tell the kids that I work with at Groton that it’s okay to be uncomfortable – embrace the unknown and tap into your own resources to develop your threshold for adversity; adopt a growth mindset. This group of students has beyond impressed me with their willingness to explore the unknown, welcome the initial discomfort of something new, and develop a skill set in not only building resilience but doing so amidst a totally foreign culture. I find myself looking forward to the mornings, where we are reconnected with the kids and are able to hear about their home stay experiences.
Secondly, I was delighted to come across this roadside group (consisting of Angus, Tyler, Diva, Marie, Grace and Sunny) and notice that all of them were wearing broad smiles on their faces. I don’t yet have children of my own, but after stumbling upon these kids on the road, I have an inkling of how it must feel to be reunited with your child. I was comforted to see that they were happy, excited to be venturing off on a hike with their homestay buddies, and totally immersed in the experience. The group crowded around the van, all wanting to share something about their day thus far. It is these little tidbits that remind me what remarkable kids we have at Groton, and how fortunate we are to have the opportunity to work with them both around the Circle and also in an international context.
We are headed into our last week at Bishops, still preparing for the culminating festival that will take place on Thursday. I look forward to these remaining days, as we build off of the first two weeks in Uganda!

-Randi

Weekend Update

Fellow followers,

Apologies for the delayed posts over the weekend - the kids have moved comfortably into their homestays, and the blog upkeep will change slightly since the kids will not have access to a computer in the evenings. Allow me to detail the past couple of days:

Saturday, June 28

Perhaps one of my favorite days of the trip was our initial drive from Kampala to Rukungiri, where over the course of 8 hours we observed the changes in the landscape, the agricultural specialties of each community (displayed on the side of the road), and the gradual transformation from urban to rural. What an amazing drive - even after hours and hours of traveling, there was never a dull moment. Saturday's adventure consisted of similar travels, except our destination was a fishing village called Rwenshama, located on Lake Edward. Needless to say, I was excited to learn what Ugandan gem this new adventure would reveal. So, the kids met us at Bishops High School in the morning, and we loaded up the 14-seater taxis with Groton students and staff, as well as the Bishops High School Prefects and some of their staff.  Talk about getting a taste of traveling Ugandan style – we were packed like sardines in those taxis!

I never imagined Uganda would have such diversified ecosystems – we have seen everything from rift valleys to mountainous regions to marshlands - each environment offering its own natural beauty. The first couple hours of Saturday’s drive was a descent into the rift valley; making our way from Rukungiri’s high elevation to the flat lands of Rwenshama was slow going over winding terrain, and dirt paths that could only be classified as “roads” in Uganda.

We took the long way to Rwenshama, detouring through a section of the Queen Elizabeth National Park, with hopes of seeing some wildlife while driving around the park perimeter. We were fortunate to spot a variety of bird species (Queen Elizabeth National Park contains over 600 different birds!), an elephant seeking shade from a distant tree, a pack of baboons crossing the road as if they owned the place, a few water buck grazing, tons of kob (a more stylish version of deer), hippos wading in Lake Edward, the ugliest and most massive storks you’ve ever seen, a giant forest hog, and a shy family of warthogs. Everyone had their eyes peels for Ishasha’s tree climbing lions, but no such luck – I think we had a pretty successful safari outing for only scanning the perimeter of the park!

Our detour also included a quick stop at the DRC, Democratic Republic of Congo, which allowed us to stretch our legs a bit and take some photos across the border. After the quick DRC visit, we piled back into our sardine can, back through parts of the National Park, and finally arrived in Rwenshama – a village hardly like the ones we have seen so far in our travels. The landscape was flat, the air felt hotter, and the village was settled in a dry, grassy plain. Lunch took place in what seemed like an abandoned building, but was suddenly filled with a massive buffet delivered from the villagers. Tilapia was among the main dishes, and once you got past the presentation (a fully in tact fish head, eyeballs and all), it was quite delicious.

Following lunch, was a presentation by the local performing group – a serious of traditional dances related to the history of the village, and daily life of the people. I was grateful to have a Bishop’s student sitting next to me, translating the songs, so I could make better sense of the performance. Next, we navigated our way down to the shoreline of Lake Edward, where we soaked in a bit of the fisherman’s lifestyle but avoided soaking in the water – it’s not exactly the kind of beach you visit to work on your tan.


Back in the sardine taxis we went around 4pm, and this time a straight shot back to Rukungiri – although, in Uganda, no path is very direct. At one point during our trek home, I wondered how these taxis could withstand all the potholes, grade inconsistencies and constant wheel jerking; and that’s about when our taxi reached its breaking point, as it grinded gears trying to tackle the steep ascend back to the mountainous Rukungiri. About 10 minutes from home, the radiator in our vehicle failed, and we had to evacuate the taxi as it grumbled, hissed and spewed steam. So, that left Tyler, Angus, Kei, Jessica, Diva, Grace, Margaret and I, as well as some Bishop’s students, stranded. I tried calling AAA, but apparently that service isn’t available in Uganda…haha. The 20 minutes in which we were “stranded” was perhaps my favorite part of the day – we happen to break down at sunset, atop one of the highest points of Rukungiri. Amongst the sunset and beautiful African skyline, we joked about pooling our resources together in preparation for spending the night, and laughed about how comical the whole scene was with 14 people spilling out of this ridiculous taxi. All occurring only 10 minutes from home.


Driving in Uganda is an adventure, to say the least.


Will create a new post to update you all on Sunday's happenings.

-Randi

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Friday Afternoon June 27th






After our work at Kosarosa Primary School we rested up a bit at Jim’s house before going to Bishops High School for afternoon tea. Food has not been a problem on this trip. Breakfast has had eggs, bread, bananas, pineapple, watermelon, tea and coffee. Lunch has been at school with spaghetti, matoke (mashed plantain), rice, greens, ground nut sauce, meat, chapatis, and fruit. Dinner has been at Jim’s house with mashed potatoes, spaghetti, chapatis, rice, vegetables, meat, sauce and fruit. As if this was not enough, we have had two teas a day, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Each tea has almost as much food as a meal, with bread, butter, honey, jam, biscuits (English for cookies), ground nuts, fruit, tea and coffee. Basically we eat every two hours. 

After our tea, the Groton students paired up with their home stay buddies and off they went with their luggage to their home stays. It was quite a sight with smiling Groton students each accompanied by an entourage of Bishops students all marching off in different directions from the school. After a bit it was just us, the adults, left standing alone in the school courtyard a little sad to see them go but knowing they were well prepared to have a good time. I’m sure there will be many stories to tell over the next few days.  – Tim Reed