RANDOM KIDS

Everywhere we go the kids run up to us and want to touch our hand or talk to us or something, maybe just to look at us.  They LOVE to have their pictures taken

When we stopped at his house, he was peeling his piece of sugar cane.  His name is Smith, and he was trying so hard not to smile or look at us, he is a little shy.

Trying hard not to smile

We had stopped to visit some members for family home evening but the parents had not come home from work.  We were just loitering on the back porch visiting another member who was in the shower.....The showers are not in the house though.

Here is the shower in the front yard by the road.  You have to bring your own bucket of water to wash yourself with, and then go to the tin shower.  It only services those who own or rent the property.

These kids were following us around the neighborhood in their village.  The tall girl in the back is Mary who we visited and last week I gave her an assignment to read in the BoM and have some questions.  I also asked her to teach her siblings a primary song, and she did it!  She also came to church the next day with her dad.  The mother is not active.

Thomas belongs to our housekeeper.  He is always climbing on everything, and when I open the car door, he scoots himself right in the car.

Random kids hanging out on the street

Some of these are Christine's kids, and the rest are the neighbor kids who always come running when they see our car pull up.  It is rare for kids to see cars, and especially to see white people.

random child 

This is our YSA committee.  All but three of the girls are returned missionaries.  I actually am missing a few of them.  We are trying to plan our next activity

Emily is the District Primary President and she often visits different branches with me and helps with primary lessons.  She is pretty good teacher.  She is also a returned missionary, but not married.

This is sharing time in the Walukuba branch

Rock and I went exploring one day to look at schools.  This one has the name of Liahona, so we thought (correctly) that it was owned by a member of the church.  They took us on a tour.  These are the boys dorm rooms.  Most schools here are boarding schools.

another view of the dorm

the water tank supplies water to the school.  Otherwise, the children would have to go fetch it in a bucket or jerrycan and bring it back to campus.  The church does water projects all over Africa

The school classrooms

I didn't go inside but this is the girls bathroom

These houses belong to people who live by the school.  These are very typical looking homes in Uganda, most of the population live in homes like this

This is the kitchen for the school.  They serve all three meals to the children

The woodpile in front is for the cooking of the food.  Generally they burn the wood into coals and put the coals under their pots

Here is the cook making posho.  They generally will have posho and beans for every meal.  This pot has coals under it.

here is the pot of beans cooking

They burn the wood down to coals, the pot is cooking on a pile of coals.  All the cooking here in Uganda is done this way.  Everyone has an outdoor kitchen and a cook pot.

I have a terrible habit of forgetting to turn my pictures around, but here if you turn your head hard left, you see the cook stirring the pot of posho.  Posho is ground maize mixed with hot water and cooked.  It has the texture of mashed potatoes mixed with Elmers glue.  But it is the staple food.

Rock talking with 2 of the teachers at the school.  Both are members of the church.  They make the equivalent of about $60/ month and work 6 days a week, 12 hours a day.  They both have families to support.

a student at the school

class is out

the courtyard at the school

students after class

The boys shower

The boys restroom.  The squat holes are what they have here generally instead of toilets

A nice Mormon name for a school.  It used to be a mormon school, but now it accepts all students so they had to drop the seminary course.

one of the classrooms after class