Never a Dull Moment

The students gather under the trees to kick off the games.

I think I said this phrase at least once a day this week...The week began in typical African fashion: on Sunday we found out that a game day between several schools and Rwentutu had been scheduled for Tuesday, the intended Canadian fun day (as this was their last day before heading to Kampala).  Actually, the entire district of Kasese apparently had a game day scheduled for Tuesday, so why we did not hear about it in advance was rather unclear, though typically African. J  This meant that a modified fun day had to be scheduled for Monday, and thus started a scramble for plans and supplies on Sunday night.  Come Monday morning, however, both vehicles which had been transporting us and the Canadians to the school were out of commission.  When we finally got the vehicles working and got on the road (about 12:30pm, 3 hours after our planned departure), the fun day had been reduced from a six-hour extravaganza to a two-hour rotation between four stations (down from twelve in the original plan).  To top it off, the road which we normally take out of town was blocked, and five minutes into our drive to school we had to turn around and find another route.

One of my students (Zebia) poses with her team sign.

Playing "Drip, Drip, Drench"

Now, I share this with you because after it all, we really just had to take a step back and laugh.  The games we ended up playing were a lot of fun and the kids were fantastic about the whole thing!  I helped run “Drip, Drip, Drench,” a version of “Duck, Duck, Goose” involving buckets and towels (I will let your imagination fill in the rest).   The kids just loved it, as did I on one of our hottest days here so far!  We left after a snack of mandas (a fried sweet bread a bit like a dense doughnut) and bananas, feeling that at least part of the day had been a success. 

Tuesday (the original fun day) consisted of an all-day netball and football tournament involving Rwentutu and seven or eight different schools.  Rwentutu was the star school, taking first place in both netball and soccer.

Spectators were 3 or 4 rows thick at the game day football
matches.

One would have thought Wednesday would have marked a return to normal; but unfortunately, the two main teachers for Primary 3 and Primary 4 came down with malaria.  For the rest of the week, an endless round of teachers were in and out of both my classroom and Bri’s classroom, as teachers from P5 and P6 came in to help out with Social Studies and Religious Education. 

Working on math-Joseph took some photos so I was
stoked to actually get some of me teaching!

Also, as the week was already half over, the time flew by.  In Primary 4, we continued working with decimals, getting into adding and word problems.  After helping to mark their math midterms a few weeks ago, word problems stand out to me as a challenging area, so any chance to practice interpreting word problems is essential to take advantage of, to review strategies for determining the type of problem and how to use the numbers.  In English we continued our study of “Polite Language,” and finishing the class each day with a short story.  Twice I have had to wait to finish reading because of limited time, but this has been a great opportunity to practice strategies like predicting and retelling, as well as to get the students excited about the books (I keep having students coming to me asking when we are going to finish a book)!

This week should be review for exams beginning August 1^st.  My challenge this week is to determine what my students most need to be prepared for their exams.  Unfortunately, due to the myriad disruptions (including my own sickness), we have not gotten through all of the material the students need to finish for exams.  My go-to teacher, Charles, was sick, then gone, for the past three days, so I have been unable to communicate with him about what he would like me to focus on with the students this week.  At present, I will plan to push ahead and get through as much of the new material as I can until I can talk with my teacher again. 

This kind of communication has been a challenge for all of us, as there are two hours of “remedial” classes (used for anything from review to extensions of lessons to make-up classes) during which we are not at school.  What happens during remedial classes is something I wish I had been asking about for the past month and a half, as I realize now those times could have been used to make up for missed lessons.  Charles and I finally discussed this last week and did some lesson sharing, but not before I got to school for my observation last week and realized a portion of my lesson plan had been taught that morning, and had to scramble to adjust my lesson accordingly.  Again, these things can be cause for frustration, particularly as exams get closer, but they have taught me the importance of being very intentional about communication between myself and the other teachers.

At KCCL in front of the bacteria tanks

This weekend served as a bit of a recovery for the past two weekends of travels.  On Saturday, we toured Kasese Cobalt Company Ltd., the mining company Rob manages here in Kasese.  The entire operation is clean, utilizing water-generated power to run the refining process.  The refining process itself is done through the use of bacteria which eat away at impurities, effectively leaving a pure cobalt product.  It was absolutely amazing, and what really fascinates me is that this fantastic, clean company is providing jobs to a number of local Ugandans.  It is possible to industrialize in a way that forgoes excessive pollution and provides jobs for local people in a country where jobs are scarce and pollution is rampant.  The byproducts of this mining process are water and mud.  Pretty incredible!

