Greetings from Jinja! Weve just returned after spending a week volunteering at the Lubani Primary School with NGO, Soft Power Education. Everyone is pretty spent and ready to relax after a week of intense painting. The week started with a visit to a local art festival in Kampala, where Izzy bought a cool pair of sandals for the good Mzungu price of 28K. Afterward we went white water rafting in the Nile River down class 5 rapids! A few people were pretty nervous beforehand but everyone conquered their fears and enjoyed the adrenaline rush and beautiful scenery. Zoe got a pretty BA bloody nose while Becca was burnt to a crisp by the hot sun… her skin is nicely recovering.
Afterward, we caught a bus to the school and got acquainted with Soft Power Education. SPE is an organization that focuses on improving education in Uganda, both via hands on teaching and improvement of local school facilities. They have worked on over 500 classrooms.
Accommodations included a sea of foam mattresses and a jungle of mosquito nets.. Things got pretty cozy in the shared classroom we inhabited. Day 3, Vickys bag arrived!
During the mornings and early afternoons we worked on priming and painting the four classroom school building and the late afternoon was spent learning Kiswahili with our awesome teacher, Roy. The language was really interesting but we will become much more prevalent when we get to Tanzania, where English is not as widely spoken. The whole time we painted, we were watched by kids who seemed particularly entertained by Chris and his sweet dance moves. It was really cool being able to interact with and get to know all of them. We miss them already, as well as Monicah, who cooked us amazing meals everyday, and Swaibu, who was an excellent foreman for the project and a good friend to have around. Meals included lots of starches and fruit.. One night we had chicken, which Charlotte so bravely butchered for us… and we ended up getting a good anatomy lesson out of the experience.
Weve been having a lot of fun playing games like Sniper, to which Alexa fell victim to first, and pushing our comfort zones, as Jess did with the squatty potty… Cliff and Karen also entertained us with some amazing pteridactyl impersonations. Tomorrow we will head off to work at the coffee plantation! Stay tuned…
Love Will and Taylor
