Being in Mexico surrounded by Spanish and sometimes struggling to understand it really makes me wish I had learned it as a child in elementary school. Yes, there was Spanish class, but we didn’t have it very often and all I remember learning is the colors, the alphabet, and what to call my family members.

There are a few different types of bilingual education being employed in the U.S. today. (It should be noted that in the U.S. bilingual education generally refers to non-English speakers learning English.) One type is transitional. The child is taught in their native language for a few years while learning English and then switches over to all English classes. Another take on this involves the child being taught in their native language for many more years and continuing learning English during this time. A third is dual language immersion wherein part of the day is conducted in English and the other part is taught in the other language, ideally with half the class being native English speakers and the other half natively speaking the other language.

Mi favorito de estos es el tercero. Con inmersión, yo pienso, los estudiantes pueden aprender más rápido. Pero si tienen niveles diferentes en los dos idiomas, todavía pueden tener éxito en la escuela por parte del día por lo menos. También pueden aprender de sus compañeros que hablan el otro idioma. Hay muchas razones para aprender otro lenguaje; algunas son: para trabajar, para viajar, y para comunicar con otros paisanos.

En otras partes del mundo (o así me parece gracias a la fuente favorita de todos) les enseñan a los niños idiomas de paises diferentes. La educación bilingüe no es sólo para extranjeros; es para todos. En los EE. UU. la mayoría tiene que tomar clases en otro idioma pero no tantas que realmente pueden hablar con fluidez. Si necesitan un ejemplo, me pueden visitar aquí.

In honor of the International Day of Women (March 8th) this post will deal with the world’s fledgling women: adolescent girls. UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children this year emphasizes the importance of supporting adolescent education as a means of eradicating poverty. Because the gender gap in secondary school is wider than it is for primary school, the report also focused on the problems facing adolescent girls in the developing world.

One of the most shocking things I read in this report was that “on average more than 50 per cent of adolescent females aged 15–19 in the developing world (excluding China) consider that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstances, such as if she burns the food or refuses to have sex” (32-33). What shocks me most is that these are the responses of women, not men. That a woman could think she deserves such treatment—or rather, that so many women could think they deserve such treatment is truly disturbing.

Unfortunately, something similar came up recently at Buen Pastor. A young married couple came here to teach the girls Capoeira and photography for a few weeks. While working with the older girls (middle and high school-aged), the couple found that many of them believed that the man was, in effect, the boss of the woman. The couple tried to explain that they were a partnership, they made decisions together with the wife’s opinion counting as much as the husband’s, and that he was most certainly not the boss of her. Hopefully, the girls believed them. But it’s likely they thought the talk he talked was not the walk he walked.

It is so important to invest in girls because, as the report states, “the intergenerational transmission of poverty is most apparent among adolescent girls” (4). Uneducated girls get married and have children sooner. They can’t continue their studies if they have children, so they don’t make very much money. Their children then grow up in a poor environment and the cycle repeats. However, when a girl is educated, she will likely get married later and have fewer children, allowing her to have more of an education and therefore make more money to support those fewer children. In addition, a woman invests 90% of her income into her family (compared with 30-40% for men), contributing to better health and more education for her children (74).

At the entrance to Buen Pastor’s internado where the girls live, there is a sign greeting them which says “Talita Kum.” I don’t know what language it’s in, but Jesus said it to some girl after he had brought her back to life. It means, “Girl, rise up.”

Something very exciting happened recently that I would like to share with you all: the Daily Show came to Mexico. In my frenzy of excitement, I binge-watched two weeks worth of episodes. While each one made me chuckle and cringe at America’s myriad fallacies, the most recent touched on a topic I think is often underrepresented when discussing education, which is, as Jon said, “the environment around the school.”

In the episode he interviews Diane Ravitch (which you can see here: Diane Ravitch Interview), an NYU professor with a new book out about America’s school system. Ms. Ravitch points out that “where we have intense poverty and racial isolation…you’ll find low test scores because kids are hungry, they’re homeless, they’re sick and not getting any medical care. Those things matter.”