A student sings (with passion) during chapel.
This isn't directly related to anything in my blog
but I thought it was too great a picture not to
share.  

We also enjoyed a visit from my friend Joseph this weekend.  I met Joseph on my last trip to Uganda, out in the east where his family is from.  Joseph is currently volunteering two hours away from Kasese in a city called Mbarara (say m then ba-rah-rah), so we were determined to meet up at some point.  It was lovely having him around to catch up and enjoy some down time in Kasese.

This week is our last teaching at Rwentutu before exams begin next week.  It is absolutely incredible to me how quickly the time is gone.  In fact, I will be flying out from Entebbe in exactly two weeks from today…and back in Madison two weeks from tomorrow!  It does not feel real quite yet, so if you are wondering how I am feeling, I really could not tell you…I will let you know in a week!

Back in the Swing

Back at School

Nehemiah, a Primary 3 and 4 teacher, reads to the kids,
practicing some of the strategies taught over the weekend.

What a relief to get back to teaching this week!  The beginning of the week involved assisting in some professional development which the second group of Canadians began with the teachers over the weekend.  Perhaps I should clarify:  Three weeks ago a group of three Canadians, Dominique, Caleb, and Christie, came to work on the new health building being constructed on the school grounds.  Christie is also here to work with the younger children as she runs a day care back in Vancouver and went to school for Early Childhood Education.  Two weeks ago, a group of four Canadians, two of whom are teachers and one of whom has been here every year for the past 5 years, came to work specifically with the teachers and check up on how the school is doing.  They help the school stay accountable to Amos, its founder in Canada.

Over the weekend, these four did some specific professional development work with the Ugandan teachers in the areas of reading and writing, focusing on helping students to think creatively and deeply about what they read and write.  This week, they observed the teachers putting into practice what they learned.  It was a great opportunity for me to both observe and help, and learn along with the Ugandans, from more experienced professionals.  The strategies and techniques are some which I can bring back and use in my own classroom (whenever and wherever that may be!)

I had a great time teaching again.  We have begun talking about decimals in Primary 4, and I had the student construct a number line to show tenths and hundredths, and to help reinforce the understanding that a decimal, like a fraction, represents a part of a whole.  The activity went very well and I am loving doing more and more group activities with the students as I get to know them well enough to plan groups to achieve a specific purpose, such as mixed-ability grouping, or grouping for accommodation of instructions.  English, as always, is a bit of a struggle to keep interesting, but I have decided to read a short story every day, to help the students gain an appreciation for books and because, as one of the Canadians said, the more a child is read to aloud, the easier it will be for their own process of learning to read.  I also had an observation for English.  Enoch again had encouraging things to say, and although I raised my concerns with him about getting through the material and making it interesting for the students (and myself), he was positive in his feedback and offered a few suggestions, mostly regarding managing the tardiness of students, a veritably institutionalized part of the school system here. J

School fees continue to be sent home.  Often students pay for a few days at a time, and the “balance” (here used to refer to what is owed) is sent home weekly.  This results in highly fluctuating class numbers and, this week, not enough food for all of the kids.  On Thursday, although I was not scheduled to teach in the afternoon, I had an inkling the teacher might not show because lunch was quite late.  When the students arrived at class after the bell finally rang, several of them asked me to please play a game, as they were too hungry to do work.  We went outside and sat in the shade of a tree while I finished a read-aloud we had begun earlier in the day.  Unfortunately, the same thing happened on Friday.  As the term draws to a close, it is especially important for the students to be in school ready to prepare for exams, and the combination of students going hungry and missing school because of fees is making the process of preparing them for exams very challenging.  It is very hard to see the students going hungry and yet wanting to keep pushing their learning, hoping this might provide the opportunity for them to get out of the poverty cycle.

