Bobby's journal May 16

 

            Today was a some-what early morning.  We woke up at 7 because today is our last Saturday with the Children of Peace.  I wanted to go down to the school early and videotape the kids arriving by truck.  At first there were students who walked and arrived before the truck.  I felt like Mr. Plummer because when the kids walked in through the gates, I greeted them with a good morning and a handshake.  So, when the truck came, the kids jumped off the back and ran into the school.  Once everyone was off of the truck, it was time for their morning assembly.  The head of school spoke and then they sang their national anthem and their school anthem (it’s very catchy).  After they sang, Andrew and I sang our national anthem.  About halfway through it, something happened to me that made me laugh.  I managed to hold it together until we finished.  Next, Mrs. Wybar and I sang the Canadian national anthem.  About halfway through this Mrs. Wybar says “ok that’s enough” and we stop and then I laugh again.  I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was the fact that there was a goat tied to a tree, or there were all these kids looking at us giggling.  Who knows? We finished and they appreciated it.  After this I went to the music class.  In the music class I watched them practice and helped them with the recorder parts of their performance.  Geno was also sitting in the class.  He wrote a song and wrote me a part so we sang a little bit of that and it was fun.  All of a sudden, there were other white people in the music class.  They came from the Arlington clinic down the road and up the mountain.  They left the class a little later and went to look at some of the beaded necklaces the students make.  When the students were done practicing, Geno and I sang his hit song entitled: Kobola.  It actually is played on the radio in Bududa so that was really cool.  I busted out a few notes and the kids seemed to like it so I gave them what they wanted.  Within a second, the whole music class was singing and clapping their hands dancing.  Today was my favorite day by far.  I stopped for a moment and thought, the amount of malaria pills are winding down and so is my time here.  After this we had lunch.  Everyday we sit and eat lunch, there is a little kid across the street who puts his hands on his stomach and then out, basically saying he is hungry and wants food.  I called him over.  He sat down next to me and I gave him half of my lunch.  After lunch I went to play volleyball with some of the kids and the sports head, Max.  A little later, Mrs. Wybar comes to me asking for food for one of the kids, Ivan.  Ivan lives with his brothers and sisters and his step-mom and her biological kids.  She starves him and doesn’t treat him well.  I ran up to the house, grabbed 20 nature valley bars and gave them to him.  We’re going to give him 3 or 4 every Wednesday and Saturday to take home because if we gave him the whole bag his step-mom would take it.  Unlike us back home, the kids here have nowhere that is “theirs”.  They don’t have a dresser to hide stuff in, let alone their own bed to sleep in.  His stepmother would take the food because he wouldn’t have anywhere to hide it from her.  When school was over and all of the kids left Allan his brothers, and other local boys were moving stones from across the street over to the school’s shed.  These stones are going to be used to make gravel and cement.  Two of the little boys were pulling jerry-cans filled with rocks and couldn’t pull it up the hill from the road into the school’s property so I grabbed the rope and pulled it over to the big pile.  I walked back with them and started helping them move the big rocks and stones.  After one or two trips, an African woman said “he’s a white visitor?!?” maybe suggesting that they wouldn’t expect a visitor to be doing this kids of work.  I felt good helping them move the rocks.  I feel like I showed all of the locals who just stood and watched me doing work that I can work.  All of the little kids who live around the school saw me working and ran over.  They would “help” by pushing the back of the jerry-can and throwing rocks into it that had fallen out.  Once I unloaded the rocks, a little boy named Andrew jumped into the back and sat where the rocks were.  I pulled him down the little hill and ran through the grass.  When he got out he had the biggest smile and couldn’t’ stop giggling.  I continued to move the stones with them and give the little kids rides until all the rocks were gone.  Once we finished, I invited them up to the guest house for some water.  It eventually started getting dark and they left.  We had dinner and than went to bed.