Curse of a teacher...

On Friday exams were finished and it was time to say goodbye to our students. I stood before my P6 class and said these words through my tears, "Forgive me for being brief but I fear that I will have tears. Know that I am so very proud of all of you. It has been a privilege to be your teacher and an honor to get to know each one of you. I have known you all to be good people and I have very high hope for your future. Remember not to waste your time on jealousy, the race is long, and in the end it's only with yourself."

The rest of the day was just spending time together, taking photos, and a goodbye ceremony that the students put on for us. We hugged. We gave gifts. We cried. It was crushing pain. When I am able I will post videos of there songs but for now here are some pictures.

Then they left. Some walked, others biked, and many were loaded up on the school truck and driven away. Here you can see two students looking at me. Alice in the blue sweeter, wearing my earrings, and Diana next to her with tears in her eyes. In her hand a protection Bola I gave her.

As teachers we become invested in our students. A whole-hearted kind of investment. We try to know each one as well as we can so we can help them set goals, celebrate personal accomplishments, and help them know when they haven't tried their hardest. We become invested in their successes, their failures, their safety, their happiness... everything about their lives. They are our responsibility for at least 35 hours a week and the children of our hearts every minute of every day, holidays, weekends, and sleepless nights included. This kind of love is fruitful as we watch them grow, succeed, and eventually move on but it is also a painful love. Unavoidable heartbreak over and over again as we let them fly away. Honestly there are times in which I wonder if one can survive so much loss or if it will ever get easier. Every time you know you have helped them to become better, helped them to know more of who they are. However there is always a wish for more. Something you wish you could have done better, something you fear they will not hang on to... or fear of wrong turns and dark paths ahead. It seems impossible to have a student leave a neatly wrapped little package with no lose ends of ribbon, ready to be happily passed along with no more thought.
There are many things I do not know on this subject but I do know that in the case of students Shakespeare was right... "It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

Fort Portal Weekend!

Our group (plus an Aussie friend) went to Fort Portal on the Friday and Saturday of Easter weekend. This town is about an hour and a half away from Kasese and is cooler due to it's high altitude. We went for three important reasons: Hiking, crater lakes, and pizza.

Fort Portal actually has a pizza place called Pier Pizzeria. The food was amazing! We actually ended up eating there on our way in to town and again on our way out. We got to introduce Edson to pizza for the first time which made it even more fun. The first time we ate there was on Good Friday. While we waited for our food we saw the following outside the window...

The mass of people continues all the way down the street. I thought my grandparents especially would be interested in these pictures. (Love you grandma and grandpa!) These people walked here from the neighboring country side carrying their crosses to be a part of this precession.

After pizza we continued to the community camp where we would be spending the night. That evening we did a hike to a place called "Top of the World" where, as you can imagine, the views were amazing.

The next day we did a challenging hike to a waterfall. I would like to think that my personal trainer would have been proud that I made it back up the very steep wall of the valley. The waterfall was gorgeous and we had fun playing in it. The only slip up was when our friend slipped and fell face first into the water... with her expensive camera around her neck. Don't worry, after a week in a bag of dry rice the camera is fine. Our friend made it out with only a bruised ego ;)

Throughout the entire weekend there were of course many many monkeys...

Yeah I know my socks are awesome. I didn't bring long enough pants for our hike so Edson gave me these soccer socks to wear.

Start of week 7, week 6 summary

Ok this is going to be one of those lame catch up posts because I am totally behind.

During week 6 two very cool things stand out in my mind as worth mentioning. The first is that Semu killed a snake in the hen house at school. We are not sure at this point if it was a Black Mamba or a Cobra but we do know it was a very big snake and it ate 6 chicks.

Sorry couldn't rotate.

Yup, a chick from inside the snake.

The other item worth mention is the time spent with my class this week because we had an especially productive week. One of the teachers (who I will not mention) had decided that P6 is too slow for him and as punishment he would not teach them for two weeks. (On a side note this person is the exception, not the rule. Most of the teachers are impressive educators that I am honored to serve with. This type of behavior is being handled by Enoch and King James so I will not comment further). This gave me even more time to have my class all to myself. For English we began to work on our response letters to my class in Wisconsin. The Ugandan students loved reading the letters and we spent our entire first lesson answering questions they had about what the American students had written. For example: What is/are a Lexus, Wii, bacon, recess, waffles, Poptarts, Converse All Stars, chicken patty, AACE, ect. It was a lot of fun and a good learning experience. They continued by learning time-line format, making drafts, and then the final copy complete with pictures. I'm very proud of the work they have done. I should mention that I am also proud of their progress in math seeing as we completed an entire unit in that one week.

