FOOLED YOU

Who would have thought ,ten years ago, that I would be on the back of a boda boda,travelling through the poverty of Namuwongo, up to the comparative peace and quiet of our hotel, after the last day. We gave treats to the kids: healthy cereal, dried banana, pineapple, and raisins. We invited the Ruby 11. James, the co director of the Peace club, a teacher, came by with a gift for Bob and I. Another gift from the wonderful sect of the school. Although it is tough to say goodbye to the children, and now the older children, Olivia, our teacher, and the Peace Club, I find this length perfect. We accomplished what we set out to do. I still , truly, find it amazing that I am here and have done this. Amazing. I wish... no. I wish too much, and not for me. Bye now. J

AN ADMISSION

The kids have porridge at 10,and break at 10:30. They come back to class at 11. Olivia, the real teacher went to see her sister who is going back to their village. She came back at 11:06. There was CHAOS! Charles was running around poking others wit a big stick. Mutebi and Jimmy were fighting. Two were under the teacher's desk, three were crying. I ran around trying to put out fires, but to no avail!!! I gasped a sigh of relief when O came back in, and, although I refused to read Hop on Pop, as I had tried to we had a phonics lesson and Words In Colour without the colour. THEN I started Hop on Pop. Bob and I bought books over the weekend, and Peter, the Headmaster, promised to add more. I feel Bob and I have had a successful time here with the project, and, hope that L. O. V.E. chooses to continue what we introduced. Its hot today...We bought treats for tomorrow, our last morning. Fare thee well,and love from us.

May be the last one till Sweden?

Bob says we will be too rushed to write Monday or Tuesday, which will be hectic. Tomorrow we leave at 7:15, work till noon, come back, rest a bit, and go back to help Gadafi with his multiplication tables and meet with the Peace and Justice Club, which is comprised of 8- 13 or so year olds. Some have already taken photos of: "things that are happy and things that are sad in my life". We already created a tradition! At the end of each meeting we cross link arms and sing: "step by step the longest march can be done,,," it is hard not to cry. As for our babies, Ruby wanted a report on her 11, and I can say that one of hers, Veronica, is screaming less, and crying less. We will give the NLP and Ruby's 11 a special treat on Tuesday, when we will work 8-10:30..... shlep back across Namuwongo, up a hill that resembles a dusty, rutted Ridgewood,....come back tired, and be picked up at 2:00 p.m. to go to Entebbe,.....then Addis Ababa, then Rome, then Sweden. Love to all our friends from Bob and Judy

GRAVELY INSULTED

WHY? Because "people" seem to prefer Bob's blogs to mine! Woe is me. I was quite sick yesterday and did not go to work. The teacher, Olivia, had brought her daughter for me to meet, and, of course, I was not able to....Bob says the teaching went well. After work Bob walked over to the IN NEED HOME, our previous headquarters, and was warmly greeted by Anny and Lilian. My only report of the day is that I ate only a quarter of a slice of toast all day, and I was serenaded by loud cries of ecstacy emanating from a room whose occupants were obviously taking drugs and having sex. As for the party the night before, our guests seemed happy. We had Mr.Okoth and his wife, Ronah and Joyce, and Esther Watts' neice,Casey.This was the 4th and best attempt to have grilled chicken, and approached what I wanted. Today I have revived and we are off to find the 1000 Cups Coffee Shop , with no address available. We leave Tuesday morning! J

TOWARD THE END

The executive are the wonderful children who run the Peace and Justice Club of St, Henry"s School. We met with them yesterday and they printed some of their photos as well as wrote some stories(we are bringing them back with us and I think you will find them quite interesting). Today, I spent some time teaching the students the sounds that some of the letters make as well as spelling for some simple words. The thrill that they showed made the effort worthwhile. How tired I now feel. These young children wear me out more than the older children I once taught. But it was worth it. The picture of us: Get up and have breakfast around six forty-five. Then we begin our half and hour journey on the red soil that finds itself on the side of a roadway. Red roofed houses shelter behind red or white walls as speeding boda bodas (motorcyclists with relaxed passengers barely holding on) fly by. Then another roadway at right angles appears. We move to the right. The red line now become a blotch and we move more leisurely on it except where trucks block our way then we try to walk gingerly around them. Then suddenly a dull orange roadway appears we move up it. The climb is gradual and we meet many people coming and going. We move to the left passed a pub and then our climb begins. A small mountain appears,orange and rutted,with occasional trucks,boda bodas,cars speeding upward. Then it appears: St.Henrys. We have done it! We arrive at 8 and leave about noon and then we walk back. Four hours with these wonderful children and then the hike back. And I will miss it all: the screaming children,the kindly overworked teachers,the red roadways,the palm trees.... Bob

