9/19

On the way to school this morning we passed a big truck that was in flames.  It was pretty scary since there aren’t firefighters here, just locals standing by.  The truck remained on fire for about 3 days.  People were working alongside the fire trying to salvage any of the goods that it was carrying.  There are still remnants of the truck on the road two weeks later.

Truck in flames

My lessons went better today.  English went very well. This week we were finishing up learning times of the day, so I taught my kids a days of the week song earlier in the week.  By today, the kids knew the song and were singing it loud and proud!  Today, I started teaching common foods.  It was fun because I myself was learning some of the common foods.  There were about 20 common foods that the students were supposed to learn, so I split the foods up into two groups, and today I brought all of the foods that we had at our house into school.  The real life examples are great, especially for English Language Learners. 

My math lesson went better today, but it still wasn’t great.  One thing I am struggling with is setting expectations and establishing routines in the classroom.  Several times I have planned a lesson or activity and not anticipated the need for very direct and specific expectations, which has caused chaos.  But this is something I need to do, because the students are not used to doing much else other than sitting in their desks and writing whatever the teacher writes on the board.  So these are things that I need to work on in presenting my lessons.

All week at school Katie and I were hearing and even seeing things associated with caning which had us really upset.  It is really hard to hear students coming to you and telling you they were caned for not knowing an answer or for talking in class.  Today during games time, one teacher had a group of older and younger students all crowded around under a tree, and then Katie saw one of the older students hit one of the younger students with a stick right in front of the teacher.  In fact, the teacher was leading it.  This caught us really off guard.  We asked some of the students what the meeting was for, and they told us the older students were being trained to beat the younger students for speaking vernacular or for having their shirts un-tucked.  After all of this, we decided we wanted to talk to Enoch about it.  I knew caning is something that is present in schools here, but I was under the false impression that it kind of faded its way out at the school we are working at because of all the progressive things going on there already.  After talking to Enoch, he confirmed that it is okay that caning is going on.  He even went as far as to say that it is necessary to keep the students in-line.  He also confirmed that the older students were trained as prefects to beat the younger students, so this behavior was also okay.  Enoch rationalized this, because this is the discipline used at home.  He said no parent would ever be infuriated if their child came home and told them that they were being beat at school, rather they would assume they deserved it.  It saddened me to get this information, but it was kind of one of those bite your tongue moments.  Caning students is definitely one of those cultural practices that I will never fully understand.  All I can do is obviously not beat my students in class, and use different forms of discipline that will hopefully be noticed and someday used as alternatives.  I should also note that neither my teacher nor Katie’s teacher has ever beaten the students in our presence.

Related to this, I have seen the effects of the beating rubbing off in my classroom and throughout the school in general.  The students are very quick to hit each other.  In fact they are constantly swinging an arm at someone, hitting a wrist, slapping a back etc.  It is just what they know.  If a student wants a “rubber” (an eraser) that another students has, they go up to the student and literally smack them to get it.  Or if a student is unhappy with another student, they just go up and hit them.  And of all of this without anyone even thinking twice about it.  This obviously creates a very toxic classroom environment.  So I have made it clear to my students that hitting is not something that will happen when I am teaching.  I promised the students that I would never hit them and in return they should not hit each other.  If students are hitting one another when I am teaching I give them one warning and then the second time they spend 5 minutes inside with me during their games time.  While I don’t want to infringe on this cultural practice, it is just not something that is conducive for a learning environment, so this is my respectful approach to dealing with it while I am teaching.  Another thing I hope to do to improve the classroom community is start doing some morning meetings.  This is something I wish I could have done from day one, but it is difficult because this type of teaching practice is definitely not part of the curriculum.  But as a teacher, it is something that I know is so important for developing relationships with the students as well as the students developing relationships with each other. 

We had lots of rain tonight in Kasese.  And then for dinner Katie and I got creative and made falafel (we found a mix in our kitchen left from one of the other groups), chapate to act as the pita, and some potatoes for a side.  We quite enjoyed the change-up of flavors and were impressed with our big meal we put together!   

Molly and I

Evan fell asleep in my arms today...precious!

9/18

Not much to write home about today.  I struggled quite a bit teaching my lessons today.  It was just one of those off days.  The kids were off which threw me off which threw my lessons off. Hmph. Tomorrow is a new day!  On a brighter note, almost all of my students were back to school today.  Only 3 were out, so I had 17 of my 20 students.  That was a relief. 

After school things turned up a bit when Katie and I went to a new craft shop in town: Rwenzori Arts, Crafts, and Tailoring Workshop.  We had met an Australian woman the previous week who told us about the work she was doing in Uganda.  The Australian woman spent a year in Uganda training 4 women on how to sew, so that they can make a living for themselves.  The women just recently opened up the craft shop in Kasese.  At the shop they sell oven mitts, aprons, bags, purses, headbands, stuffed animals, wallets, and skirts that are all made out of beautiful fabrics.  They even have a website where you can place orders of your own, or to just check out the beautiful things they make: http://www.orphfundsewingschool.blogspot.com.au .

