Welcome Celebration

Today was the welcoming ceremony that the AFROKAPS organization had for the Weston visitors and the One Laptop program. I have to admit I had pretty high expectations for this ceremony. And they were passed by A LOT. When we arrived, there were more people than I think there are in our entire town. All of the schoolchildren, from the different AFROKAPS schools, in their different uniforms, were marching down the street singing, playing music, and greeting us. They all waved and said ‘hello’ and ‘how are you’. I said hello to a couple girls and started to march like them. They laughed a little bit. Another girl said “Hello friends!” which I loved. When we got to the school grounds there were even more people then I saw before. All the teachers welcomed us. I love that they welcome you not by shaking your hand but by hugging you. We went around to look at all the parts of the Kasiisi primary school and the different projects the Kasiisi Project had done. One of the Ugandan administrators named Joseph held my hand and welcomed me to Uganda. That’s another thing I love, that people hold hands and put their arms around each other a lot in Uganda and its not weird or awkward its just friendly. We got to see the work that had been done with the porridge project, in the library and much more. After we had seen most of the campus we went down to sit. There was a ton of singing and dancing and most of the schools made up new songs just for the occasion. At one point they started to pull us up one by one to go dance. We decided just to go and we danced with the kids. Dancing with them is more fun than I can possibly explain. They were all so excited when you went to dance with them and they all smiled so much. I was honestly smiling so much that my face hurt. We were also all individually presented with amazing gifts. They gave us each a beautiful bag and shawl, a cool bracelet that spelled Uganda in beads and a beaded key chain. I could not believe they were giving us all these amazing things. It was so nice of them and I couldn’t believe all they thought they put into everything. After lunch we met Happy, a girl who had written to our friend Julia. She was so nice and she was very good at English. She loved taking pictures and took quite a few of Mr. Parker and whatever else was around. She later showed me her classroom with a girl named Mary and introduced me to her mother. She was just as nice and happy and she told me to write to them. I can’t wait to write her and send her some of the pictures. It was over all one of the most amazing memorable days of my entire life. I can’t wait to go back to the schools and meet more of the students!