On Sunday Nate and I went to "Happy Child" this is a program where they go and play with these kids that are either orphans or neglected by their parents. Nate had a rough time at the school he tripped trying to catch a ball and fell and bled all over his white shirt. The kids were super cute and loved playing with us.
I went to proud to be a girl this morning. We had a lot of fun with the girls. We had been talking to them about following their dreams. One girl came up to me and said I really want to be a singer but when I go to bed at night my dreams are never about singing. I thought it was super cute! There is a lot of good that can be done with these girls.
(sorry this is all past tense, now it is Friday)
I absolutely LOVED Wednesday, Nate was able to go to proud to be a girl with me. When we introduced ourselves I said that Nate was my husband and the kids went absolutely nuts! They were cheering and just got all riled up, I have never had anyone be so excited about our marriage :) I spoke to the girls about abstinence and rape as well as relationships with boys. It was really an awesome experience. I feel like things are just getting better and better each time. So Nate went with the boys and spoke to them about respecting women and abstinance. It was so funny after they were done, Wilson came up to me and said, "
Wow I had no idea your husband was such a good speaker."
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| Best picture ever, boys making pads! |
Later that day we went to another school and due to communication issues we actually had already been there. It was okay because we have made some new changes and still taught them. We were playing tag with these cute little kids and one of the teachers told me that I needed to be a teacher because I could play with children.
Nate has totally been in his element teaching about savings this week, you should have seen him on Wednesday in Lugazi he extended the class like 40 min because he was so excited about what they were talking about. We went to a new village to teach a class yesterday, we are going to try and give this community the cirruculum because we aren't able to start any more business classes. We are also going to see if we can get some benches built for their school because the children have no place to sit. These poor teachers have gone without pay for the last 3 months. It's pretty incredible that they would still come to work.
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| So Proud to be a GIRL! |
We are starting this project with the this school where me and Elaine are going to teach reading and English classes every Friday. I am super excited about teaching. I taught a 1st grade class today they were so fun. I just wish we would have been able to figure this stuff out when we first got here. I feel like the ball is just starting to get rolling with most things now that we are getting ready to leave.
We just had 5 new volunteers come in yesterday, it's really interesting having new people here. The best part of all of this is that all the girls go to Nate when they want him to negotiate with the country directors because Nate just has a way of getting people to do what he wants with out them even knowing it. I don't know how he does it! We went to the rain-forest lodge again it was so so FUN!
Hey. Sorry we haven't written anything for awhile. I don't feel like we've had anything especially exciting or out of the ordinary happen this week. Our business classes continue to go well, especially in Lugazi. This week we began our finance unit and have been teaching budgeting, personal finance, financial statements, etc. I feel that this is the area that Africans are the weakest in when it comes to businesses. This is also where I feel we've made the strongest impact with consulting individual businesses as well.
When we were talking about saving in Lugazi on Wednesday night, one of the students asked, "these things you are teaching us about saving are not part of our culture, how can we change this?" At that point I pointed out that the group in the business class were all the leaders in the community and that this group was a council as much as they were a class. We stopped the teaching and had a long discussion on how they can change the mindset about saving. It was also interesting to learn that banks give negative interest on their savings accounts. It's not a small amount like some accounts hit during the financial crisis - it's like negative 20%. Once you deposit about 1 million shillings ($500) the rate hits zero percent interest. This is to keep only the foreign business owners and the very wealthy few in the banks. Pretty crazy. $500 is more than many of them will earn in 10 years. A normal loan for a member of the wealthy class in Lugazi will be about 35% interest.
I also wanted to mention our experience at the pad making classes this week that began in Naggalama. We have been teaching the ladies business skills in order for them to start a reusable pad business. This week another organization from Utah came to teach them how to make the pads. As you can see from the picture, the boys were having a little to much fun making Natex brand feminine hygiene products. The highlight of that day was one of the ladies from the other organization telling us that "You just do this once, but I do this EVERY day." Unfortunately, it was pretty obvious that the ladies that came to make the pads were a lot more interested in their resumes and personal accomplishments than the people they were here to serve.
We love you!
Liz & Nate
Love the updates and pictures and your great work continues! Also, I love to hear each of your perspectives and thoughts on things...it really highlights what a perfect pair you are!! Natex is going to be a hit for sure!!
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