Uganda steals hearts of Sisters travelers

At the beginning of spring break the Project Uganda team checked 28 suitcases - donated by members of the Sisters community - at the Redmond airport on their way to Uganda. Weighing in at 50 pounds each, the suitcases were filled with 250 brand-new athletic shoes, donated by Sisters Middle School (SMS) social studies teacher Casey Pallister, and 451 menstrual kits handmade and donated by volunteers from Days for Girls Organization.

The bags also included clothing, hygiene products, medical products, schoolbooks and toys that were all on their way to 1,200 students at the Good Samaritan School in Kiwangala.

Seven adults and seven students from the Project Uganda team reached their destination at the Good Samaritan School, 8,989 miles away from Sisters, in the small village of Kiwangala, deep in the interior of Uganda.

"On Monday (March 23) we went from the airport in Entebbe to Kampala, and Osborn Muyanja, the director of the Good Samaritan School, met us and took us to the market in Kampala. We shopped for food for the huge community celebration that we would be having the following Saturday," said Sisters High School health teacher Heather Johnson. "They had already purchased a huge bull that will be feeding 2,000 people! We wanted it to be a celebration that would be similar to their traditional festivals."

On Tuesday the team traveled to Kiwangala, which is about a four-hour drive across the equator.

"We interacted with the students and played sports and visited the classrooms. Sports are very important to the kids, just like in Sisters. It was just a mob everywhere you went, they were so happy to see us, and they all went to such detail on their presentation with their clothing; they have such pride in their appearance," said Johnson.

On Wednesday morning Johnson met all of the teachers on campus, women and men.

"I discussed health education, proper hygiene, and the distribution of the menstrual kits with all of them," Johnson said. "The female students had no idea why they even have a monthly period, but were so pleased and grateful for the menstrual kits. They are void of any knowledge about their bodies. They are way behind us in receiving health education. The teachers were very open to learning about how to teach health education to their students."

Pallister relates his experience during the eight days he spent at Good Samaritan School in Kiwangala:

"I really enjoyed interacting with students and teachers. They were so eager to engage with us, and they treated us not only with respect, but with the kind of caring you would expect from a long-term friendship. Even though we have very different cultures, this experience showed me how similar human aspirations are: we all want security, love, community, and good futures for our children. The people I met showed me that, even in difficult situations, it is possible to find happiness."

Hunter, an eighth-grader at SMS, who is Pallister's son, was also was part of the Project Uganda team.

"The kids were so happy even though they had every reason in the world not to be," he said.

During the celebration week, the 1,200 students were all separated out into house teams. It was an event for the whole week; they had quizzes, debates and sporting events like net ball and volleyball. Each team gathered points all week, and on Saturday, the celebration day; it all came to a finale.

"We started Saturday morning and the students did a 5K run in their new shoes and a relay race and much more. All of the 1,200 kids participated, and the fastest runners got Outlaw shirts!" Johnson said.

"We left Kiwangala on Tuesday and went on a three-day safari to Murchison Falls National Park, and it was actually hard for us to leave the school, but I am glad we went on the safari because we got to see part of Africa in its most primitive state. It was like being in the Garden of Eden," Johnson said.

"Everywhere we went the Ugandan people stole your heart... We went there to do service work and I was the one who was served, I was the one who was taught, I was the one who was blessed and I was the one who has undergone the biggest soul shift of my life," said Johnson.

"Next year when we take the journey to Uganda again, we will be going the vocational route with these students; we want to teach them how to be carpenters, seamstresses, mechanics or whatever skills they can use because when they graduate from the school, they have nowhere to go because they don't have the money to go to college."

The Sisters community is invited to a fundraiser benefit for Uganda at The Belfry on May 18 at 6 p.m. The Project Uganda team will be there along with Osborn Muyanja, director of the Good Samaritan School in Kiwangala.