GiveBIG is an easy way to leverage your support. Please GiveBIG to Sister Schools on May 15!

Don’t miss Fernwood Elementary School’s seventh annual benefit concern in support of Sister Schools on THURSDAY, MAY 23 at 7:00. The concert features Bad Monkeys Marimba Band, the Fernwood Choir, the Sister Schools Benefit Concert Choir, and special guests legendary Seattle soul jazz pianist Overton Berry with Jeff Davies on bass. Proceeds will  help build Sister School’s newest resource center in Uganda, this one at Lutengo Primary School. Tickets at the door. Concert at the Northshore Performing Arts Center, 18125 92nd Ave NE,  Bothell, WA 98011. Lutengo Primary

Got stuck in a couple of massive traffic jams, enjoyed samosas and chips for lunch (again), tasted jackfruit and sugarcane, both of which were gifted to us yesterday, along with about 60 more pounds of assorted tropical fruits. Wild rainstorm did NOT knock out the power as we packed everything up. We’re all clean, had our first beer of the evening, and will soon be sitting down for our final meal together. It’s been a successful, invigorating, inspiring and exhausting trip. Can’t wait for next year.

Since both schools have new head teachers, they weren’t quite sure what Sister Schools was or how the distribution would go-although apparently the old-timers weren’t shy about telling them how it ought to be done. Joy, at Bishop West, decided to use the materials as positive reinforcement. The students at her school were not speaking English when she arrived, and learning English is a requirement to go on to secondary school. Joy’s been writing down the names of children she hears speaking English and will use some of the supplies to reward them and motivate the rest. Joy’s school is the one with the class of disabled students, who are the highest priority for scholastic materials, followed by basic performers. But the generosity of Puget Sound area schoolchildren and their families means that Joy will have lots left over to encourage all Bishop West students to study, and speak, English.

Spent all afternoon at John Kaama Primary, a 246-student school about 30 minutes into the country. Pupils are almost all day students from the surrounding community. Sister Schools has supported John Kaama for many years, including building a resource center and renovating classrooms. The entire team was enchanted by Head Girl Nakasagga Zainah, a 12-year-old charmer who gave the thank-you speech, danced with strength and grace, and was last seen playing netball as we drove off, wearing, as all her teammates were, jerseys and shorts donated by Fernwood Elementary in Bothell.

Right now, Uganda doesn’t have a reading culture. As Kisowera Head Teacher Tom joked, “If you want to hide anything in Uganda, put it in a book.” Even many Ugandan students think of books as only necessary for reference. Kis0wera teachers and other educators want to change that culture so that people begin to read for pleasure. The library/resource center will be a key part of that change, since books will be available to all.

Lutengo Primary School, our afternoon visit, is situated in a more rural and traditional area. As at every school we’ve visited so far, Lutengo students look happy and healthy. Students are, however, stuffed into classrooms, ranging from 53 students in P-7 to 96 in P-4. There are only enough desks for about two-thirds of the P-7 class. None of the 62 students in P-5 have desks. “They have to keep the room clean,” said Head Teacher Carolyn ruefully, “because they sit on the floor.” Carolyn and her 540 students and 11 teachers have been working very hard, and their hard work is paying off. “Last year,” she said, “we had 10 passing grades [in the country-wide P-7 exit exam] out of 75. Before that, there were only one or none. Now, our children can read and write.”

Lutengo is the site of Sister Schools’ next resource center. They, too, will start with the proceeds from selling our container, and we will fund-raise back home for the rest. “The community will use the resource center, too,” said Carolyn. It’s all part of the country-wide desire to move to a reading culture.

Joshua and Michael are in S-4, the top of the O-levels, at the same school. Joshua reveled in telling us the story of their trip to the US, including first experiences with escalators and airplane food. “If I hadn’t met Sister Schools,” Joshua said, it would have been quite hard. Orphanages lack many things. I couldn’t have gone to a good school.” Michael agreed. “Before Sister Schools, I never thought about secondary school. Now I can pay school fees.” (Photo of Martha B to come.)

Yesterday, we finished the final two school video sessions. We used to video the speeches and dances that each school prepared–for months–on distribution days, but as our technology got more complex and took more time to set up, it started to take away from the joy of those days. Michael and Terry came a week early this trip so that they could get that business out of the way, and it seemed to work well. Although they weren’t “official” school visits, I got to learn about two of our Sister Schools-Kirawooza Primary and Mukono Boarding. When our delegation visited Kirawooza last year, the head teacher’s office was under a tree and two classes met in one large open structure. Now they have 7 new classrooms and three unfinished rooms, courtesy of the government’s new emphasis on education. The open structure is their kitchen and Jane, the head teacher, greeted us in her brand-new office. “Before, we were in a dusty place,”Jane said, “and parents weren’t sure what we were doing here.” Now, as the poised and charming young man said in his speech, “tomorrow will be better than today.”

Visited Kampala School for the Physically Handicapped, Mukono Boarding School, and outstanding sponsorship student Martha B at her new school, considered the best in the country, too. More about those later except to say that your support of Sister Schools is clearly evident everywhere we went.

Wendy