Full Circle - 365

Today marks a full year since I came (in) to America and my! has it been an interesting year.
I have done things I never imagined I would do, been places I never imagined I would go, met people I never imagined I would meet. I have laughed till my ribs ached, cried like a baby, been so afraid I trembled, felt so confident I could take on the world, been so excited I've made a fool of my self, embarrassed ...name it I have been through it all.
When I was leaving UG for some weird reason I thought I would come back and find things the way I left them. I thought my friends would still be as close, I would get back to work and continue from where I left off, you know, kind of thinking that everything would stand still till I got back. But no, life happens, people move on.
Heck, so much has happened in my life I'm not exactly the same person as when I left UG, don't know why I would think other things wouldn't change.
Yeah, I have tried to keep my relationships going but it's not the same, it can not be the same. So what have I decided to do?, enjoy each moment as it comes, with whomever I am with and in what ever situation, life is too short to put on the pause button.

I've experienced all the seasons of the year, Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, they kind of remind me of the different phases of life, the happy, sad, excited, low, expectant periods we all go through. You can't be sad all the time, or excited all the time, sometimes things are not all that so you experience other emotions and that's what makes life.
I wish I could break down my time here for you but that would take a book, it's been like a whole life time of it's own.
Leaving UG I thought, there is just no way I'm going to sit home, I've got to work I've got to earn my own money, nah!! God had something else coming, I have been home since.
I thought, there is just no way I can spend all my days, every single hour of every single day looking after Mich, some one will get hurt, nah!!God had something else coming, we have had the richest of relationships. I wouldn't trade this for anything, it's wonderful to be there every step of Mich's growing years.
You would think I was getting the point right?, then I thought, OK, that is enough, there is just no way I'm going to live in this strange land without Sam, nah!! God had ... . Sam got an internship offer in consulting and he is away literally all week, gets back on Thursday night and is out again on Monday. Fancy that in a new city where I hardly know any one, but it's worked out just fine.
Bottom line, I have learned not to put limits on my self because it's amazing what one can do when faced with challenge.
I have learned so much in this one year I can't begin to explain, the exposure, the situations, the beauty of this land and it's people, it's simply amazing. I would not change anything especially because God has been in the center of it all.

I like the availability of material, one can go to the lib, read and borrow books, tapes and CD's and not pay a single coin. My concern now though is that what is rated PG would pass for an "R" rated movie in my day.
Toys and play things for children are in plenty, children get off to a good start. Even then I'm grateful I came here later in life, something about growing up in UG helps me keep my head on my shoulders. Thank God for UTV, opened at 6pm and we had one or two kids programs after which there was news and people had to do home work, take a bath and have supper (which ever the order). Then I hoped the TV announcer would not come on just before the one other nice program for the week because in most cases he/she was telling the "dear viewers" that due to unavoidable circumstances the program would not air. Now the options are endless, DVDs', video games, computer whatevers, how did we manage?
Then there is the food, it's amazing that you can get almost anything here you just need to know where to look. Two problems though, there is the word "calories" that hangs over peoples heads like a real burden. Secondly I don't appreciate foods that are said to be "organic or light" like "organic bananas", "light butter", what is that?! can't I just have a plain old banana without thinking about its ingredients?
I hope I will not have the same experience when I go to Nakasero market (if it's still there), and get asked if I want organic Matooke or light blue-band, people!

What I'm really trying to say is, we are in Dallas and Sam ends his internship in about 3 weeks, after that we head back to Philadelphia for his second year of study and God willing he graduates in May.
Oh yes and Mich gets to start preschool this September, now that is exciting, don't ask me any other questions I know what some of you are thinking.

The Dallas TV Series

Anyone remember "Dallas", the TV series that was a hit back in the day?
I don't quite remember what it was about because I was still very young back then but since every one watched it I wasn't going to miss out. All I remember about "Dallas" was the theme song, horses, and a guy called J.R who was always wearing a cowboy hat.

This past weekend Sam took me to Southfork Ranch where the series was shot, that was quite exciting. The part I liked the most was walking into the house that it was filmed in and having the theme song playing in the background.

On TV everything about the ranch looked huge but man!, all camera tricks, the place was ordinary to say the least. The swimming pool that looked like it stretched as far as the eye could see, hmm! like I said ordinary. We just have to give it up for camera tricks.




