What a difference a day makes!

It's nearly impossible to stand in front of 40 odd smiling children and feel even remotely defeated. It's simply not in my genetic code, no matter how jaded I was beginning to feel. Children have the most genuine aura...and it certainly rubbed off on me when I most needed it.

Today I met my students at the school I'll be teaching at. As I walked up to the classroom, I could hear the children singing "welcome Mr. Teacher Mike"and when I got to the entrance of their classroom, I snapped this photo. I was somewhat in shock at seeing the way these children learn; no desks, no chairs, just the floor, some books, and an overwhelming desire to learn. Many of them walk distances each day that few of us walk in an entire week just so they arrive at school on time at 8am. It quite literally forces one to reconsider what 'challenging circumstances' are comprised of.

The school is comprised of 3 classes: K1, K2 & K3. Each are intended to prepare children (ages 4-7) for primary school. The subjects cover everything from Geography, Math, English, Acholi (their own language), and Physical Education. I'll be teaching the K3's English, foreign as that seems to me at times :) That said, I'll be taking some instruction courses while I'm here so that I won't feel so unsure of myself. Yet, I have the feeling that the children are going to teach me more than I them.

To that end, I've been feeling sick the past few days. A slight fever, the slushies and a strange rash that has developed on my hand (incidentally, the same hand I wipe with...here's hoping the rash doesn't spread to my chocolate starfish). It's no fun feeling sick in Africa, and one never knows what kind of malady they have picked up, so I'm watching it closely and getting lots of rest. I have a feeling it has lots to do with my diet. The selection of food here is less than palatable; it's either cassava (a tuber/root that's very starchy and not full of many nutrients), maize, rice, goat, beef, matooke (raw and boiled bananas, very starchy as well), bread, and of course beans. Ugandan food is not highly nutritious and not very flavourful...it's functional food in the highest degree. It's full of carbohydrates, so if you eat too much of it you will gain weight, and lots of it.

You see very few overweight Ugandans, despite the high caloric intake but that's mainly attributable to the fact that they burn off their calories so quickly in this heat. A typical day for the average Ugandan involves a tremendous amount of work. Gathering water from a well, getting charcoal for the fire, chopping wood, hand-washing laundry, cleaning their households, and a myriad of other tasks that involve hard labour. I once went with one of the boys who goes each morning to fetch 12-18 jerry cans full of water, and I was amazed at how hard that task alone is. When full, each jerry can (plastic container) weights roughly 50 lbs. I carried 2 about half a kilometre and was exhausted by the time I got back to the village. The young boy accompanying me, named Steven, (who is 16) had loaded up 8 jerry cans into a barely working wheel-barrow and pushed it all the way...without stopping once. He then went back again to the well for a second round!

If there are no young boys around to carry the water, women will go and balance a full jerry can on their heads, while carrying babies, food and a bunch of other stuff. It's simply amazing to see how these people work so hard...I doubt few of us could do this routine every morning, much less entire day, every day of the week, 365 days a year. It's about survival however, and it's the biggest motivator we know as humans...you either adapt or you fail to exist....period.

So in short, today was a much needed uplifting, if not humbling experience. And as I got home today, I watched the most magnificent African sunset I've witnessed yet. It felt like the perfect ending to a perfect day, despite the absence of my wife's hand to hold while watching the sun setting....some day we will, that's for sure!

I can't say that I'm happy here, but I'm being taught to be exactly that by a group of children who live in some of the world's worst poverty....talk about humbling. Talk about giving one strength, humility and a desire to keep going, no matter what the odds.

Thanks for reading, hoping you are all well.

With love from Africa,

Mike