When it rains…Ugandans stay in!

Rain boots…check!
Rain jackets…check!
Umbrellas….check!
Prepared for the Ugandan rain…..Not a chance!

My student Gilbert

Those of us that volunteer at the school were invited to a dinner party at another one of our few volunteer’s house. Rona is from Sweden and lives with 3 other European girls who are here with Project Trust. They graduated from high school and spent their gap year here in Uganda. They have been here for 9 months and have about 2 more months. I thought what we were doing took a lot of guts, but it takes an extremely special 18 year old to travel to Uganda for a year immediately after high school to volunteer.



It was such a good night, but it started out pretty soggy. We definitely entered a bit of a storm. It was lightning and thundering, yet we were determined to join Rona and the other teachers from Hope Academy. We were all soaking wet and it seemed to rain harder as we were walking. Eventually, it was raining so hard we decided to run. Everyone we passed was standing in their doorway staring at us as if saying, “Look at those crazy foolish Americans!” I have never seen Kaihura so quiet; we were literally the only people in sight that were outside. Nonetheless, we made it almost on time, but the rest of the guest waited until the rain subsided and came on the ever present “African Time”. Apparently, rain is enough to stop everything in Kaihura, even school! The food was delicious; we had good conversation, and topped off the night with a little dance party.

Dinner Party

Zach teaching my class

Monday- Wednesday of this week our students were taking district wide midterm tests. I was barely in the classroom at all this week. Most of my time was spent in the office grading tests. Grading the test was kind of stressful and upsetting. The tests from the district seem to be poorly made and with confusing directions. I was told that a score of 40% or higher is considered passing. Sadly, I graded many many test with a score of 20% and lower. It was frustrating because I know that my students are smart and I know their potential. I also know that some of the exercises on the test were things we practiced in class, but they clearly did not understand the directions. In addition, each of these tests is supposed to last 2 ½ hours. How can you expect a 9 year old to still for 2 ½ hours and take a test? It never took that long though because the students would give up and leave whole pages blank. It greatly saddened me, but beginning Thursday we started reviewing the test so the students can better understand what the directions were asking of them.

Tracy and Gloria

I felt bad for not being with the students all week, so to make it up I tried to teach all morning on Friday since we only work a half day. I was so incredibly worn out from teaching from 8am-11am. 3 hours straight of standing in front of the class, having to raise your voice to keep their attention, and write on a chalkboard is hard work. This trip has given me a whole new appreciation for teachers at any level. Teaching is not easy, yet the profession is almost always taken for granted.

I am really getting to know some of the other students in my group and it’s exciting and fun to just learn about everyone’s lives. We are all so different and I love how we were sort of thrown together and placed half-way across the world. I have come to love some of the random talks the girls in my room and I end up having. We seem to talk about everything under the sun and our conversations usually end in an explosion of laughter. I really couldn’t have asked for a better group.

Monkeys on the side of the road

We still play volleyball nearly every day in the village. It has become something that most of us look forward to. Some of the teachers from our school join us as well, so it’s cool to have additional time to hang out with them. We have made legitimate friends with some people here in the community. Stephen and Prossy are two Ugandans that live with us and are both in their 20’s. We have all gotten really attached to them. They are some of the sweetest and strongest people ever. I really don’t know what we would do without them.

Minju and I

Some of us started having bible study almost every night. It is really nice to be able to share my faith with others who are on the same journey to become better Christians. Although we are of various denominations, the love for Christ is the same. We have been reading the book of Joshua and discussing 2 chapters at a time. We are all just young people, trying to live our life the right way. We have been trying out different churches in Fort Portal on Sunday. The first Sunday we attended an Anglican church and the second weekend a Catholic church. It is sometimes hard to understand the service even though it’s in English, but it’s nice to be in the presence of other worshipers.

Deciding what to include in each blog is becoming quite a task because so much goes on during the week, but I think this is a sufficient overview of what happened this past week.