When we had about 20 minutes of free time at the end of a period one day I made up a little activity to keep us motivated to work hard in school. I will let the pictures (students) speak for themselves. I can't include the whole class but here are a few.

Half way point

       As we enter our 6th week in Uganda my feelings are changing. This is a hard place to live but in most ways it has become our home. Every minute my feet are on this soil the roots grow deeper. I no longer feel afraid of the things here that used to terrify me. We know what to eat and how to get around. We have a routine. More so, we have friends. There are people here that I have come to trust and care for. When I think about leaving them it give me a lump in my throat. The only way I can talk myself out of tears is to remember that I can come back and that many of them now have facebook or e-mail. If I were rich I would bring a few of the teachers to America so that they could continue their training. I am constantly impressed by the caring nature that some of them possess.
     We were devastated to hear that Exams will begin right after Easter, meaning that we will only have the kids until the 13th. I can't express how disappointing this is for all of us. Our time will be cut short by over two weeks. It makes it hard to feel as if we have made a difference in their lives. There are only 31 days until we leave Uganda and I fear it will pass too quickly...

We're going on a bear hunt! (well not really)

      On Saturday we went for a hike at Ruboni Community Camp. We did what is called a "Forest hike" that is really half forest and half jungle. The views were stunning! I can never quite capture on camera how amazing it is but here is a shot at it.

This next picture is of a very large type of banana plant. As I was taking this picture Safari ants began to bite me. I got only 5 bites in total but they hurt quite a bit.

From this point on the hike became more challenging than I would prefer but we made it through. Great experience altogether. I took these last photos because I thought I thought my mom would like them.

Catching up...

Let's see what can I say about the last 10 days...
School
           School has been going well for the most part. I have been working with the P6 class which is made up of 12 to 14 year olds. I really enjoy this class because there are only 16 of them but most of them struggle academically. Some of them struggle in a way that indicates deeper problems than just being behind. I made my own running records to test their reading levels and have begun to work independently with the three lowest. Giving up students to leave for this type of intervention work is new for some of the teachers and they don't all love the idea. King James understands the need and has been supportive as have a few of the staff. We are all hoping that everyone comes around so that this work will be continued when we leave. I don't want to say a lot about it but we are also hoping to change the views of some select staff that believe in physical punishment for the students. I was aware before I got here that it happened but seeing it... hearing it... watching a student (a 13 year old), cry through an entire exam after being beaten was more than I could handle. I said something, I said what I felt. The teacher has said they are willing to view my "methods" so I hope we can make more headway on that front.

           I have been enjoying showing the students and staff how to play math games with playing cards. They all really love them and it is showing the teachers how the cards (or lack of) can be used as a reward/punishment. The favorites so far include "big rectangle", math war, and garbage. They also like to play a Ugandan card game that no one knows that name of. I know how to play as Janet has taught me but the kids seem to have some different rules. It has been nice to spend more time with the students and staff just having fun. It hard to think about how much leaving them will hurt.

Home Life
          For the last two weeks we have had very little power and running water. It always seems like if we have one we won't have the other... we frequently have neither. I never thought I would have to ration my toilet flushes but here we are. In the evening there is always no water. We have to get water in Jerry cans and bathe in a bucket. After we are slightly clean from our bucket baths we dump the water into the back of the toilet so we can flush it. It's sort of a bummer. I have also discovered that my bed is full of tiny bugs. They don't seem to be harmful but sleeping with bugs all over you is hard. The mosquitoes have been getting worse and several people we know have come down with malaria in the last week. Edson also got stomach worms from drinking unclean water.
        We have made all of our plans to go on safari, chimp tracking, swimming, and hiking. We are all super excited about it and the place we will be staying looks super nice. I'll write more about that when the time comes. Next Sunday is our half way point so I will try to post again then. Enjoy these pictures!

I have decided to make an on-going list of things I will miss and things I will not miss about living in Uganda. This one will be added to and changed the entire time I'm here so keep checking back.


Things I will miss/ things I am grateful to have in Uganda...

-The staff at Rwentutu (we have only been at the school for two weeks and already I am so attached to the teachers. I know it will be hard to say goodbye when the time comes which is why I have helped them all set up e-mail and facebook.)

-Our sweet and charming students

-Janet and Edson, who keep us alive and show us the ropes

-The Rwenzori mountains and the scenery of Uganda in general

-G-nut sauce, jackfruit, and Chappatti!!!

