Week 8: Graduation and Ggaba Beach

Well it has been another busy week here in Uganda. This week was our last full week of volunteering for a little while as classes begin next week and run for 3 weeks. During that time we will be busy helping out with the classes instead of being in the hospitals and such.

On Wednesday we spent the day at ACHERU where the kids have become very comfortable with us. The young ones are now at the point where they will be climbing all over us and not letting go when it comes to the end of the day and we have to leave. It is awesome to feel so loved from the kids. There was also quite the drama at ACHERU on Wednesday, a bunch of the people from the north decided to go on a hunger strike. From my understanding, some people had missed dinner the night before and were quite upset about this. I’m not sure if they just missed being told to come for dinner or if they were at the market and there was no food when they returned or what. These people rallied others and decided they were not going to eat. The staff tried to reason with them and explain the situation and how it was not the facilities responsibility to make sure everyone has dinner, they serve at specific times and if you miss dinner that is your own fault. I guess this was not the first time the staff has seen such a thing occur so they were not too worried and figured the situation would sort itself out. They were right about that as by lunch it seemed everyone was eating again and the situation had settled.

Cathy thought it was hilarious to steal Kash's glasses and wear them herself

All the kids wanted to help do Kash's hair, she had a lovely knot by the end of it

It seems everywhere we go we have a herd of children following us

Friday we were invited to attend the graduation ceremony for the university. There were more than 1200 graduates but only 290 attended the ceremony, of those present about 10 were from ICMI. One of the graduates is also the administrator at ACHERU that we know and love so she invited us to lunch at her house after the ceremony. The ceremony was pretty typical of any convocation and they did a good job of making it so fairly fast considering the number of graduates. The families of the graduates were quite entertaining to watch as they would get so happy standing up cheering and dancing when their relatives name was called. The excitement is understandable as for many of these families it was quite a struggle to produce the fees needed to send their kids to university so seeing them accomplish what the families worked so hard to make happen must be very exciting…or they are so happy they no longer have to pay the school fees. After the ceremony we went with Joyce, the ACHERU administrator, to pick up her kids from school so they could all go to a photo studio and get their pictures taken to commemorate the day. Once the pictures were all done we went to Joyce’s house where we met her extended family and close friends and joined them for lunch. Calling the meal lunch isn’t quite appropriate as by the time we were eating it was more like 5pm which for us is more considered an early dinner. It was a lovely meal however and very kind of her to welcome us into her home and allow us to join the celebration.

Joyce with her parents before the ceremony

A bunch of the ICMI graduates from the Bachelors program

Joyce with her husband and sons cutting her graduation cake

Joyce's daughter Esther and I, she loved playing with my hair and having thumb wars

 Today (Saturday) we met up with some of the people that had been on our Murchison Falls trip to go to Ggaba beach on the outskirts of Kampala. The Ggaba beach definition of beach and our definition of beach must be very different as there was not really much of a beach at all. There was a little bit of dirt between the grass and Lake Victoria but it was sectioned off and not accessible. We still had a lovely time sitting out in the sun having some freshly caught tilapia. In the later afternoon, we went to a hotel up on a hill top near where some of them stay which had a gorgeous view out over the lake. It was the perfect ending to the day having a drink looking out over the lake as the sun went down. As the sun was setting, Kash and I decided we should be on our way as it is a bit of a commute back to Mukono and we didn’t want to have to navigate the taxi park in the pitch black. Our timing was perfect and we were in the proper taxi heading back to Mukono just as things were starting to get really dark. That’s one of the downside to being right on the equator, there are no long summer days, the sun sets around 7-7:30 all year long.

The view of Lake Victoria from Ggaba Beach

 

The lunch menu had three things big fish, large fish, and extra large fish

Looking out over Lake Victoria from Cassia lodge up on the hill top

 

I can’t believe how quickly each week passes, before I know it my family will be joining me here and we will be off on safari. It is bittersweet thinking of my time here coming to an end. Part of me is very excited to get home and enjoy Victoria with food that is not rice and beans, but on the other hand it will be hard to say goodbye to Uganda and all the amazing people we have met. Luckily I still have another month before I have to face that!

Hope you are all enjoying your summer!

Jess