In high school I preferred to sleep in rather than do any sort of morning routine. I would get out of bed at 7:23, get dressed and leave the house at 7:30, without having breakfast. By the time 4th period rolled around (almost lunch time) all I could think about was food and getting my ass over to the cafeteria. I certainly wasn’t thinking about the accusative case or Romeo and Juliet’s woes anymore. But my 10 to 12 hour fasts were nothing compared to true hunger. Or to being homeless. Or to being sick without the prospect of medical care.

When people think about the cost of school, they usually think of tuition and textbooks, but there are many expenses that go into educating a child. When you look at the breakdown on a student profile at Givology of where your money goes, you see the usual tuition and textbook categories, but you’ll also see transportation and room and board. These categories aren’t the most recognizable, but they’re just as necessary. Even more to the point are the feeding projects at Givology, such as the Monthly Feeding Program at the Kibera School for Girls in Nairobi, Kenya, which (as the title rather obviously suggests) is dedicated to feeding about a hundred students and teachers every month.

After all, the chance at an education is pretty useless if you can’t get to the school. Or, you know, if you have no food.

My name is Margaret Lawlace and I'm a new intern at Givology. After having spent a year in college, I decided to see what else was out there in the world and left Philadelphia for Guanajuato, Mexico.

The best thing I've found out here in the world is Buen Pastor, a convent dedicated to helping women and girls in need. I volunteer in Buen Pastor's "internado," which translates to boarding school, but really it’s more like a foster home. Around thirty girls, aged 3 to 18, stay there when school is in session. On the weekends most of them go home to family members, though they may not be going home to their mothers and fathers. Buen Pastor provides them with food, shelter, and, most importantly, an education. The nuns pay for uniforms tuition and make sure the girls go to school, have access to the internet and volunteers like me who help them do their homework.

Buen Pastor has seen women go back to their abusers because they didn't have any other means of supporting themselves and their children. An education can help prevent that. Working with Givology, I hope to help the girls I know and have grown to love as well as children everywhere, who are equally deserving of an education.


Guanajuato from above.

I just returned from one of the most amazing experiences of my life working in an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. For two weeks, I helped run English camps, helped get the schools ready for the year, and hung out with some awesome kids.

I stayed in a cabin for two weeks on the orphanage property with an organization called Orphanage Outreach. I encourage everyone to try and do something to help out someone in need.

Feature Partner of the Month: La Vallee Alliance

I’ve read numerous articles in the Times and the Post about the dire state of the Haitian education system namely the schools and the abandoned pupils. In my last post, I blogged about the meaning of education to these Haitian children struggling everyday to break the cycle of poverty. All the while I’ve pondered the question of how I can help in an action-oriented, deliberate way that would most effectively make an impact. Fortunately, Givology recently established a partnership with a local NGO called La Vallee Alliance, and it just so happens that the founder and inspirational leader behind this project were in town a few weeks ago near my home in Northern Virginia.

Fate has a way of making a point.

One great thing about ‘working’ for Givology is meeting new people and making new connections (shameless pandering for those of you out there thinking about volunteering for Givology). It turns out only one degree of separation stood between me and the founders of La Vallee Alliance. And it was on a crisp, clear Friday night when I attended a neighborhood fundraiser that I finally had the chance to see the work of our partner up-close and personal.



Above: crowd in living room listens to presentations at fundraiser

The story begins with Antonica, a hard-working Haitian woman who before even learning my name gave me a swift, warm embrace. She’s the inspiration behind this school reconstruction project in La Vallee, a city in the rural mountainside of Jacmel with an estimated population of 40,000, twenty percent of which are school-age children. Though she moved to the States years ago, her heart remained in her homeland. When the earthquake struck, Antonica very urgently answered her country’s call for help which in her mind translated to: help the children go back to school. She enlisted the help of her friends, neighbors, and family alike, including Anne Clougherty, whose kids she has looked after since they were toddlers.

