Goodbye Teacher Beth

Today was my last day of school. I leave on a plane tomorrow. But, before I left, the school surprised me with a going away presentation. Most of the classes had a song or poem to present as a farewell wish. Despite the challenges teaching in Uganda, I was sad to see my time with the kids end. They drive me crazy, but I love 'em just the same...


A special song from P1:


I was also given a number of gifts before I left. How sweet are they!! They are always so appreciative of everything you do.


It was a great feeling to be appreciated, but it makes it that much harder to leave. I'm excited to go home to the US, but I'll miss all the relationships that I built here.

Maranatha Christian School...part 2

It can be slightly embarrassing having your mom walk around with you taking photos of all the "normal sights" I see and the people I have to walk by or work with on a daily basis. However, I'm definitely glad she did now that it's all over because I have some great photos to remember what life is like here in Uganda! This is a typical shop along the road to school.
A day is not complete without walking past the boda drivers and being propositioned in one way or another.

I'm winding up my last few days at school, and thought I'd post a few extra pics of Maranatha Christian School. This is where I spent a lot of my time over the last year... thanks mom for the pictures!
This is the upper primary school building and admin offices. This is the school kitchen!!

A few of the P3 kids after a reading lesson. This is at Christopher House Ministries, where the kids learn music, drama, art, and sports.

Two Weeks with Mom and Lois

I've been MIA for a while, but with good reason- my mom and aunt came to visit! We were able to squeeze a lot in during the short two weeks that we had...

Day 1: Mom and Lois stepped off the plane Friday AM and were ready to get started, so, we took off running! Breakfast, ATM, visit the Lutheran Missionaries in Kabalagala, grocery shopping...

Day 2-3: We left early in the morning for Soroti to visit Pastor Julius' church, mom's sponsor child, and a "cousin." When we arrived, the kids were already waiting for us at their Saturday program...they were ready to greet us, sing for us, and play with us :) On Sunday, we visited the family of my mom's sponsor child. Below is the picture she took with the whole family, who by the way, live in a tiny 2 bedroom house! They were so excited we came to visit them, though.
 

Day 4: We left Soroti and headed back to Kampala, stopping in Jinja to visit the Nile (and Bujagali Falls) and the Jinja YMCA (for Lois).

Day 5: Shopping Day! It was a public holiday, so we took advantage and went downtown to do all the souvenir shopping mom and Lois could manage!

Day 6: Maranatha Christian School...I took mom and Lois to school with me. Below is a picture of my P3 class. We read a story and made the paper hats to go with!
 




Day 7-11: Safari!! We got to go to both Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls...both are amazing! Of course, we had a few bumps, bruises, and mishaps along the way, but we still enjoyed ourselves, the food, and the animals... Here's a picture of mom and me hanging out near the pool...behind us in the Kazinga channel, which connects Lake Edward and Lake Alfred.
 

We saw lots of wildlife...giraffes, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, warthogs, antelopes, chimpanzees, baboons, monkeys, birds, and LIONS! This lion nearly walked right up to our van. Seriously, he was like 10-15 feet away!
 

Day 12: Back to Maranatha Christian School and Christopher House. Several of the classes from Maranatha go to Christopher House Ministries once a week...it's a place they learn art, music, dance, sports, and character. The kids love it and it's something they definitely crave and need.

Day 13: Once again, we had to wake up early to back out to the Entebbe airport to drop off mom and Lois. Time flew by! I guess we were having fun :)