More events

Monday, July 7^th:
Wilber appears to be the proactive one of the group today. He’s running around buying things for a youth resource corner and trying to get events underway. Good for him. The rest of us are decidedly lacking in ambition at the moment.

I went by the health center this morning, and we are going to have some of the primary school kids come by for a visit this Thursday. The goal is for the kids to find out what services are provided (STD testing, contraception, etc.) and feel comfortable with the staff and the clinic. If it goes well, we’ll have the secondary school kids do a visit next week. Thursday the Dance4Life tour team is coming by again as well.

Last weekend was a lot of fun. A few of us stayed up at Nawanyago placement on Friday night for a mini 4^th of July celebration. We ate a lot of fried food from the trading center and roasted marshmallows over the sigiri. Not quite like the 4^th at home, but still a nice time.

On Saturday, ten of went to the Hairy Lemon for the night. It’s a hostel/budget resort place on an island in the Nile an hour outside of Jinja. You have to bang on a breakdrum when you get there, and they come to pick you up in one of those long fishing boats (you could probably just wade across, but it’s a nice touch). It was pretty basic, without electricity or running water, but they had pretty nice cabins and bandas, places to swim and sunbathe, and tasty buffet-style meals. Getting into a bikini was discouraging for most of us I think, but it was nice to lay in the sun, read magazines, and enjoy a break from placement. You can’t beat an island without cell phone reception for getting away from it all.

On Sunday morning I woke up and walked out of the dorm onto the misty lawn on my way to breakfast, and it felt exactly like a morning at Burton. This is the first July in six years that I won’t spend teaching at music camp, and it felt a little sad.

I am pretty tired of teaching lessons. Most of the time, they go just fine. Still, it feels like work, and it’s tough teaching at seven different schools and still not knowing the kids at all. We’re mostly doing lessons that we deemed unimportant at the beginning, and it seems a little pointless. Having some extra events this month will break things up a little bit, but we’re so close to going home that part of me just wants to blow it all off and spend the month in bed.

Wednesday, July 9^th:
Today is one month until I arrive in NC. That’s 85.7% complete!

This is a music term for our local schools, and we’ve had a couple lessons cancelled since kids are in choir practice most of the day. We stayed to watch the kids rehearsing at Kalebera today, and it was really fun to see. For most songs the group stands in a semicircle and does a call-and-response thing with the soloist. Sometimes there’s a little play being acted out. The district choir competition is on Tuesday at Muguluka, and if I don’t have to go into town for something I’m going to attend.

There’s a sight-singing component too so the kids were practicing their solfage. I was pretty impressed. No hand motions though. I have several cute videos of kids singing and dancing but I think I’ll have to post them when I get home. Being able to check email is a triumph with the connections here.

Dennis and I did a lesson on Love and Infatuation with the secondary kids today and that was pretty interesting. Infatuation seemed to be a new concept. They are pretty excited about Dance4Life coming tomorrow.

The three of us went in to Jinja yesterday. My goal was schedule the AIDS Information Center’s mobile HIV testing unit and check for mail, but the person we needed to talk to at AIC was gone for the day and the SPW staff is out of the office this week. So that was a bust. I had a nice meal at Ozzie’s with Lucy though. There were a couple American church groups sponsoring orphanages at the restaurant, and one table sat a bunch of big dudes from Texas in head-to-toe denim and handlebar mustaches. They were pretty awesome. One guy kept asking people what their meals were and drawling that he was from “United States, Texas.” It was a little reminder of what I’m in for when I get home. (Southerners. Not Texans.)

If anyone wants me to bring something special back for them, send me an email and let me know. There are lots of paper necklaces, earrings, carved wooden things, bags, etc.

Thursday, July 10^th:
When I say Dance For you say Life! Dance For…

D4L came to St. Gonzaga today, and it ran quite a bit smoother than last time. The St. Gonzaga kids can be bratty but they love dancing, so it went over okay. A few kids from the primary school showed up too and I think their enthusiasm helped get things going. We started out on the school compound but moved over to the church hall when the drizzle picked up so there was a long equipment-moving lapse in the middle, but the Q&A and dancing went just fine. Dennis and I were up on stage helping the tour team demonstrate the moves.

After the dancing wrapped up I took a group of twenty P6 girls on a health center visit. It went really well; one of the nurses talked to them about their services and pregnancy and HIV and abstinence and took them on a tour of the facilities, and another talked to them about menstruation briefly (I think – it was in Lusoga). It seemed friendly and beneficial and the girls were excited to get the biscuits I brought for them.

Tomorrow we go to Buweera Primary and maybe in to Jinja again if I can meet with someone at AIC. This weekend Lucy and I are going to visit Rich, Orlando, and Rachel’s placement I think. Lucy’s feeling ill today but I have a feeling she’ll pull through.

Friday, July 11th:
In Jinja. I got AIC booked for the 22nd, and Lucy got the all-clear from Dr. Debbie. There's a possibility I might fly home right after debrief. It'd give me a week to settle in before grad school starts, and mean missing Rwanda. I'm torn at the moment. I am a lot more excited about home than Rwanda, but don't want to skip the opportunity either. It should be sorted out today.