Our Work Here is Done

The last day in the village. It was pretty bittersweet as one might expect. We finished the learning centers with P1 and P2 and they actually went well. I thought it would be more difficult just because these students have very limited English, but pantomiming hand washing worked out pretty well. We had seven groups again and for some reason a few groups did not make it through all the stations, so I ended up seeing the first group twice. Since they didn't need to wash their hands again, we danced the Hokey Pokey and Father Abraham. Let me tell you, eight minutes of the Hokey Pokey and Father Abraham is a long time.

At tea time, the teachers got together and we were able to let them know our thoughts about the last week. They also reciprocated the affirmation by telling us the things they learned, too. Michael, the head master, even printed up a nice letter for each of us thanking us for what we had done. It also reminded us of Job 11:8, even the sky is not a limit for God!

After tea time, we read books to the preschoolers. I don't know why we didn't think of that in the first place; they paid attention so well!

So tomorrow, we are going bungee jumping (seriously), then boarding a bus for the airport. :( 

For now, we will go get some shakes from a restaurant called The Keep, then hanging out the rest of evening.

See you all soon!!

Introducing Learning Centers

Happy Monday everyone! Today was our second to last day of working at the school. The teachers have already started a countdown to our departure :( I guess that makes me feel good that they appreciated our being here, but it is still sad that we couldn't work here a little longer and more in depth with them to show them more strategies. But this post will not dwell on those thoughts.

Today we incorporated learning centers into our lessons. We started with P6 and P7, dividing them into groups of seven or eight, and rotating them through seven centers for about an hour. Then we divided P5 into groups (it's the largest class), and lastly P3 and P4. 

The centers mostly revolved around math and reading. For example, one center had the kids finding other words within the word RAINBOW. Another center had students adding the numbers on a card with the number on a die. At my center, the students washed their hands because they were headed to a center with new books and we wanted to emphasize the importance of caring for new books. Since hand washing doesn't take too long, we also played a counting game. Some of the older kids understand the game, but I had to modify it a lot for the younger ones who didn't speak much English. 

Halfway through our first center, though, several SUVs pulled into the school yard. A few minutes later, the drums kicked in and the village people came out of the bush and gathered around the trucks. I was later told the mayor of Naigobya had agreed with some international investors to plumb water from the bore hole (well) at the school to the whole town. But the mayor did not communicate that to the village people, or ask for their input about the whole endeavor. So the village people were not happy and essentially chased the investors away. 

I guess from a reflective point of view, I am conflicted about this event. On one hand, having plumbing in the village and in each of the huts, or even one spigot for each cluster of huts, is a major improvement to their conditions now. The women will not have to walk as far to get the water and it will be more readily available for them to use. It might even reduce the prevalence of communicable diseases if they are able to wash their hands more often without feeling they need to conserve so much. 

But at the same time, we've been asking ourselves, 'who are these people that believe they have more power over a community to come in and make such changes without even asking?' You see, the bore hole actually belongs to the school and the school is private, but the leaders of the school allow the community to use it. So the investors would have to seek permission from the school before trying and they didn't. From an outsiders perspective, it just felt like, "here we are, we're going to do what we want and you're going to let us." At what is their motive? Why is an international company investing here? Plus the community members will probably have to pay to have water in their homes and none of them can afford it, and where is that money going? It's just... Hm. :/ 

The rest of the day was grand. David, Theresa's husband, who has planted several mango trees and tomato plants, has also built a solar oven for the school this afternoon! We finally found a box big enough for dimensions in the directions I brought with us. So pray for sunshine so they can see it in action! Perhaps tea water boiled by the sun tomorrow?! 

Blessings to all! See most of you soon.

A Weekend in Jinja

Good morning!

We had such an exciting and exhausting day yesterday that blogging wasn't even on my mind. Yesterday was our tourist day, so it was pretty packed with cultural things.

We began the day with a tour at a place that weaves rugs. They showed us the rug making process from the very beginning, but I didn't catch all steps because the man had a pretty thick accent and talked softly. Watching the employees work, though, was fascinating.