-The way people talk

-Having fits of insanity laughter with Luke, Laura, and Emily

-Seeing wild animals everywhere everyday

-Curiosity and questions about America and the rest of the world

-Watching King James dance

-"Yes please"

-Goats

-Love notes from the children

-Fabric and clothes!




Things I will not miss...

-The garbage that covers the beautiful country side

-Frequently not having power and/or running water in our house. (Lately it has been both for days at a time).

-Lack of toilet seats in the house (even though I can see them in pictures from the last group, where did they go?)

-General lack of customer service anywhere you go. (You can't expect a menu, any food to be prepared, change for bills of any size, or for anyone to care when you have a problem. For example when an ATM didn't give me any money, only a receipt saying it did, the bank asked me what I was going to do about it.)

-Everything here takes forever, always.

-Being told I'm big, by everyone, constantly.

-Religious pushiness

-Being looked at constantly. Along with that, the way everyone treats us like we have an endless supply of money that they want to get their hands on. It's cheap to live in Uganda if you're black, if you're anything else it's unbelievably expensive.

-Market shopping

-Eating the same food all the time

-Never really feeling clean

-Cockroaches and rats in the house

Rwentutu staff party!

Today we had pretty much all of the Rwentutu staff over for a lunch party. We made a lot of food including: Beans, rice, matoke, pineapple, chappatti (that we made ourselves!), beef, tapioke, cookies, guacamole, Pringles, and chicken (which we killed to honor our guests). It was a lot of work and very expensive but it was really fun. We listened to music and played on the computers making facebook accounts for the staff. It was really nice to get to know them more.

King Fisher Lodge

Yesterday we visited King Fisher Lodge which is a safari lodge about 50 minutes south of our home. We took a taxi bus called a mutatu which costs 7,000 sh (about $3) a person. It is on the edge over looking the park and the view of the rift valley is amazing. It is like looking out at the ocean to which there is no end in sight.

We swam although it was cloudy and the water was cold. Swimming costs 10,000 sh ($4.50) for the day even if you only go in once. The food there was pretty good. I had their version of a club sandwich which was chicken, pork chunks, avocado, cabbage, and something like mayo. Along with that we had chips (french fries), fruit salad, and banana fritters with honey. The sandwich and chips was about 16,000 and the fruit salad 5,000.

We had a really great time and felt truly relaxed. On the way home we were lucky enough to catch a bus that only cost 5,000 per person and we had much more room. As we drove home we saw a hippo! I was unable to get a picture :(

Religion

In some ways we were prepared for the high level of religious participation here. In other ways I feel slightly misled about it. For starters we were told that the school "Rwentutu Christian Community School" is only named that because they support good values. Along with that we were told there is no religious curriculum at the school which is not at all true. The children have CRE (Christian Religion Education) classes every day, all school chapel service every Wednesday, and God is mentioned regularly during other classes. For the most part this doesn't bother me that much I was just a little surprised given that we were told there was no religion in the curriculum.

Beyond that everyone asks us about our own religion. Curiosity is one thing, judgement is another. A person we know here, who I will not name, has come to our house both Sundays to ask us why we did not go to church. I told him that God is forgiving and would forgive us for not attending but he does not agree. It is very uncomfortable and we are concerned it will happen every week. Luke did attend church this morning and was grilled by this man about homosexuality in the car on the way home. I felt sorry that Luke had to deal with this because he is sensitive to all people and I'm sure was uncomfortable hearing such unkindness.

I have never enjoyed people that practice in this way. I believe, as a Quaker, that your relationship with God and the Bible is your own and no one has the right to judge you for the way you practice (or don't practice for that matter). I believe that if we are to be judged it is on the content of our character rather than how we follow the rules of an organized religion. Some people go to church every Sunday and then beat their wives when they get home. The man I spoke of says the bible teaches homosexuality is a sin and yet he is willing to kill a pig. In the bible it also says that touching the flesh of a pig is a sin.

I was kindly reminded that I can be just as stubborn and slow to change my views, which I'm afraid can be true. So I will try my best to be patient and understanding. I also understand that this man may genuinly fear for our souls and believes that he is really trying to help us. One thing I was prepared for was picking my battles and I will continue to try to do that. In America I do this all the time with hot botton issues in which people seldom change their minds. It's better to just avoid the issue if at all possible.

Anyhow it is neither here nor there. I just thought it was an interesting point to mention. I am happy that Edson and Janet do not judge us or if they do they keep it to themselves. We have asked Edson to talk to the man about it so hopefully it will not be an issue again.

Some random notes...

First of all we are starting to adjust to our home and the school. Along with that our home and the school are adjusting to us.