Party Day

Bob will post a blog today, too, but I wanted to say how nice it is to read your comments. Also, working at the JGH will be a cinch after this. Its humbling...We took photos thanking the 4 schools that raised $ for us via Howard.
Evie, the Chinese restaurant sells the eggplant hui sing! Maybe the gang can come here after the Saturday film. Rochelle, is Doreen reading this blog? Bob and I are fine. I just bought 2 pineapples for tonight. I had previously bought ground nuts and compained to Bob that they wern't as good as ones I previously ate, and then found out they had to be roasted! We switched from the Chez Johnson. It's nicer, and less expensive. Moishe and Roz , keep commenting! We love your comments, everyone! Love J.

GUNS and ROSES

I believe the word is ubiquitous...everywhere there are guns. Police, soldiers, guards...In Namuwongo one can't walk 20 paces without guns. We are used to it and don't bat an eyelash. Yesterday, the kids in the Peace and Justice group broke in to 2, and I went to the Soweto section of Namuwongo. It was not pleasant, but it is where some of the kids live their lives. Maybe they will do better.... Our little literacy project is doing well. I had one today who put sounds together to make words. Of course I was mad with pleasure.There was 1 girl, Veronica who screamed and cried constantly, but was switched to Ruby's class. Now she comes in to say Hello teacha Judy, and sings. She never did when she was with us. Tomorrow we are hosting a party! We tried the grilled chicken 3 times and it has not been what I want!!!!(sound familiar, Kavita and Ruby) I hope it is good tomorrow......Invitees: Mr. Okoth, headmaster of St. Henry's,and his wife, Ronah and Joyce, teachers of our kids lasst year, and Esther Watts' niece, who has been working here for a year. We will serve wine! Back to the important stuff: the project at St Henry's goes well. We want to expand, but maybe we must wait till the kids have been there longer. I already see 2 kids who should be sponsored to real school, but that is for 1 of you to decide! These kids steal your hearts, but after 40 plus years of teaching, I quiver if Olivia, the real 'teacha', leaves for more than 10 minutes! Chaos in needle park! love to all.

New News

Exciting Times: Taught a class where the students had to count pencils and give me the exact number I asked for. They did very well. Judy and I met with members of the Executive and they took pictures of sad and happy things. Will meet again with them on Wed (tomorrow) to see how everything worked out. One day going home noticed some kids behind me trying to see if they could beat me. I then challenged them to a walking race. Again, walking with members of the Executive, I challenged them for the honor of Canada to beat me. I am proud to say Canada won. The members of the Executive I was with could not think of any happy things in their lives; one wanted a picture of himself before a picture of his dead mother. I wait to see what these students have to say about their lives. Bob

ANOTHER WONDERFUL DAY

at least WE think it's wonderful.....To begin,we had an appointment with a pineapple vendor for before 8. We wanted to bring pineapples for the teachers at St. Henry's. We waited till 8:20,and went to check the next vendor who wasn't there either, so we had to go to an expensive store to get the pineapples and were late to school. I hope they enjoyed the fruit. Our classroom has too many kids in it, a long story, and just about no materials. I believe things will get better.The kids are wonderful, though there is one who should be in Eva's class at the JGH. Im trying to get the teacher to add a smile to a face with eyes and a nose only, when she, for half a second, does what the teacher asks. Mostly she cries. I thought a cute kid Maureen was trying to teach me the acholi word for pencil, but she was saying 'colahred'. It took time till it dawned. I taught them a song using the words Muyenga and Namuwongo, and ued the song for reading. Olivia, the teacher, was interested. We are totally beat after each day, BUT last night we went to a chinese restaurant near us, and it was delicious..I wish all of you could see the whole place. The smog, traffic,a poor but proud school, and kids that you would love to know..I hate being on the computer, but I want to SHARE all this! Love, Judy

