Culturally Relevant Tools

I remember the time Paddy e-mailed me some good news: an organization had donated dolls to children in Kabalagala and outlying villages. But the pictures of the distribution of these dolls told another story--the dolls were white. And to me, looking at those white dolls in a sea of black faces just felt violently wrong.

I know a few of our volunteers felt the same way. So although black dolls are hard to find (donated black dolls, I should say), Jane did a great job of doing so. And when I saw this photo of our project, I felt a little surge of pride. We may be grassroots, but we can provide the toys and tools to our children to make them proud of their heritage.

Thank you to Isaac and the UFCA Troupe

Some friends joined us for the launch party of Kabalagala Community Academy. Meet Issac and the UFCA Troupe. Isaac is a 20-something who takes in orphans, and raises money through traditional dance performances. But Issac donated this wonderful experience to KCA, and made the night even more special.

Thank you UFCA!

This is what we meant by skipping rope...

some photos

Skipping ropes and plastic bags

In our bid to save the planet and save money and do a lot of skipping, we at Kabalagala Community Academy have been very industrious. I had put 3 bins in the playground for the children - one for compost, one for paper and one for plastics. However, the bin for plastics was giving me a headache - what to do with all the plastic bags?

A friend of mine works for an indigenous NGO that works to educate Ugandans about the environment - he suggested making skipping ropes from plastic bags and balls too. Phoebe, our cook mocked me but on seeing me make poor skipping ropes she took over the mission and made a skipping rope that made me feel like opening up a skipping rope factory. Then Jane my 10 year old friend got in on the act. She decided to make a really long skipping rope so that all the children in the school can jump at the same time. She has been at it for 2 hours now and shows no signs of weakening. She even refused to come to town with me and eat chicken because completing her giant skipping rope is currently her number one priority.

I am so excited about the skipping ropes. We will have a go at making balls tomorrow. It is small but it feels very significant.

Kabalagala Community Academy

My first day at school and I have already learned a lot!

Following our fabulous school opening party on Saturday our school opened it's gates for it's first day today. Some children arrived more than 30 minutes early, some more than 30 minutes late. The children, aged between 4 and 14 years old (just one is 14 - the rest are between 4 and 7) looked smart for about five minutes and then we got serious with the business of having fun learning. By the end of the day the uniforms were covered in dust and mud and a few children left with grazed knees!

We showed the children around the school and talked about our three rules - Respecting ourselves, respecting each other and respecting our environment. Suddenly, one girl calld Promise went into a long and animated story about a dog trying to bite her and how she feared and ran away. It didn't seem to have much to do with our school rules except maybe that dogs don't respect much!

Lunch was rice, matoke (savoury mashed bananas) and. We sat outside, under a gazebo seated on locally made mats. Unfortunately Promise put her feet in Ebenezer's food by accident and Opio spilt his drink on the mats. Every child refused to eat until each and everyone had their food in front of them. These children know a lot about living in a community. Unfortunately they were unable to contain their excitment at having such a good meal abd being together and sprayed a lot of food over us and each other as they talked and ate at the same time. We began the process of un-teaching this habit but I think it may well be a slow process.

Our Ugandan teacher Simon taught traditional music and dance. There was quite a lot of rivalry between the boys as to who should play the drums. I am gunning for a girl to surpass the boys at drumming but we will see.

The day ended with a story from 'The Happy Story Book followed by a slice of pineapple;. The children loved the puppets that accompanied the book and I was happy to have all eyes on the illustrations in the book and all mouths closed (no food being sprayed - no voices to sshush!)

I am tired but quite enthusiastic about the challenge of ensuring these children get a formal education that is as exciting as can be! Tomorrow I teach agriculture, drama and story-telling, integrated production skills (art and craft without the love of the process of producing!) and more English. I have learnt some African dance today and my Luganda has imrpoved a lot. I wonder what tomorrow will teach us?