Until Next Time,
*Nicole

5’o Clock……African Time

On the Volleyball Court

About half of our group has started playing volleyball in the village almost every night. It’s really fun and gives us a chance to connect with the local people. As I mentioned before, sports has an incredible way of bringing people together. We were told that volleyball begins at 5pm every day, but we quickly discovered that this is 5’o clock African time which really means 5:45 to 6pm. It’s like everyone knows what meeting at 5pm really means. Now that we know, we all leave the house around 5:30 and don’t think twice about being late. Playing volleyball here has been something we all extremely enjoy. Some people even go just to get out of the house and just watch. It helps us create a special bond with the people.  A bond that even language cannot break. It’s that smile that says “I get you, and you get me.We are all just human.” I look for that smile in each place I travel to.

I had kind of a sour morning Thursday, I was teaching an English lesson to my students and the teacher left the room as he usually does. Two boys in my class were talking back and forth in Rutooro (their local language), then it started to become argumentative in tone. They started shoving each other and eventually throwing punches. I tried to break them up and remove one from the room but he refused. I am no teacher and wasn’t given a manual on how to handle the situation. I turned my back and they began again. I went to get the teacher and he removed to boys from the room and dealt with them. The rest of the morning was spent talking about why fighting was bad. I talked to the class as well and they were all very apologetic. Afterward, the day became better and we finished on a much better note. Now even though we had the morning altercation, these are such great kids and I have no clue why the fight even started. I wasn’t too surprised because I have seen many fights in American schools, but I have never seen American children like this.

The students here have incredibly unfortunate stories. Many have been forced to grow up much quicker than nature intended. Yet despite all the hardships they’ve experienced, they are so grateful for what they have and thank God every day for giving them the little that they have. It’s hard to even get upset with them because I know that they have experienced so much that no child should have to go through. I certainly have a new respect for teachers, they work so hard. My teacher tells me I’m doing a good job which is nice because it’s sometimes hard to tell with kids. It seems like as soon as you get the attention of 5 students, another 5 students start getting distracted by something else. And in a small classroom filled with 20 students and limited benches and resources, it’s easy to get distracted. When 4 students have to share one book, at least one is bound to not be able to see and give up trying.

Students at the school.

My Sun hat is a hit! This is Tracy, she's in the Nursery class

My class!



My class continued! Easy to see how I blend in haha.

I brought my “Nicole’s Life” photo album to school one day. I thought it would help to explain where I come from and more specifically explain that Black Americans truly exist, are of different shades, and most aren’t even second generation Africans, but have been in America for generations. I thought I was making progress, but the conclusion of many of the teachers and students was that my parents and friends all look African and we must be! I just gave up haha.

Me being attacked with my picture album.

It’s not that I was trying to argue, I just wanted to expose them to the rest of the world and explain that being American is not sharing a race. Being American is more about sharing a language and a physical place. America is really a melting pot, but I understand how confusing that can be to people who are from a place where the entire country is of the same race and color.

Well, the time has come. But as a side note, the whole notion of “come to Africa and lose weight” isn’t exactly applicable to me trip. Our cooks are way too good and the other night we had fried foods galore! Delicious is an understatement. Foods I don’t even like become so tasty here, for example I eat peanut butter almost every day and actually enjoyed eggplant. Who knew keeping an open mind could be so appetizing!

Until Next Time,
*Nicole

Police Checks and Roaming Chicken…

Have you ever seen monkeys just casually hanging out in trees while driving on the road????

I have and let me tell ya, it’s as incredible as you could imagine. Picture yourself driving down the road on a Sunday afternoon, you pass a national park. You don’t think twice about it, it’s just like any other zoo. You have your Ipod on, headphones in, preparing to fall asleep until you pull up to your driveway. Then someone screams “Monkeys!!!” and the van jolts to a halt. You franticly look out the window to get a glance. Unable to see them at first and feeling left behind as everyone else “Oooos and Ahhhhs”. Then after about 20 seconds of cranking your neck in different directions, you see 5 baboons sitting together on the side of the road in a construction site. Not alarmed at all, almost as if they are looking at you like you are the spectacle. Who needs a safari when the world I’m surrounded by is about as natural as natural gets. I just get a sense of purity here, like things have looked the same for years.