The families’ connection runs much deeper. The stories told at the fundraiser revealed how intimately intertwined the Cloughertys’ life has become with Antonica’s and how closely the family related to her long-standing concern for Haiti, namely her passionate will to educate the local children. An individual’s cause soon became a collective cause, for which Anne along with neighbors equally touched by Antonica’s story came to support in the name of La Vallee Alliance.

Anne, who voluntarily took a trip to Haiti in the summer of 2009, has experienced up-close the trials and tribulations the children face every day of the year just to stay in school. She made the long, arduous journey to and from school with the local children in conditions unthinkable.

“I don’t know how they do it,” Anne recalls, “walking one and half hour to school every day in just flip flops, with limited access to water, on steep, rocky roads, under all the heat…”




Above: children on long march to school

Anne has since sponsored 10 children in Haiti to send them back to school. However, so much work remains to be done, especially in the aftermath of the earthquake.

La Vallee Alliance was formed amidst this growing concern for the dwindling education opportunities as well as for the greater well-being of the La Vallee community. The Alliance is currently working towards fulfilling the community’s needs in four broad areas: school reconstruction, student enrollment, temporary shelter, and sustainable farming.

While the first three initiatives are intuitive, the latter one was refreshing to me, so I inquired deeper. Marcy, another founder, informed me of their plan to build self-sustaining gardens near the school to provide not only a source of food for the students but also a source of income for the school after selling the produce at the local market. Every student at the school would be required to tend to the garden. In the future, Marcy hopes the Alliance will be able to sponsor not only gardens near schools but family gardens as well.

The Alliance realizes that the children’s need for formal schooling is not isolated from the greater needs of their families and their community at large. Anne carefully reminded me during the interview that fundraising is crucial at this point, as the Alliance strives to meet the demands of a community that has experienced an influx of migrants back from Port Au Prince after the earthquake destroyed most of the urban landscape.

When asked about external support from international aid projects, the founders admit support has been limited, primarily through the church and some community coalitions, although the latter has been with a medical focus. They expressed regret that government bureaucracy and many of the better-known relief projects so far have tended to prioritize Port Au Prince above local communities like La Valle.

After learning of their lofty goals, I inquired about a more concrete plan of action. Anne responded with a cheerful air, “Everything starts now. We begin sponsoring students; we supply the schools with reconstruction materials. The gardens start right now, and the shelter is so key, and at the moment we’re still waiting on the larger NGOs to come up with a design, plan, and implementation [methods].”

Her optimism didn’t strike me as naïve but rather motivational. Although I wasn’t in the room with these women discussing the next steps of this grand project, on the other end of the telephone line, I could still sense the confidence and determination that filled the air with hope and promise. Their triumph lies not just in their mission statement but in their relentless desire to do more than just make a $5 donation on their mobile phones; and this may start with growing a garden, or more simply put, with the planting of a seed.

As an Educator, I believe that every child deserves the chance to learn. However, this is simply not the case in many areas of the world. I was fortunate enough to travel as a volunteer to Ghana, Africa in 2008 and 2009. While there, I met some of the happiest children I have ever taught. Despite their lack of a proper classroom, supplies or basic furniture, each child was eager to learn. Throughout my travels in Ghana, I have seen the disparity in educational facilities. Some villages have dilapidated structures functioning as a school, some hold school under a tree, and others have makeshift rooms made of boards and tin leaning against a tree. With such undesirable school structures, it is difficult to attract and keep government appointed teachers in the villages. As a Givology Fellow, I will return to Ghana, Africa this June to research and document the current educational conditions in the Volta Region. In addition, I plan to help make education a reality for the children in the villages without proper school facilities by gathering sponsorships to assist local students as well as partnering with local non-profits to help with the construction of new schools. It is my hope that, through my research, others will be able to support projects and help change the quality of education in Ghana.

Below is a picture of me working with a student who is not currently able to afford to attend the local school


This school is a very simple structure that provides shade from the unrelenting sun


This school has walls, but no windows or roof

In December, two members of the Givology team had a chance to visit the Peace School as volunteers to assist with the relocation of the Lower Campus and to document the project progress to share with you, our community.

