"God is good, All the time" (9/6)

Baby Alian, sooo cute!

We woke up this morning with no power.  That meant getting ready for school in the dark.  It wasn’t too bad as the sun was almost up after we were done skyping and it was time to start getting ready.  It just adds a little excitement to your morning.  Something I have learned by now is that every day there HAS to be some form of “excitement.”  Be it a cockroach, no power, rats, fires, or lizards among so many other things (I will talk about the last three things in later posts), a day does not go by without something happening.

At school I observed in the P4 classroom.  There were 29 students present.  One thing that I appreciated was when the teacher had the students get out of their desks and go outside to draw circles in the dirt with their feet.  Not only was it great to see the children out of their seats and using what resources they have (nature) to learn, but I also learned how to make a perfect circle using only my feet!  Another thing that worked well in the class was when the teacher had the students work in small groups of about three.  It was good to see some small group work, as everything else I have seen has either been individual or large group. 

Me with baby Evan at Chapel

Starting to gather for Chapel

After the morning break, it was chapel time at school.  Chapel began with all the kids huddling under a big tree with benches, chairs, stools, rugs, or just the grass to sit on.  The first half hour was simply singing, dancing, and drumming.  All the students were standing up, clapping, dancing, and singing different hymns.  The students sing loud and proud.  It is really cool seeing all of the kids come together, from the baby class up to P7, all uniting and singing passionately.  One of the schoolteachers gave the service and he switched back and forth from Lukunzo to English throughout.  But one thing that I picked up on right away was when he said, “God is good,” and the students responded “All the time.”  And then he said “All the time,” and the students responded, “God is good.”  This is something that Father Manahan, a priest from Marquette that Nick is very close with, does.  I know this because Nick and I attended one of his services that he had in Oconomowoc just a few weeks before I left for Uganda.  I should also note that Father Manahan spent 2 (or was it three?) years in Uganda teaching, so Nick and I met with him before I left and he gave me a lot of advice.  Anyways, it was neat hearing the same thing all the way in Uganda, and it gave me that connection to home that I don’t always have here. 

Here is a video from the beginning of Chapel. I will try and get a better one someday, because as the weeks go on it seems the students get more and more into it. 

The kids chasing the soccer ball

The last thing we did today was pump up one of the soccer balls we brought with us and give it to the kids.  After giving the balls to the school, they just sat deflated in a cabinet, so Katie and I took it upon ourselves to fill one up.  The kids were so excited.  We threw the ball out to them and they just chased it around the school for an hour, without stopping, about fifty of them.  And even though there is a field at the school, the kids were just too excited to make the walk to it!

After school we went for a run with the neighborhood boys, and boy can they run fast!  We started running with three neighborhood boys, but as we ran through the neighborhood, we kept gaining kids here and there.  By the end, we had a pack of about 15 kids running with us.  While on our run we also stopped at the boys' house, because they wanted us to meet their mother.  Their mother actually found two of the boys and took them in as her own.  The boys are so nice and I am so happy they have found such a wonderful woman to look after them.

Later, Katie, Doreen, and I made dinner.  We had been giving Doreen a hard time because she has a shirt that says Jennifer Lopez on the front, so we have been calling her J-Lo.  Anyway, we brought our computers out to play some of J-Lo's music while we cooked.  Well this turned into an all out dance party! We had a blast and could not stop laughing.  Here is a video of Doreen shakin it!