The roads here are filled with speed bumps, I guess to make up for their lack of traffic lights (I have only seen then in the capital city).  They also have police checks every so often. There is one on our way from Kaihura (the village) to Fort Portal (city we come to on the weekends). It’s pretty much a sign that reads “Police Check” and has 4 officers standing on either side of the road with their big guns hanging off one shoulder. We have never previously been stopped for more than 1 minute. Today however, we had a huge van full including Hong who had to “lap-up” in the front. The police officer looked in the window and said “No, this is excess! Excess! Madam, Madam this is excess!” Our driver slipped him some money in his hand (he accepted), but he continued to say “Where is the Madam? Madam this is excess!” Our driver said something else and drove off even though the officer was still talking and had his hand in the window. You better believe we were all astounded and immediately broke out into praise for our driver talking about how much of a tough guy he is! We later found out the “Madam” he was talking about is Faith, the founder of our NGO Bringing Hope to the Family. We have discovered that she is pretty much known everywhere around here. And well respected too!

Serving food to the workers at the farm

Our feast

Fast forwarding, on Tuesday we had an interesting unexpected day. 5 of us at the school only worked for 2 hours and went to the NGOs farm. Only this time we got to drive so it only took us about 25 minutes to get there instead of an hour and a half walk. We spent the day there at the farm with the boys in school there. They were really excited to have visitors; because they are so far out I don’t think many people go out there frequently. We played cards, volleyball, and Frisbee, then ate a delicious freshly cooked meal. It was literally fresh; they went and got Irish potatoes, bananas, fruit, and a cow from the farm. Language was a bit of a barrier, but sports always seems to bring people together. We even got a chance to hold a chicken! It’s safe to say I was acting like a chicken; this isn’t exactly something I’m used to!

Our day at the farm!

Until Next Time,
*Nicole

Welcome to Hope Academy

+"Are you Ugandan?" *"No, I'm Black American"
+"Is your mom Ugandan?"
*"Nope, she's Black American."
+"Is your dad Ugandan?"
*"No, he's Black American too!"
+"Nooooo, you are Ugandan! Look...[grabs my hand] We are same!"

^^^^This is a conversation I have had numerous times with my students, other students at the school, and adults in the village haha. Everyone is so amazed and still a little skeptical to the fact that I am such a dark complexion yet I'm not Ugandan, or at least African. I then try to explain to them that African Americans have a spectrum of skin complexions. They kindly listen, but the conversation usually ends in them making the conclusion that I must be Ugandan. I don't fight it though, because they are a beautiful people and it would be an honor to be like them.

Lets rewind a little bit and I'll let you in on what's been going on with me. So we had a 13hr plane flight from Washington DC, to Ethiopia. As much as I love international travel, I am not a fan of the extremely long flights. After about 6hrs I get so antsy and need to walk around. On top of that our plane was filled with babies and young children. But, the service was amazing and I'm convinced Ethiopian Airlines has the most beautiful flight attendants. They look like they should all be in a magazine somewhere. One time when the flight attendant came by and I asked for water and she gave me wine. But, don't worry she simply misunderstood me, Jesus is still the only one who can turn water into wine haha.

Once in Uganda we met up with the other half of our group and our professor. We then headed to the van and proceeded to take another long journey. It takes 5 hours from the airport (only one in the country) to our village of Kaihura. When preparing us for our trip, our professor was sure to inform us that we would be living in very spartan conditions. He told us we would have no electricity in the village, bucket showers, and only pit latrines. However, some things changed and our living arrangements are 100 times nicer than any of us expected!

About 18-20 of us live in a house with 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. I think it's one of the nicest houses in the village. We even have a flat screen tv! Which we thought didn't worked. None of us wanted it to work because having that kind of technology can change the feel of the trip and we genuinely wanted to have an Ugandan experience. But, once again to our surprise it worked, however we have only ever used it twice. Two Ugandans from the NGO live with us, Stephen and Pressi. They are the sweetest people ever! Stephen is like our translator and goes everywhere with us. Pressi plus two other Ugandan ladies cook, clean, and wash our clothes. Don't worry though, this is still no vacation, we all have assigned chores like dishes, bathrooms, or cleaning floors.               This is our house >>

