Today, we woke up bright and early for our visit to Lakeview. We have been hearing so much about this school that I couldn’t wait to finally see it and meet all the students and teachers we had heard so much about. When we finally arrived at the school, the view was incredible!! We were all blown away by how beautiful the city looked from so high up. We were so warmly welcomed and were taken on a tour of the school. The students were so friendly and everyone was waving as we walked by. We then joined the students for their assembly in their temporary main hall outside. It was interesting to hear all the announcements and the news that they shared with the students. We were also able to introduce ourselves to the students and it was also interesting to see their reactions to certain majors and names as we went through our introductions.
After assembly, we were able to tour the girl’s dorm, and it definitely made us appreciate Cav (and it’s lack of air conditioning) more considering these girls not only had no running water but also were sharing rooms with up to 11 other girls. After our tour, we continued to meet other people in the adminstration and hear more about the school and its students. We then were allowed to sit in on a class.
I was in one of the English classes with Father Matt (which I think really amused the students) and 2 others. I sat with a group of four girls who were eager to show me their books and the work they were going over in class. The class was really fun because the teacher was joking around with the students as they went over their problem sets. She was very obviously passionate about being a teacher and the students responded well to that. She also made sure we were involved in the class and even had father Matt explain the story of Adam and Eve to the students at one point. The girls I was sitting with were also very curious about life at Notre Dame and just America in general. I also asked them about their school work and what life in Uganda was like. Even after class was over and it was break time, we continued chatting. They wanted something Notre Dame related and I ended up giving them some cav stickers which they exciting placed on their calculators and notebooks and proudly showed off to me. Then it was time to go and have a snack and talk to some more teachers.
I really enjoyed talking to the teachers and hearing the different backgrounds they were all from, and why they decided to go into teaching in the first place. It was evident that there was a lot of pride in their culture and that they were incredibly welcoming to guests. However, I think being able to talk with some of the students one on one was my favorite part. They were so hardworking and put so much dedication into their work. It was incredibly to see such passion in the students, passion that I don’t see in American students at times. It was definitely disheartening however to hear some of the students say they were limited in their students due to funding. We have so many opportunities in America that some people definitely take for granted. So it’s sad to see such passion being shut down due to lack of resources.
After this, we had lunch and then were able to do another class observation. I chose Swahili and once more it was nice to see the teacher be so passionate in what he does. He also quizzed us at the end and we suprisingly remembered the meanings to some of the words.
At the end of the School day we were able to attend Mass with the students. It was probably my favorite Mass I have been to because of how beautiful it all was. The students were singing their hearts out and dancing along. We followed along as best as we could. It was such a great time and we were all enjoying ourselves.
After Mass, we came back and had a break before our dinner. Now, since it had been such a long day, some of us ended up napping. However, me and Allison ended up sleeping through game night with the seminarians and then most of dinner. We joined at the end, and were able to see the dance the seminarians were preparing for us. After this we did reflection amongst our dorm groups which helped us to really understand what was going on in our minds and see what everyone was thinking.
After reflection, me and Allison came to get some water from the dining area and we ran into the seminarians who were practicing their dance moves and invited us to join. We ultimately did and it was a lot of fun. They walked us through some of their main moves. We were definitely not as good as them but were enjoying ourselves and it made up for missing game night. It was a beautiful day overall and I can’t believe we’re already halfway through our trip.