And as I get to know the students better, it is beginning to sink in that I only have two weeks left of teaching at Rwentutu Christian School.  While I enjoyed the students from the beginning, I have now formed relationships and attachments, particularly with my Primary 4 students (whom I will remain with for the last two weeks here).  Although numbers and language makes those relationships difficult to develop initially, I am now really getting to know the personalities of the individuals in my class, what they like, what kind of teaching strategies engage them, what makes them laugh…well, I still have two weeks, but as I looked around during games last week, I realized how much I have grown to love my kids here 

and how much I will miss them when we go. 

Back on the Road

While I have thought this with each experience I have had traveling here, I would say that this weekend has topped any other weekends we have yet spent in Uganda.  We got up Saturday morning, packed two Land Cruisers full of supplies, and headed off to Queen Elizabeth Game Reserve for a weekend of camping in the bush!  Rob, our South African friend, and a co-worker of his are both seasoned campers.  Wanting us to get an authentic wildlife experience and being camping lovers themselves, they graciously offered to take us on an overnight camping trip and act as guides on our own personal safari.  I have been blessed again and again by the friends that we have made here, and this experience was no exception...

Rarely was there not a hippo in the water just
downriver from our camp!

On our way into the park we briefly saw a tree lion before it scampered down to hide in the bushes.  Hoping it would be a sign of good things to come, we continued on and made our camp at a lovely little bend in the Ishasha River, which forms the border with the DR Congo.  The first thing we saw as we pulled into the campsite?  (aside from the latrine, the presence of which I marked happily) A pod of hippos plodding into the water just downstream!  After setting up camp, a few of us passed along a track near the water to spy out where the hippos were lounging on the bank.  As we watched, several made their way down the bank and into the water.  As though to make sure we were not deceived by their bumbling appearance, one looked our way and took a few steps in our direction, reminding me that these animals are wild and known to be somewhat dangerous…we crouched back into the bushes and a few minutes later the enormous mother hippo relaxed and lay back down on the bank.

After munching on delicious homemade samosas, pies, and boiled eggs for lunch, we went for a walk across the river.  By this time the hippos had all moved downstream and were well away from where we planned to cross.  We waded across the thigh-deep water and arrived in Congo on the other side-just thirty seconds’ wade away!  We stayed long enough to check out some prints (ostensibly leopard, which was confirmed later that evening as you will read ahead) and take a photo before heading back to Uganda. 

Tree-climbing lion

That evening, we took a drive through the park.  Our good luck omen proved true, and we came upon three gorgeous lions lounging in a fig tree, sleeping off what must have been (according to their bulging stomachs) a large kill.  They were absolutely stunning and we circled the tree several times photograph them before moving on.  Over the course of the drive we saw hundreds of kobs, topi (both of which are types of antelope), buffalo, crested cranes (the national bird and the centerpiece to the Ugandan flag), warthogs, all kinds of birds, baboons, and water bucks.  We returned to the camp satisfied and famished.  We cooked kebabs over an open fire, then enjoyed an after-dinner coffee as the moon rose, lightening flashed away to the northern sky, and the southern cross sparkled in the south.  As we sat we listened to the sounds of Colobus monkeys, hyenas, and hippos just downstream.

Kob

What happens if you have to use the toilet in the middle of the night you might ask?  Well, shine the flashlight out around the tents.  If the eyes you see are red, nothing to worry about-those are prey animals.  Green on the other hand, means lion, leopard, or hyena.  A group of Spanish overlanders (read “way intense backpackers”-they travel all over Africa in big trucks for months at a time) stopped by to warn us they had indeed seen a leopard near the latrine so we should take care when moving away from the tents during the night. 

Topi

In the morning we went for a far less eventful (we just saw a few birds and lots of kob and buffalo) but just as stunning game drive.  We returned for brunch then broke camp before going for a final swim in the river, taking a last look at our hippo pod, and departing Queen Elizabeth.




This last week was one of my favorites here in Uganda so far.  It is hard to believe there are only two weeks left of teaching, and that in about three weeks I will be boarding a plane to return to the States…plenty of time for a few more fantastic experiences though, and plenty to look forward to!

Time Away...

Monday began with business of usual here, far away from any American Independence Day celebrations.  However, after arriving home from school and making some dinner, we contrived a Fourth celebration by tossing cinnamon onto the flame of our gas burner, and singing a rousing addition of the The Star-Spangled Banner!  I was beginning to lose my voice, however, after feeling a bit under the weather over the weekend.  This culminated in my missing two days of school due to (of all things) a cold which rendered me completely incapable of speech!  I have had laryngitis for the past week, although I am finally on the upswing and should hopefully be able to teach again this week. 

