My birthday week

This sums up my week :)

It has again been a very busy week filled with lots of smiles, rain (it's the rainy season here) and cuddles from the children as well as a milestone for me!

Monday 18th- We went to catch up class but it rained heavily, so it was almost impossible to teach over the pattering on the tin roof. Despite the rain, we still had lots of children come because as soon as one child spots a 'teacher', they all run off to tell their friends. Instead of teaching, we played with the children using the skipping ropes and bubbles we had brought with us for a treat after the class. I taught the children how to do the limbo using the skipping ropes and we discovered Gabit’s new talent for limbo. I believe this creative play is just as valuable for them as the formal educational teaching we are doing with them as they don't often get a chance to use equipment like that. 

Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th at Ruth Mother Care- My highlights were teaching about the body in P1, talking to the children and talking to P2 about how great reading is. The children are always enthusiastic about reading and it's a universal truth that children everywhere love having their favourite story read to them again and again. P2's favourite is Mama Panya's Pancakes, which is set in Kenya. I think they love it so much because they can recognise their own cultural setting in the pictures. I have been thinking of new ways to tell the story, for example by adding pancake making actions and teaching the Swahili words found in the text. 

Lois handing out bracelets at RMC

P2 with reading books

P2 boys

P2 reading 

Thursday 21st- Today on community outreach we visited our usual families and prayed for them. Our friend Gerrad who we visit very kindly gave us some of the samosas he sells!The vegetable filling is SO good. I wish it was possible to take some back to the UK with me. You haven't tried samosas until you've tried Ugandan 'sambosas', specifically Gerrad's.  After, I headed back home with Kate and when we arrived at the house the power was out which gave me a chance to get on with things instead of getting distracted by the Internet.

Friday 22nd- Today I spent kid’s club at FBC. It had rained lots in the morning so whilst we were walking down the hill, we had to cross the swollen stream.  Everyone stared at it for a while I was the first to wade through. I misjudged the depth though and ended up getting my clothes a bit wet. Lois made us laugh when she got a lift through it from a boda guy by telling him she loved him. At FBC I was with the little ones singing some songs and supervising their colouring, which mainly involved me using the limited Luagnda words I have like ‘sit down’ and ‘good’ whenever they showed me the colouring. Meanwhile, Kate and Gabit ran a fun ‘London Bridge’ style walk through game and continued to teach about the life of Joseph, complete with an acronym of his name to help them remember what they learnt.

London bridge activity at kid's club

Flood

Saturday 23rd- MY 19^TH BRITHDAY- I feel so lucky to have had the best Ugandan birthday I could have wished for! I had a wonderful day celebrating with my ‘family’ here. In the morning, the ever amazing Kate made me a cooked breakfast with eggs and soldiers and then went swimming in an open air pool with Lois, Kate, Innocent and Gabit. Sometimes it’s easy to take the sunny weather here for granted but it was so amazing to be able to enjoy an open air pool. Lois and Innocent even threw me into the pool, which was a shock but fun in the end. 

After a quick turn around, we went to the Saturday service at church where I received a thorough soaking afterwards by friends at church. It’s a tradition here to throw water on someone on their birthday here so everyone lined up at church ready to throw buckets of water on me when I came out. I ran around screaming and just having a laugh being chased with everyone. I was soaked- so much fun. I wish it was warm enough to do that in England on every birthday!! Luckily, I took a spare set of clothes with me because I’d been warned about the tradition. After a youth choir meeting, we went for a meal at Café Javas, which was so lovely. I had a massive vegetable pizza, a berry smoothie and a nohito, which was a real treat. At the end of the meal, I also had the fantastic surprise of getting a slice of cake with all the staff singing ‘happy birthday’ to me.  

All in all, I had a very special day.Although I missed my family, I am so thankful I had the chance to Skype them in the morning. Thank you to everyone who helped make my day.

At the pool

Me being thrown in the pool by Innocent and Lois

Swimming

Soaking

 Church soaking

Me with my birthday cake

Olivia after soaking me

Meal at Javas

Lois' meal

GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS

Kate's meal

Gabit

Rwanda- Gisenye Beach

Last week we went on our second trip to Rwanda to renew our visas. This time we wanted to see somewhere different than Kigali where we went in January so we went to stay at the Discover Rwanda Youth Hostel by Gisenye Beach. It was an amazing break away!

