In To Africa!

After an exhilarating few days in Nairobi adjusting to the heat, the time change, early darkness (7:30 p.m.) and the reality of actually being in Africa, I am now in Entebbe at the JGI. I am thankful to my friend in Nairobi, Ray, for taking me under her wing and showing me "the real" Nairobi - meeting her wonderful friends and family and being invited to her home.

Here in Entebbe, the pace of life is certainly much slower than Nairobi, or Vancouver, for that matter! It is very peaceful here - except for the caucophony of birds that sing, tweet, screech, whistle, hoot, caw and honk night and day. As I write this, at 11:00 p.m. there is some sort of bird hee-hawing just like a donkey outside. I had read that Uganda is rich in bird life and a top location for bird watching, but I really didn't expect the variety of species or abundance of our feathered friends that reside here.

The JGI office is set up so that visitors can stay upstairs while all the office activity is located on the main floor. There are 4 bedrooms upstairs, two bathrooms, a common area and a large balcony overlooking the trees and lake below. We are all sharing bedrooms with another teacher. Unfortunately, the chicken coop is directly under the window of the room Angela and I are sharing...a fact which neither of us are particularly keen about!

As the saying goes - it is the simple things in life that often bring the greatest joy and I can certainly say that that is how I feel about seeing - for the first time in my life - fireflies! They are everywhere! What a wonderful sight at night as we walk along the road or simply stroll on the JGI grounds.

Since arriving, the 6 of us have all been discussing and working on our workshop preparations. I am humbled by the wealth of experience my Canadian colleagues have and the lengths everyone went to in order to come to Uganda and give of their time and energy.

Definitely the highlight of being here so far for me was our visit to a local elementary school - St. Tereza's. The children and teachers there were absolutely lovely and so gracious in their welcome to us. One of the classes sang a few songs, another class performed a dance, and every class welcomed us with warmth and enthusiasm. We learned that here in Uganda class sizes are 80 - yes eighty - and textbooks are allocated 1 book for every 6 students. Students attend school from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every day.

Tomorrow, we travel to Kampala to purchase the supplies we will need for our workshops - stationery, markers, things like that. After that, we will be preparing all the workshop packages for the participating teachers and making our final arrangements before we head to Kasese.