As we had too many updates, photos, stories, and videos to share, we created a separate site that chronicles our day-by-day experiences at the Peace School. Through this site, you can read a detailed blog post for each day that we spent at the Peace School by clicking on the link at the lower right hand corner of each expanded thumbnail, and our experiences of taking down the Lower Campus and rebuilding the structures at the Upper Campus.

The youtube video below explains the basics of this site.

Click here to go to the site to view the project update.

January 7, 2010

As today is my last day in Uganda, I woke up early to pack my suitcase. Having bought a lot of beautiful crafts created from soapstone, I’m concerned that they will break in transit, as I do not have a very packed suitcase at all, especially after giving away a lot of my gifts. I’ll be holding some of the crafts in my carry-on, so hopefully I can arrive back in London with everything intact.

I didn’t spend a very long time at the Peace School, but I feel that even within three weeks, I’ve learned and absorbed so much about Ugandan culture, politics, food, development, education, infrastructure, and general way of life.

After packing, I ate a quick breakfast of samosas, bread, and crackers before starting on a series of instructional posters for Passy. Unlike in the USA where teachers can easily purchase pre-made posters, the teachers here have to create all their learning aids by hand. When we moved the Lower Campus, we ended up destroying many of these weathered posters, faded and fragile with years of use. Passy was clearly distressed over the amount of work required to recreate these posters – in the states, they would have long been replaced, but every bit of material is carefully salvaged and saved here.

I found the poster making rather soothing – with my handwriting and ability to write straight without lines, I forged ahead at top speed. Jia did some $50 drawings and interviews on her own, while I kept intently to my own task of completing the posters. Mukisa Isaac, a child we sponsor on Givology, happened to be around today, so we got some great footage of him and little Farook singing and dancing on camera!

By late afternoon, Joanita called me to put the finishing touches on the paint for the temporary sheds. At first, I didn’t know what to paint, but then I thought about Givology’s slogan, “Give to Learn, Learn to Give” and found it particularly suitable. The Peace School gives so many poor children the opportunity to learn – even if they can’t afford school fees. In turn, the hope is that when these children grow older, graduate, and find stable jobs, that they in turn give back to the community.

[Photo of Joanita and the boys with me in front of the words that I painted.]





Charles and the laborers laughed at this phrase that I painted, jokingly informing me that, “To give, you must first have.” I retorted, however, that all of us have something to give – if not money or resources, then our time, skills, and passion for doing good. In addition, a person in need doesn’t have to give now, but can give later when his or her situation improves – to repay the kindness showed to him or her. I strongly believe that regardless of circumstances, everyone can share something with a family or individual less fortunate than him or her. If we all give at least as much as we take, then the world would be such a better place!

After painting, we took group photos of everyone. I know I will treasure these photos for a long time. In the last few hours before my departure, the conversations became very bittersweet as the kids kept on asking when I would return. Using the negative in their sentence construction, they kept on asking me plaintively, “I’ll never see you again?”

In my mind, I know that in all honesty, when I start my job in New York City, the chance to come back will be rare. Yet even if I do manage to return, years will likely pass. If I never return, in my mind, these kids will forever be locked in time, never aging or growing older. Five years later, cute little Irene will be fifteen years old and all the boys enrolled in university, if they can manage to afford it. Five years later, the Peace School will hopefully encompass all the current and adjacent land, and include a real library, computer lab, modern classrooms, and expanded facilities. We came at a critical crossroads – through our efforts, we determine the future.