It was difficult to miss out on two days of instruction with my class.  The week began well with the wrapping up of fractions and a fabulous discussion about folk tales during Library.  I absolutely loved the discussion which arose during Library, first in Lhukonzo, then in English as the students, in response to a short folk tale I read to them, recounted several folk tales familiar to them.  I am hoping (given enough time between my assigned lessons and the work the Canadian team is doing with reading and writing) to have the students write and illustrate their own folk tales this week, as their response in sharing their tales showed genuine excitement and connection with the subject matter.  I have rarely seen them so engaged in a lesson, and would love to capitalize on the connection they had with folk tales in order to push their creativity in writing. 

Then followed two days of staying home alone, unable to speak…

On Friday, after taking a coach bus, matatu (van taxi made to seat 14 people but at one point ours had 24), private-hire taxi, and finally a motor boat, we arrived at lovely Bushara Island in Lake Bunyonyi.  The second deepest lake in Africa, Bunyonyi is a haven for birds and humans willing to go a bit off the beaten path, and quite possibly the most peaceful place on I’ve been to on this planet.  Accompanied by Richard, a volunteer from England whom we met last week, we spent Saturday seeing the sights of Bunyonyi by dugout canoe (built out of a Eucalyptus tree).  We visited tiny Punishment Island, composed of one spindly tree and small patch of reeds, where unmarried pregnant girls were sent unless a poor man unable to afford to pay to get married went to the island and “rescued” them.   This happened as up until the 1930’s, when a missionary named Dr. Leonard Sharp came to the lake and started a settlement for lepers on another island nearby.   We hiked around on Bwama Island, (home of the former leper colony), through colorful fields of sorghum and past two small schools, learning a little bit about the people and history of Lake Bunyonyi before canoeing (in the case of Bri and Jessica) or swimming (Richard and myself) back to Bushara.  We spent the evening playing cards and Bananagrams and talking with the many muzungus on the island, most of whom are volunteers or working for non-profit organizations in Uganda and Rwanda.  It was a lovely relaxing weekend, more than making up for not making it to Rwanda, our original plan for the weekend and a trip we had been looking forward to for the past several weeks. 

The bus

The matatu

Inside the matatu

The taxi

The boats

The island was covered in gorgeous Eucalyptus trees...

and had a raft for swimming!

Our Safari Tent!

The dugout canoe for our tour

Punishment Island

The lake is known for its variety of birdlife

Sorghum fields

Sunday was spent traveling back to Kasese (on the way we saw baboons, elephants, bushbucks and Impala) and getting resettled and ready for the week ahead.  I am looking forward to getting back to teaching after being away for a few days which felt like a lifetime!

Yep, that is all tea! I LOVE Uganda!

The "Typical Schedule" Becomes Atypical

A few of my P4 students

In all honesty, I don't know that there ever was a really typical schedule, so much as an ideal schedule.  Once again, the week was full of surprises (both good and not so good) and adventures!  To begin with, I arrived at school this week to find that my class had been cut nearly in half (a not-so-good surprise).  Instead of the usual 39 students, I was down to 25.  School fees were sent for last week, and a number of students who could not pay were unable to come to school.  Thankfully, as the week progressed nearly all of the students were able to return to school, and I was back up to 36 students by Friday.  I couldn’t quite believe it, though, as I looked around my class on Monday and realized just how hard the families of these students have to work to keep their children in school, and how important it is to them.

Some of my boys having an impromptu dance
party during lunch break!

Students playing "Brain Trustees" during debate time on Friday.
Each student puts their own question into a box, then draws a
a question which they must answer during their turn.  It was
completely student-led and a lot of fun to watch!

Myself with some P4 girls-Rodgers managed to sneak in
on the side!  You may have noticed him doing a similar pose
in the pictures above...

 On Friday, the teachers brought up the possibility of staying in the classrooms we are currently teaching in rather than changing classes again for the next two weeks.  Although I am a little disappointed to miss out on getting to know the P3 students, I am so happy to remain in P4, where I finally know the names of all the students and have an idea of their interests and ability levels, as well as the curriculum.  This makes planning lessons for them much easier and will hopefully allow me the time to try some strategies with individual students and use some more creative activities to engage the P4 students.

