Tomorrow marks Martyr’s Day in Uganda, a huge religious holiday in Uganda. The group will be taking a break from work to celebrate and take in the festivities in Kyeitabya. The plan is to go into town to experience the day’s activities and then visit an old burial ground that has been marked by UNESCO as a World Heritage, the Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi. The group has been very excited to be able to experience many of the cultural activities of the community members and Ugandans in Kampala, and it has been an eye-opening experience for all of them.

Today was a very interesting day for members of the group on the construction site. Members teamed up with villagers to tackle two very large, very old termite colonies that were in the way of construction. The group was able to take down one of the large mounds of dirt, scattering termites about, and used it to fill in part of the foundation of the school. The second one was larger, and will likely be destroyed tomorrow.

A shortage of papyrus has slowed the construction of the temporary shelter the group has been working on for nearly a week, but they expect that the necessary materials will be available by the end of the week and construction on the shelter will wrap up after that. Supply-shortages and delays happen on every construction, and the one in Kyeitabya is no different.

Tonight, the group learned about the family history of one of the leaders of the construction group and one of BT’s staff members in Uganda, Apollo. He told them all about his childhood and family, as well as the history of family structures and clan history in his part of Uganda. The group has been amazed by the cultural intricacies and sheer physical beauty of the places they have been so far and will continue to learn and work hard for the next few days.