January 31st

It is still hot. At the school I sit outside during slack times, like when I am waiting to go to class or waiting for my ride home, because it is so damn hot and I appreciate the occasional breeze. Others, students and staff, also sit outside when they can. Now several times, students or staff have approached me to ask questions or just converse. One student, after I had given a lesson on the rights of the child, asked if religion was included in the rights of the child. I told him that religion was only mentioned once in the edition of the rights that I had, and that was that no child could be denied any of the rights because of religion (among other things). The student then said that he had heard a Christian preacher on the radio say that what the Muslims were teaching to children amounted to child abuse. We spoke a bit about what the Koran and the Bible both say, some of which could be considered abusive. It turns out that the student is Muslim, in the Uganda Christian Institute. He says when he goes back to his village he doesn't name the school, but says he goes to a nursing school. He talks to a few others at school about these issues. He asked if religion is taught in schools, as it is here, and it gave me a chance to talk about separation of church and state.   He came back today and asked if I could speak in his class (first year; I currently have classes only with the second year). I'm going to try to arrange a time to do that, for a q & a session.

Another group was asking about the native language in the US, and it gave me a chance to talk about English as the "official" language, but about all the other languages, and about Native American languages. Great fun!

Sharry and Ron asked about the food. The main staples are posho (a cooked corn meal that looks like mashed potatoes, ground more finely than corn meal, and dryer than potatoes; I'm getting used to it), beans (brown and black, best when combined with a cooked cabbage slaw), and bananas and plantains prepared in various ways. The above are served every day to students and staff at school. We had meat there one time, the toughest beef I have ever eaten. At home, Susan Okello, Augustine's wife, tries to get me a little protein (eggs) and fruit (bananas and others I don't recognize but that are good) every day. That's it.

More about the family - I mentioned Susan, a delightful gentle woman. Her husband, Augustine who I still haven't met and who hired me, will be back next week. The kids are Justine, age 8 tomorrow, and Vanessa (I was told that Vanessa was a name in the bible, but when I looked it up, it is a Hebrew girl's name meaning butterfly, but not biblical), age 4. They are both typical kids for their ages, and beautiful. There are two other young women who stay here, who have been recently "adopted" after family deaths. They help Susan with the house work. One of them will be going back to school next week. She is Robina. I don't know the other's name.

'Nuf for now.