99% Ugandan, 1% Mzungu

In Kampala, 5:00 am is when the day begins. Birds begin their singing and the prayers from the nearby Mosque begin to radiate into our bedroom. On Thursday, we, with thousands of devout Christians in the area, woke the city up an hour early. At 4:00 AM, our alarm clocks went off , and we dressed at a zombie pace so we could participate in the National Holiday - Martyrs Day. With Galvin (the caretaker of the place we are staying), Rose, Agnes, Betty, Teddy, Drake (Agnes's friend), and members of Rose/Agnes' Church, we set off like thousands to Namugongo where the shrine for martyrs stands.

Early in our journey, we were seperated from Rose, Agnes and the members from the Church because we wanted to walk while they wanted to run. Walking on the streets of Kampala can be tricky. The roads are not well paved so you have to pay attention to where you walk. This is not a strength of mine. My foot may or may not be sore because I tripped more than several times. After a few hours and 3-4 miles, Betty and Drake made the executive decision for us to take a taxi (more like a bus) down the main road to shorten our journey. I think this was a good decision because we would have been walking for the longest time. When we got off the taxi, we walked 2-3 more miles. We ran into Rose and Agnes on the way. They had already arrived and were running back to find us.

As we drew closer to the Shrine, the numbers of people walking increased until we were surrounded by a sea. President and Commander and Chief Barack Obama's Inauguration is the only event I have been to with more people. The streets were bustling. Agnes and Betty were wearing running clothes, but they insisted on taking us down to the shrine. The combination of my skin color and their clothing caused us to recieve a bit of attention. To quote Agnes, "They need to get over it. My prayer for the day was done while I was excercising so this is what I'm wearing." Galvin, as am I, was very impressed with their bravery to be who they are. At one point when we were walking a man tried to take Agnes' sunglasses off her face. She punched him on the shoulder - a hysterical moment I will never forget. Seeing so many people in one place for their faith is a powerful experience. Despite hardship, there is hope through faith no matter what religion one follows. The journey for many to Namugongo was much longer than ours. They had spent days walking for communial prayer - what a beautiful sight!

The rest of Thursday was spent relaxing, seeing some of Kampala's malls, and going to hear the same band we saw Tuesday night (and will be seeing tonight again). They are so good!

On Friday morning, we went to Taibah - the school EAC sends their children to. They are so lucky. The school has an amazing philosophy toward education, which emphasizes critical thinking and freedom. One of the schools administrators told us she wanted to see if she could find one of the EAC students for us to speak with. She came to get us and there were a whole group of 6 students waiting. For some reason, both Nick and I thought we were speaking with non-EAC students. I thought because she had not been able to find one EAC students, she found six non-EAC students. Nick explained what EAC was and we asked many questions about Taibah. Everyone spoke about how the school allows autonomy leading to opportunity and learning. At the end of the discussion, one of us asked how many were EAC students. All of them raised their hands. I'm so happy Nick was the one who explained EAC to them! They were all so friendly, welcoming, and willing to take our questions. I wish we could have spent more time with them, and I cannot wait for them to come to the EAC house one weekend.

After seeing Taibah's primary school, we went to St. Jannan Secondary School to meet with the headmaster. What an interesting guy! Nick and I asked two questions, and he spoke for an hour and a half. Nick asked "How do you measure success?" and he said, "Personal or for the children?" to which responded, "Well... both... I guess" Needless to say, I could tell you this man's life story. Despite his talkitiveness, our conversation was interesting. An interesting fact I learned was that the government funds some of the more expensive, well performing schools not those in need of assistance. In contrast to Taibah, the instruction style at St. Jannan was very traditional. Each child has notebooks, which they copy material into from the board.

Friday was a fascinating because we were able to see two extremes in secondary education - Taibah and St. Jannan. EAC is a special organization because they recognize the importance of providing their children with well-rounded educations, which encourage analytical thinking, even if they sacrafice the quanity of children aided. A thousand children attend St. Jannan, which has a relatively reasonable tuition; however, as the headmaster admitted, "For most of our children, this will be the end of their education. I can think of maybe a hundred children since we began who went further. " It's hard to grapple how we allow education to be so unreachable and intangible anywhere in the world. Moreover, when a school focuses on quanity over quality, what are the consequences?

After seeing the schools on Friday, we went to the office for a few hours before going to Agnes' home with Rose for dinner. We had so much fun assisting her with the cooking of the delicious food. We had rice, potatoes, mushrooms, plantains, tomatoe/basil/mozerella salad, beans, and the best avocado. The vegetables are so fresh here - no steroids or chemicals. The avocados are so big and flavorful. Better than the food was the company. Rose and Agnes are so much fun to be with and have the best humor.

Late Saturday afternoon, Agnes and Betty picked us up to go to an art street festival. There were some beautiful paintings of Kampala and pottery. The only thing I bought was a t-shirt with the title of this posting. When it got dark, there was a concert, which we went to for a little while. There were several acts, but two really stood out. The first was named Richie (I think) and had a John Legend vibe and the second played a classical Western African instrument. We left the concert early before going to dinner and dancing. Teddy and her friend - Claire - joined us for the dancing. We had a great night.

On Sunday, Nick and I used public transportation to go to the mall. We rode boda-bodas to avoid the confusing taxi system. At first very scary, riding on these motorcyles is actually fun when you tell the driver to be slow. My driver stopped because he saw a jacket on a tree, which I found to be very humorous. I certaintly won't make a habit of riding these machines as my anxiety tends to be high sometimes!

Mzungu - the word used in my title - refers to the color of my skin. Everybody here is so friendly, and I truly feel 99% Ugandan and 1% Mzungu.

- Feldman