I told the children that perhaps one day, not only will I visit them again, but they might be able to come see me in the USA! Nearly all of them told me that it was impossible. I kept repeating that the world is shrinking, but in the corner of my mind, I know that even though this has been so true for me, leaving the country is very difficult for all of them. Computers are very scarce and Internet so slow and expensive – the youth are constantly tantalized with Western culture and knowledge of modern innovations, yet simultaneously so alienated and distant. For example, the kids know the songs of Brandy, Alicia Keyes, and Beyonce, and they watch Prison Break, 24, and US movies, yet only have a rudimentary understanding of e-mail and Internet use. Though all the kids have expressed interest in computers and have taken computer classes, theoretical knowledge can’t substitute for practical experimentation. Even my typing seemed to amaze them.

[Below are some photos that I took with everyone before leaving.]







I took lots of great photos with the kids – me at 23 years old somehow still fitting in (almost all the kids believed Jia and I were their age)! I got most of them to write me a message in my book. Before leaving for the airport, I got so many wonderful thank-you cards – Amina’s family gave me a traditional gossi (dress) for my mother, a form of Ugandan kimono and obi. Morris and Helen gave me a bag, while Charles gifted me with a friendship desk decoration. I was so touched! Parting is always such a sad moment, especially when accompanied with an implicit understanding that our next meeting may be years away. I will also miss Jia a lot – my other half and partner in this venture. Even though we first met in the airport, I feel that I’ve known her for so long, especially since we’ve shared so many transformative experiences together.

[Below is a photo of Jia and me together! Very rarely did we ever appear in photos together during this trip as we were so busy recording footage.]



For the car trip back, grandmother Amina, Amina, Jia, Irene, Dama, Sula, Joanita, and Iria came along – basically the people I got to know very well during this trip. Jia and I chatted happily and regaled ourselves with our funny and dramatic moments (“What if I never wake up again?” Yes, Jia did say this at one point in time.)W When we arrived at Entebbe airport, I was greeted with the unfortunate news that my midnight flight was delayed three hours until 3:20 AM. As you can imagine, definitely not pleasant news.

Drifting in between sleep and consciousness, I write this last entry of my trip to Uganda. For me, my journey to the Peace School is a life changing experience that inspires me to do more, to work harder, and to strive to make a difference. Even if I never return to Uganda again, my heart remains with the school and the children that I met. It’s not often that one forges such deep bonds and then leaves knowing that these friends may very well disappear from one’s life, certainly a discomfiting thought. Through Givology, I will push forward with our goal of raising 40 million shillings for the Peace School. I have so much to be thankful for in my life. Alas, it’s the least I can do to work harder to grow and expand Givology to provide opportunities to children around the world.

Joyce here ends her Ugandan journal here.
January 8, 2010

January 6, 2010

Today is my last full day in Uganda, and I have made a very packed list of “to-do” items before I go. For Givology, I still need to collect letters, an interview, and drawings from Irene, and Barbara. We still have a few interviews to complete, notably Joanita and Amina together. And, before I leave, I have to fulfill my promise of teaching the students here how to create a website. Everything takes longer in Uganda so I know that making very ambitious plans may not necessarily be feasible in execution, but as Confucius once said, “Aim high, achieve middle. Aim middle, achieve low.” So, of course, I’ll set my sights up high!

So many thoughts roil in my mind – stories of the people we met, troubles we encountered, the strong desire to continually do more, yet understanding more than ever the limitations that I face with resources, time, and agency. The Peace School does a lot of good in the community, but as we unwrap each layer with every day of our stay, we begin to realize the complexities of delivering quality education, prioritizing students given limited capacity, and balancing school and family interests. Notably, separating school and family presents a slew of challenges, as the Peace School is very much a family-run operation, with benefits and drawbacks.

