"We welcome you vis-a-tas!"

Today was an amazing, sweaty, joyous and heart wrenching day.  We woke up at 6:00am and had a great breakfast in the restaurant of the Acholi Inn Hotel, while the drivers loaded our many bags of supplies and gear into the vans.  We ate as quickly as we could so we could get on the road to drive the 1 hour to Bul Kur and see the Galileo School.  We had to make a quick stop at the petrol station to purchase some water and to air up the many soccer, volleyballs, and footballs we brought for the kids. 

As we pulled away from the town of Gulu and onto the red dirt road towards Bul Kur, you could see the transition in the landscape. The drive became sparser and the homes you did see were small, simple mud huts.  We also saw few cars and plenty of livestock on the road.  We were all anxious but Georgianna and Scott were ready to the see the school that they had poured the last year of their lives into.  After many bumpy, twisty roads, we finally saw the white dot in the distance. It was the sign for the Galileo School, and Georgianna began to beam with excitement. “I see the sign! I see the sign!” she cried.  We all were like kids at Christmas with our heads out of the windows and roof of the van.

Shaking hands - look at this line of students!

As we drove closer, we began to see the 150+ school children standing in 2 perfect lines on the front lawn of the school. Then we heard it.  We heard the song they were singing in perfect unison. With smiles from ear to ear, they were clapping and singing a song to welcome us.  Talk about overwhelming. The song was in English and the chorus was, “we welcome you visitors, we welcome you.”

It was a grand ceremony for us, and the children introduced themselves to us individually with a curtsy and their most perfectly rehearsed English. “Hello, my name is ______, I am fine.”  In the Ugandan culture the girls bow to their elders. By bow, I mean the drop to their knees while shaking my hand.  But we Americans have the custom of bending over and looking children in the eye when talking to them.  They were very confused when we would bend down to their level while they were bowing. Many giggles were heard every time we did this.  It took us a while to catch on.

3 legged race

Our day at the school started out with games in the field in front of the property. We broke up the 150+ kids into smaller teams and sent them to a game station. Nick and I were in charge of the 3-legged race station.   Luckily we each had a staff member there to help us translate the rules into Acholi for the children.  It was hilarious to see the children run a 3 legged race. I’m pretty certain they had never seen anything like this before. After we had sufficiently worn ourselves out, it was time for “Lessons from Americans”! 

The children went back to their classrooms.  Katie, the nurse, went from class to class giving valuable, life saving hygiene lessons to the children. While I went from class to class teaching songs about peeling bananas and making bracelets with the children. Valuable? No.  Silly? Yes.  Nick was hanging out with Ann, the documentary filmmaker, and learning to film incredible B roll for the film she is making about the school.  Chris and Scott went to talk with the elder men of the village about Bee keeping and the honey demand in the area.

"Eat Bananas!"

While we were working in our respective groups the desks were delivered!  It was so amazing to watch the truck, stacked sky-high, drive onto the property.

Desks are here!

 After a couple of hours we regrouped back at the van and we quickly shoved sandwiches in our mouths because it was time for the community program.  All the villagers of Bul Kur came out to put on a presentation for us.  They lined up 7 chairs for us to sit on while the rest of the villagers sat on the ground around us. For the next 2 hours they gave speeches, sang, and shared their stories.  It was one of the most touching experiences of my life.  There we were, this little team of 7 Americans, being thanked for changing the lives of the people of Bul Kur. Let me type that again for emphasis, changing the lives of people. With sincere gratefulness they told us of their struggles and the hopes for their children. Their desire to rebuild lives after the war they have lived through.  There were LRA kidnapping victims bravely sharing their stories of the hell they lived through and a brave, 14 year old orphan stood up to share her story too.

Sharing her brave story.

Dancing for us

Community leader

Then they sang and danced for us. They had written songs for us. In this Acholi community, if people write a song with your name in it, it means you are in their hearts. You have touched their lives forever. They sang songs about the Galileo School, about Pastor Jackson (the project manager in Uganda) and about the American who came to help.  It was incredible. We wrapped up our time there and packed up the vans to head back to the hotel for the night.  We were beat but so incredibly happy.