It was a special moment for me, obviously I took pictures like crazy but you have got to understand. All I ever knew about Dallas before coming here was the TV series and I'm sure some of you would testify to the same.

Mich and I chilling out in "the sitting room".

The team, then
and more recently, J.R is the 2nd guy from the left.

The car on display, polished and all.

A typical day

So, it's been about six weeks since we came to Dallas and we are halfway through Sam's summer internship, amazing how time flies.
I was a little concerned about what life would be like in this city especially when I hardly know anybody and Sam is away 3/4's of the week. It's not been too bad, actually it's been good so far, I think I like the way things have turned out, kinda like a retreat.
Still haven't made any friends (what did I expect? find a bosom buddy in a week?) , but there are people to talk to as one goes a long, a "hi" over here and "how are you doing" over there and "is that your son" kind of thing.

My day starts between 7 am and 7:30 am depending on when Mich comes bumping into my room to ask me "why are you sleeping mummy?", well other times he just lies next to me and waits for me to open my eyes.
Then we have breakfast, for some reason he will not take his morning bath before drinking his milk, but again who is to blame for that?.

By 9:30 we are set to start the day, I try to think up things for him to do but when I don't have anything planned out I ask Mich. Then he says let's go check mail (that's what we do every morning), well at least that gets us out of the house to begin with. Then depending on a number of factors we will go to the lake side and check out the ducks and squirrels or go to the library to borrow some books, or just take a walk and play games as we go a long.
Today we went by the book store and I found a really nice book for teaching preschoolers so I think we will include some learning into our schedule. It has the alphabet, numbers, colors and other stuff should be quite interesting.

Before you know it it's 11:30 am time to head home for lunch. Now I never imagined myself getting into sandwiches and stuff for lunch but there you go. It's so much easier to prepare, takes less time (time that is real precious to Mich so he can go out and play) and one less battle for me trying to feed a toddler who doesn't like the word "food" very much.
We are usually done with lunch by 12:30pm then it's time for a nap, the bargaining starts at 12:30 by 1pm he is in his room looking at pictures in his book or playing some games.
Then I have my prayer/quiet time and nap too, by 3pm we are up and Mich is asking if he can watch something on TV. I scan through to see which of his favourite cartoons he would like to watch and then while he watches I do some exercise.
Dinner is usually ready by about 6pm so we eat for about 2 hours, it's not that the food is that laborious but Mich loves to tell stories at dinner time. All over a sudden he can't stop talking and I have to keep reminding him to eat, then before you know it I have to feed him because he says he is tired of eating, my life!

Anyway thank God for the people who discovered that 8pm is the time for bed, I just love it. After dinner I get Mich ready for bed, read him 3 or four stories (the demand for more stories is getting a bit much) then we pray and it's goodnight.
Then I have some peace and quiet to watch TV, or a movie, clear the mess for the day, blog, check and reply to mail and so on and so forth.
Once in a while I'll hear "mummy please can I have a little water" but other than that I see him the next morning asking me "why are you still sleeping mummy?" or just lying next to me waiting for my eyes to open.

Dallas World Aquarium

On Saturday, Sam, Mich and I visited the DWA - Dallas World Aquarium, dwazoo.
The place was buzzing with children and adults of all ages, you hardly had space to freely turn around.
Our first stop was the water fall, there were lots of people gathered there, there was lots of trees, a nice recreation of the jungle but really not that fascinating. So I ask Sam, what exactly is everybody looking at? because really this I could have seen back home in Makerere Kivulu or even Namaanve. He laughed and shrugged his shoulders, then he said, ' look the ducks', and I'm thinking yeah right! all the money we had spent just to see ...

Then as we walked on we saw one of Mich's favourite animals the Sloth, I thought, now that is cool. The animal has amazing eyes, you would think it had thick eye pencil, what some ladies would give to have that..., anyway.

Uh! no, those are not skirts that were dropped in the water, they are called fresh-water stingrays. Is God awesome or what?!



"Hey, guys stop pushing, I got here first, if you are behind just wait for your turn".

What do you know?, we finally caught up with Nemo and his dad, and it was Mich who sighted them first.



This is so orange, the flamingos I mean.



I put in the rest as jaribu, some sea creatures and the Antillean manate, enjoy.

The Potter's House

Today we decided to visit the church pastored by tdjakes It was a wonderful service not to mention the fact that we spend a total of 5 hours getting there, attending the service and getting back home.

