This week has been going pretty well so far. Yesterday started a little rough because I had only gotten eight hours of sleep total between the previous two nights. But last night I got a full nights sleep and felt much better today.
So yesterday, we, the mzungus (ma-zune-goos: white people), taught our lessons to half the classes. I taught the preschoolers, P1 (1st grade), P4, P5, and P7. With the PK and P1 students, we practiced hand washing, using glitter as germs and the soap donated by my parents bathroom closet and my coworkers. P4 and P5, we planted Lima beans in cotton in a clear plastic cup. And with P7, we learned about solar energy by placing a cup outside in the sun and feeling how warm it gets sitting in the sun. We do hope to build them a solar oven before we leave, but we are having a hard time finding big enough cardboard.
Last night, the Cokers took us to and Indian restaurant, which was delicious.
Today, we went back to the school and this time, we observed as the Ugandan teachers taught the same classes we taught yesterday. We noticed a lot of the teachers utilized ideas we presented the previous days. So for example, David made large cards with letters on them and involved the kids in spelling out words (an idea Theresa, our reading specialist, presented to the teachers in Monday). David also teaches P4 science and we were able to look at our bean plants- some are already sprouting!
I was also in charge of the PK class for an hour this morning, all 30 or so of them. I was asked by the principal to work on English words with them by drawing objects on the chalkboard for them to identify. Well, I can't draw and the building I was in echoed so much (it was all concrete and brick). I was getting a headache and losing ground fast, so we went for a walking tour of the school grounds and pointed out objects on the way. At one point, I tried to teach them man and woman by pointing to one of the teachers and calling him "man." Then I pointed to myself and tried to say "woman", but the kids all called out "mzungu!!" instead. Lol.
I'm also picking up the voice inflections and how things are pronounced. For the most part, all Rs are omitted: water becomes watah, Thursday becomes Thuhsday; or Rs are pronounced as L: Bruce is often called Bluce and I've been called Salah a few times. We've been practicing phrases too, such as "'how are you?' 'I am fine'" (this is the only way you respond to 'how are you'), "how did you pass the night?" (this originated from when lions were prevalent and people had to make sure everyone survived the lions in the night), and "How is the day?" (Aka 'how are you'). It's so fun to practice this stuff with the teachahs and students.
Anywaysssss.... It's dinner time. We are having spaghetti.
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