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!

Pictures!

On the left is Hannah, who I talked about in an earlier post, and on the right is Ishimat. Ishimat is 3 years old and starting school for the first time tomorrow. His nickname is monster, he loves to smile like this, and Didas is his brother. You can often find him wearing brightly colored clothes, sometimes with flowers on them. This is somewhat true of all the boys though, because all the children share clothes and they don't seem to care how it looks.

This is Elijah and he's 3 years old. He's a bit of a troublemaker, but he also has the sweetest smile. It's always hard for me to understand what he's saying because he mumbles, yet somehow the other children always understand him. He's still too young for school, so he's one of the 4 little ones that will be home all day with us.

Here's Evan and Bobo... he's 10 years old and was the second child that came to live with Robert in 2006. Evan is trying to become his best friend because he has "the purest heart." He's very curious and always investigating what's going on around him. He also has an incredible smile and a contagious laugh.

Here's Didas teaching our pup, Kovy, how to skateboard. Didas is 7 years old and one of the smartest kids at the house. He's really cute, with eyelashes that go on for miles, and he's very well-behaved. He says he wanted to be a pilot when he grows up, but we think this is only because Viola, one of the older girls, has been saying for years that she wants to be a pilot.

This is where the young kids eat everyday, and in the back left you can see the kitchen where the aunties prepare the food. They also have a fire with charcoal outside where they cook most meals.

A few days ago one of our goats had a baby and he's still learning how to walk.

More Pictures!

Here's the Malayaka House! The front door is on the right side, where you walk into a small room with a table where the children do their homework. On the first floor there's also a laundry room with a washer and dryer and a separate room where all the clothes are kept. On the left side is the garage. Upstairs, the front right side of the house is a big room where the 20 or so youngest kids sleep. The left side above the garage is Robert's bedroom and office. In between, on the back side, are two more bedrooms - one for 10 of the older girls, and one for Hakim, Viola, Jacinta, and Jacinta's babies (Mercy & Diego).

This is the tree house climbing structure that Uncle Leo built a couple months ago.

This is the guest house where I sleep, which is right next to the big house. It has 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, a shower, and a big room that functions as a dining room and library.

This is Evan's pizza from Tuesday night, with peppers and onions.

Pizza nights, crafts, and a new guest...

Hi Everyone,

This was the last week of summer vacation here in Uganda and some exciting things happened…

- On Saturday night, while Fran was staying at a friend’s house in Kampala rather than being our protector at the house, Evan and I were awoken by Alice, the security guard, outside our window. She doesn’t speak too much English and she has a thick accent (and it was 4:25am), so all we heard was “outside the gate.” Since Fran wasn’t home, and we weren’t sure what was outside the gate, Evan grabbed the big stick that Fran gave him and we went out to the gate. There we found Marta, a volunteer from Poland, who had been waiting outside the gate for 30 minutes. Before Robert left for the U.S. (I’ll explain that later) he had told us that Marta would be coming at some point, but she hadn’t booked a flight yet and so we were surprised to see her. But luckily she’s been here before and she had a friend drive her and wait until she was let in, so she was safe, and obviously so were we. She enjoyed telling everyone the story about Evan’s stick the next morning.

- A little more about Marta… she’s really great. She’s 27 years old and recently opened her own orphanage for babies in a different part of Uganda. She’s here for about 6 months and will be travelling to her orphanage in Masindi occasionally. She also has an interesting potential project for us here at the Malayaka House that I’ll talk about once it’s evolved a little more.

- On Monday we had a business meeting with the girls involved in the craft business. We have 3 different distribution plans… (1) we’re going to make some nice displays of jewelry, aprons, and bags in the room where the women sew during the day, and hopefully the volunteers that come through each day will take a look at all the items and buy some for a higher price than locals would; (2) we have some items in a shop called Anna’s Corner and we’ll soon have some at the Lake Victoria Hotel, so that will be a steady monthly paycheck; (3) when volunteers go home to the U.S. or Europe they are welcome to buy any amount that they can afford and then re-sell them at home. The items they make are beautiful and I’ll post some pictures soon in case any of you at home want to purchase something for me to bring back this summer.

- Tuesday was our first pizza night… and it was excellent! The girls worked all day – making cheese, making sauce, making dough, making juice, cutting vegetables, cooking meat, cleaning the outdoor seating area, cleaning dishes – and the outcome was great. They had a candle-lit table and they served the most delicious meal we’d had yet. As a thank you and congratulations, we got some ice cream and enjoyed dessert with all the girls afterwards. Thursday night’s dinner went just as well and, after just two nights, it looks like the Malayaka House won’t have to put any more money into the business and it can run on its own profits.

- Hakim, who is starting S1 on Monday (the first year of secondary school), got his Primary Leaving Exam results this week. Your score on this exam determines which secondary school you can attend, and Hakim scored in the first division! He was so thrilled and showed everyone his certificate. Uncle Tony took him to Entebbe Senior School to get his uniform and we got him and his friends some ice cream to celebrate. He’ll be going to the same school as Viola now and, just like the primary school, it is one of the best in the country.

