Research shows that if we educate the women in a county we raise the educational level of the entire county. My job was in Uganda in a girls' school that went from our traditional ninth grade to two years of community college. When I arrived they had just put in a science laboratory with water and electricity. There were no supplies or equipment.  I began to put together what we needed for the facility and did get some microscopes from the local university.

My main subject to teach was science. The students were involved and we used many of the local trees and plants to teach what was needed.  However, as time went on and there were faculty that had to go home for family reasons, I taught geography and some math. My biggest challenge was the time that one class did not have an English teacher. I was the only one available to take this class and the only American on the faculty.  The problem was that they thought I didn’t speak English, so how could I teach it? I went to the small book room we had and found we had enough copies of Oliver Twist for the class to use it. We read and discussed it and I taught them the songs from the play on Broadway that I had just seen before I went to Africa.

I feel that singing improves speaking and they are so talented in singing. Two years later when I left Uganda they had an assembly to say good bye to me. The class sang the songs I had taught them. I almost cry when I tell this story.