Woke up and had a really good breakfast, then jumped on the bus to a Primary school in Jinja. This school was pretty well funded, but still most of the 1,000 students had no shoes, and ripped uniforms. When we first got there, we assigned the girls in pairs to visit one of the seven grade levels and to watch a regular school lesson. They learned a lot. Then all 1,000 students came to the field and played with us...and it was complete chaos turned really fun. Each pair (some girls had to fend for themselves alone) manhandled around 50 little kids each, and we led htem in all sorts of silly American games and song. The younger girls got placed with the younger kids (which was by far the hardest group because they didn't speak English. I was so proud of them... they weren't quite sure what to do, but figured it out and did great. After, we played soccer with a group of about 22 P7 Girls (prob 13-15), while the rest of the student body watched (TONS OF KIDS) and gave our presentation of what we are all about, and the importance of goal setting in life, and we handed over the "every girl should have a goal" bracelets. The girls are now doing the presenting rather than me of Jackie which is SO fun to watch. We then sung to the whole student body "I love you like a mango"...a song Dani (member of the film crew) taught us on her ukulele. So fun.
Then we headed over to a secondary school called BMM Secondary. It is an all girls high school. They organized a group of girls to play us on their field, and we had a lot of fun playing...then presented them with a full set of uniforms (donated by US Passback program) and our goodbye "message" we are leaving at every school we go to. THEN.... we just let girls be girls. A HUGE group of the Ugandan girls gathered around some of our girls and they began to sing and dance, and had a circle where girls would go in the middle and "break it down". It was SO fun to watch. There were just tons of them. No matter where you go in the world, high school girls are the same. They were immediate friends.
We then went into Jinja town for lunch and a little craft shopping. We tried to teach the girls some bartering skills... they have some working to do on that. :)
After Jinja town, we headed over to Wanyange (all girls) Secondary School, which was on a big hill overlooking Lake Victoria. It was gorgeous. The field was ....well... a cow pasture with cow patties, termite hills, and a huge mound of dirt in the middle. But, that did not stop us from having a really intense game. This field was fenced off, and the rest of the student body gathered around the fences to watch us. They were SOOOO loud. Everytime anyone did a sweet move, or a good save, or fell on their faces, or made a goal...they went wild. It was SO fun. This was a higher end school, but still half the girls don't have shoes to play in. One girl cut her toe up really badly, but Mrs. Boshard came to her rescue and helped clean her up. After, we gave our "message" presentation again, handed over a set of uniforms donated by New Mexico Highlands University, and then invited ALL the girls in the student body to join us on the field. We wanted to sing/dance with them again... so the girls did:)
We then stopped by the "source of the Nile" on the way home and took a quick boat ride to where Lake Victoria ends and the White Nile begins. It was really quite beautiful. Kimmy and Hannah ended up swimming in the Nile! Then we came home and ate, had our nightly meeting, and everyone is now passed out.
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