- So, as I mentioned above, Robert isn’t at the House right now. He usually goes back home every summer to work, but money was getting tight here so he’s in Houston for a few months coaching tennis. As sad as I was to learn that he would be leaving here, it’s been incredible to see how this place functions without him. I’m eagerly awaiting his return so that we can hang out and I can get to know him better but, until then, I’m enjoying the responsibilities that he passed on to us. The aunties and the older girls take care of nearly everything, and they are unbelievable with the children. The kids do exactly what the aunties say and you can see just how much respect they have for the older girls that have helped to raise them.

So those are the highlights from this week. Keep commenting and emailing friends!

Video

For those of you that want to know more about the Malayaka House, how it got started, and what kind of work it does in the community, here's a 12 minute video that has a lot of good information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiznU5WdKsg

Pictures!

The slow internet connection makes it hard to upload pictures, and not only does it take a while to do each one, but it also uses a lot of megabytes which means more money.... but here are a couple photos and hopefully I can put 2 or 3 up each week. Eventually I'll put up at least one picture of each kid so you can learn a little about them all.

This is Hannah wearing her new TOMS shoes. She's 3 years old and will be starting nursery in a couple weeks, so she just got her first school uniform. Her nickname is Hannah Banana and it has stuck so well that sometimes the children, aunties, and Robert just call her banana.

This is Jimmy, one of the 6 year old triplets, with the new puppy. Jimmy is awesome. He's well-behaved, really smart, and he has the sweetest smile. He wants to be a doctor when he's older, so anytime a child is sick Robert also brings Jimmy to the doctor because he likes to learn.

Field trips, entrepreneurs, and a puppy

Here are some updates about our activities this week:

- Fran bought a bunch of eggs and gave them to the aunties, so they’ve been cooking us eggs for lunch along with homemade French fries and fresh vegetables… it’s been a nice break from rice & beans everyday.

- Me, Evan, Fran, Denise (our new German housemate), Anna and Kato went out to an Italian restaurant for dinner. The owner is the one who taught one of our girls, Jacinta, how to make mozzarella. The food was good and the restaurant itself was really cool.

- There are many young Germans who teach at a nearby school and come to the house frequently to do a variety of things, so on Wednesday they came and we all walked with the kids to a local playground. This is going to be a weekly Wednesday event once school starts.

- Evan and I have spent a lot of time in the last few days working on the Malayaka House “cooperative of businesses.” As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are a few businesses in the works including jewelry, mozzarella cheese, and a bi-weekly pizza night. We are doing our first pizza night on Tuesday so, in order to properly prepare, Evan and I did some research and learned the basics about making a proper business plan. Yesterday we met with Namatov, Naiga, Jacinta, and Kato and created a draft of their business plan and set goals for where we want to be one month from now and three months from now.

- Today, as a follow up to yesterday’s meeting, Namatov took us to the market where we bought nice plates, glasses, serving plates, and a pitcher for water. We’re going to set up a nice outdoor dining table with candles and the older girls who are serving the food will be dressing up. For the first pizza night (and maybe the first 3 or 4) it will only be me, Evan, Fran, Denise, Anna, and Kato eating. We’re hoping that in 2 weeks the girls will have a good system down and we can invite other friends of the Malayaka House to come in for dinner.

- Yesterday Fran took us to visit another orphanage run by a Ugandan woman named Remy. She started taking children in around the same time that Robert stopped, and all of her 20 children are under the age of 5. She’s been having success with adoption though, so hopefully that continues. We took two of our children with us, Didas (age 7) and Jimmy (age 6), and the boda boda driver let them each have a turn sitting in front of him on the bike (one on the way there and one on the way home). Remy’s place was incredible and her aunties are just as fabulous as ours. Their house is spotless, probably because most of the children are too young to make it dirty. They have a small playground, swingset, and a trampoline, so our children love visiting their friends there. It was nice to see another orphanage home, especially one run by a Ugandan.

- Yesterday Denise went into Kampala, the capital and closest city, with some of the other Germans. They came home with a very tiny, and absolutely filthy, puppy. They found him on the street lying next to his dead brother and decided to save him. Luckily they at least took him to the animal care place in Entebbe and got some shampoo that kills fleas and ticks. The pup is adorable and looks like it’s mostly German shepherd. They named it the German word for flower, but we’ve been calling it Kovy (after a NJ Devils player) and the kids are catching on to our name. Fran is a dog lover, but he’s annoyed that the Germans brought it here to begin with because there’s enough going on with 36 children, 5 dogs, 8 cats, and tons of farm animals. He had the task of training the house’s youngest dog, Lola, last year when he was here and it looks like he’ll be doing it again with this new one.

I hope all is well at home, and please feel free to email me!