After buying a few things from the weavers, we headed to THE NILE RIVER. The Nile has two branches, the Blue Nile and the White Nile, and I think we were on the White Nile. They actually call this section the Victoria Nile, because it originates from Lake Victoria. So we took a few photos of us at the bank of the river and then took a boat ride out into the river and took photos of us by a sign labeled "The Source of the Nile." I'll add photos when I've sorted through them.

Janine and Bruce then took us to a local restaurant called Mama Sophia's and we had some authentic Ugandan foods: metoke, rice, beans, posho, cassava, yams, and dodo (we think it's cooked chard). The dodo, yams, and rice all had great flavors, but the posho, metoke, and cassava are pretty bland. All are very starchy, though, so I couldn't finish everything. Even so, the experience was fantastic. The place was a little whole in the wall and the women cooking cooked all the food in huge vats right by the entrance of the restaurant. And of course, they cook with charcoal, so it's all open flame. And when I post pictures, you can see just how much American common sense would tell you not to eat there, but the line was out the door when we left.

We also got to tour the three story Jinja market. Naturally, they took us in Gate 6, where they display the meat. It smelled pretty awful.mthe most interesting part was that they sell every part of the animal- brains, intestines, liver, hooves, etc. On a more palatable note, the colors of the fruit stands were so vibrant. Hopefully the pictures later will do justice.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with Hannah, Erin, and Dion, the three girls living next door. We played salon, school, exercise, cartwheels, drawing, and more salon. It was wonderful. For the most part, they entertained themselves.

We were all so tired after that, we just ate dinner and then watched Gifted Hands, the story of Ben Carson. All in all, a great day.

Time to get ready for church now. Tomorrow and Tuesday are our last days with the school and then we fly out Wednesday night. But we're not going to dwell on how fast our time has gone here and how soon we'll be back in the States.

Till next time,

Sarah

Observing, Shopping, and a Movie

Short post today. Not a whole lot to report. We observed the teachers today and the three I watched did well incorporating some strategies we presented. Two of my classes learned about flowering plants. P3 learned a much more simplified lesson than P6, but both teachers used real life examples of flowering plants and took the students out in the yard to look at flowering plants. The P2 class learned about living things and then went out and looked at examples around the school compound.

After school, we ate a quick lunch and headed home to walk around the shops in downtown Jinja. We found many things including pantaloons with elephants on them and fun bottle openers. The market was grand.

We had mulligatawny, a Ugandan rice and soup dish, for dinner. I think it is my favorite meal so far.

So I am typing this on my phone and it's difficult, so that is it for now. Natalie and I are eatching McFarland.

Much love to all.

Language Lessons

Osiibye otye (oh-see-bee-ay oh-tee-ah)!

Good afternoon!

Last night, our missionary hosts, Bruce and Jeanine, gave us a few phrases to learn so we can sort of communicate with the students. So today we practiced a few:

Wasuze otye (wah -soo-zay oh-tee-ah): how did you spend the night/good morning; and you respond by saying, bulungi (boo-loon-gee), or good.

Webale (way-bah-lay): thank you

Tyama (tee-ah-ma): sit down

The kids giggled a lot when, after their elaborate greeting to me, I greeted them back in their own language. But they responded back with bulungi and we went on with the lesson.

This morning's lessons were a little rough. I had P2 and P3 and they still speak mostly Lusoga in the classroom. So explaining the water cycle to non-english speaking 2nd graders was basically impossible. The principal came and interpreted the lesson for me because he teacher didn't even know what I was trying to say. It was a little disheartening. I should have just stuck with trees and animals or something. Even the principal said it was over their heads. :/

Explaining  the producers and consumers of a food chain to non-english speaking 3rd graders was Not as difficult, but I'm not sure they understood all the concepts. Anyway, I explained what producers and consumers were and the kids drew their own examples in their notebooks. Then we went on a walk around the school grounds and pointed out real examples of consumers and producers. 

