Projects

I was able to visit Namasagali Friday morning in order to start work on the beekeeping project since I’ve been teaching at Nak this first couple weeks.  Mr. Kato was busy most of the morning so my task was to start working on the sewing project…. I started out using my previous knowledge by wrapping the thread around cardboard scrapes.  After making four of them I realized it was not going to be applicable to their situation.  If the cardboard were to get wet the whole thing would fall apart and render it useless.  I came up with the idea of using sticks as a spool, if they get wet it wouldn’t matter.  Further realizing the amount of time it would take to make all of them I decided it was time to enlist help.  I wanted to make sure it was appropriate so I asked Laura for her opinion.  She said yes!

The children were more than happy to help.  At first it was just a few who actively wanted to help, but I soon realized I was going to have to get them to share the task as children starting lining up with sticks.  The pupils didn’t seem to understand me when I tried to get them to take turns so the one holding the spool could now hold the stick and wind the thread.  ACTION.  By deliberatively going up to each pair of students and cutting the string, changing rolls, the children started to realize what I was hinting at and took turns in sharing the task.  I noticed the group of older girls under the mango tree who had already spun their sticks and were standing around talking.  I approached them to see if they would talk to me about sewing, but they were not responsive to my English so I recruited Violet to assist me.  I asked Violet if she could ask the girls if they knew how to sew.  If not, did they want to learn and that if they wanted a sewing class we would be happy to start teaching them.  They responded to Violet with YES, they wanted to learn.  She told the girls to write down their names on a piece of paper and that the following week we would start to arrange a sewing class.  On Thursday, Violet handed me a piece of paper with 44 names of both boys and girls…. It began.

Since I may not know that stitches practiced culturally here I’ve decided to contact Dorothy, if she doesn’t know she may be able to point me to a seamstress who can help.  I’ve already asked Katie if she wanted to be involved and she said yes!

 The projects have started and I’m finding it difficult to get things organized and find everyone on the same train of thought.  I had sat down and written an outline of exactly what I felt was important to the projects success and how we needed to accomplish tasks at hand.  I’ve been curious to the MK students take on the project and had come to a consensus with them that we should all write out where we felt this project should go.   At the first meeting none of them followed through with writing anything down…. I felt as if nothing was accomplished.

Remember, MK students are not all familiar with rural Kamuli…. Development is also something they are in the process of learning about.

I assumed that since they were from Uganda they would know about what is happening within the country, especially in rural Kaumli.  As the project has started to materialize it’s becoming apparent that the students are learning along side the ISU students.  *Patience is virtue*