St. Peter's Catholic School

Just when we thought our days in Uganda couldn't get any better, we spent the day at St. Peter's school and fell in love with Uganda all over again. It was a joyful, magical day! The staff and students of St. Peter's welcomed us with tremendous fanfare and enthusiasm.

St. Peter's is a co-ed Catholic school of 1500 students where Father Joe is the chaplain. About half of the students board at the school. Our schedule was simple but awesome - first a meeting with administrators, then lunch followed by entertainment and, finally, a friendly soccer game with the St. Peter's girls' soccer team.

The students amazed us with their talent!! We cheered and cheered! It was not only fascinating for us but also for the dozens of students outside who pressed up against the windows to get a look at the performances.

 

 

 

And then came the soccer game - WOW, it was exciting! We teachers had no idea what to expect because, after all, we are a delegation and not a soccer team. Our students have never played soccer with each other and there we were - in skirts (with shorts) and tennis shoes and no soccer gear on a very challenging and slippery African terrain. We just hoped that we would not be humiliated or injured and, in the end, we tied 3-3 !! It was THRILLING and the St. Peter's students were "astonished" at the talent of our players. Some of them even switched sides and began to cheer our team! The energy and spirit of the game was electric and we are delighted to report that our team earned the respect of the entire St. Peter's community and that the good name of UA Dallas has been preserved!!  Here are a few highlights:

 

 

 

And we leave you with this exciting video of one of our UA winning goals! 

 





The day was near perfect and we can't thank St. Peter's enough for their love and hospitality! We were honored to be with you!!

Father Joe & the YES center

Today was another extraordinary day in Uganda! We spent the entire day with our friend and partner, Father Joe Luzindana. Father Joe explained to us in great detail all of the projects and work that he oversees as the Catholic Youth Minister of Kampala.  We were very privileged to be invited to homes of different members of Father Joe's church. The idea was for us to see the wide economic spectrum of the population of Uganda and of those that the Catholic church serves. Our students loved meeting all of the different parishioners but, in particular, they loved meeting the small children. We visited several families in the morning and later had dinner at another home - All were so warm and welcoming to us!

Another great part of this day was spending time with the vocational students enrolled at the school at the YES center. The Yes center (Youth Encounter the Savior) has many different departments including a library, a center for refugees, a young adult ministry and two vocational schools - one for tailoring and one for catering. Our students laughed and laughed with the students and at their own limitations with regard to sewing and cooking - it was tremendous fun even if the chapattis (a flat bread similar to a tortilla) were a bit chunky.

We were honored to be asked to plant a row of bushes at the YES center to commemorate our first partnership visit to the YES center - It was challenging work but so much fun. We can't wait to see how the plants grow over the years! How lucky we were to spend time with Father Joe and all of the fabulous people from the YES center!

An orientation from Father Joe

Fast friends
 

Visiting with a young mom in her single room home

Lawrence & Ms. Juarez - two IT experts !!

Rebecca and a shy little boy

Welcome to the YES center!

Getting ready to plant at the YES center!

Cindy gardening at the YES center

Messy but happy to have left our mark!

Chatting with the Tailoring students

making chapattis

Natalie kneading the dough

Doing our best!

Donating books from home to the YES center library!

BeadforLife

Our first full day in Uganda was extraordinary! We began our day with a visit to the NGO, BeadforLife. BeadforLife (BFL) is an organization that helps lift women out of poverty by teaching them how to run a business and mentoring them through the entire 18 month training period. We were welcomed warmly and in a truly African way by the BFL employees who were waiting for us with drums and a dance circle. It was the perfect way to begin our trip and our learning! We learned all about the BFL programs and how they have evolved over the years. We also had a chance to shop and, of course, we were very happy to do our part to support the women and the organization!

We have visited BFL several times in the past but this visit was very special because we had some new experiences which gave the students tremendous insight into the important and complex work of this important organization. After learning about the programs, we were given a lesson in rolling paper beads - the same work that is done by the BFL beaders. Some of us rolled excellent paper beads while others (Ms. Nipp) were not so talented. It is definitely much more difficult than it looks!

After this somewhat humbling exercise, we set out with some of the BFL staff members to visit two of the businesses begun by some of the BFL alumnae. We first met Josephine and her daughter who have opened a small hair salon. They were working hard, braiding the hair of a neighbor.  Then, we crossed the road and met Eunice Much to our delight, it turned out that Eunice's business is selling rosaries! We laughed about the perfect, unexpected meeting of supply and demand and well, Eunice had her best sales day ever! Visiting the women of BeadforLife was a special way to begin our time in Uganda and to learn about the empowerment and entrepreneurship of women.