Masulita

Sherie and I joined the Action for Children staff for a in Masulita, a village outside Kampala, where AFC has a school. Although the children are still on holiday from school, parents, grandparents and children were already there when we arrived. Today's activity included clearing land for a garden and making bricks for additional classrooms. There are already two school houses, a gazebo-like structure, a kitchen and a house on the property and the bricks will be used to expand one of the two school houses.

We had a lot of fun! It has been many years since either of us got to make mud pies and making bricks reminded me of playing with my mother's pie pans after a heavy rain. The process is to use a large hoe to hack off part of a dirt bank, pour some water on it, stomp on it like grapes for wine (see picture -- can you imagine working in mud in a skirt?), pile the squishy mud into a large beehive, then punch the mud into a brick mold (see picture -- don't you love the hat made from banana leaves?). Once the brick is released from the mold, rows of bricks are layered with banana leaves to dry. In about a week, the bricks will be fired and ready to use.

While we were making bricks, Lydia, the AFC Director, was working with the children on drawings. Our main art project starts tomorrow.