Latest from Lugazi

Tomorrow is August! These past few weeks have been a flurry of activity. We are preparing a health survey in Lugazi, standardizing the jewelry being produced (e.g. quality control and prices), and continuing with lessons as usual. And having fun. In the midst of everything, we (the interns) are one by one leaving Uganda.

Some updates since the last post:

Musana goes into the community to teach the nutrition unit

In a previous post, I mentioned my concerns about how the women may not be interested in going out to the communities to teach. As it turns out, even though they were reluctant to actually practice giving the lessons, they did a phenomenal job giving them when it came time. So this was a success story, with some twists.

The first group to teach was Susan, Immaculate, and Florence. They were all very strong presenters and did a fantastic job.

(Florence is tending to her daughter behind Immaculate.)

The downside was that the woman who coordinated the group of participants, a town council representative, didn't actually inform them about it until five minutes before. The group was somewhat reluctant to attend, given the work they had to do at home and their lack of preparation. I was a bit ticked off, because it was the town councilwoman who solicited Musana for the lesson (not the other way around). I felt incredibly awkward, but the Musana ladies just said, "okay, we'll do it fast" and rocked it.

Harriet, Rosette, and Eve presented to the New Canaan's women's group, organized by Pastor Francis, a near and dear friend to Musana. They rocked it.

Musana taught in a primary school classroom. Nutrition, not the alphabet.

Cheesy group photo at the end.
I had to tickle Harriet so she would smile.

The last group has yet to present. Fingers crossed it happens at some point. Logistics, logistics.

Overall, the best part of the experience was that the women became experts in nutrition. They practiced giving the lesson so many times that they learned the material well and were able to field questions without help at the end. They are amazing!

Understanding Domestic Violence workshop

Was great, but I already blogged about it here. Check it out!

We say goodbye to Angela

For Angela's last evening in Uganda, we arranged a potluck farewell bash. With s'mores. The mosaic of photos below tell the evening's story, apart from some ridiculous dancing and comedy by Luta that could not be captured.

Angela was dearly loved by all. She will be missed by Ugandans and muzungus alike. The best/worst moment was when Eve dramatically told her 8-year-old son, Jorum, that Angela was going away forever, which made him cry. Lying to children is so underrated.

Group photo! It was quite the undertaking.

We explore Western Uganda (for a day)

This past weekend, we went to Fort Portal in Western Uganda to see more of the country. It's beautiful. But a trek! Taxis and buses and bodas galore.

We didn't have enough time to explore everything the area has to offer, like national parks and safaris, but we managed to go on a nice 11-mile nature walk, complete with hills and waterfalls and caves.

It was a hazy day, but if it had been clear you could see the looming
Rwenzori Mountains in the background.

The kids are still weird

No real updates here.

Though there's this one little girl ("Airplane Girl") who lives in one of the houses next door who always runs at us muzungus when we walk by to hug our legs. She's maybe one and a half years. Today, she was walking with her mom and as soon as she saw me she chucked the bag she was holding at her mom and sprinted at me open-arms like an airplane. Hence the name. She's always quick to let go and move on like nothing happened.

Kids are so odd.

Nicole's first time skiing!

Tina's baby, Emily. Julie has stepped on her twice now.

Jonah. No words.