Day 6 Uganda: Rain, rain and more rain!

It absolutely poured this morning making it impossible to travel to a far-off school Tabitha wanted us to see. Instead, we stayed close to Jinja and visited the Wairaka Modern School. I love their tagline “Fly to success”.

It felt a little like a snow day or at least a snow delay, because we couldn’t leave until later in the morning. I hear there is a severe snowstorm at home so this was the best we could do to commiserate. We couldn’t see much in front of us because of the heavy downpour. It knocked the lone mango off of the huge tree outside the hotel. We had been eyeing it so laughed when it came down.

We spent our waiting time at a table in the Nile Hotel dining room where we explored Frank Quinn’s educational chips. These tiny chips contain entire school curricula on them from preschool through high school. They can be used on phones or computers. We got familiar with how to access information and explain to teachers or students how to use these tools. If it wasn’t for the rain, I’m not sure when we would have had time to carefully examine them. They are truly fantastic. Thank you, Frank!

Phoebe drove side roads with ruts like small rivers that needed to be navigated with expertise. I mostly held my breath and prayed the car would survive. As always, she was amazing and we sailed (quite literally) through the floods.

After picking up Tabitha, we headed for the school and met with 90 girls excited about hearing about menstruation and the Mooncatcher Kit. Tabitha started the class and then Phoebe took over: a beautiful tag team! Helen took lots of photos and I mostly sat watching, in awe of what was happening around me. Ok…I did hold the graphics for the menstrual cycle and handed Tabitha the kits to distribute! It was fun for me to see the girls smile, ask questions and laugh with delight. Those smiles keep me going.

In the afternoon we went basket shopping on the streets of Jinja. Our basket supply at home has dwindled to 2 or 3 pieces and I was anxious to replenish the supply to sell at our Birthday Bash on the 29th and at MoonBees. We found wonderful new designs and along with baskets, other fun goodies like bobblehead wooden creatures, and miniature stuffed African animals. (More photos coming soon!)

I’m not a very good shopper in terms of “hanging in there” for very long so after a while I just said “it’s enough” and off we went for dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant in Jinja. It felt so good to eat this yummy food and talk about the day.

I’m looking forward to a hot shower and cozy bed.