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A few months ago I didn't expect to be back in Africa so soon... Even less so did I expect to be helping teach sex ed to a bunch of Ugandan schoolchildren!
Admittedly it mainly consisted of holding up pictures while Fiona, the Aussie teacher, taught them about puberty, what to expect and how to deal with it, in what she reckons was the most valuable lesson she has taught in her entire 12 year teaching career. Some of the kids are orphans, and who else do they have to teach them that kind of thing?
The school was House of Hope school, just out of Kyazanga town, down a long dusty road and my (very crazy) friend and workmate Larry is teaching there for the next month or so. It was started and is run by a 23-year-old Ugandan woman, Jennifer, who pours her life - and her life savings - into the school and attached orphan houses. Some of the stories the women had to tell were heartbreaking - about the girl who lived with her prostitute aunt, and shared a bedroom with her; about the 8-year-old twins who were abandoned and now live out in the bush with an 11-year-old friend who acts as their caregiver; about the countless kids who suffer from jiggers in their feet because they can't afford shoes, or to concrete the floors...
But it's called House of Hope for a reason, and there is hope to be found there. Yesterday we gave out shoes to 60 very grateful kids - some of whom have probably never owned a pair in their lives - kindly gifted to them by Fiona. And the kids are learning; you can see how much they value education by the way they behave in class, much more attentively than your average Kiwi primary-schoolers.
Got to go as there are other waiting for the free internet (wohoo!) here but, before I go, big thank you to the lovely Larry and roommate Fiona who kindly let me take up every spare inch of their floor space these past couple of days!
Also, if you are able to help the school financially or otherwise - with concreting the classroom floors, housing more orphans, etc - please let me know and I will hook you up!
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