Gisenye Discover Rwanda youth hostel

On Saturday after the youth service at KBC, we set off from the bus station at 9PM for the thirteen hour night bus to Gisenye, arriving at the Rwandan border at around 7AM the next day. As I find it hard to sleep on journeys and Lois took a Red Bull before getting on the coach, we spent most of the day sleeping.

The hostel was very nice inside and as there were no other guests staying, we had the whole communal area to ourselves. It was just across the road from Lake Kivu so we had a lovely view of the lake. The lake itself was very beautiful in the stormy weather we had for a few days or basking in sun which made it look very tropical with azure water.

We had a very relaxing few days from Sunday to Tuesday, which I spent enjoying the quietness of the hostel or reading on the beach. In the evenings, we went out twice to a pizza restaurant, which I loved because I really miss my margaritas!

On Wednesday morning we travelled to Kigali so we could take a day bus back to Kampala the next day. It turned out that the hostel we stayed in when we came in January had been knocked down and moved so we stayed in the newly located Discover Rwanda. That meant we couldn’t go to our favourite burrito cafe but instead we found a lovely restaurant up the road. Lois and I had cheesy Bolognese tagiatelle, which was amazing as we don't often get cheese here!

The restautaunt

Bolognese tagiatelle

Now we have renewed our visas for our remaining time here and are looking forward to what that has in store!

Highlights since Easter

I am sorry for the late blog post. I have been so busy and enjoying myself so much that I'm afraid my usual updates got neglected. So in this post I will share some of my highlights for the last month.

Wednesday 30^th March- Jane, who is a trustee of Smile International, and her husband Gary arrived for a visit to Smile to visit the projects and see how Smile Charity Uganda is developing. They came with all of our favourite British chocolates courtesy of our new gap year co-ordinator Emily. Thank you so much to you both and Emily! Lois got Dairy Milk, Kate got Reeces Pieces and I got Galaxy Caramel. 

In the evening, we had a meal with Jane and Gary at the house and enjoyed talking to them about our experience with Smile :)

Saturday 2^nd April-  After going to Saturday service at KBC, we went out for a meal with the Smile team and Jane. It was a lovely chance to chat to everyone and enjoy fellow-shipping together. I ordered feta cheese lamb burger in pitta bread. The bread here is slightly sweet so I have missed savoury bread like pitta and the cheese was delicious. After eating, there was time for a few people to share something with everyone and it was so great to hear people praising Smile and reminded me just how much of a family it is. 

Smile meal out

Sunday 3rd April- I went shopping at Garden City to buy some souvenirs and gifts to send home with Jane as they had empty suitcases. My favourite thing I bought was a scrapbook with typical Ugandan prints on the front to use to create a memory book when I am back in England. After, I met the youth from KBC at another church, where they were holding a youth talent show. It was a fun afternoon :). 

Monday 4^th-  Our meal on Saturday reminded us of how we missed certain Western foods so we decided to go to Cafe Javas after catch up class. We passed by the craft market on our way and Lois and Kate bought some souvenirs. I will have to go back another time because I didn't have enough cash with me. At Javas, I had 'English Style Fish and Chips' again, which was delicious as I had been craving it for a while. Lois and I also continued with our obsession with Javas Mojitos by ordering two whilst Kate had a mug of a cookies and cream milkshake which looked like a meal in itself.

Ruth Mother Care School

The term is going well and we are all loving teaching. I have been teaching everything from family life habits to grammar tenses.Whilst Jane and Gary were here, we supervised mid term exams. They are marked differently to the British system as the answer has to be spelt correctly for them to get any marks even if the answer is right. I will have to focus even more on spelling out words in all my lessons.

The building project behind the school is now underway again after money was received to buy materials for the roof and plastering. We are excited that soon nursery class will have a bigger space to be taught in as currently they are very crammed.

Lois and Isma

Eating posho and beans for lunch

The money for the building project

Teaching literacy in P2

Community outreach

We have been continuing to pray with and talk to the families we visit regularly in Nabulagala. As you can see in the photos below, the children come with us as we visit different houses and fight to be carried by one of us. I have now mastered the art of holding many children's hands and carrying others at the same time!

Fun with the kids

Our children 

Gabit talking

Learning the art of holding two children's hands and carrying a
 toddler at the same time

Gerrad making samosas