School and Kampala!

Last Monday started early as we got up at 6:30 to help the children dress for their first day of school. They were all excited, but none more than Hannah Banana. Auntie Flo said she was the first one awake and couldn’t sit still all morning, as Monday was her first ever day of school (along with Ishimat and Ruthie). They kids were so happy getting their uniforms on and eating their porridge. Uncle Tony came to get them and the 27 of them piled into the van.

The school structure here is very similar to at home in the US, but they call it by different names. So at around age 3 children start preschool and are typically in it for 3 years, each with a different name – Nursery, Middle Class, and Top Class. Then they begin primary school and join the class labeled as P1 (what we would call first grade). Primary school goes up to P8, then you go on to secondary school. Freshman year is S1 and senior year is S4. A major difference between schooling here and at home is that in the US, you can usually guess a person’s age by the grade that they’re in, however this is not always the case here. Children start school at different times, or switch from a poor school to a better one, or miss out on several years of schooling for any number of reasons, so there’s a wide range of ages in each grade. Even at Malayaka House we have children of different ages in the same grade because most of the children didn’t have good schooling before coming to live with Robert. In order to give them the best opportunity at a full education, Robert often adjusted their documented age to reflect where they should be in school, as long as it was within a couple years. But just to give you an idea of the children at Malayaka House… we have 4 children too young for school, 3 children in Nursery, 2 children in Middle Class, 7 in P1, 3 in P2, 4 in P3, 2 in P4, 2 in P5, 3 in P6, 1 in S1, 1 in S2, and 3 that are no longer in school.

So now that the children are in school, Evan and I get up around 10am and spend the morning/early afternoon with the young children and the girls that are done with school. We’ve been dedicated a lot of time to the businesses that they’re working on, and we’re so pleased with how it’s going so far. This week Jacinta, who makes the mozzarella cheese and does all the cooking for the pizza nights, went with Marta (another volunteer) to a few local restaurants. They brought samples of the cheese with them and shared the story of the Malayaka House ‘cooperative of businesses,’ and they were well-received everywhere. We already sell cheese regularly to a nearby backpackers and a pizza place, but now that Jacinta is very good and a system has been developed, she’s ready to expand. There’s a particular ingredient needed to make mozzarella cheese that isn’t produced or sold in Uganda, so we get it from volunteers that come from Europe. Although this is somewhat of a nuisance, it seems to be benefitting us because there are few competitors. One of the nicest restaurants in Entebbe is interested in buying from Jacinta because they currently have to import their mozzarella from Nairobi, Kenya. So, long story short, we’ve been spending time with the girls (Jacinta, Namatov, and Naiga) and brainstorming ideas on how to expand effectively and get a fair price for their items. It’s exciting to be a part of this stage of development because it’s been a long time coming and we’ll be able to witness the fruits of their labor in the next few months. Sometime soon I’ll post some more details about the cheese-making process, Jacinta taught Evan how to make it last week and I’m hoping to learn this week.

Evan and I eat lunch around 1 every day, and then the children in Nursery, Middle Class, P1, and P2 get home around 1:45. They immediately go inside and take their uniforms off because the aunties wash them daily (and polish their shoes!). Then they do their homework and play all afternoon. Everyone in P3 and higher gets home around 5:15, then they all eat dinner around 5:30. The young kids go to bed around 7 and the older ones do their homework and sometimes help the aunties with cleaning and washing. During the day there are always 5 aunties at the house – making meals, washing clothes, washing dishes, cleaning the house and the outside areas, playing with the children – and then around dinner time 3 of them go home to their own families and 2 stay overnight. They each work 6 days a week and they make their own schedules, which is something Robert felt was important and he’s been doing it that way since the beginning. I haven’t talked much about the aunties yet, but I will soon because they’re all incredible.

Besides school starting this week, another exciting event was our visit to Kampala. The older girls starting playing on a rugby team a few months ago and their first match was in Kampala on Saturday, so me, Evan, Fran, Marta, and Denise decided to go watch. To get to the capital you take a matatu, which is a 15 passenger van, and it costs 25,000 shillings (a little over $1) for the 45 minute ride. The matatus are everywhere, constantly going back and forth from Entebbe to Kampala, and practically every other city in Uganda. The traffic in Kampala is really bad, so once we hit the edge of the city we got out of the matatu and on to a couple boda bodas. I had been a little frightened the first time we took a boda in Entebbe, but this ride through Kampala made all those trips in Entebbe feel like a casual bike ride. The boda boda drivers squeeze between cars and they seem to think that the rule about driving on the left side of the road is simply a suggestion. But we made it safely to the rugby club, watched the match (though our girls didn’t actually get to play), and then walked around a bit. We went in a supermarket that seemed infinitely bigger than any that we have in Entebbe, and we were very pleased to find all of the snacks and candy we loved in South Africa. We had a delicious dinner, spent the night at a couple different bars, and slept at a backpackers on the south side of the city. Kampala’s very big, and it’s situated on 7 hills, so you can never see the whole thing from one location. It was nice to experience something different, and to enjoy the comforts and conveniences of a big city, but I was happy to come home to Entebbe Sunday morning. Kampala is extremely crowded and very dirty. When we got out of the matatu in Entebbe it felt like we were breathing fresh air again. I’m sure we’ll return to Kampala fairly regularly though, if only because the ride is easy and the food is cheaper.

That’s more than enough for now, thanks for reading!