Opening

Yesterday was the Grand Opening celebration for Timothy Girls College. It was a really wonderful time where all the builders, the staff, the students, people from the community, other expats and many members of the Kibaale Community School staff came together to mark the start of this exciting project.

Here are some things that stood out as highlights for me:

-the local District Education Officer saying how proud he is that the Luwengo district now has a school dedicated to educating the girl child. This is a stated focus for the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports, but many areas in the nation still can't provide such schools. He promised to do all he can for us as we seek to register the school officially and that was good news indeed!

-the choir made up of all 21 of our students performing 2 songs. Five of the girls had only arrived the night before and had to learn the numbers very quickly. They sounded great!

-hearing the Kibaale staff members cheering loudly in celebration as a long-term goal of that project was being realized.

-seeing how proud of their work the builders were and having a chance to thank them publicly.

-listening to Esther, the first girl that reported for school, speak articulately to the crowd about how happy she was to be a part of the first class of TGC

-greeting a former student of mine when I lived in Uganda in 1996. She is now a nurse that works in the Kibaale clinic, and she recognized me as her former teacher and found me to say hi.

-chatting with another former student of mine who is very seriously planning to run for office in the next election in 2016. He currently works in Kibaale and wants to represent that area in order to bring further development to Rakai district. He was also telling me what a wonderful opportunity it is for some of our students who have come from Kibaale. They have such disadvantaged backgrounds that to be able to study at an A-Level school like ours would have been totally out of reach without the sponsorship they've received.

-being able to tour people through the site and see the support from so many people from the community.

We have high expectations for Timothy Girls College, and it will take time to develop our program, but it feels like we're starting well and it is such a privilege to be a part of it.