Rain

Uganda has 2 seasons....rainy and dry. We are here during the dry season though it seems as though we have brought some rain with us! When school is in session during the rainy season they often have to postpone or cancel class as it is impossible to hear anything as the rain pounds on the metal roof.  We got to experience it during one of our professional development days.  It rained so hard that we had to stop....and play!  The Musana teachers were so confused as to why we wanted to run and play in the rain.  "Why is it that you go outdoors when it is raining.  Do you not believe that rain is a blessing?"  Our reply was that of course it is a blessing and it is also ok to sometimes stop and have a little fun!  Since it rained 3 times while we were there (during the dry season) the teachers said that we were the blessing!  We were even able to get them to run out into the rain with us!!

Farming at Musana

Musana has over 800 chickens that come in 3 types: Ugandan, Kenyan, and Belgian.  We were able to eat eggs from their chickens every morning and they would sell the rest in town.

Paul is the head farmer and does an amazing job.  He is helping Musana on their way to becoming self sustainable by 2015.  NOTHING goes to waste under Paul's watch!

Paul has created his own blend of chicken feed that they use for the chickens at Musana as well as selling it to local villages.

Musana has bought more property to expand the farms.  The cows are now kept off campus.  They also have fields of banana trees, sugar cane, and elephant grass!

We were able to try an herb that was growing at the Musana farm.  In the villages it is used for a "runny tummy"!

Wow.  Musana is well on the way to becoming self sustainable by 2015.  Touring the farm was amazing as you can see how nothing is wasted and the circle of life really does continue on and on in Africa (I should have sang the Lion King while there!!)

Learning the language

There are a lot of languages spoken in Uganda!  English and Swahili are the official government languages though each village has their own way of speaking.  In the district of Iganga where we are, Lasoga is spoken (though at Musana kids are encouraged to speak English and their classes are taught in English.)  I was interested in learning some Lusoga while I was there though so I had some kiddos teach me!

Laundry Day!

We have a lot of machines here in America to help make things easier.  For example, we could be doing the laundry, washing dishes, cooking dinner, and watching TV all at the same time.  That is not the case in Uganda.  Everything is done by hand.  I got to help Sarah with the laundry on laundry day though I think that she secretly rewashed the clothes that I washed because I was not so good at it!.  Cooking was tricky too as you could only have one thing plugged in at a time.  If you wanted toast and coffee for breakfast you would have to make your toast first then unplug the toaster and plug in the kettle for coffee.  Things took a little longer in Africa so we always said, "We're on Africa time" meaning that we may or may not finish or start things at the time we were supposed to!

Church at Musana

Church at Musana is kid led!  They sing beautiful songs and do some amazing dances.  A teacher then gives a sermon...today's was on the fruits of the spirit.  "Praise God." "Amen" "Praise God so much" are said often!  They speak Engligh though sometimes their phrases are different than ours.  When they would finish with a song or a talk, they would say, "We are now done with this moment.  It is time to move on to a new moment!"  After church everyone stays around to dance and sing some more.  We learned that if they were allowed, the kids would stay to sing and dance all day long.  Unfortunately though we all had to leave eventually as the kids had chores to do and we had lessons to prepare!

Getting to know the teachers

Before we began our week of professional development, we had a day to get to know the teachers.  We did introductions, had them take us on a tour of their school, and played some getting to know you games.  We also had them teach us their version of the ABC song which is a little different from ours but I like it better!

Me and Domalie.  She teaches P1 which is similar to our kindergarten!

They made their own letter blocks!  Be careful if you pick up the "T" though...there is a frog that lives inside!

The 4-5 year old classroom!



Mike, the headmaster of Musana!

Children have a lot of chores!

 I am getting asked by a lot of Ugandans, "how many kids have you produced?" When I answer that I have not had kids they are shocked. My go to response is that kids are a lot of work but their reply is always, "you don't work for kids, they work for you!" And it is true, kids in Uganda work hard.  As soon as they can walk they begin to get their own water, wash their own clothes, cook the food, work in the garden, sweep the floors, and clean themselves (this includes cutting their own fingernails using a razorblade starting at 2 years old...yikes!)