Monday, September 15 – Off to another good start.  On the road by 8:30 with two vans packed full of gifts for the orphans, pillowcase dresses, shorts, supplies for the MEP and HANDS programs and tools!  We filled the first four hours with the US and Ugandan teams fine-tuning the planned activities for the next two weeks.  A delicious lunch of Katogo (a cooked blend of Irish potatoes, bananas and beans), peanut sauce and sliced avocado was served.  We are getting spoiled by the fresh avocados, bananas, potatoes, cabbage, pineapple! 

We then unpacked and sorted all of the items we’d packed into the vans; prepared walls in the Empowerment Center for painting; handled some minor maintenance items; and had various meetings on different topics.

We also took time to walk around the area to take a look at Michelle’s new neighborhood.  We watched goats and cows being herded past the Empowerment Center and of course played with all of the children who come by to check out the strangers in their village.  The children love to have their photo taken and enjoy looking at it even more.   In addition to pictures, Diane took a video of one of the young boys pushing a tire down the road with a stick.  He got a kick out of watching that playback!

We also presented hockey jerseys, provided by Urban and Marilyn Rice, Karen’s cousins, to all of the staff here in Uganda.  They put them on and broke into a lively “thank you” song … it was great and brought many smiles and cheers.

Karen and Josiah headed off to Muko High School to meet with the headmaster to discuss Haward’s orchestra classes . We realized a misunderstanding about times for classes and worked together to avoid conflict between the adults and the students. The students were scolded by the headmaster for gathering too slowly and wasting time. Then we went to a classroom like the pictures you have seen to rehearse. Many students gathered to watch while about six students played. They mostly played African music by memory and no method books were to be seen. I gave them an assignment to produce the books tomorrow and perform from them as well so I can assess their music reading progress. They are performing on Saturday for our big fundraising event so we will work all week to perfect their tunes.

Sue and Ginny went to Drucilla Vocational School in order to secure a trainer for dyeing the basket materials. We were accompanied by Rev. Esau Habomugisha to the school since they sponsor this school. We all met with Phoebe, the head of the school. Currently, they have 81 girls in the school who go through a 2-year rotation of programs (agriculture, home economics, basket weaving, knitting, tailoring and catering). Most of the girls are orphans who scrape whatever they can together to attend this school. Phoebe’s philosophy is to build the girls up with self-confidence and practical skills so that they don’t automatically marry at a very young age and have little future. Once we secured the trainer, we spoke more with Phoebe and realized how similar her values are with ACT’s. We think this will be a great vocational school for us to send out girls after they leave school. I showed Phoebe the little bag for the “Days for Girls.” I told her we were going to making these for our girls. It is a bag of supplies for the girls during their monthly menstruation. Right now, the girls stay in bed or at home during their periods and miss school. This kit will allow them to have the supplies, hand sewn by women in the U.S. to go back to school. Phoebe was just thrilled with the bag and I promised her we would send her 100 bags for her girls.

When we all met back at the hotel we had the pleasure and privilege of meeting Francis and Mackline – two of ACT’s orphans who are now attending University in Kabale.  We were able to see them try ketchup for the first time.  Francis liked it; Mackline – not so much!  Mackline expects to be our first orphan to graduate in April 2015 in records management from the Kabale University vocational school.  

We also celebrated Toni’s birthday after dinner with cake picked up from a shop in Kabale.  The shop didn’t sell cakes, but sold chunks of cake – so we shared four chunks and sang Happy Birthday to Toni – with Francis starting the tune for us.   Happy Birthday Toni!