Makoko Family Centre

We live in a place called "Makoko Family Centre", and we are happy you came for a tour! We're really excited to show you where we live. We're on a pretty large compound that has buildings for raising pigs, rabbits, and chickens; a health clinic; a vehicle repair area; houses for the compound plumber, carpenter, and electrician and their families; a basketball court; a soccer field; elementary school classrooms; a large kindergarten complete with playground; a dining hall; an internet cafe; a small convent; a guesthouse; two houses for renters (one is ours); two chapels; and a house for priests.


Just to the left of the entrance gate, there are some topiary bushes to welcome you. The bushes say "Welcome to Bakhita English Medium Primary School". This picture just has the "Welcome" part of that. You can see the school chapel in this picture, too - the kids gather here for mass. The school is run by Catholic missionaries from India - most of the teachers are Indian nuns. The person in charge of the whole center, our landlord, is an Indian priest. Some of the students are boarders and live in dormitories on the centre, and some are day students who come and go each morning and evening. They are kindergarteners and elementary school kids, so they range in age from about 5 to 13.


Straight ahead when you come in the entrance gate is a figurine of Mary surrounded by fake flowers and other decorations. Sometimes at night it is lit up with multi-color lights and looks quite Christmassy. They change the clothes on Mary periodically - she has a little wardrobe stored somewhere on the property, I guess.


To the right of the entrance gate there is a small health clinic. The signs above the doors say "Mother and Child Health", "Eye Services", and "Laboratory". I've never been there as a patient, so I can't say much about the clinic, but maybe one day I'll fall ill and can report back to all of you.


This is the kindergarten and its playground. I love how they have painted all the buildings! I think it looks like a fun place for kids to learn. Every morning when we leave for work we see little kids coming in the gate to go to school. The kindergarteners wear red checked skirts/shorts and red sweaters, so they are easy to spot. The older kids wear gray, which makes them look like serious students.


These are the school buses that transport the non-boarding students every morning and evening. Depending on where we pass the buses on the road to/from town, we know if we're early or late to work! They pack a LOT of kids into these buses - it's not just two kids per seat like they would be in the States. During the weekend (when I took this picture), the buses are just parked on the centre by the girls' dormitory.


These are three of the houses on the centre. There are more houses for the centre workers on the other side of the centre, but these three are all a bit larger. The house on the far left (you can only see a wee bit of each house - this is the only angle at which I could get at least part of each house in the picture) is where I lived from 2007-2009. The house on the far right is called "Adoration Convent" and several Indian nuns live there. Our house (you can barely see it) is in the center. Since we have a hedge and gate and are in the corner, it's a quite private little spot. We like it that way. :-)

So thanks for visiting Makoko Family Centre with us! It's a nice place to live and we're happy here. Come again sometime!