a day in the life

And so the rainy season is upon us and with the torrential downpours, sometimes highways have to close. Like, maybe highways to Mbale. This is of course hypothetical?
But really, our trip this weekend to Sipi Falls had to be canceled because of the exact scenario I outlined above. Oh well, better to find out before we got on the road and learned of the mudslides because we found ourselves IN one! :)
Instead, I am going to show you all some pictures from my week at GOSSACE, you can get a wee taste of a day in the life in Golomolo!


I don't know this boy's real name, but I call him Drew Neitzel. Doesn't he resemble the former Spartan star?

This is me and the daughter of one of the teachers, isn't she a doll? I took pictures of her being breastfed while the teacher was teaching, but figured it wasn't in the best taste to post those. :)

What?! 4% moisture?!!! Oh, pour me another glass!!

Although it gets little play on the international stage, child sacrifice is a significant problem in Uganda. (There's a case currently in court where the accused had kidnapped and killed 15 kids.) The motivation is the belief that the killing will bring riches to the killer. The only way to mark your child as no longer pure for sacrifice is to show that they've "shed blood". Most little girls have ear piercings like the one shown above; it can also be shown through a boy's circumcision, (A concept being heavily pushed right now due to the way it helps prevent the spread of HIV.) but that's still far from a common practice.

Haircuts are a weekly ritual at school, all children and most adults are rocking the shaved head. (I thank my lucky stars that I am NOT one of the shaved heads! :)) The razor used to do the shearing is the same type used to sharpen pencils in class; can you imagine pulling out a razor blade in America to sharpen your pencil? It'd earn a hasty suspension and trip to the nearest psychologist.

The P5 class was put in charge of weening the maize this week. Weening is, essentially, just cleaning and separating the kernels from A LOT of dust, etc. I got in there and tossed the maize around for awhile before my allergies got the best of me; as you might be able to see via the blurriness of the photo, the air was thick with particles. I didn't even mind the bugs!

This is the entrance sign to GOSSACE. The other sign which is out on the main road, indicates that one is heading in the right direction, and claims there are six km left to the school but after being dubious of this number I learned that kilometers and miles are used interchangeably here...because they're the same? :)
Everywhere you go in Uganda you're asked to sign a guest log. This woman was unable to write so we inked her thumb and she left her mark. You might notice her thumb is at an odd angle, it was broken many years ago, never set to heal and consequently healed at a 90 degree angle. It was quite the site.

While the girls are working, the boys are playing....militia? I am not sure what the intention was behind them looking so serious but here they are! The boy in the back left holding up his fingers asks me to take the funniest pictures of him and always poses in ways that makes me think he has seen a copy of GQ or something. I get a kick out of it.


Because why wouldn't you carry four bricks on your head? :) This is during the hauling of bricks for the irrigation project that I mentioned last week. These girls are bad ass.


This is a sign in the P5 class. Its a concept that is pretty heavily pushed across all early teenage classrooms.

I mentioned last week that I give away much of my food to the kids at GOSSACE but apparently, I need to give away even more. This is Edith, who serves as a sort of grandmother to the kids, sitting next to a boy who was stoned this week in a fight over food. He was still unconscious when I left the school on Thursday, his face just a mangled, swollen mess from where he landed on the stones. Kids who have enough food don't feel compelled to throw stones at one another's heads.


My laundry. You'll notice the bucket of Omo on the left; the jerry can on the right; "clean" clothes on top of the jerry can. I have a confession to make: I am not good at cleaning clothes like this - AT ALL. Even if the water is still running dirty, I consider the clothes clean as long as there isn't soap in them. Eh.

It seems that each day I watch countless grasshoppers get disemboweled, I really don't see the appeal but maybe there are a bunch of budding surgeons on hand at the school. This week I was presented with a grasshopper of mine own, although I politely declined both ownership and surgery, I did agree to take a photo.

This is the home of Edith, the girl on the far right of the picture. Edith's father died of HIV leaving her mother, in the blue dress, to fend for all of her children as well as the children of the father's other wives, who also fell victim to the virus. There are more children inside the home, including a ten year old girl who is severely mentally and physically handicapped and therefore prohibits the mother from ever leaving the house; she has no form of income. I have never walked into a home here and been overcome with a wave of nausea but this home made me absolutely sick. This woman exuded sadness in a way I will never be able to accurately describe or capture beyond the term chilling. The men pictured with her are Vincent and Geoffrey, whom I spend all my time with at GOSSACE. This was one of the most moving moments of my life.


Alright, I got a little carried away with the uploading; its early in the morning and for whatever reason, the internet is running at a semi-quick pace. Joy! I am off to the Equator for the day and then to Kampala for the night; I am staying at the same place that I was able to watch bball a couple of weeks ago so I am going to try my darndest to catch the Michigan State Spartans beat down the Butler Bulldogs - tip off at 1am :) That's optimism on a lot of levels!!!!

I hope your weekend is a #1 stunna,
Francie