Day 7!

Thursday May 24^th 9:05 pm

This morning we followed our normal routine and got up and loaded up the bus to go to MUBS. For breakfast we had more of the same oh so lovely Ugandan food – toast, biscuit/cookie, and a samosa.

We then went to Nangabo Vocational Training Institute. This is a place where people, usually girls, can go to learn how to do cooking/hotel industry, teaching, pottery, agriculture, hair, or sewing. Most of them are two-year programs that are another alternative to a university type setting, but still give them a good foundation to start a business or support a family. I listened to them give the brief introduction to the school and then we began the tour, but I didn’t last long on the tour. That’s because our first stop was the three classrooms full of students who I immediately fell in love with. They also became very attached very quickly and Professor Root didn’t have a problem leaving Dori, Alessa, and me, the three education majors, while everyone else continued on the tour.

We immediately made our selves at home and gave each student a smiley face pin. Then their teacher just kind of gave them over to us, so even though we weren’t really planning on teaching anything nor did we know we would be at a place with kids we jumped right in. Since we didn’t have much to work with and they were extremely hard to understand, we asked them to sing us a song. After they shared a song with us we sang a few back. We liked to do songs with motions so they could kind of follow along even if they weren’t understanding the words, so we sang twinkle twinkle, the itsy bitsy spider, row row row your boat, the abcs, and maybe even a couple of others. We also read them a story and then watched their teacher do some work with numbers. After this it was time for their lunch and a break, so we got to sit on the floor and hang out with them. We each had a kid who seemed to gravitate towards us and I had a little girl just about fall asleep in my lap. I seriously was ready to just put her on the bus with me and bring her home.

Instead it was time to go and we headed back to MUBS on the bus for lunch. I ate a little bit of rice and some potatoes, but I’ve kind of given up on the concept of eating lunch. After lunch we had to go listed to the IGG, the inspector general of governance or the person who is supposed to monitor corruption. The lecture was honestly the most boring thing and it was also extremely hard to hear and understand him.

After the long boring lecture we got to head back and drop the MUB students off then we went back to Red Chili briefly. Once we collected our clean laundry from the line and had a chance to drop our stuff off, we walked to dinner. Lets just say walking anywhere in Uganda, let alone a 15 minute walk is an experience. We walked in a single file line passing things back like “hole” “puddle” “mountain” or would even yell boda-boda (motorcycle) so no one died in the process. We also were honked at and catcalled at while walking.

Once we finally got to the restaurant we got really excited for some “good” (well as good as can be expected) Italian food. Emily, Maryna, and I split ravioli, pizza, and linguini with pestoa. The ravioli was by far our favorite but I think overall we would agree that the restaurant was a big hit all around. We even got to eat gelato afterward, which was the cherry topping on a relatively easy-going day.

However once we finally finished dinner, we had to make the walk back in the dark. So picture everything I described earlier, but now we couldn’t see where we were going at all. Lets just say it was a good bonding experience and we all made it back alive.

Tonight is the night I think we’re actually going to get some sleep. I’m going to be going to bed well before 12 and we even get to sleep in a little bit in the morning before attending MUBS graduation so sweet dreams!
~Mary