School
The kids love us and are more comfortable around us which is nice. I am most excited about the relationships we are forming with the teachers at the school. Yesterday morning we invited them to come to a lunch party at our house on the 10th. They are all really excited and the invitation seemed to help them relax around us. We ate lunch together at school yesterday and today which was nice. Honestly some of their questions lead me to believe that the other teachers didn't spend as much time with them as I had thought. It makes the trip to school every day even better knowing that we have friends there; people that are looking forward to seeing us as friends.

Travel
Getting around is always interesting here. We are driven around by Edson in Semu's car. However many people here travel by bodaboda which are motorcycles driven by young men. They sit in groups on the road side everywhere. We are told that many of them do drugs and they drive dangerously (this we have seen first hand). Today we were driving home from school and saw a crowd so we stopped to look. Two bodabodas had crashed and there was a man dead on the road. We knew he was dead by the way his face was covered and no one was touching him. They told us that the other had been taken to the hospital. We do not take the bodabodas.

Another part of daily travel is being stopped by the police. They park on the side of the road and flag people over. Most of the time they see that there are white people in the car and let us go. Once we had to give them money for water which Edson said will only happen once from that particular set because they know us now. We have also been stopped by immigration men. They wanted to see our passports which we did not have. I offered him my drivers license, he laughed and said that he is not a traffic officer. We now carry our passports all the time.

Ps If you don't like speed bumps don't come to Uganda. There are so many you wouldn't believe me if I told you.

Food
We are learning to live with the food here. Most of our meals consist of potatoes, rice, G-nut (which is a sauce we love), melon, pineapple, beans, tomatoes, onions, eggs, Matoke (green bananas, sorry I hate it), sweet bananas, passion fruit, bread, chapoti (a flat bread), and tea. We have a very few things that are treats but they include: Nutella, short bread cookies, Fanta soda, chips, pancakes, and tonight me made guacamole!

Animals
Our days are filled with goats, chickens, turkey, cows (the kind with the huge horns!), a few gross cats and dogs, rats, and lots of bugs. I love goats now!

Talking
Many people here speak English but it is strange British/Ugandan English. What's funny is that we are all changing the way we speak so that we can fit in and be understood. It hasn't even been 2 full weeks, I can't imagine how strange I will sound 8 weeks from now. For example, just now as I brought laundry in I said "my clothes are not yet dry." We use shall a lot. We say "have you heard?" meaning "do you understand? We say "yes please" as a general filler and greeting. "What is your program?" means what is your plan or schedule. "Will you take it?" meaning do you want it. When you say hello to people they frequently respond with "I am fine."

There are many others and I will certainly be adding to this post. That's all for now!

First day of school... also elephants

We started school today at Rwentutu Christian Primary School. It was great to meet all of the teachers and students. The kids were so excited meet us it was a great feeling. The school is about a 25 minute drive from our house in Kasese town. The scenery at the school is stunning. Of course more than the scenery, the kids are sooooo cute.

Also.... On the drive home from school we saw elephants! Honest, real, live, wild ELEPHANTS!!!

Driving to Kasese

Feb. 24 Friday Driving to Kasese

                Today we made the over 7 hour drive from Kampala to Kasese. I would like to tell you about the Ugandan country side… but I can’t. There is no photographer, artist, or poet that could do its beauty justice so I certainly cannot. I can say this, through over 7 hours of driving I never took my eyes off the hills. Looking away will make your eyes thirsty for the scenery and you are forced to turn back.

                Beyond that the drive was also fun because we got to wave to nearly every person in Uganda. Being white is like being a celebrity and since everyone stares you might as well wave. They love it! They will wave, blow a kiss, wink, and yell as you go by. It made me happy in a way that I’m sure will damage my ego when I return to the states.

                Once we actually reached Kasese the attention didn’t feel so fun, just overwhelming. Enoch showed us our house and then took us to the local market to show us how to shop. I am thankful for having Janet and Edson here to help us. She is a 19 year old girl that lives with us so we can learn to survive. She helps us buy food, cook, clean, do laundry, and kill things in the house like mice and roaches. Edson also does these things as well as drives us everywhere. Not to mention he is the funniest person I have met here. They are invaluable. Other than that I am just trying to adjust to the house, city, and locals. Here are some pictures of our house since so many of you have asked to see it.

Kampala Quality Primary School

Feb. 23 Thursday 8:45pm

                Last night I hardly slept. I was up all night coughing. I was so tired and worried that I left breakfast to go back to the room and cry. Enoch wanted to take me to the hospital but we decided to wait and see how the morning went. I’m glad I waited for two reasons: one, I had started to feel better and cough less. Two, the school we visited is not something I would’ve wanted to miss.

