First post about the school and mission

     I broke down: I have entered the blogosphere. I will be keeping an online record of before, during and after my trip to Uganda. I am a 17-year-old from Central Illinois. This period of transition from First World hustle and bustle, even the rural hustle and bustle of planting season, will be hard but rewarding. I will be posting blogs when and if the local Internet allows it. I plan on keeping my friends and family as informed as I can about the need in these towns.

     I will be volunteering at two schools during my one-month stay, a kindergarten and a high school. The high school I know very little about, but the kindergarten was started up by Father Dennis, a priest I know well. He visited the United States a few years ago and became friends with our family, coming over every Sunday for a home cooked meal, and many times during the week, too!

     Father had to go back to Uganda after a couple months of "vacation" when he was preaching at our parish. When a priest from Uganda gets vacation, some of them will be flown to America to preach at parishes around the country. They get paid for this time they put in, and the humble salary of priests in America is a significant sum for people coming back to Uganda. These funds were used to start up a kindergarten in his home parish. 

     My home parish in rural Illinois has been supplying this school with funds every year from our Vacation Bible School in the summer, and I have sent 3 or 4 packages to these children. We have been doing what we can to help this school by sending funds to build classrooms and cement the dirt floors they were using. This year we plan on helping them get a well or rain collection system and are bringing the students rosaries and T-shirts. Now some pictures and information about the students at the kindergarten....

This is some of the students after we gave them candy in a package; they especially enjoy candy and new clothes because they do not get these things in Uganda.

This is a picture of some of the students after we sent them school supplies, jump ropes and soccer balls.

This is the students posing when there were around 70 students. There are closer to 300 now.

The area the students sit to learn is here. It used to be a dirt floor, but the cement is much cleaner and more comfortable for them. Eventually I want to be able to see that all the children have desks.

Foundation for a classroom paid for by a VBS from Illinois.

Here is another picture of the seating area for the kids, this is also one of their better classrooms, because it has cement floors and not dirt or mud.

The conditions of this school are rustic and need our help to give these kids the environment they need for learning. As a graduating student of the high school in this town said, "We cannot choose where we are born, but we can choose were we are going." With our help they can get the education they need to help turn their country around and fight the poverty that defines the rural life in Uganda.