Monday saw the arrival of the first group of Canadians.  We were requested to leave at game time in order to meet the new arrivals.  However, Edson was unable to find the key to our car, so we ended up taking bodas (motorcycles) to the main road, and then an overstuffed taxi back home, where we arrived two hours later than they had been expecting us!  The keys turned up in a student’s pockets, and Edson actually made it home before we did!  It was a good lesson in public transport, however, and once again taught us to maintain flexibility in our schedules and expectations. 

Stopping for tea with Enoch and Edson on our way to Congo!

Tuesday saw another late arrival home after a day spend traveling to DR Congo with Enoch.  He spoke with the authorities to allow us to cross the border for the afternoon to go to the market without having to pay a re-entry fee for our visas.  We were hoping to purchase some of the beautiful fabrics women use to make dresses and head wraps here.  The Congolese market has higher quality and cheaper fabrics, and also the allure of being in a different country.  On the way, we spent the day visiting the sites of Bwera, a border town, before venturing into Congo in the afternoon.  In keeping with the Ugandan hospitality, we were treated as well as any travelling dignitary as we visited a school and a hospital, both of which Enoch oversees.  Unfortunately, when we crossed the border, the Congolese customs office wanted us to pay $50 each to go any further into Congo, so we turned around and went back, visiting the (slightly more expensive and less fascinating but still quite exciting) Ugandan market instead.  We stopped to visit Enoch’s home before returning to the school to pick up the newest arrivals, three Canadian volunteers who have come to help do some building at the school.   

Heading down to the pitch to play!

On Thursday we were invited to take part in a football (soccer) game with the staff against the older students.  It was fun but challenging as the field is full of potholes and not a few piles of cow droppings, and most of the players (staff as well as students) played barefoot.  Nonetheless, their passion and skills were evident and I was happy to get a few compliments at the end, in spite of feeling somewhat useless for much of the game! 

My biggest challenge this week has been English.  Before reading on, I must ask you to disregard any prior notions you may have of reading and writing in English class, and picture more of a foreign language class, focusing on sentence structures and grammar.  I have mentioned this before, but I found it particularly difficult this week to make the pages of sentence rewriting exercises feel at least a little less boring and rote.  I was not terribly excited to teach English this week, but one memorable lesson included groups of students acting out pictured scenes in the book while the rest of the class determined what was happening in the scene, and wrote sentences to describe the actions.  I do not think I have laughed that hard in any teaching experience to date, and the students seemed not only to enjoy it, but to get the purpose of the exercise, including identifying key vocabulary introduced in the unit.  If I were to do it again, I would require that they turn in their notebooks with complete sentences about each group’s actions in order to reinforce writing with proper sentence structure and correct spelling.  As it was, the students recorded what was acted out by each group and analyzed it as positive or negative behavior-the overall theme of the unit (you can see why it has been a little bit of a challenge to spice up!) 

Four of my students prepare to raise the flags

Rogers and Elias sort out the American Flag

This weekend I felt as though I was on a tropical holiday.  On Friday we attended “Eagle Production,” a live music show featuring one of the most popular bands in Uganda (or so we were told by one devoted fan).  Saturday was spent mostly by the pool in Kasese, enjoying the sunshine and the company of our new Canadian friends.  At the pool, we also met a South African man named Rob, who has spent the last 14 years here in Uganda running a cobalt mining company.  He invited us to a cookout at his villa for the afternoon on Sunday, which rivaled any 4^th of July celebration I could have had at home (minus the family part)!  Entering his compound (shared with a few other families or couples who work with the company) was like being back in the States or in England-he even has a washing machine!  We spent a spectacular day by the poolside, hearing fascinating stories about his time as a soldier or about his company, surfing, South Africa, and just life here in Uganda.   We may have the opportunity to go camping with him in the bush in a few weeks!!  Next up, planning for another week in P4, feeling thoroughly relaxed and rejuvenated after this weekend!  

Relaxing at the Kasese pool, where we met Rob!  I think we could
probably be on a magazine cover for tourism in Uganda J