Tuesday, June 15th

This morning after a run and oatmeal breakfast, Nina and I took a boda boda into Iganga to Sol Café where we enjoyed a cup of French press coffee and using the internet. I did some research on nutrition and updated my blog with some pictures and posts. When we got back to Namungalwe, we visited the secondary school. Our intention was to carry out a few focus groups for a research project, but I ended up in a classroom with around a 150 female students. It was so fun to interact with them! I talked about UVP, our goals and areas of focus: nutrition, family planning, HIV and STI’s, Malaria, sanitation, eye care, and safe water. They asked questions about the above topics and then of course personal questions such as: how old are you? Are you married? How many kids do you have? All very typical questions for the curious high school aged student. I had to try to explain how American culture is much different and families start later and are smaller…so different than here in Africa where women have many children and at a young age...even while still living with their parents. What opposite worlds we live in. However, when I asked the young women what they aspired to become after graduating from secondary I hear the same answers as from my students back home: doctor, teacher, nurse, lawyer…such high aspirations, such hope to become something more, to move out of the poverty into a position with the power to help and enable others. I do hope that some of their dreams come true.