Adventures in shopping...

Hi Assiniboine!

I have been busy lately having adventures as I use the grant money that you won in order to pick up some school supplies, sports equipment, games, and posters!

Most of these things I have been buying from Kampala.

Kampala is the capital city of Uganda. In some ways, it is very comparable to a North American city.

The road driving down from Kamuli

One of the major western-style shopping centres in downtown Kampala

However, it is also a city with a lot of contrast. You can be sitting in a cafe, sipping a fantastic latte and eating chocolate cake one minute, and five minutes later be in a sprawling slum.

Anyway, the education store that I have been working with to buy things for Nabwigulu is called Mango Tree, and it is in a suburb of Kampala called Naalya. The first time I went, I took a motorcycle, but decided not to do that again, as the traffic was a little insane (motorbikes here weave in and out of traffic, and don't really follow any sort of rules...and as a proper young lady, I have to sit side saddle!)

Mme Amanda standing outside the store

A weather chart

Passing by one of the poorer areas of Kampala. The bunches of green bananas are matooke, the staple food of Uganda. You peel them, steam them, mash them, and then eat, covered with either bean sauce or a meat sauce. Yum!

Everything is stuffed into this graincloth, and I am waiting for a matatu (Ugandan public minivan) to come pick me up. It's taking a while...

I waited, and apparently that was not the right time for matatus. So I called a motorbike driver, and he carried the supplies on the front of his motorbike, and I rode on the back. All is well that ends well!

All of the kids (especially some of the Primary Five's and Primary Six's) are very anxious to receive the letters and the packages that you sent!

Here are some of our teachers! (Posted by your friends Ryan, Breela and Sarah)

Here are three of our special teachers! Mme Godin is the lady in the white shirt. Mme Burdeniuk is in the orange shirt. Mme Burdeniuk teaches us music and Mme Godin is teaches kindergarten. (there are two classes of 5 - 6 year olds and both classes have about 25 students each.)

Right now Mme Godin is teaching the afternoon class and things in her class are going well. We invited her to drop in and say hi...these are her words: "Bonjour Mme Amanda, we miss you at École Assiniboine. The boys and girls of Nabwigulu are very lucky to have you as their teacher."

Now where going to talk about Mme Burdeniuk. Mme Burdeniuk is now teaching Garage Band to us. Garage Band is a computer program that uses musical rhythms and we get to record our own "pieces" of music on a laptop computer...it's a LOT of fun. Mme Burdeniuk would like to say "Bonjour. I hope you are learning a lot of different songs and adding the special instruments that Africa has to offer. You are lucky to have such rhythmic instruments."

M Senecal is our gym teacher. Right now we are doing soccer/baseball which is a mixture of soccer and baseball; maybe Mme Amanda could tell you more about it, or even show you how to play it. It's our favorite activity (in gym). M. Senecal is also the school counsellor. He helps people with their problems. Oh, and for our school plays, he does the lights and sound.

We are happy to give you soccer balls beacause we know you will use them well! We are very happy that your young girl made it all the way to finals!:) Congratulations!

Thanks so much for all your updates....it's neat that we all love playing soccer!

Thanks also for your greetings; we say Salut (which means hi) in French when greeting others. So, Salut!

Meet the teachers! Or three of them, anyway,,,

I thought that you might like to meet some of the wonderful teachers of Nabwigulu Primary School! Meet Teacher Florence, Teacher Annet, and Teacher Sarah. They teach the youngest classes--Primary One to Primary Three. Even though they have absurd amounts of work to do (hello, classes of 200 children!) they are always so cheerful and hardworking and it is clear that they love the work of teaching a lot!

Hi Assiniboine!

We are on holidays (again!) at Nabwigulu. Oh, and it's mango season again! Yum...Anyway...some news from the Nabwigulu kids!

I went to Nabwigulu last week to visit some of the students at home and talk to them about what kinds of things could help them in their learning. They were so happy to hear that their friends from Canada, on the other side of the world care about them and care about their education! Everyone is so excited about receiving the grant--we all say....thank you!

The children were so excited to hear that they might get some sports equipment!

In Nabwigulu, where computers are not available and where even telephones can be quite expensive, 'sending greetings' via one's friends or family when they have a chance to talk is very important--everyone sends their greetings to you all!



