hillary's uganda journal - june 21

Today was a lot of fun! On thursdays all of St. Mbuga School go to the field to play games for a couple hours, so I got to go with them. It was like a half hour walk from the school. When we got there they all split up, girls went to the netball area and boys went to the football (soccer) field.

I've always thought that netball is just like basketball with a few slight differences, such as, the basket is just a pole with a hoop on the top (no backboard) and there isn't any dribbling. But I've now realized that it is A LOT different. There are so many rules to it. And our girls are actually on a team and Ronnie is the coach for the team. He was the referee today, so they actually played by rules. I'm not used to that, I've only seen girls throwing around a ball, basically playing keep-away. But this game is so fast paced, I don't know how he can even call some of the things that he does. So many little things happened that I never caught, but the girls were so upset when a call wasn't made. I watched for a little bit, claiming that the only way for me to learn was to watch (everyone wanted me to play with them). I watched Yvonne play, but she doesn't seem like she is very good (haha). She just kind of stood there, talked with her friend that she was guarding, and held hands with her. She reminded me of my cousin Emily, it seemed like there were better things that she wanted to be doing. :)

So then I moved to the football field with my mob of 10-20 three to six year olds who kept attacking me, because they all NEED to be touching me at all times! I'm pretty sure something bad will happen if they let me out of their sight. So I brought a big crowd of fans over to the boys and I tried watching the games that were going on. But I didn't usually get the chance to watch much because I would have to look between the kids that would stand 5 feet in front of me. Staring at me. I come to their school every day, but they just don't seem to get tired of looking at the "muzungu." Sometimes I get the feeling I'm not a real person here. I'm like a fish in a fishbowl. A new one, that's crazy colors and does crazy things. Only I wasn't entertaining anyone. Or being funny. I wasn't going to do any tricks. They don't care. They just keep on staring. Every once in a while I would snap them out of it by telling them, "Tuula!" (sit down!)

One of my groupies was Peter. He stuck to me like glue today! But I never mind him. He just sits on my lap and smiles with that huge smile with the big gap in the middle. I have to keep reminding myself not to get...flustered? Maybe that's a good word for how I feel with all the attention that is ALWAYS on me. I really don't mind how the kids poke my legs and count all my freckles and inspect every inch of my hands. I think the part that overwhelms me is the number of kids doing this at all times. It's hard not to get a little annoyed when they're all pushing and shoving so much that I almost fall over, but I can't move to catch myself because my hands are being tied back and there are little feet right in front of mine. At these times I have to smile, yank my arms up in the air and tell them to stop fighting or no one gets to hold my hands! Kind of a funny thing to say when you think about it. But it works, for the older ones that understand english. The really young ones think its a new game.

I had quite the group of injured kids today for some reason. Deborah fell on her arm and so she didn't get to play netball at all, Bruno hurt his leg yesterday and it was still "paining" him today so his football team was Bruno-less, and Julius got something stuck in his calf the other day. I think it was actually pretty serious, he had to go to the hospital for it! And he still can't walk on it, he hopped around on one foot with two different shoes on. I'm not actually sure how bad it's still hurting. He might possibly just be milking it. But what am I here for except to spoil my kids, right?! So I carried him on my back all the way to school. And let me tell you, this was no easy feat. First, he is 9 or 10 years old, he's not a little little boy anymore. Second, it was slightly uphill the whole way there. Third, the sun decided just at this time it was going to shine it's brightest (it had been cloudy all day untill then). But we got back to St. Mbuga with minimal huffing and puffing on my part.
Pictured: Deborah, Yvonne, and Mable in the back. Peter and Gideon in the front.

Oh-When we were getting ready to go back to school, there were a few little girls by one of the nearby houses. One of these was about a 1-1/2 year old. I walked up to her and squatted down a couple feet away from her in case she was going to be scared of me. When she noticed I was there she immediately came up to me, wrapped her arms around my neck and layed her head on me! Oh my gosh! Greatest feeling in the world!! Especially when I expected tears!