Jinja + The Journey Home

Right now John, Rita, Simone and I are staying at Two Friends B&B in Jinja (which has a superb internet connection!). This morning we picked up Rita from her grandmother's house and are bringing her all the way to Kampala for boarding school. We spent the afternoon walking around Jinja. The town is much larger than Kamuli and we have seen many white (mzungu) tourists. Yesterday Simone, Kaiso and I taught 15 kids a school lesson. Together we created a solution tree that tackled many of the issues that the 52 Kids have to overcome (HIV/AIDs, low income, crime, early marriage...etc.). With Kaiso's help the kids came up with solutions to their problems such as education, counseling/guidance, ABCs of HIV/AIDs (A= abstain, B= be faithful to your partner & C= use condoms). The kids also created leaf rubbings with colored pencils and leaves from local trees. While they came up with solutions to their problems, we pasted the vibrant leaves onto a hand-drawn tree. It ended up being a very informative and wonderful lesson. Kaiso did an amazing job of involving the kids and helping them grasp the different topics. We ended the afternoon with my reading of a short kid's book on Barack Obama's life and his journey from childhood to becoming the President of the U.S.A. After the lesson ended my friend Jimmy (from our homestay) came by Cibiet Gardens which was a fantastic surprise. Hadijja (who we met while at the model farm) + her two friends came to hang out with John, Simone and I. It was a lovely evening filled with nail painting, drawing, laughter and great company. We were so thrilled to have such spectacular (surprise) guests for our last night in Kamuli. Tomorrow we head to Kampala and we plan on going to the banana pancake factory as well as the paper bead factory (look up Bead For Life!). Our plane takes off just before midnight and we will be back in Vermont at about 6pm on Wednesday. Love + kindness to all. (Rita helped write this post!)