February 14^th

Sitting on the front porch, full moon rising. I now have Skype up and running, so I’ve talked to Sharry the last 2 days. Wonderful. The last 2 days I’ve gone to UCI to give lectures, and both days there were no classes because all the teachers were helping to grade an exam given the 3 days previously. So I helped grade the exam. And I’ll give the lectures next week.

Odds and Ends –

- In talking with JF about decisions on who should be admitted to Keframa, since it is mainly for kids whose families have little or no money, he says how difficult some of the cases are. They have to limit the numbers some way, but “when they are here, your mind says one thing, but your heart says something different.”

- On the land next door, to the side and in front of the houses, there is a small family grave yard with 10 or so crypt-type markers, the largest for the patriarch who, I’m told, was in the military.

- Hair – Most here, male and female, have little hair, close to the scalp a la black Africa. Many males and females with longer hair have corn rows, and a few females wear falls, or wigs.

- Lizards – Some  rather large (10-12”) black lizards crawl up the sides of walls on buildings. They have orange on their heads and necks, and a patch of orange on their tails. Some white, smaller lizards are around also. A small (2”) one was in my room the other night.

- The slight smell of wood smoke from the boiling of my drinking water this morning.

- The delighted screaming, squealing kids outside my door in the late afternoon/evening playing a scary game of tag.

- Signs – Along the roads as you are about to enter a town or village, large multi-part signs in good condition tell you about some wonderful thing the Government of Uganda is doing for the area. Signifying nothing.

- Tony, the driver, awoke this morning sneezing, he said, because he is allergic to the cold.