Visiting Shamim (Primary 5), Allan (Primary 6) at their house. We talked about what could really help them and their fellow students at school, and they were very sure that they would love to have some sports equipment--right now, when they want to play football (soccer) at break, they have to use plastic bags held together with string--it works, but it's just not the same! As a side note,Shamim made us all very proud, as she made it all the way to district levels in the inter-school sports competition!



Winnie (on the right) and her little sister were just coming back from working in the fields when I came to her house. The main occupation of most families in Nabwigulu is small-scale farmers, meaning that they raise most of their own food, and produce just enough for their own families. During holidays, children go with their mom and dad's to help them out.

Talking with Esther, Fatima, Kasim, Winnie and Maureen about their hopes for their school and education.

This is Steven, or Peter, who you might remember from the letters that we sent, and the short introduction video. The reason that I say Steven, or Peter, is because he originally told me that his name is Steven, but apparently his real name is Peter, and Steven is actually the name of a famous football player who he admires (I am a little bit confused...). The children with us in the picture are his cousins, siblings, and neighbours. Abotu half of the Ugandan population is under the age of 18--meaning that everywhere you go, there are A LOT of children everywhere...



And of course no visit to Nabwigulu is complete unless you have been sent away with mangos galore...



we won the money!

Yippe.....today we want to let you know that we won the money that we applied for to buy you some stuff. Here are two pictures of us holding the check of 1000$ and the letter of congratulations, and celebrating!

We came up with some things that we can buy and send to you, if you like?

1. Balls

2. web cam

3. school supplies or things for your classes

4. toys or books

5. medical supplies

What do you think. Will you please send us some of your ideas? Then, Mme Boyko will help us get the things together to send to you. Here's another picture of us celebrating!

It is now a bit warmer here in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. There isin't very much snow left and there are a lot of water puddles now. Today in class we were doing division. It was pretty easy and we did a dance in gym. Well it wasn't really a dance, it was a game called Dance Dance Revolution; you need a game system to play it. Maybe Mme Amanda could tell you about it. It is pretty hard and really fun!

We have to get back to class now - oh, and this note is written by Breela and Daniel from the grade 4/5 class.

We are looking forward to your reply!

Thanks!

Lunch at Nabwigulu!

Good morning from Madame Amanda and the Primary Five's at Nabwigulu! We noticed that one of the questions you had asked us was what we eat, and if we eat lunch at school. We are answering with a combination of pictures and stories!

Here is how we get lunch at school. At the beginning of each term, each child brings 3kg of maize with him or her to school, along with a small fee to have the maize (corn) ground up. Most of our parents are subsistence farmers (meaning that they just produce enough food to feed our families and not to sell to at the market) and so this is a good arrangement. These bags of maize are stored just outside the headmaster's office.

Maize storage, outside the headmaster's office

 The lunch that we (pupils) eat most days is maize porridge. It is a combination of maize flour and water. It is prepared in a huge iron pot over a fire in a cooking shelter behind our classrooms.

Our dear cook! She is wearing a traditional dress called a gomes.

Teachers eat boiled maize flour with beans. Madame Amanda is enjoying lunch! And yes, we do eat with our fingers! Fun times!

 

 

 

A Primary Two pupil drinking her porridge before going to play

And of course, one of our favourite things to do after lunch is climb the mango and jackfruit trees that are around our school and get a snack from there!

It's that time again...

It's the end of the two month long "dry season" holidays--meaning that I am going back to the village (aka Nabwigulu) today!

  The weather in Uganda these days is hotter than I have ever experienced.It is actually the height of the dry season right now. Things are becoming brown, you can't walk outside without swirls of red dust rising up around you, and even all of my belongings inside the house tend to have a permanent layer of dust on them!

I was just thinking that I was not looking too forward to the long bike ride into the village, and it made me think about the challenges I had in Winnipeg in getting to Assiniboine!

Coming from River Heights to Assiniboine, my bus used to drop me off at Polo Park, and I would walk from there--not a big deal, most of the time. Sometimes however, in -40 weather with blowing snow!

I don't know which one I prefer--do any of you have a preference? Crazy heat or crazy snow?!

Anyway, enough of that, I am so excited to go and see all of the teachers and children. The beginning of a new school year is so exciting and there is a lot of energy in the air! Oh, and I cannot WAIT to show everyone the pictures that you have sent!