This coming summer, I start working at Goldman Sachs in New York City – a completely different world from Peace School. Coming here is a reminder to not lose sight of the bigger picture, to understand that the value of money. One can easily spend $100 in New York City, nearly a paltry sum, but here, that amount of money can accomplish so much! I am so glad to be here because the experiences have transformed me – exposed to me the simple things that we take from granted, such as:

• Cheap and clean water from the tap (Water is so expensive here and the family spends a lot of time boiling water to rid bacteria)
• Streets that are paved and in good condition (Due to traffic, it takes two hours to get to the city center, even though the distance is not substantial. Getting to the village takes nearly an entire day given the unpaved, narrow dirt roads. No wonder everything here is so expensive – it is so difficult to transport goods from one area to the next)
• Ability to go to high school for free (Here, the students pay about 400,000 shillings ($200 USD) three times a year, resulting in a cost of about $600USD per year. In perspective, this amount easily exceeds the earnings of many families.
• Availability of a wide variety of food (The majority of the population relies on subsistence farming and consumes only what they can produce. Here, meat is considered a real luxury.)
• The opportunity to travel and see so much more outside of your village and local community – for these kids, owning a passport is a dream
• As a student, to concentrate on your students alone and not have to always worry about school fees and working to afford school
• To have good quality education opportunities in government student schools. Although the Ugandan government adopted free primary education in theory, the poor quality of government-run schools disincentive attendance. The kids often tell me that in government-run schools, teachers often don’t show up, and if they do, they make the kids dig holes for them to assist with their own personal farming needs! (That’s why schools like the Peace School are very well-respected and needed in the community)
• Obtaining good jobs and opportunities after graduating on the basis of merit, rather than nepotism and the power of your family relations
• Ability to buy internet cards and electronics cheaply (Here, services are very cheap – human labor can be purchased for a very minimal cost, but anything imported – typically manufactured goods – are extremely expensive!)
• Feeling connected to the world – to know the external world not only through television
• To never worry about when to have the next meal
• To have access to healthcare (The government’s AIDS policy has really made a tremendous difference, but the need for basic healthcare is so urgent, especially in the city slums and the villages. I’ve seen so many children plagued with permanent disabilities and ailments as a result of not being able to obtain immediate medical care for completely treatable conditions! For example, Grace who became deaf after her fever burned for weeks.)
• To have government support for unemployment and other needs

The list goes on and on…I can’t even fathom writing down everything. More than anything, being here has taught me to appreciate life much more – some people go to Africa and come back disillusioned. For me, I feel even more motivated and empowered. Even in the village, where life is difficult, the children laugh, play games, and survive. Being here as broken down the barrier between “us” and “Other” and demystified our differences.

I feel that Africa, in general, is so poorly understood; the media tends to cast the entire continent in perpetual crisis. We think of Somalia, Darfur, starving children with swollen bellies, and photos and videos of human suffering. Uganda is one of the poorest countries in Africa, clearly evident in the slums of the city and the squalor of the villages, but slowly, development occurs and the young generation grows up very hopeful of the future.

The world is definitely shrinking, boundaries, disappearing and eroding over time.

After a morning of just hanging around the classrooms and chatting with the boys about their life, the credit crisis, and their aspirations to leave Uganda, I asked them to write me a message in my journal so I can remember them. Time dulls memories, leaving only a faint impression as the years passed. With their messages to me in my journal, I will never forget this moment!

[Below are some scanned pictures of my journal of the messages that the children wrote for me!]







Afterward, Jia and I did an interview with Amina (grandmother). Her story is extraordinary – she never completed any formal education, her parents died when she was very young so she worked as a maid and housekeeper for her older sister in exchange for food and housing. She married an equally poor and uneducated man, but he was very enterprising. Together with her husband, she built a large and successful household and portfolio of businesses and properties! In the beginning, Amina started selling samosas at the factory, and Joanita’s dad invested all their savings into a chain of butcher shops! By their last child, the family was securely middle-upper class with substantial property holdings. Joanita had told me that with her very father’s very unexpected passing, the family lost a lot of property and assets, contributing to the recent financial difficulties of the school.

Using the crops that she grows and the support she receives from Joanita and MaryLove abroad, Amina goes to the village and brings kids back to the Peace School. There aren’t enough resources and dormitory beds to help every child in the village, so Amina goes to each family and asks them to select one or two kids in the family to send to the Peace School. (Can you imagine how difficult this decision must be for the parent – to prioritize their children!) One day, the vision is to expand the school such that all children from the village can come to the Peace School for free.

