Day 21: "We Are the World"

8 July, 2010

This morning Alissa, Brittany (who all Ugandans we've met call, "Britton," it's ironic becuase they put "ee" on the end of everything else), and I waited for Sam so that we could do home visits. He showed up around 8am and waited until after 8:30am to tell us that he was going to Kampala...without us. So we hung out at the house for a while, then wandered into town to eat chapat and see any new sites. We did run into quite a few creepers who blew kisses and thought it was appropriate to yell, "hey, sweetie!" They stared us down and I stared right back and said, "good morning," ignoring their obnoxious gestures. I wasn't sure if they were staring at me because my hair was down or if they were staring at all of us because we are mzungus, or a combination of both.

At Hope, the kids had a mid-term after lunch. During the test I was entertained by kids of all ages. The P6s were having a debate about whether land or money was better. The baby class entertained me with songs that I soon realized they were being forced to sing, because when I left to go to the toilet they began working in their books.

The P1s taught me more Luganda and Teacher Christine gave me some vocabulary words to take home with me. Let me know if you want to learn any ;). The kids saw a chameleon outside and Teacher Edith ran to get it down because I couldn't see it. When I said I wanted to take a picture she ran back toward the classroom with the chameleon on a branch, and all the kids following. I got the picture, but was thoroughly amused by the efffort taken to bring the chameleon to ME. I would have been just as fine, taking the picture from the window.

When Brittany and Alissa finaly arrived with Sarah and Doreen, after getting lost and going in a huge circle for almost an hour, I jumped up and down and screamed, "They're here!" My kids probably thought something spectacular was about to happen becuase I was so excited (we needed Brittany and Alissa to record our performance, which Mi jeung has so graciously allowed me to put on YouTube, Facebook, this blog, wherever. I will post when and where it is available). All the kids and teachers gathered around the new mzungus and then we all went into the classroom. We did our performance of "We Are the World." The video pretty much speaks for itself.

Apparently Teacher David thought today was my last day so all the kids started singing good-bye and welcome (?) songs. I informed him that Friday is my last day but the kids continued to sing. Then he said, "maybe you will say 'good-bye' tomorrow." It's funny because everyone thinks I teach a different class. Some of the teachers think I teach only P1 and some think I teach only P2. I think only Teacher Betty, Teacher Christine, Teacher Edith, Teacher Susan, and the other volunteers of course know that I teach both classes.

When school ended all the kids were lined up for assembly...not completely sure what that meant, but I hope it wasn't like the last assembly. Mi jeung and I went to Tacher Christine's house which wasn't too far away. We met her family, including her brother and mother. Her daughter said that everyone had been wanting to meet me for a while. Her mother asked her, "why don't you bring her to the house?" They were all so excited. It's so cool that whenever you are even remotely involved in someone's life, especially if you are a mzungu, everyone else in their life wants to meet you too. They took pictures and everything. Teacher Christine walked with us most of the way home. She bought us more sugar cane (which I am trying to finish before I leave :/)and promised to "prepare" something for me tomorrow.

Mi jeung and I went to the well after getting back from Teacher Christine's. On the way down, this high school kid asked Mi jeung what he could do to be with her for a long time and said he wants to come to America. Her response was, "I'm leaving soon so I think that would be a bad idea." The kids that we usually see jumping around the well followed us from their house, down to the well, and back up all the way to our house. One kid was carrying a medium jerry can on his head and a small one in his hand. He made it look so easy. We later found out this kid is 7 years old! We hung out with the kids for a while taking pictures and having fun, and then went inside.

I have to go prepare myself for the last day. I bought biscuits (pronounced "bis-quits") and I'm going to take pictures with each kid and send them to the school so that the kids and teachers will have copies they can take home. I have run out of cash and can't go to an ATM until Saturday. Oh well, gotta make do with what you got.