World Cup Finals Tonight!

So I’m not sure when I updated last I think I have a whole week to cover…

There are a couple of things going on. We have been meeting with parents at schools where we intend to do case studies. We had meetings at three different schools this week, and that in itself was a lot of work, but surprisingly two of the three meetings went really well. Many of the parents are excited about the research we are doing, and also want to participate. We hired one of our friends to help us named Moses, which turned out to be a really smart move. He’s really good at what he does helping and translating. He understands our research with ease. He keeps time, and he loves children. You can tell that the children are equally excited about the research. Many of them are so smart and they continually impress me with their maturity of thought. I wonder sometimes if it isn’t because of the reality that most have to live in day in and day out. It forces you to grow up a bit faster.

We are still working on the IRB, baine of my existence, approval. Now we have the sister of Dr. Muhumuza, Beatrice helping us because she is a member of parliament. So it’s looking like its going to figurative take an act of parliament to push this thing through.

Of course we aren’t wasting any time. We are doing things that are helpful to the foundation. We got in all of our pilot tests and are working on getting them graded and entered into a data base. The results are actually quite exciting because they reflect some of the opinions that we developed based simply on our school observations. We call it triangulation, and it usually means that you are doing a good job.

Last Sunday we went to church with Mary, a supervisor at the foundation. She is the one that I described as Mary Poppins. We arrived at her house at nine. Then we arrived at church at ten and we were there for three hours. It seems that would be like a long time, but it actually was a lot of fun. I could get my sway and my clap on for the songs. I actually knew some of the songs as well. There were what seemed to me to be two sermons. One of them was entertaining because it was based on the world cup. We went home with her to have lunch and all of her children came to the house to have lunch with us. It was another hour and a half before lunch was ready, so again the photo albums came out and we had to look at endless pictures of almost the exact same thing.

When lunch was ready we ate as much as we possibly could, but it still wasn’t enough. I really thought I was going to be sick. By time we ate lunch, took pictures outside, ate some pineapple for dessert, it was coming to six in the evening. Can you believe? The whole day for just church and lunch. We were so full when we left that we walked a large portion of the way home so that we could sleep comfortably.

On Tuesday we were invited to dinner with Dr. Muhumuza’s mom, Rachel, and Andrew. Rachel has two children that were very cute, Hannah and a little boy called Tama, but that’s his nickname. I can’t remember his real name. He was super cute because he knew a few English words and would yell them out and then clap for himself. The meal was delicious and this time I seemed to be more successful at eating. She had stuffed a chicken with rice, peppers, onions, and tomatoes, that was fabulous. Again we didn’t eat enough to her liking. She also made a mini mat for the each of us in the style that they make traditional mats. It is on our table acting as a table runner right now. I told her that we were so grateful and that when we came back we would bring back something for her.

This weekend we have been doing the world cup thing. I have to say I’ll be glad when it’s over because I can’t get enough sleep between work and watching the games. But it’s unthinkable to miss the games, right? All in all we’re just trying to make the most of the time that we have left. It is amazing how fast the time has past. I really think that I would like to live here for an extended period of time, like a year or so. It seems like as soon as we have started to really get in the swing of things, we are having to leave. I think Meagan wishes that she could stay longer too. Part of it is that I love my job here so much. The people and children are so nice. All in all its just so enjoyable to be here despite all of the small difficulties that we have a long the way. Well, that’s enough sentiment for the moment. Will try my best to keep things updated in the remaining weeks.