The food has been delicious! I feel so much healthier because everything is natural and not stuffed with added preservatives and such. I can definitely understand why people say you lose weight when you go to Africa because we eat good healthy portions, but don't stuff ourselves and we walk everywhere. I probably walk at least 3 miles a day. We eat a lot of rice and occasionally meat (it's a commodity here.) I would describe the state of Uganda in comparison to my other trips as being better than Haiti, but worse than Peru. They are definitely no stranger to poverty (I have several students that come to school with no shoes and they all wear the same clothes almost everyday)

I teach at a primary school called Hope Academy. I am a student teacher in the p.3 class (primary 3). My students are aged 8-13years old. My teacher's name is Ronald, but the children call their teachers master. They call me Madam or Madam Nicole. They have the utmost respect for those older than them. When they want to leave to classroom and go to the restroom they bow down on one knee and raise their hand. I was so taken aback the first time and had no clue what the little boy was doing. Poor boy sat there for a while until he began taping me and I realized what he was doing. Such a contrast to American children who seem to have little to no respect for their teachers and other adults now days. They have multiple songs that they always sing to us. And after every lesson they sing a little song and clap for me saying thank you. I have 20 students in a small classroom with dirt floors. The children crowd together on only 5 benches. The resources are extremely limited, sometimes as many as 4 children are expected to share one book. They have so much potential, but it is so easy for them to get lost in such a class setting. I have begun to work one on one with some students that are behind. So far I have taught a lot of reading and writing, but I still assist the teacher in anything during the day. The school day is from 7:30am-4:30pm, I start working at 8am and a half day on Friday. Majority of the class is taught in English, the students aren't great at English, but they are decent and getting better. I find myself having to repeat the same thing 3 times but in different ways until they understand. I also sometimes have to say things slightly different to accommodate for my American accent.

On the weekends we travel to a nearby city called Fort Portal and stay in a hotel. It is supposed to be a break for us since our living conditions were going to be pretty rough (however, they turned out to be very nice.) Like our house, the hotel surprised us so much. It is more like a resort, we even have a pool. This place is immaculate. A couple of us were talking about how we actually feel bad because we will go back to work Monday, our students will ask about our weekend, and in the back of our mind we know that we lived in luxury to get a "break" from village life, but they live in make-shift houses with dirt floors and no electricity 24/7. It's definitely something to think about.
These are pictures from our hotel on the weekends>

I could go on and on about the amazing time I'm having here and all the amazing people in my group I have grown close to, but I am now realizing that my blog is much longer than I ever intended. Because of that, I am going to abruptly end (sorry), but I think you can get an essence of what has been going on here. I do want to add however, that the people here have the strongest faith ever. They have an amazing unwavering faith in God. I am so excited to experience the church service tomorrow morning. This picture is small proof of God's beauty and the beauty of Uganda.

Until next time.
*Nicole

The Night Before...

This day always seemed so far away, but somehow it just crept up on me! I've left home and am now in Washington, DC sitting on my nice comfy bed in the Hyatt hotel. Funny how Duke is sending us to rural Uganda where I'll have to take bucket showers and won't have electricity, but the night before they put us up in the Hyatt haha. I will definitely cherish my last real shower tonight!

For the next 2 months I will be in Kaihura, Uganda with 14 other students from Duke and a professor. We will be working on 3 different projects. Water sustainability (engineering inclined people), Medical clinic (pre-med type people), and the childhood empowerment & education project (everyone else?). The NGO we will be working with is called Bringing Hope to the Family. Check out their website, it's a pretty cool organization that seems to be very productive.

On the weekends we will be going to Fort Portal, a city about an hour away. This will be a nice break because we'll actually have electricity and running water! Can you imagine 15 students from one of the most high tech countries in the world going to a place that is literally decades behind our technological improvements?!?? Crazy right?

Well now it's time to watch Game 7 of the Celtics vs. Heat series.....GO CELTICS :)
I pray that God is with me every step of the way on this trip and keeps His hedge of protection around me. He gave me this awesome opportunity and I know He will give me the strength to work alongside of his Ugandan people and make positive changes.
Until next time.
*Nicole