Day 14: Goodbyes are hard, even when they're not yours

1 July, 2010

The home visits today went well. We gave a mosquito net that I actually bought for myself, but they already had one up for me when I got here, to a lady with HIV that we visited last week. Thanks again donors! Maria and I put it up in her room. That was an interesting task. I wasn't even sure how to hang it so I'm proud, although Maria did most of it. I basically just did what I was told. We are so concerned back home about the way everything in our home looks and this lady was so happy to have this mosquito net that was not put up nicely but was functional. We also gave clothes to another lady that we visited.

Once we came back from home visits I hung out with Maria for a while and then told Sarah I wasn't going to be at home for lunch. She insisted that I eat before I leave for Hope, so I had 3 chapats (AMAZING! and I even asked her how to make them. Look out roomies!) and beans.

When I got to the school I was so full from all the food and tired from all the walking and the teachers could tell. It was almost lunch time so they told me to rest and teach after lunch. Once the kids left for lunch, Theresa, Hollie, and I headed inside to eat with Betty. Luckily she was not there when I served myself because I took very little. I was still full, but not too full for pineapple :)

During the math lesson I made up a ridiculous song for counting sets of ten which went something like this: "1 ten is 10 [10!]/2 tens is 20 [20!], etc..." Then we did 10 problems on the board and I discovered a more effective way to teach the material. After that I told them to free draw. Fred especially, got really excited. They drew things from our lessons such as sweeping and family members. Ddamba drew pictures of a camera and me driving a car. I took pictures of all but one of my kids in their drawings. Nabukalu refused to let me take her picture because she was not done coloring. They did not want to leave class because they were not finished coloring. I told them they could finish tomorrow and even told them the same thing in Luganda. They were a little more willing to go outside after that.

After school was Hollie and Theresa's goodbye which was this week's festival of tears. It was so sad and the older kids were so emotional. No joke, they were bawling. Not just a few of them and not just the girls, all of them. The little ones didn't understand what ws going on though. The two of them had to leave before Mi jeung was finished because the goodbyes were too much. I waited for Mi jeung to finish teaching and one of my kids came up and said, "Teahcer, Ddamba iz crying." They always tell me somebody is crying and it's never true and I always fall for it so I didn't even listen this time. Soon enough, Ddamba walks out of the classroom, eyes red and sniffling. He said something to the teacher in Luganda and all the teachers started laughing. She turned to me and said, "he is crying for those who have gone" (meaning Hollie and Theresa). I don't think he even really knew them, but he was still visibly upset. He walked back to the classroom and sat down, still sniffling. I went to comfort him and of course all the kids followed me in the room. I gave him a little hug and he just stared ahead, refusing to look at me.

The kids taught me a little more Luganda and I played ball with them outside before walking into P5 to get Mi jeung. We walked home and discovered that the water was working!!!! We immediately filled up all of our jerrycans and 3 of us did laundry. I took a shower, Hollie took a shower...and now the water pressure is down again :( At least we got some good use out of it.

FYI: the stars here are absolutely amazing!