                We spent the morning visiting classes at Kampala Quality Primary School. Luke and I observed primary 4 and 5 classes while Laura and Emily observed Primary 1 and 3. There were 58 kids in each of the two classes Luke and I saw. The students in the P5 class were discussing the advantages and disadvantages of mountains to humans. The teacher would ask a question and the children would wildly wave their hands. He would call on one and they would stand to say their answer. Then he would say “did you hear her?” The students would reply in unison, “yes we did.” Teacher: “Then what did she say?” The class would repeat the answer together.

                Later Luke and I went outside while the younger kids had recess. This was a truly magical part of the day. I shook one of the kids’ hands which led to a mob of touching. They all came to touch us and giggle. I bent down so they could touch my freckles. Even Enoch and the head teacher had questions about my freckles; they believe them to be an illness caused by being in the sun too long. It is hard for them to understand that I have them all the time, although they do change, and that they are not hurting me. I also removed my sandals so they could touch the pictures on my feet. It was an amazing experience and helped remind me why I came to this place that still feels so strange.

Kampala: Day one

When we woke up in the morning everything felt different than the night before. I started to feel excited again! I took some video of the guest lodge where we are staying and then we ate a small breakfast. Enoch and Edson (our supervisor and guide) greeted us and then Edson took us out to get a router and put minutes on our phone. Ahhhh yes, now I remember why I wanted to come to Africa. The city is stunningly beautiful in the light of day. Since there really are no words for it I will try to post some videos so you can see for yourself. The Ugandan people are so nice, just a joy to be around, and they seem to love Americans.

We came back and a lunch of chicken stew, potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, and something new that you will see us tasting in the video. The food was very good for the most part, especially the sweet potatoes. We then took a tour of the Makerere campus where we are staying. I am impressed with the campus in general but more than anything I enjoyed seeing their School of Sculpture and Arts. Beyond that Enoch is a great guide and provided us with a lot of information about the college, the city, and the country. We met with a professor that gave us an overview of Uganda's educational system (more on that later).

I am still ill so I stayed home this evening to write this post and recover. The videos are not working for upload yet but I will try to get them up soon. I hope you enjoy it. More soon.

The trip to Kampala...

Wow, 20 hours of flying is not fun. I mean realllly not fun. Our stop in Brussels was the worst part. We had been delayed leaving Chicago so we had to run through the Brussels air port.The people there were rude and unhelpful to say the least. None the less we got on our next flight and arrived in Uganda around midnight on Tuesday (which was 3pm Tues. WI time).

New sights, sounds, and smells were made only more confusing by the darkness and fatigue that we were working through. To be honest I thought "why am I here? why did I think this was a good idea?" After only a few cough filled hours of sleep those questions were answered...

Thank yous and goodbyes...

With less than 48 hours to go I just wanted to say thanks to the people that helped make this trip possible.

I would like to thank...

Maggie, Kate, and everyone else that put this program together. I'm not always the easiest person to deal with but they both handled all of my questions with grace.

The amazing staff at Hawthorne elementary and MSCR for helping me find my feet as an educator. Above all, Nancy Lanyon, who has been the best cooperating teacher a person could hope for.

My personal trainer Shannon Maguire from Supreme Health and Fitness. She has been such a dedicated and inspiring person to work out with. I am looking forward to working with her again when I get back. If you need to get in shape for any reason Shannon is your lady.

My friends, aka the crew, aka la familia. I'm sure everyone would say this about their friends but I have the best friends on the face of the planet. You guys are my rock. Thank you for supporting me, bringing me joy, and surprising me at every turn.

Last but clearly not least, my family. I am forever grateful to my mom, dad, and brother for the financial and emotional support. Also thank you to my wonderful extended family for everything you have done for me. I love you all so much.

Getting ready

Getting ready has been a long process that started in the spring of 2011 when I was accepted into the program. For the most part that consisted of getting a loan and mental preparation. It was easy because it felt so far away, so not real. In August I started student teaching at Hawthorne with the amazing Nancy Lanyon. Between going to work at Hawthorne, after school with MSCR, meetings for Uganda, shots, working out with a personal trainer, supply shopping, and general worrying, the time has whirred past. With only a week to go I must admit that for the first time it feels very real. The thought of parting with my family, friends, pets, students, home, and comfort in general, is becoming hard to deal with. Fortunately I have a lot to do this week to keep my mind off of goodbyes!