DEAR Day at Hamukuku

Ever hear of DEAR Day? I didn't until coming to Uganda, but who knows, maybe it's a global thing and I was just out of the loop.

DEAR Day stands for Drop Everything And Read Day. It happens every year on April 12 (I'm a bit behind on creating my blog posts). It is a campaign to promote literacy and is not only held in school settings, but is encouraged to be celebrated in all businesses throughout the country. The participants are suppose to drop everything they are doing and read something for a minimum of 20 minutes. In my village we celebrated the day at the local primary school, Hamukuku. These are just a few pictures of the kids from the school.

This shot gives you an idea of how crowed the schools here are. Hamukuku has 125 first grade students for one teacher! It also shows that I am literally the only white person in my village. The children stare at me, they just never knew people came in different colors. I think little by little they are getting used to me and although they still stare, they no longer seem so afraid of me.

Many classes are held outside, which is a nice break from the crowded classrooms.

Colobus Monkey

This adorable monkeys were climbing around the trees behind the clinic. They are usually quite illusive but today the were happily climbing about in plain view. Sorry for the blurry shots... still hating my new phone/camera.

Kyaninga Lake

What a beautiful place!

There are many crater lakes in the western part of Uganda. They are formed by long ago extinct volcanoes. Kyaninga Lake is actually two extinct volcanoes so it is shaped more like a figure eight than a circle. A quick search of the internet will tell you that Kyaninga Lake is one of the cleanest lakes in the region. However, we have been warned by our Peace Corps doctors that no lake in Uganda is free of Schistomiasis, commonly referred to as snail fever. It is a parasitic disease cause by fresh water snails feeding of human and animal waste. Gross as all of that sounds, we swam!!! The water felt wonderful, especially after the hike down to water level; being an extinct volcano obviously it's a trek down.

I don't feel sick yet... keep fingers crossed that we all stay schisto-free.  

Very cool floating dock... and a strangle little sinking boat to the right of it. Even stranger, that was the only boat we saw out there... and we were the only people out there. Maybe the locals are smarter than us silly volunteers.

I'm third from the left, proudly wearing my beach bar T-shirt from Caddy's on Treasure Island.