Some of the P7 kids, including two children sponsored by Givology, happened to be around so we collected some photos, pictures, and video. As Joanita and Iria did not return from town, Jia and I ate lunch with Lydia – motoke, rice, spaghetti, beef broth, and groundnut sauce with fish. The food here is very tasty even though the variety is limited; when I go back to Oxford, I know I will miss some of the dishes.

After lunch, we went to the classroom, where we found Sula. He showed us his journal, which made me inadvertently laugh very hard. I found the journal frank and refreshing, and it contained the hysterical incident of his P7 experiences that he recounted on the interview. As you can imagine, the story involved a girl =) I suppose the kids here tend to grow up much faster than in the states. Just by watching Isaac and Ibra, I could easily think that they were 5-6 years older than their actual ages. In contrast, they tend to think the opposite of me! I’m 23 years old, but all the kids think that I’m about 15 – their age.

[In the photo below, Sula shows us an interesting game with folding paper – a form of “active” origami in which the paper morphs from a T-shirt to a house to a slingshot, etc. Photo courtesy of Jiashan Wu.]


At this point, I felt antsy to do something physical and fun with the kids. Jia and I wanted to go running, so we changed and met Dama and the boys to go to the playing fields. Rounding up the boys took some time, so Jia and I had fun doing some stretching and warm-up exercises. The little kids seemed to enjoy emulating us, and laughed at our antics! Little Farook was particularly cute and endearing in his attempts to copy us!

We then ran to the playing field – Sula first, followed by me, and then Josh (even as a decently experienced runner, I can’t beat Sula’s really long legs…). Having not done very much strenuous physical exercise since coming to Uganda, I relished the opportunity to run and stretch my muscles. We started with two sets of relay races! All the locals watched in curiosity – two random Chinese girls joining in on the games.

After the races, Teacher Hasan led us into a circle and we did a bit of group exercise where each person would lead a set of movements. Some of the positions we were called on to do were rather interesting (a form of near contortion)! We then ran a lap around the field and walked back, happily chatting. We arrived back at 6:30 PM with plenty of light still left, so we played a bit of basketball keep-away. As expected, Isaac and Sula really dominated the game.

Iria and Joanita arrived back late tonight – they sent Amina to college and encountered various troubles with traffic and college housing. Consequently, we had a late dinner together before quickly clearing out the dining table so that I could give the Internet website creation tutorial that I promised the kids.

Computers fascinate the children here – they are always talking about the importance of computers and the Internet, regardless of their field and actual experience with technology. I suppose they see technology as the best way to connect to the external world and modernize. Josh was particularly keen, having sought me out every day. There was too much to cover in the short time I had before bedtime, but I did an overview of: 1) Givology, joycemeng.com (my personal site), Jia’s site as examples, 2) weebly, facebook, and wordpress (for easy online website creation), 3) html basics (NVu and Gimp the freeware of my choice for experimentation). Clearly, too much material for one session!

But the kids seemed to enjoy it – anything involving computers fascinates them. The Internet infrastructure in Uganda, however, is frightful. We connect using Joanita’s laptop and a dial-up USB modem, which is often too painfully slow that I give up surfing altogether. For reference, it takes about 6 minutes to load the simple version of my gmail inbox, and about 30 minutes to load a short 3-minute youtube video.

Before bed, I gave a gift to the family (separate from our contribution to the Peace School) to express my gratitude for their hospitality and care. Amina then gathered us all in the dining room and prayed for my safe journey back to Oxford and for God to help me achieve everything I set my heart on accomplishing. I didn’t understand a word as she spoke completely in Lagandan, but I appreciated the sentiment. Religion is very important to Amina and many of the people here – faith offers them hope and a respite from the troubles they encounter in daily life.

Tomorrow is my last day in Uganda – my trip passed so quickly, but the memories I’ve made and the work we accomplished will forever be indelible in my memory. Perhaps time will inevitably dull the immediacy of the experience, but I know I will forever treasure the lessons I’ve learned and the relationships that I’ve formed.