Dana, Alana, and Jjemba taught class in the downstairs studio today. Their theme was all about landscape with focus on the sun, mountains, rivers, clouds, and birds. The dance ended up being pretty lengthy and detailed, but is good.
After class we came back again to Nakasero and showed our dances again and gave the kids a snack. I ended up ordering a veggie burger from the ballet school for lunch. It was very different than our frozen garden burgers in the states so I actually went over to the Fang Fang for lunch and joined Krissy and Gaspare. Before I walked over though I realized I had my iPad. I pulled it out while I was talking to one of the girls and asked if she wanted to see any videos of me dancing. She was really excited and so we spent the next 20 minutes watching whatever videos I had on my iPad. I ended up having a lot of dance videos from the semester, videos of me and Mabingo, and videos from when I went to the Taylor Swift concert, which they loved. By the time we had finished viewing all the videos I had about 8 kids around me all trying to see the iPad. It was awesome.
After lunch we ran our two dances and practiced our drum circle again. We also learned a new dance from Grace and practiced singing "We are Family", which will be our finale song in the show.
After our rehearsal we had maybe 10 minutes to come back to our room, drop off our drum and get back on the bus. This time we were headed to Uganda Heritage Roots. This is a center that has helped bring kids off the street and get them to be acceptable citizens in society. We met a man named Ronnie, who was one of the originals in the group. He shared his story of how he became a street kid at the age of 6, when his parents died. He said by the time UHR picked him up he was a "general" of the street, meaning he was the leader of a part of the streets in terms of the street kids. He was actually sent to UHR by a court order. He went for 15 days as the first time and had been told that if he comes back to the program he would have an opportunity to get a Visa and travel to America. The group had taken some kids to America and seeing that really changed his mind about the program. He decided to start coming since he wanted an opportunity to travel and learn drumming and dancing.
Ronnie also had his story printed in the Greenwich Gazette in Greenwich Village, NYC. One woman from NYC read his story and was so moved she decided to come to Uganda to meet him. She is a professional photographer in NYC and wanted to bring all of her cameras to document his life as a kid on the street. He toured her around and said because he was so respected by the street kids, no one messed with her or her things. She was able to photograph his "home" life as a kid on the street and actually gained a strong relationship with Ronnie. She ended up adopting him so now he has an American family that he can come and see, making it easier to travel freely to and from America. He spent time doing volunteer work in Massachusetts one summer on a farm to learn the skills of farming and tending to animals so that he could bring that knowledge back to the children at UHR. It turns out now Ronnie is 31 years old, and has 15 kids living with him. He feeds them, pays for their schooling, and has them stay in his home. He is literally the father of 15 boys between the ages of 4-12. It's like a real life peter pan and the lost boys story. So inspiring. He also has his own programs that he has received some funding for from the US including an outreach program. He and his kids go back to the streets and bring food, supplies, and advice to the street kids. It is unbelievable what he has done in his life. The people that come out UHR are not ashamed of their past. They are proud to say look at where I was and where I am now. I loved meeting Ronnie and hope to support him and his programs more.
After UHR we came back to the Fang Fang, cleaned up, and walked up to the Sheraton. Me and my roomy have been having upset stomachs every once in a while from all the different food here so a trip to the sheraton was very needed. I had a salad and pizza. The salad was amazing! It is so good to eat something fresh since most of the food we have been eating here has been very starchy or fried.
I am teaching on Wednesday so I should try to get focused on my lesson plan so it all runs smoothly.
Obulamo Bulungi! -which means, Life is Good!
Uncle Milton: The founder and director of Ugandan Heritage Roots. Just hearing him talk reminded me a lot of my dad in the sense that he is so smart, full of ideas, implements his ideas, and in love with education. He said his next degree will be in some type of therapy. He already has his Bachelors in Music and a Master's in Dance.
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