We looked up the directions on the net last night and realised we could actually get there without too much hustle. The train would take us all the way to Westmoreland and then there would be a bus that picked people up from the station and took them straight to church.
Getting to Westmoreland was pretty easy, we rode the train to the very last stop, when the bus came we jumped on. Then we realised that the driver seemed to be moving in circles and taking all sort of routes, at one point he even passed the turn off to church but everybody seemed at ease so I figured there was something to it. I later realised that the bus driver had to go a round these areas just in case he found some people who were going to church too, that took us like 40 minutes.
When we got to the church, it was flooded with people, cars, security the whole works, I thought wow! and this is a typical Sunday?!
Turned out to be their 10th anniversary so there was lots of celebration.

Bishop TDJakes wasn't there but we were blessed to hear Bishop noeljones preach a very powerful sermon about the woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:24 - 34 ). One thing that he mentioned that struck me was that, Faith is like a finger print, it's unique to everyone. So the question is, are you building your faith?, not depending on what God has done for others but what you believe He can do for you. How do we build our faith again? by reading the Word, when we read the word and internalise it then we begin to understand who we really are in Christ.

The song that was sang at the alter call was "oh it is Jesus, yes it is Jesus, it is Jesus in my soul, for I have touched the hem of His garment and His blood has made me whole", now those of you who have heard me talk about this song might have a clue on just how much I was ministered to in this service, it was absolutely awesome.

That's about all the preaching I will do today, thank you very much.

Solomon Grandy ...

Solomon Grandy, walked on Monday, rode on Tuesday, motored on Wednesday... and so on.
As for Mich and I, we walked on Monday, walked on Tuesday, uh!.. we are still walking.
Dallas is a very beautiful city and we love to take our time to sip in the fresh air, chase squirrels, watch turtles and ducks swim and many other things. But... there is always a but, and we need to know what the but is there for, well Dallas is not exactly a walkable city as compared with good ol Philly.

If you want to get to the road side or to the backyard, you can walk all you want because after that it just is not possible. Shops, church, entertainment, parks are a long way away. Majority of the Texans drive, there is however a small percentage that take the bus and it's interesting that most people don't even know that Dallas has public transport.

Mich and I have had to walk to lots of places, ( I must commend the young man because he takes it in stride, never a complaint, just make sure you have some snack handy or can drop into a fast food place for a drink or something). We gets lots of people looking at us from out of their cars probably wondering why I chose not to use the car today or thinking that I'm doing exercise and have decided to enrol my son on the program as a morale booster, the only problem is most times we are not dressed like we are going jogging or brisk walking.

When asking for directions never take the "it's just round the corner, or it's only 10 minutes a way" thing lightly because it isn't, you'll get burned out walking there and probably give up half way the journey.
Once Sam and I were looking at a map for directions to a hospital and on the map it looked near, so I thought I would walk but Sam said, 'it certainly looks near but you might want to take the bus' (thank God for a submissive spirit that day). I took the bus and man! the distance was like from Wandegeya to Lugogo.

Kitante Primary School Circa the 1980's

In memory of A.D Ssozi the former headmaster of Kitante Primary School who breathed his last on March 19th 2014 at 5:45pm in Texas. He was 81 years old. May his soul rest in eternal peace.

Kitante Primary School Emblem: Child between two parents

Kitante Primary School anthem:

"There's a school near the museum by the road side,  

Oh come to the school of the world 

No school is so dear to your child  

Kitante is the best in the world. 

Oh come come come come 

Come to the school by the road side 

Oh come to the school of the world 

No school is so dear to your child 

Kitante is the best in the world "

The children sang loud when it came to the chorus: "Oh come come come come COME to the school by the road side" - even those who didn't know the song well knew this part.

School prayer:

"Look at me Oh God

As my heart silent all

To you all I turn

For all the sins that I have committed

I beg to be forgiven

Where I have been good I ask to be encouraged ..."

Can somebody please remind me of the rest of the prayer, its been a long time since you know.

School Motto: The Struggle Continues for Better Horizons

Head Master: Mr. A.D.Ssozi: The man with the pipe, he had it everywhere he went.
It was great just listening to him talk he sounded very unique, you see, he spoke the queens English with a British accent. Very smart and sophisticated man, rode a classy motorbike and was an avid tennis player.
He knew all the children in the school, no matter where he met them, he smiled and waved.

