Trick-Or-Treating in Jinja

We decided that even though we are living in Africa, we have to keep up our Halloween spirit. So, we joined a group of ex-pats which go to a resort in Jinja (a town outside of Kampala, but in Uganda) every weekend after Halloween. This resort is called Kingfisher, and is right on Lake Victoria, so has a fantastic view. There are about 30 bandas, which are little huts, which were actually very nice. They had running water, a king-sized mattress, and plenty of space in the "living room". In fact, we fit three beds in that space, with plenty of room in between them. And by running water I mean a shower and a flushing toilet! I bet that it doesn't seem that amazing to you, but for us it was a HUGE thing. At the resort there is plenty of space, along with a pretty large pool, but shallow enough that it was safe for kids to play there, a makeshift slide, a bar, and a restaurant. This is very high-class for Uganda. There were a lot of infants, but mostly people around Matt's age there. I was pretty lonesome, except for two other people in my grade. At first I wasn't that thrilled about going, but it turned out to be alright.

Tutoring

Our housekeeper went through a very hard time not very long ago when her sister died, leaving her with two young boys. She already had plenty of kids whom she was trying to put through school, and it was becoming very hard for her to make ends meet; now educating the two boys which she recently inherited. Also, the boys are struggling at school. It's not because they are not smart, but because they have a hard time expressing their opinions in English. Therefore, I am tutoring both of them for community and service. This way, they get one-on-one attention and already I can see improvement in their reading and writing. It is going very well, and I hope that it continues that way. I started on the 20th of August, and have continued tutoring every Wednesday since, missing only about 5 Wednesdays.

Family Fun Day

An event at ISU called Family Fun Day was held on October 12. To Grandma and Grandpa on both sides, and Aunt Annie, it was very similar to the Fall Festival at Trinity. Basically, any family which is involved with the school could attend Family Fun Day. Like the Fall Festival, it was similar to a carnival. It was very social and had lots of food, as well as a few minigames for the kids. Overall, it was okay.

I also performed some Community and Service at Family Fun Day. To raise money for the Senior Prom (which I am allowed to attend this year if I want), the seniors held a car wash. As each family walked up to the main area, there was a stand with a few people surrounding it. As your family passed, one of the students would ask you if you wanted your car washed. If you did, then you wrote down your license plate number and the type of car you had. So, the seniors recruited some younger students to wash these cars, and it counts towards our Community and Service hours. It's a win-win situation; we get CAS hours, the seniors get a good Prom, and the families get a a clean car for a small fee. In total, I washed three cars.

Somebody please e-mail Matt to get him to start taking more pictures! The posts look quite boring without them.

Ugandan Independence Day

October 9th is Ugandan Independence Day. ISU got off school that day, and so did the CDC and the IDI, where mom and dad work. So, we decided to go and do something as a family. The final choice was to go to Garden City, which is really the only mall in Uganda. I go there quite often with my friends, so I knew the place pretty well.
At Garden City, you can do many things, including playing pool, bowling, eating decent food, shopping, and there is a movie theater. This movie theater is very nice, but the movies aren't that recent. Most times, a movie hits the theater here about two months after it begins showing in the States. The only real family movie that was supposedly showing that day was Kung Fu Panda. We had all heard that it was a hilarious movie, so we decided that we would check it out. However, the movie wasn't actually showing, so we decided to go bowling, which turned out to be a lot of fun for the whole family. We also ate a nice American style meal (burgers, fries, steaks, etc.) which tasted great!!

I'll try to keep the posts coming!