Friday February 1st

It was 90+ today, and tonight it has cooled to a nice 78 degrees.

I can't believe that it is Friday night already. This week has gone by so fast, but thank goodness the weekend lies ahead of me. Nancy and I have been really busy getting ready for the team that is coming on Monday The original plan was to have the men on the team stay in tents, while keeping the women in some on-site housing that was available. But with the early rains we have been getting, the fear of malaria made us consider Plan B. The team will be staying with some staff, some on-site housing, and everywhere else in between. A lot of planning and preparation goes into all of this, so I am definitely learning a lot. 5 a.m. Monday morning, Gary Wood and I are will be going to Kampala to pick up the team in Entebbe. I am excited for the team to come, but not excited about the 5 a.m. departure. But the team will probably be more tired than I.

On Wednesday, something happened that will be forever engrained in my memory. I started out the day by helping a lady in the child sponsorship program photograph the new children that are coming in. My job was to write a quick description of what they were wearing so if the pictures came back out of order, we would have a pretty good clue about who was who. All the children were lining up by Jill, the lady who works in child sponsorship, and I. Jill had told me on the way down to the assembly of kids, that for many for the children, we will be the first muzungu (white people) that they will have ever seen. As the children were lining up beside us, a little girl reached over and touched my forearm. She did it again, and this time her face lit up and I think she realized that I WAS real. She grabbed my hand and just held it tightly, but the whole time she just kept looking at my white hand next to her dark hand. I wish I had my camera with me so that I could have taken a picture of it. She then took her handkerchief and started rubbing my hand as if to get the “white” off of it. As much as she tried, I was still white. Some other kids would come up to me and just touch my skin to see if I was real or not. It was definitely one of those experiences that one never forgets.

Tomorrow, I will be working with one of the investment year students in the afternoon. For those of you who are not familiar with the investment year program, it is designed to help the students who have finished S4 (which is kind of like 10th grade in the American system) develop and learn some skills that might spark some interest about what they want to do with their future while teaching them money management and other things. I will be teaching the student basic baking and also he wanted to try out some photography. I am really looking forward to it.

Nancy is going to Kampala tomorrow to get our long awaited solar batteries. Hopefully by Sunday or Monday night we will be fully charged and I can write this blog by lamplight instead of candlelight. What can I way, our house is never lacking in ambiance.