How do children react when they first see you?

Children's reactions vary depending on age and whether or not they have seen a Muzungo (white person) before. The young kids may have never seen a white person and they are very interested in touching my skin and feeling my hair. Older students have had experiences with white people and tend to be a bit more subdued. I have been showing some of the older students hand shakes, and "fist bumps," they seem to really like that. All the kids love it when I dance with them, as dancing and singing is a common occurence everywhere we go.  These kids have very little, and I can assure that the smiles in the photos are for real. They are happy to see us and experience something new.

Standing in line

Blaine supplies

Meet Bishop's East this is where all our Blaine school supplies ended up. I am standing with the deputy HeadMaster and a couple of studnets. They were very grateful!

rachel

Rachel has bright blue eyes! When we showed up at the school the kids immediately pointed her out to me indicating that we had the same eyes. She is in 7th grade.

Classroom full of kids

This photo was taken at Bishops West, it is grade 4... see if you can tell how many?

Lunch- No more complaining about school lunch

This is the school kitchen at the Kisowera school, the yellow and green containers are for water. The cooking is done over and open flame on coal.

This is a group of students eating lunch at Mukono, notice they eat with there fingers, they have a scoop of beans and scoop of porridge.

Mrs. Matzen's fourth grade

Thanks for the great questions! Keep them coming!

Robert: "What kinds of food do people eat there?"

They eat rice and beans, and a white porridge mixed from grain… see the photos.

Isabel: "What is the grade that has the most kids in it?"

 It really depends on the school, they will take as many kids as will come and whose parents can afford to pay. The government pays for the teachers and the school must pay for everything else, paper, pencils, power, food, upkeep of buildings. Schools do not have much here.

Kaden: "Do they speak English?"

They all speak English. At the end of 7^th grade students must pass a national exam in order to go on to secondary school, (like our High School) if you don’t score high enough you leave school at age 13 or 14 and work on the farm…

Claudia: "What happens when all the kids can't fit in a classroom?"

When they have too many kids they teach outside under a tree, I have seen one classroom with as many as 100 students and only one teacher. It is very tight quarters, students don’t seem to mind though, they are so happy to be given a chance to learn at school.

Caleb: "What do the kids do for fun?"

They play athletics, schools arrange for sporting competetions. The other day at one of the schools we visited they were having a track day. It looks very different then our competetions though. They also play a game called net ball which is sort of like basketball. Mostly though kids just run around, I have seen kids take an old water bottle and fill it with pebbles to use as a ball, I watched two boys play with the inside rubber piece of a tire. Kids here do not have toys.

Kendall: "How long is their school day?"

Some of the live at the school so they are there all the time, school lasts from about 8am-4pm.

Chelsea: "Do they like living there?"

I suppose they don’t know differently. Most students do not watch TV, they have heard of America, but don’t know a lot about it.

Amelia: "Have you visited all of the different grades?"

I have visited grades 1-7.

Isaac: "What is their favorite subject?"

I suppose that depends on who you ask, I will ask around for you.

Josh: "What do they do on the weekends?"

Help their families, work around the house, study, play with friends. There are no movies, no video games, no family trips to the park. People have to work hard to survive around here.