Day 9:

Today I was finishing up a science lecture on, ironically, infectious diseases (science here encompasses much of what would be taught in a health class back home), and I was explaining how animal bites could cause rabies. The curriculum book I am using states that only dogs will cause rabies, but I knew this not to be true. For instance, bats are quite common here in Uganda and they also cause rabies, so I was asking the kids if they knew what bats were. Only a few said yes, but I knew more of them have seen bats so I asked one of the students how to say bat in Luganda, their local language; he said they are called Kawundo. I repeated the word a few times, which of course made them crack up laughing, as they always do when I attempt to use their native tongue. However, they kept laughing so I asked them what was up and they started pointing at the upper corner of the classroom saying, “Kawundo!” Sure enough, there were two baby bats living in the corner of the classroom in a hole in the cement…what a coincidence.
The bats reminded me of when we lived in Mbarara and my friend Dean and I, upon returning home from having some goat and beers, were frantically charged with trying to remove a huge bat from the screaming girls’ apartment next door. I acted out for the students the hour long ordeal that Dean and I went through that night: with straw floor mats for armor, trash can lids for shields and sticks for swords, Dean and I were thoroughly defeated by the bat until I finally nudged it onto a tennis racket and set him free into the night to horrify other unsuspecting muzungus. The kids loved the story and everyday now we have a ‘kawundo’ check to see how our little friends are fairing up in the corner. We also get daily visits from ‘amunyas’ (geckos), and every once in a while, the most beautiful ‘konko me’ (a big lizard with at least four different fluorescent colors) climbs the tree right outside our classroom window; I have never seen anything like it.