Fort Portal

Well, I just realized that it has been over a month since I went on my Fort Portal adventure, and I never wrote anything about it! Time certainly flies, doesn't it!

In October we had a week long fall break, which was a much appreciated pause from the daily grind. Lee Erin, the head teacher at Acacia, had some connections to a cabin in the woods out in mountains of western Uganda, so Alena (the volunteer from Germany) and Lee Erin and I all went out there for several days. It is such a beautiful place! As you drive out through the villages (and their many many speed bumps on the otherwise decent highway) there are beautiful hillsides covered in the gorgeous, saturated green of tea plantations.

After a long trek down a seemingly impassable road (kudos to Lee Erin for her masterful navigation through the treacherous roads) we arrived at the "cabin" which was actually a very nice, fully equipped house, with only the lack of power making it feel a bit camping-like. The front porch and balcony looked out over grassy marsh, a lack, and mountains in the background. We even had a little posse of crested cranes entertain us for a day.

The guy that manages the property, Eddie, also doubled as our tour guide, and we did several fun hikes. The first was a bit grueling, straight up the mountainside, but the views were incredible. The steep slopes with their little fields of bananas and cassava stretched out like a postcard picture. As for pictures, I only have those taken from my phone, so they don't do it justice.

View from the mountain

Coffee drying

On our hike up the mountain we passed a little nursery school, and on the return trip we just happened to be passing when the kids were all sent home for the day. That meant we picked up a whole slew of miniature tagalongs that held on to our fingers the whole way down the mountain. It was pretty cute.

The next day Alena and I went to see the "caves" nearby. They were more like deep overhangs, but the stalactites and stalagmites were impressive, and the waterfall was beautiful. The best part was hearing the stories though. There's a legend of the above ground king being trapped in the below ground kingdom and earthquakes come when he furiously tries to break out. Another legend, very similar to Oedipus, tells of a son thrown out of the kingdom because of a prophesy that he will kill his father (and his does). Another legend was of Eddie's father, and how he was in the womb for nine years. ("Really, Eddie?! Nine years? I don't think so" "Yes, yes, nine whole years")

One evening we also went to check out a very posh resort near Fort Portal and had tea on the veranda while looking out over the sunset reflected on the lake. Gorgeous!

 So between the hikes, playing cards, and afternoons spend reading an excellent PD James mystery, it was really quite an excellent vacation.

Yearbook

If you had told me a year ago I would be helping to teach photography to elementary school students in Uganda, I would have laughed. But that's what I've been doing every Thursday afternoon for yearbook club. Although it's not always entirely kicks and giggles, mostly due to technology headaches, it has been really fun to see the progression in the kids photos. They have taken some excellent photos. We started taking pictures of flowers around campus, mostly just as an exercise in proper focusing. Then we took some of our best flower pictures and they were turned in to greeting cards and wall hangings. Last weekend we sold our products at a holiday bazaar, and the kids are well on their way to earning a nice yearbook camera for the school. And I discovered that some of our students are very natural little salesmen.

Here are a few of their shots.

*Photo credit to the students of Acacia Yearbook. Eliana Tuggy took the first and the last photos

Made it through a quarter

I've made it through a couple big firsts. We finished up our first quarter at the beginning of November. Not only was this a moment for me as a teacher to think "Has it REALLY been that long already?" but we also got to celebrate what we'd learned with a program for the parents. Although it required hours of work and preparation, the final program went really well. I was so proud of my class! They recited their latest memory verse (a chunk of Romans 12) the best that they had ever done, performed a song with various instruments and voices, and closed the program with their fearsome haka. I had only taught them half of it during history, but of their own volition they learned the whole thing and performed it like true warriors. It was a beautiful thing.

I've also now finished my first round of report card writing. I can tell you for certain, I have never been more grateful for having such a small class. Acacia is still sorting out their system for reports and what it they should look like, so we all invested hours and hours (and days, and weeks...it felt like anyway). But now they are finished and done. Hurrah!

Next big task...our Christmas pageant. In three weeks. Wait, just THREE WEEKS....yikes. Stay tuned for how this next adventure ends.