Today was our termly visitation day for parents. There are three terms in a year and each term we only have one day when parents can come and visit their girls. Lately it seems like we have had a problem of girls escaping from school and running to who knows where. I think they run away because they miss their parents. But that is besides the point.

Visitation day is a chance for parents to come and get their daughter's progress reports and to sit in the shade for an hour or more and chat. Parents also bring things like money, sugar, acholi peanut butter (odii), and various other snacks that girls can't get in school.

The school population is large to begin with and it swells incredibly on visitation days. Parents and students are under every possible patch of shade and kids run around on the compound like they own it. These are the days when I choose to stay in my hut or in the staff room. While I love the students, I don't love the fact that parents and younger siblings aren't used to my presence and stare at me like I might disappear before their very eyes (which hasn't happened yet). Maybe one day I'll be used to the stares but that day will probably be the day I leave to return to the states...
peace,
eh

The rainy season has delayed in coming and yet people remain hopeful. In February they claimed the beginning of March would be saturating us. In the beginning of March people predicted that March 15th would be wet. When March 15th rolled around and there was still no rain, scholars stated that by the beginning of Spring, March 21st, we would be trodding in mud. For days clouds have gathered and taunted us and then blown away. But tonight…tonight clouds are here to dump their blessings on us.

Electricity has been off and on for a month now. Today it decided to take the whole day off (naturally today our generator chose not to work). So I’m writing this by lamp light in my hut. As I write I am distracted by thunder that would rattle my window panes if I had them. And of course lightning. Oh how Marvelous! It seems as if we are encircled by clouds that are rubbing against each other and making the most beautiful light of all: lightning.

I love lightning storms, and whenever I see them I am reminded of the time my dad and I spent watching an Iowa lightning storm soon before I left for college. We sat on our porch and enjoyed the bolts of lightning as each one tore through the sky, on a ragged journey. I’m so thankful that one of nature’s phenomenons could connect my heart to a wonderful memory of time spent with my dad.
Stop and watch.
Peace,
eh