At New Hope Kasana

5/21 – We arrived here yesterday just before the dinner hour. This property and guest house is a very comfortable place to stay.

Dale and Carla spent the day with Godfrey, Eric, and a group of teachers here working on an elementary Christian English curriculum for the country.

I stayed at the guest house with Olga and her four children. Since we have been in Uganda for 10 days now, it was time for me to do some laundry. (I am missing my washing machine.). I had to wash my two loads of clothes the Ugandan way – by hand. I know my arms will be sore tomorrow from wringing out the water. But that’s not all – as soon as I had hung all the clothes out on the line, the rain started falling. And it poured most of the day – a second and third rinse. Our clothes are not dry! I will try again tomorrow.

The weather here continues to be cool and wet. The farmers are grateful for the rain as they have had a couple years of drought.

Tomorrow we start three days of teacher training with 35 of the teachers from here at New Hope primary and secondary schools, and a group from a nearby primary school.

5/22 – this morning we had breakfast at 7:30 so we could set up for the teacher training at 8:30 which was to be held in the dining area of the Kasana Guest House.

I’m getting to know all about the white ants. During the night they swarmed again, and Benel was so excited to show me where. I came across where they were all over the ground and the kids were picking out the ants and giving them to Olivia, our cook, who was picking out the wings from the ants in her bowl. During the morning she fried them, and just before lunch brought them to us to try. Carla and Dale did, I just could not. . . .

I was thankful to see the sun peeking through the clouds this morning! I took our clothes back out and hung them on the line, and gratefully was able to take them off the clothesline dry just before a rainstorm passed through after lunch.

We actually have 37 teachers here today. The training is going very well – the teachers very busy doing a lot of group work. This is our third training for the teachers here at New Hope.

5/22 – Sunshine! It as a cool morning, in the low 70’s. Most of the teachers have jackets on today. Lovely weather for the Americans.

It is our second of three days of teacher training. The teachers had a lot of questions for Dale this morning after his “Shepherding” hour. I think they enjoy the practical examples he gives from his 45 years of experience teaching.

There are two or three teachers that have brought their babies with them to the training. One mother in particular has a two-month old baby girl with a severe cleft palate. She has also brought her son, who seven years old, to watch the baby while she is in our training. My heart goes out to that little boy, who sits all day holding that baby, watching the other children run and play. It is his job to watch that baby. Such is life here. I am told that when school starts, the mother will bring her baby with her to her classroom every day.

5/25 – our last day here. A beautiful, clear sky, warm sunshine day. Dale and Carla finished their instruction well.

The training was over at the one o’clock lunch hour, and we headed back to the Williams after lunch. It being Friday, we encountered a good deal of traffic as we moved through Kampala, and it took us over four hours to go the 50 – 60 miles.

We had a wonderful four days at New Hope.  I was able to spend a good deal of time with my friend Olga and her children Ben~el, Genesis, Trinity, next Rouvin and I will miss them!