Head Mistress: Ms. Sajaryabende (R.I.P): Tough lady.

Gate Keeper: Mzee Kato: (I know some of you didn't meet him. He was at the gate between 7:30 and 8:30 in the morning).

Gate to Kitante Primary School. Mr Kato spent his time inside the little house

Kitante Primary was a very special school. By P7 I was able to remember all the children in the school (by face) even the ones in P1 at the time, no kidding. To date Sam thinks there was something weird about the school because many times I meet people and when he asks how I know them I tell him we were in the same primary school.

OK, I'll start at the beginning and tell you a little bit about my school. Just like the anthem says, it was a school near the museum by the road side and it had classes from P1 to P7. It was well known for its good academic performance and was the envy of the other primary schools around Kampala.
We were the only school with an amphitheater, the neatest kids, most well-behaved and brilliant.

Kitante Primary School amphitheater

P1 and P2 classes, were referred to as "lower school" and indeed they were lower school.
Apart from the fact that the children were the youngest, their classes were also at a lower level compared to the rest of the school. They had their own assembly meetings every morning and their own little waiting shed which often had crying faces and scattered property lying around. In the excitement of playing after class and the anxiety to get home, bags, sweaters, shoes, containers got left behind. Luckily one would be able to claim them back in the "lost property" department at the head masters office.

Lower school play ground

Lower school waiting shade

A view of lower school; Classes 1 and 2

Classes 3 to 7, were referred to as "upper school", the distance between lower and upper school was quite a stretch and the most important offices, the headmasters office, the disciplinary room, the bursar's office and the amphitheater stood between them. Looking back it seems to have been built that way because moving from P2 to P3 was like the long walk to maturity, once you crossed over it was clear that you had made much progress in life.

Children in class: P3M

It was only when you got to P3 and the classes after that certain names became extremely important. 

In my day the names that made childrens' blood stop were:-

Mr. Makeeri: P5 maths teacher, just one stroke from his cane would make your back side feel like it was on fire, so you didn't want to get into his bad books. Even the naughty boys who put on "bullet proof" (double shorts) or those who tried fixing books in their shorts would feel the strokes of his cane like they weren't putting on any clothes.

Mr. Mugumya: P5 geometry teacher, he was new in the school but you didn't want to mess with him, please do your homework, pay careful attention in his geometry class and you will be okay.

Mr. Semakula: P5 Geography teacher, you better be a good pupil. He was left handed and there was just something different about the way he caned, you would not forget for a long time.

Then there was Mr. Sebujega: P6 Math teacher, I heard a story about how he once fixed a boy into one of the pigeon holes (these were small box like sections where we kept our schoolbags). That story alone was enough to make you think straight, you have no idea what such a story would do to any one in a lower class. Children in P6 and P7 appeared the biggest in the school, so by the time one could fit in a pigeon hole, chances that you would fit a pigeon hole were greatly increased.
I never got to know if these stories were true because thankfully I got them second hand from friends and family who had gone before.

One other teacher whom you would prefer that he didn't so much as look in your direction was Mr. Tibuhoire: P7 English and Maths teacher, he was just bad news. If you didn't perform well in his class and you were asked to go to the science room, it would be between you and God, just pray that you score above the pass mark, otherwise life would get very complicated.

I'm beginning to think primary school teachers had a special calling from birth because, these names are rare, I haven't met any other people in my life with these names.

Kitante Primary School Administration block: First murals I ever saw

On the whole I have good memories of my primary school days, the only times my stomach hurt and I felt like I was running a fever where when I took home the wrong homework book and there was work to be handed in the next day, or when the math numbers were a bit hard and I had left gaps. It was very important that we all did our homework and completed it, if not the consequences were pretty clear, you didn't have to stir up your imagination too much.

They say 'Work without play makes Jack a dull boy" so we had times for sports and games, this was a time we all looked forward to, I certainly did.