MEETING THE EXECUTIVE

I know that everyone wants to find out what happened when we met the executive and tried to get them interested in photo-journalism but I know that good photo-journalists must try to keep their readers interested in what they are writing and one of the best ways of doing this is not to give away the punchline so I will talk about other things until you just can't take it anymore and then I will tell you the answer. I feel high being in Africa. I love to walk along a roadway(there are no sidewalks only 'sidewalks' where red dirt has creeped on the roadway creating a differentiation of color. This is our pathway and we--hundreds of us---walk along it while motor cyclists shoot by with passengers calmly sitting on the back of motorcycles. Sometimes they stray onto our pathways; sometimes accidentally,sometimes,or so it seems,to show their macho ways. And thus we journey on our way toward St. Henri School and thus we journey back. And I,crazy Bob. love it. I move into the masses,becoming one with them. And feeling one with them I love it. And , crazy as it is, no one walking on this pretend roadway with craazy motorcyclists skooting passed us is afraid. None is afraid, No one. Now will you stop it and tell us about your meeting. What are you going to say about the roadway? I really only care about the meeting with the executive. Oh well, okay, I'll tell us. They accepted what we mentioned. Tomorrow, they begin to photograph. The executive is fantastic. Eight wonderful kids. Bbob

A Full Day

Its been a full day. First, the hotel did not give us a wake up call at six,which we had asked for. Thank goodness I decided to stay up when I awakened at four A.M. We must be at the NLP by 7 :45. The morning is long with 30 kids at many different levels, kids who have no school preparation . Olivia, the teacher, Bob, and I did some reading,writing,and shading (working with crayons). We spoke with the headmaster at recess. He was interested in our suggestions re: Leave Out Violence. By the afternoon we met with the two teachers who are now at the "Social Justice Club", and tomorrow we will meet with the 8 children who form the executive. We gave the teachers each a LOVE camera and will go out with the executive 4-5 times to take photos of good things and difficult things in their lives. Finally each will choose photos and write journals. On the way home we heard drummings and asked to watch an amazing group of teenagers. Practicing "tribal dances" just like in Fire Danced (an excellent film). Judy

OUR FIRST DAY!!!!!!

The trip was, thankfully uneventful. We followed Terry McEchern's sage advice and spent the lst night in Entebbe. In the morning we took a private hire to the Chez Johnson hotel, booked in and followed Mr. Okoth's directions to the St, Henry School;. Olivia has "our class." The walk from Chez Johnson to St. Henry takes about 20 minutes. A good part is through Namuwongo (very familiar to us,now). Our classroom is quite bare and shabby. Put aside all pictures you may have of private Catholic school.... Hardly any books or toys.... The best,most anticipated,happiest moments came from meeting with children we taught last year. They swarmed and milled. Truly amazing. And when asked to, broke into "Miss Mary Mack". They remembered the words better than we do. We ate with the other teachers posh (gruel) and beans and looked forward to the Italian Grocery Store. On our way there we met up with Ronah and exchanged news. The ice cream was wonderful. Now we have to prepare lessons for tomorrow. Bob and Judy

TROUBLE?

In the comparative comfort of home, I forgot the user name I need for this blog. Then,the password.Trusted Howard put me back on track!!! This morning I had to change CDN for US funds,remembering that in Uganda, the banks eschew any bills that are either/and /or old ,crumpled. They check carefully,even crisp bills. In return, for Ugandan shillings, par]per money one gets old,used,and decidedly un crisp bills. But mission accomplished: money for Sophia(never met), Ronah, and the In Need Home. Each will be pleased to get money for the beads we sold for them.I find it hard to believe that in a few days, Bob and I will ,hopefully,be at the Chez(pronounced Ches)Johnson budget hotel in Muyenga.We will sorely miss Kavita, Ruby,and Howard,and wish there were volunteers coming with us!A la prochaine, Judy

THE TIME APPROACHES

Writing a blog here in Montreal is totally unlike doing it in Africa...so Im practicing here,where the electricity won't go out and it's calm and peaceful.Just had a phone call from a recent McGill Education grad who sounds interested in volunteering. On Friday, im meeting with Doreen who hasnt signed in blood,but is a possible? likely volunteer. My blood races and I get excited thinking and talking.We may be building a connection with a wonderful organization called Leave Out Violence. More about that another time... Bob and I fly to Entebbe and will stay at a B&B one night. We take a "hire" to Kampala,and will stay at the budget Chez Johnson hotel,which is within walking distance to our fledgling class of 15 kids,who will learn to READ, WRITE and do basic MATHS,because of our work and your support!

GETTING READY TO GO!

We will be leaving Montreal on June 28,for Uganda. The adventure starts again. We will post a blog every night. Bob and I are so....excited! Howard may not be able to go as planned,as he has a terrible reaction to Malarone,and wont take larium...imagine that ,he's worried about a little thing like hallucinations!Judy