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Swedish Sax Quartet (bet you were surprised to see that title!)

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Happy Friday all! Our ACT MUSIC students enjoyed a special visit on April 8th, 2023 from a saxophone quartet coming all the way from Sweden. More cultural sharing which is part of ACT's vision. Job Ivan Tezigatwa, who brought the quartet to Muko, is a composer, arranger and conductor from Uganda. He had heard the ACT MUSIC students in 2022 and helped facilitate this workshop. The students learned about the saxophone and heard it played by professionals. All musicians played together, each teaching the others how to join together with their prepared music. Job Ivan arranged two pieces, "Bagatelle Variations by Anton Diabelli and "Beethoven is a Mukiga" from Beethoven's "Fur Elise" for saxophone quartet and string orchestra. (Mukiga is the reference to a single member of the Bakiga Tribe which are the people of Muko).  The string students were taught by their two student leaders, Brave Ainmaani and Norbert Ahariza, and the students were easily able to fit...
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Face-to-Face for the First Time

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Generous: A special year! It was September 2006 when we received Sue and John in our country. It was their first time to visit Uganda. They had mobilised funds to purchase an ambulance (Toyota Hiace Van) for the Ikamiro Bataka Lifeline Society, an association in one of the villages of Muko Sub County (Ikamiro Village) They had sent the money ahead of their trip to Chipper Adams (Chipper is an ex-pat American who grew up in Sub Saharan Africa with missionary parents). A day after their arrival, we headed to Chipper's home in Kampala to collect the ambulance and were excited to drive it to Muko and deliver it to the Ikamiro Bataka Lifeline! The Ambulance Chipper Adams suggested we take Christopher Nsereko, one of his most trusted drivers, who drove us well but on reaching Masaka (about 2 hours from Kampala), the vehicle broke down. We were all safe. This challenge caused us to sleep over in one of the hotels in Masaka Town while the car was in the garage to be fixed. (We consider Chr...
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Will, Our Peace Corps Volunteer

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 (December 2022) When Sue Waechter asked if I was interested in writing a post for the ACT blog to describe my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer living and working in Muko, my first thought was how would I ever be able to summarize the year and a half I spent in Muko in one blog post? With so many things happening in my there, what story should I try and tell? When I think back to my time in Muko, I always feel it is the story of a community that took care of me, taught me new things, and helped me to survive in an environment that was completely new to me. When I first arrived in 2018, I didn't know if I would be able to make it two years. My first evening there I sat in the grass staring at the lake and wondering how I could make it so long in a place so far away from home. Everyday felt like a struggle to navigate the difference between Uganda and my home (Texas), and at the end of most days I would only want to come home and be alone. After only a few weeks of living in Muko...
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