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Creating Connections
On Tuesday, February 5th Sri and I went to Einstein Montessori School here in Gainesville to speak to the 3rd and 7th grade classes about Buhugu and Uganda in general.
We did our best to allay each other's anxiety about giving a speech to the students. First we spoke to the 3rd grade class. They were all very enthusiastic and inquisitive about life in Uganda and Buhugu. We were impressed when we discovered that several of the students even remembered that Uganda is south of Sudan. Some of the questions they asked included: "Why do the girls shave their heads?", "What does their money look like?", and "Where do they buy their clothes?"
They all shrieked with delight when we came to a photo of a boy in our slide show who had the countenance of one of their classmates. We passed around some Ugandan Shillings for everyone to see and explained that 1 US Dollar is equal to about 1,700 Ugandan Shillings.
They had so many questions that we could scarcely answer them all and the class period seemed to fly by.
The seventh grade class asked many of the same questions as the third graders. After a question about where their clothing came from, Sri tried to explain to them how donated clothing can be detrimental to their economy. Used clothing is cheaper to buy than clothing that is made in Uganda which hampers the growth of the textile industry.
I secretly glanced at a poster of Gandhi spinning yarn and tried to explain in the most parsimonious way possible that manufacturing yarns, fabrics, and garments from cotton fibers is better for a country's economy than exporting it as a raw material.
Photos were taken of some of the students to show to the people in Uganda. We asked all of the students to write letters to the children in Buhugu describing their daily in school and out of school activities and asking them any other questions they could think of.
This Friday we will go to Einstein Montessori to pick up the letters the students wrote to Buhugu and soon they will start their long journey to Uganda via our luggage.
We plan to bring letters back to the U.S. from the children in Buhugu to Einstein Montessori School.
We did our best to allay each other's anxiety about giving a speech to the students. First we spoke to the 3rd grade class. They were all very enthusiastic and inquisitive about life in Uganda and Buhugu. We were impressed when we discovered that several of the students even remembered that Uganda is south of Sudan. Some of the questions they asked included: "Why do the girls shave their heads?", "What does their money look like?", and "Where do they buy their clothes?"
They all shrieked with delight when we came to a photo of a boy in our slide show who had the countenance of one of their classmates. We passed around some Ugandan Shillings for everyone to see and explained that 1 US Dollar is equal to about 1,700 Ugandan Shillings.
They had so many questions that we could scarcely answer them all and the class period seemed to fly by.
The seventh grade class asked many of the same questions as the third graders. After a question about where their clothing came from, Sri tried to explain to them how donated clothing can be detrimental to their economy. Used clothing is cheaper to buy than clothing that is made in Uganda which hampers the growth of the textile industry.
I secretly glanced at a poster of Gandhi spinning yarn and tried to explain in the most parsimonious way possible that manufacturing yarns, fabrics, and garments from cotton fibers is better for a country's economy than exporting it as a raw material.
Photos were taken of some of the students to show to the people in Uganda. We asked all of the students to write letters to the children in Buhugu describing their daily in school and out of school activities and asking them any other questions they could think of.
This Friday we will go to Einstein Montessori to pick up the letters the students wrote to Buhugu and soon they will start their long journey to Uganda via our luggage.
We plan to bring letters back to the U.S. from the children in Buhugu to Einstein Montessori School.
Labels: Buhugu Connect