This afternoon, I taught P6 and this was probably the most rewarding lesson thus far. We made mini windmills! The lessons were supposed to take 45 minutes, but this one took twice as long because we had to troubleshoot some parts. Anyway, huuuge success and I cannot wait to upload photos for you all to see. And! The photos were taken by the science teacher who, before yesterday, hadn't used a camera at all!

The windmills also opened up great conversation with the principal. He asked way more questions than I could answer, but it paved the way for future thinking as far as utilizing wind energy at the school. At first it boggled me that nobody in the village has thought about this stuff before, but then I remembered not everyone is mechanically, technologically, or engineer minded; nor do they always have the resources to even try.

Another special part of the day was visiting the kitchen at the school. Natalie and I walked over to take pics and we met the cook, Rebek and her son Anise (an-ih-see) and checked out her kitchen. I a not sure how she does not have lung cancer, because that kitchen was sooo smokey. Anyway, she showed us the small area and then gave us the opportunity to serve the kids their porridge. I've never been so humbled; these kids eat basically watered down cream of wheat and they don't complain, they accept with gratitude because most of them came to school without breakfast and may not get to eat much at home, if indeed they even have a home to go back to. I can't really describe how I feel about it. I just love those kids and I've barely even met them. They have stolen my heart.

So until another post, blessings to all.

Observing the Teachers

Hello to all!

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.

Teaching Day 1

This morning started off at the ripe hour of 1:56 am to dogs barking, a weird buzzing noise, and the power blinking. I did not go back to sleep, either, but oddly enough, I'm not super tired.  I took sleeping medication, but it obviously those didn't work out. We'll try again tonight, though.

Today we met with the eight teachers at St. Paul's Primary School. (Ugandan education is divided into three sgements: primary school, essentially k-7; secondary school, essentially high school- a lot of these are boarding schools; and then university or vocational school.) while we were with the teachers, the students had an all day recess with Bruce, David (a team-member), and Simon (a native Ugandan who helps administrate things at the school).

St. Paul's church. The preschool students meet in there. (photo credit: Natalie Holmes)

P1-P3 Building.

P4-P7 Building.

The teachers were really receptive to our ideas for creating hands-on learning environments. Natalie, a Dallas native and second-grade teacher, started the morning discussing ways to include the children in learning math. She showed examples of using number lines, hundreds charts, as well as looking for shapes and angles in every day objects. This girl has so much energy! The teachers were cracking up at her energy level.

Natalie explaining counting using a large "Domino". (photo credit: Natalie Holmes)

After a short break, and subsequent photo op (those kids are sooooo precious), I explained the science lessons I plan to do with the kids. We discussed the scientific method and then I walked them through the SM using a simple experiment with a light object and dark object and learning which was warmer in the sunlight. Then, I showed them some hand washing. They already know how to wash hands, but soap is so scarce in the village. Actually, resources in general are scarce. Anyway, I brought glitter to represent germs and poured a little in each teacher's hand. They then shook hands with each other to "spread the germs" and then washed the germs away with soap and water.

Explaining the hand washing lesson. (photo credit: Natalie Holmes)

Theresa, a retired reading specialist from western Colorado, went next with reading concepts and these went very well. I had no idea the things you can do to help a child read! Then again, I'm not a teacher by profession, so this stuff is not really on my radar. At the end, we played a game of popcorn to spell a word (one person picks the word, throws a ball to another person who calls out the first letter of the word, throws the ball to another who calls out the next letter, etc.) The teachers were roaring by the end of this game, laughing so hard, which gives us hope that they will replicate that activity.

Playing Spelling Popcorn. 

All I all, it was a great day of learning on both ends. The teachers got a few ideas they might be able to use and we got a feel for the level of the students' and teachers' knowledge. Both teachers and students are very far behind American standards, but they are learning.

[Obviously the biggest obstacle is the language barrier, so please be praying that we receive the gift of tongues and are able to communicate effectively to the students. Also be praying for energy for our team and wisdom in our teachings.]

Much love to all! I may never leave this place.

The students all came to greet us.

Football!

Mango break.

A parachute!