A Day at Zana!

    Here's a glimpse into what I do everyday at school...
    KK and I arrive at school around 9 o'clock each morning. It's been said that, "Americans have watches and Africans have time". Well we've grown quite accustomed to "Ugandan time"... so our 9 o'clock arrival time now ranges from 8:30- 9:30 depending on the morning.
    Once we arrive at school KK and I go our separate ways. In my baby class I help teach, "mark" the books (which i'm doing in the picture on the above), keep the children quiet, prepare the lessons in the books, and whatever else that needs to be done.

    Around 10 o'clock I begin preparing for break. I set out the mats and retrieve the porridge from the kitchen and the water from the well for the children to wash their hands. The picture on the left shows the children all lining up to wash their hands before taking their "eats". They sing, "Wash, wash, wash your hands! Wash them everyday! Soap and water, soap and water! Takes the germs away!" to the tune of "Row, row, row your boat"!

This is one of my babies named Rina. She is probably 3 or 4 years old.
She's a very sweet little girl! Always smiling! 

Here is the porridge most of the children take at break. I haven't been brave enough to try it...
but by the looks of it i'd say it is close to a watered down version of our grits. 

   

The children sitting on their mats taking their "eats" at break.
This is when teacher KK and I usually go to tea with the other teachers. 

    After more grading... more yelling... more crying (not me, the children)... The day is over and it's time to line up outside for pick up. Getting the children outside with all of their things is definitely a challenge. They usually have on the wrong shoes or another students sweater so it takes some sorting out but eventually we get it! I've got to give them credit though... for a group of 3-6 year olds they do remarkably well!

    Lunch time rolls around at 1:30... Unfortunately, no fortunately, we only eat at school on Tuesday's and Thursday's because we have Bible study with the secondary girls.
    Take a look at the picture on the right! That, my friend, is our "Thursday special"! Mmmmmmm.... We get mitoki (the yellow), pocha (the white), and fish with the peanut sauce (the red). Mitoki is a cooked banana mash... The texture is more or less like mashed potatoes but it has a really sweet flavor. I'm not entirely sure what pocha is... I think it's maze but you'd never guess because it's utterly tasteless! The peanut sauce is made with red, African g-nuts. They boil them with water until they become soft and then, using their hands,  squeeze them into a soupy sauce... and finally, boil in some fish giving it a nice fishy-peanuty flavor... It's actually rather delicious.

    Walking to and from school we see many animals! Cows, chickens, sheep, goats, dogs, cats, birds... everywhere! And where there are animals... there's poop... and lots of it! So we have to be very careful where we step!

I can't believe I'd made it this far without getting something! But, lo
and behold, ringworm! We think I got it from one of my babies...
They love to touch and hug! But it's all worth it! 

- Mary Grace