Helping Building Tomorrow....

Back again. On my computer this time so hopefully we will have some more time to explain some things and what not. Anyway, the past few days have been very demanding but also very rewarding. We have been helping AFC's partner Building Tomorrow and their mission in helping communities build schools--in essence, build the children's "tomorrow" (future). Their plan is to have the community build the school, and we have been helping the community the past few days. We have been doing activities like removing dirt from a room, to walking to the well to get some water so they can make cement for the flooring. Now this walk to the well is nothing easy. It's about a mile walk to and from the well. Did I mention that it as at the bottom of a hill? Not just any hill, a steep one that we would be able to ski down if we had some snow. Now try carrying 10 gallons of milk along with you on the way up. And for me, imaging doing that 8 times. Needless to say, I couldn't feel any part of my body when I woke up this morning. And I barely woke up. It got to the point where they actually told me I was no longer allowed to carry water...so I did what anybody that was told to stop working did...I played with the kids. These kids are so precious, too. This little girl, Margaret, took me by the hand and put out her hand and compared our skin color, our finger nails, and also played with my arm hair. She was so cute and even remembered my name when I asked her today.
Anyway, when I was playing with the kids they would copy anything I did or said. Basically it was Simon says but with out a Simon. Anyway, I also made up a new dance with them and they would randomly start chase them and "tickle" them in the middle of this dance. A lot of them wanted to dance again today with me. It was basically all girls with me because the boys were working with everyone else. Once the boys came, I was like "cousin Alex" again and became the human jungle gym. I quickly directed their attention to another guy in the group and slipped out of the room for a breather. When I caught my breath again I went in and showed them some "stupid" human tricks, and they actually showed me some new ways to whistle. It's so cool that I can learn from them as easily as they are learning from me.

We went back to the same place today but had a little better plan of attack (so I don't have to carry 80 gallons again). The trip to the site from our hotel is about 2 hours, and I was still dead from the day before, so I did what any natural human being would do, took pictures of everyone else sleeping. I've almost got everyone from the group sleeping, well between Paul and me. Sadly I probably have more pictures of that than the trip. But we are all going to share pictures so I can pick out the ones I like. Most of the ones I take will be on safari which is coming up. Anyway today consisted of assembly line action all day. Both water and moving dirt out of the rooms again. We made sure that the kids helped this time, and they sure are efficient. We'd be done with all of this stuff if we had that help yesterday. They kids didn't like they assembly line for water so they'd just get a banana tree leaf, fold it into a little hat thing, and take a 5-gallon jerry can from the well to the school ON THEIR HEAD. It amazes me everytime a little girl makes that walk, but they are used to it I'm sure. They make that trip many times a day I bet. Anyway, we tried making it fun by singing songs and teaching them our names. I am mzungu Halex.....

Just some side notes.....it's rained with scattered showers for the past three days. It's supposed to be the dry season and the hottest time of the year hear. The rain is a nice break from the heat though. And I've broken my bed 4 times already....all funny stories. But I'm not supposed to be in a room of four, but we're making it happen. It's called the "Man Cave" by everyone else in the group because we have all 4 male students that are here. Also, don't get caught stealing anything from a store or market because people around will beat you and then light you on fire before the police come. As sad as that is, we saw that happen today. We didn't know what it was until our driver Joseph told us today. He also bought us some bananas for our breaks today. He's basically the man. Alright, going to head to the karaoke (spelling) bar and sing a song in Lugandan. We'll see how this goes. Best wishes....

Can't wait to see you all again. Wish you could experience this sometime in your life.