More Firsts

Well, a lot has happened since the last post. Let me catch you up…

                I am now a year older. My birthday was last Saturday, and for being the first birthday I’d ever spent outside the states, it was great! On Friday night I went to an Afro-jazz concert and the musicians were excellent. Then I passed Saturday afternoon at a lovely pool with friends from school, and finished off the day with a delicious Indian feast. I discovered it’s not common for Ugandans to like spicy things. When I ordered a dish the hottest level it would come, the restaurant owner came out to see who was crazy enough to try that. I take it that doesn’t happen often. But I survived the “chili hot,” and actually quite enjoyed it! Sunday, after a packed African church service, I planned for the week of school. Overall, a very nice birthday weekend!

                My class has grown by 25 percent! Meaning the four have become five. We’ve added another girl from the states, who was at Acacia last year but has just returned from summer break. Our little class is slowing increasing!

                We also celebrated the first student birthday this week. Ju Hun decided to treat the whole school to a pizza party! So on Thursday during lunch he became the self-proclaimed “god of pizza” and was very diligent in making sure everyone got their fair share. Pizza for lunch usually comes every other Friday, so pizza on Thursday was an unheard of treat.

                Teaching history is a little less daunting. I may not have mentioned this before, but all our students, 1^st through 5^th, gather together for “Story of the World” history, and I get to lead it. It has been really fun! At first it was a little rocky, trying to figure out how best to format it and what needed to be covered. But now we’ve settled into a sort of groove of things, and it’s so exciting to see what they absorb. Last week was all about early British society (Celts and then Anglo-Saxons) and when I was up in my classroom one morning I heard, shouted from the playground, “I’m the warrior Beowulf!” That made my day.

                Our afterschool clubs began this week, and on Thursday we had the first meeting of yearbook club, which Mr. Jason (the principal) and I will be heading up. Once the students understood what it meant to make a yearbook, they were really excited. They had a great time doing a photography criticism course with Mr. Jason, and are very eager to start taking their own photos.

                Our first house guests have also arrived. The team has come from the UK and they will be with us volunteering in school for a week. The two girls on the team are staying out in our boy’s quarters (which is the same as servant’s quarters. Sorry if that term was confusing). It’s been really fun to have new faces helping around the school.

Today, Saturday, was my first real sight-seeing trip. I spent a lovely morning touring different churches in the area, on a sort of recon mission for school field trip. We’re hoping to take the students to see a cathedral and a mosque since in history we’ve just studied “the great schism” and will be studying the rise of Islam. The Hindu temple down town was the first port of call. It was really interesting (and quite sad, really) to see all the offerings and people praying to scary plastic figures. The people there were really nice, though, and even gave us some holy grapes. Next we went to the impressive Anglican Cathedral, perched on top of a huge hill that overlooks all of Kampala. It was a very nice building, but more exciting was the wedding that was about to start. Everyone was decked out in their finest, the church was full of flowers, and there was even a television reporter there. But the crowd inside waiting was eerily silent, and the bride and groom were just sitting in pews across the aisle from each other at the back of the church with their wedding party. Not sure what they were waiting for, but they seemed content just sitting there. Lastly we went to the mosque. After I, being the only female in the group, got my head all swathed up and modest, we went up the huge minaret and had a fantastic view of the city, and also toured through the main floor of the mosque itself. It was really beautiful inside, and seemed so huge!

Some other firsts...

First class pet at our school: A chameleon that has joined Ms. Capenter's class  

First Teacher Apple: I started to eat it, and then realized I wanted
photographic evidence of such a significant piece of fruit.

First time I've ever seen a dog circling a house at the
second story level. Do you see it? Underneath the small window
on the right. It was just taking a stroll out there.