Wednesday March 10th. I took a 90 minute ride out of Kampala to the village.
I went to a place called Kakili to visit the orphanage and primary school run by a guy named Joshua who I met on the stairs of the Imperial Royale hotel in downtown Kampala.
He asked me if I was a volunteer ( a category of white person in Uganda there on service) I told him about my project and that I might be able to come. He called me a lot….a lot a lot to get me to come to his school. I had no idea where I was going, but I should have when my driver told me that he was going to charge me 80,000 schilings…..which was more than a trip to the airport. I even texted Lynn to confirm that I wasn’t getting taken.
But you know what, for the 90 minute ride, his 3 hrs waiting on site, and the return trip home, $40 wasn’t too bad. Plus, it was the only way I was going to get to this village about 3 miles off the main road on a broken and crackling dirt road into the distance.
This main room where three classrooms met was the only not earthen structure on site.
The other structures were either made out of mud, or bamboo with reeds as walls. I believe this is about as primitive as you can get in 2010 on planet Earth, although I am sure there are places that have even less. If you would like to support this school, or any school for that matter, the work I am doing in the cause of spreading art and peace across the globe, please feel free to make a contribution on this blog, or on our web site @ www.createpeaceproject.org
This photo shows you two classrooms. Broken chalk boards on the ground leaning against the reed walls. No books. No nothing. Students barely had things to write with.
And so I asked Joshua if we could gather in the main room. Bringing all the students, even the wee babies, learning their ABC’s off a yellow poster board in their mud room, into the main space for a little art making and peace time.
It was quite a setting. Benches were situated like a classroom facing the front….and I quickly requested that we rearrange the around the outside of the room and make a giant rectangle/circle where everyone could see each other.
We organized that quickly and then found that there were too many students to make one large group. So onto the floor went a tarp and the P6 and P7 students seated on the ground. And so it was time to begin.
I love to put a group of 120 excited and energized Ugandan students ~ fascinated by the tall white man in the room, curious as all get out about what in the world we are doing ~ into a moment of silence….a group meditation…. contemplating peace in their heart, breathing deeply, and sitting quietly for several minutes. I find this place to be an energizing and exhilarating moment where even I struggle to close my eyes because I want to see all of them in this state of calm, breath aware, and introspective. There is so much energy swirling. So much excitement. It’s great fun to ask everyone to close their eyes and breathe peacefully, if even for only one minute.
I meditate on my own before I arrive.
Have you ever been swarmed by mosquitos? Or accidently hit a bee hive with the tractor? You know that feeling of being surrounded by that pure intensity and energetic force of life pulsing towards you?Well that’s kind of what it’s like when you pull out the art supplies in a rural (or any) school in Uganda. There are the moments when all is calm. Students are engaged and listening to the tall caucasian guest. Everything is peaceful, for it is peace we are discussing and the practice of being peaceful is what I am there engaging with them. The attentive, quite, calm, curious, shy, hesitant to speak, slow to raise ones hand, nearly fearful of speaking up in front of the class is quickly and almost instantaneously dissolved when a can of markers, or box of crayons gets opened.
As soon as the Art supplies come out……kids swarm. Hands fly. Reaching. Grabbing. “Master! Master! Master!” I ask them to sit. I gently usher them back to their seats, so that I can pass things out neatly and carefully into the hands awaiting…..but as soon as you begin to distribute them….the hands and bodies quickly come flying at your face.
I find it kind of enjoyable, exciting…..you are wanted and deeply sought after. You have something that they desperately want. Ten to fifteen pairs of hands flying in your face can be kind of overwhelming…..and somewhat fascinating…..because it is that pure excitement, a primal urge, and eagerness to get involved that has me smile back at them.
Nice work, Ross. Appears are learning and enjoying yourself as are the young people. Brian