15. Uganda - Friday 16th October

This morning we finished decorating the secondary school hall. There were a few finishing touches to be done but mainly we were putting our handprints around the outline of the large heart that some of the pupils had drawn at the back of the hall. We painted our hands so that there was room to write our initials in the palms, as did some of the pupils who have helped us - It looks very effective. 

We were asked to come to the primary school at 12 - to our surprise there were seats set up for us in the shade of a tree and the nursery and primary classes all sang songs and danced. They were so sweet - one of the songs mentioned a few of us by name including "teacher Susan!" After lunch we went to the secondary school for the official opening of the art work in the hall, attended by the Ugandan pupils. This time we had to go up on the stage while Amina and Robert made speeches. Amina referred to the French lesson last week and I was asked to teach the hall full of pupils to ask for something to eat in French! Bush and her art class presented us with pictures that they had made for us - some of us were given pictures that have been made for us by pupils who know us, and George's and mine were made by Bush, which made me feel very happy. 

Then George made a speech and made a fine job of it despite the fact that the rain had come on and was battering almost deafeningly on the tin roof at the time. The secondary pupil choir sang a couple of songs and of course there was some dancing! 

Back at the house Bush showed us how she can walk along while balancing a water container on her head. She made it look so easy but none of us could manage it! I spectated a lively and very muddy game of volleyball in the afternoon - the weather was very clammy and I was glad to have a refreshing shower before dinner. 

At 10 p.m. we went to the Friday evening service at the church. Again the singing and dancing was great and we all joined in with enthusiasm. George and I were both asked to give testimony so I found myself at the front of the church with a microphone. With nothing prepared I just tried to speak from my heart. I said that Gabriel and Deborah asked us to make their home our home and that we feel that the Luwero community is our family. You have to pause after each phrase so that it can be translated into Lugandan. We had expected to be given the nod to leave at about 12 but by that time we were in the middle of the sermon which led straight on to prayers and singing. By 12.45 our pupils had stopped dancing and looked absolutely exhausted; (for some reason I had got a second wind and felt quite perky again!) I had to make a sharp exit with a pupil who felt sick and several more who felt faint followed us back to the house. It's so dark walking along in rural Uganda by night - however we all had head torches. When we got back to the house we found that we were locked out - we had to wake Bush to let us in. The rest of our group arrived back at about 1.30 a.m. and we all stumbled off to bed, exhausted.