I will not forget this one time in P2 when I forgot my sports uniform at home and we were going to do P.E (physical education) that day. I could swear Ihad packed my uniform, well at least it was washed and ironed. When it was time to change, I literally turned my bag inside out and there was no uniform. Then the sports teacher insisted that those who didn't have their P.E shorts would have to run in their underwear, I couldn't believe it was happening to me. To make matters worse we were going to do a brief cross country run, the route was out through the main gate, passed the museum, down via the headmasters home and back, or something like that.This was absolute misery for me, the boys in my class were going to see me and there were all these people walking on the streets who kept looking and commenting. It's not like I was the only one who had forgotten my P.E shorts but damn! it was the first time it was happening to me. I cried the entire journey and lets just say I was never in such a situation again.

Because I was in P3 and still a bit unsure of who to hang with my parents thought it wise that I had lunch with my big brother Simon. As it happened Simon and I never spoke to each other at school, we would plan where to meet for lunch before we left home. When the bell rang for lunch I would wait for him and his friend at the corner of the amphitheater, then we would eat and go. Now, Simon's friend liked the fried rice that we carried and I liked his rice because it was different. 

One time I asked Simon to ask his friend (whose name I will not disclose until I get permission) if we could exchange dishes, I would eat his rice and he would eat mine. It worked out pretty well, his friend had a blue long flask and mine was red, so we would meet exchange containers, eat, give them back when we were through and that was it. I never really spoke to Simon's friend by the way, and for some reason the whole exchange thing was short lived can't remember why. Picture this, several years later I meet Simons friend because we end up working at the same company, and now am wondering whether he recalls any of this.

To explain the "no talking" thing between Simon, his friend and I, it's very simple, they were boys and I was a girl. Boys talking to girls and the reverse was a no no, and all this happened when you crossed over from lower school to upper school, there was just something strange about the transition.
In P1 and P2 everything was okay, when you got to P3 boys started to look weird or something so we stopped talking to each other. Girls couldn't sit in boys chairs, a boy couldn't stand next to a girl or touch anything that belonged to a girl, if he did he would immediately go and wash his hands because they had apparently gotten contaminated in the process. Then when we got to around P6 third term, and P7, girls didn't think boys were from hell any more and the boys suddenly realized they had been missing out on something and so "cooperation" begun, that was the life.

I haven't told you about how organized the school was, every time the bell sounded for assembly children would run as fast as they could to the assembly ground to avoid being caught as late comers. We were addressed by the teacher on duty after which we would say the school prayer and match to our classes. We stood according to our classes, boys made one line and girls made one line, then when it was time to go, boys and girls would hold hands and head to their classes. Now in lower school this was very simple, you held hands until you got to the classroom door and sometimes the boy whose hand you held would walk with you to your desk.

Kitante Primary School Sports Field

In upper school there was total chaos when it came to holding hands, for the most part people tried all sorts of ways to avoid it; Hold hands until you pass the teacher and prefects then let go, pretend to hold hands, just make sure your skin doesn't exactly touch mine, you could do this all the way to class or drop it as soon as the coast was clear. The other options were to hold the little finger, that way the whole hand doesn't get contaminated, or better still get a small stick so both of you can hold either end of it.
Most of these scenarios occurred when the you didn't like the person whom you were paired up with and even if you did, you didn't want to risk being teased by your classmates for holding hands all the way, so even when you wanted to hold hands you had to pretend that you didn't.

That's about all the drama I can recall, on a more serious note I'll talk about the "class days". Every serious school sets apart days when parents can come to class and see how their children are performing and also get time to talk with the class teacher. This was a good day for some children and not so good for others, the reasons varied. The major one depending on your performance in class and your relationship with the teacher. Other kids were not too happy about the day because they thought their parents would embarrass them either by the way they dressed or the means of transport they used to come, but as you may guess these were issues that older children in upper school had to contend with.

One function that all children looked forward to was the end of year class party. People were moving on to the next class, there was going to be lots of biscuits, bread, cake and soda and that was the one day you could show all your friends your snazzy dresses.
My other brother was looking forward to his P6 end of year party, he had performed real well in class and he was feeling all grown up now, so he came up with a brilliant idea.

My dad had recently come back from one of his many travels and he had got himself some nice boots, so my brother figured they could talk man to man. One evening he approached my dad and asked if he could borrow his boots for the Christmas/end of year party ..." WHAT?!!!, You are not serious,... but you children! you must be joking, eh?! you must be really joking! ..." then he peered at him from over the rim of his reading glasses. I don't quite remember the rest of the conversation but I know my bro attended the party in his own shoes.

Hehehe, now I can actually tell Mich about the good ol days, and indeed they were priceless.