School Fee Blues

Monday started off a little bit shaky at school.  About 10 minutes after I arrived, King James the head teacher, came in and spoke briefly in Lukunzo.  As he was talking students began gathering their things at their desks and exiting the classroom.  I asked my cooperating teacher what was going on and she explained that students were being sent home because they had not paid their school fees.  One by one my class was shrinking.  By the end of it, I had 8 of my 20 students left.  It was really sad and frustrating seeing those kids sent home, and it definitely complicated my teaching.  I didn’t want to begin with new lessons that day as I had planned, because otherwise I would need to re-teach all the students that were sent home.  But this is what is expected, that teaching resumes as normal because it is the fault of the parents that the fees were not paid.     

I should also note that although it is disheartening seeing the students be sent home, to a degree I can understand the reasoning.  If the students do not pay their fees, the teachers do not get paid.  In fact, last term there was an economic crisis which caused parents to not be able to pay fees and in return resulted in the teachers not being paid.  Pamela explained to me that the teachers are supposed to be paid at the end of every month, but that is not always the case.  I asked Pamela why the teachers would continue to teach if they weren't being paid and she said it was in hopes that someday they will be paid.  It makes So no teaching strikes over here!

So with my 8 students, I abandoned my original plans for English and I did a writing activity with my students where I asked them to tell me about themselves.  This was still very structured as they do not have the tools to form their own ideas and sentences (sadly), but it was a great way for me to learn more about my students as individuals, and for them to practice at least a different structured sentence form. 

In math, I had planned to begin teaching shapes today.  Although I didn’t teach the lesson I had planned, I still introduced shapes.  I found a really good book in my classroom that was about shapes and finding them in our surroundings, so I took the kids outside and read it to them and discussed it with them.  We then did a walk around the schoolyard looking for different shapes.  The kids did a really good job with this, and I really enjoyed just taking the kids outside and enjoying the beautiful day. 

Evan and I hanging out

Despite the ups and downs of the day, it ended up being a good day with the students and…..I got to hang out with baby Evan A LOT today which is always a plus.  I’m not sure if I have mentioned Evan yet, but it is long overdue.  Evan is Pamela’s (the P2 teacher) son.  He is 7 months old and is a little chunky, with big and beautiful brown eyes.  He and I have become quite pals, as have he and Katie.  Pamela actually teaches in my classroom more while I am there than the P1 teacher Zippora does.  Katie and I have actually found it really nice that we are both able to get to know and work with each others’ teachers as well as our own.  Anyways, back to Evan.  Teachers here teach with their babies present.  There are currently two teachers with babies.  Most times the teacher has the baby tied to her back, or playing on the floor while she teaches.  This has worked out quite well for me, because whenever I am not teaching I get to hang out with Evan.  And whenever Pamela is in my room at the beginning of the day, as soon as I arrive Evan is crawling across the room to greet me with a big smile!

Evan joining in on the learning

Evan hanging out in the middle of a lesson

Soccer! (9/16)

Today was not too eventful, just a relaxing Sunday.  It was the perfect opportunity to upload all of my pictures from the safari yesterday, Skype with people back home, respond to emails, plan lessons, and make posters and charts for my lessons.  I also spent a good deal of time responding to all the letters that I receive from students.  The older students at the school give Katie and I letters on a daily basis.  I collect them throughout the week and then write back to everyone on Sunday and pass them out the following week.  It is a nice way to connect with the students who I am not working with directly, and it is a great way for them to practice their English and writing, so of course the teacher in me can’t refuse a response even when the same girls writes me three letters in one week. 

The highlight of today was when we played soccer.  The neighbor boys took us to a school that is right up the road from our house and we played a game of 5 vs. 5 soccer.  It was a lot of fun, and for the most part Kaite and I could keep up with them.  They are very fast and it is incredible how well they play without any shoes on at all.  We wonder what they could do with a pair of cleats on their feet!  The kids were very grateful to have us there if for no other reason than that we provide a ball for them to play with.  We have set-up to play next Sunday as well, so I hope it becomes a weekly thing!

Safari (9/15)

Uganda Sunrise

Well Uganda, you have done it again, provided me with yet another indescribable experience.  But as always, I will try and describe it for you.  Today we went to Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is located in the Kasese district.  We were picked up at about 6:30 and headed to the park, which is about a half hour away.  The drive alone was beautiful, as we were able to see our first Ugandan sunrise.  Once we arrived at the park we picked up our safari guide, Eddie.

Water Buffalo

We first drove around the park to view the animals.  Right away we saw hundreds of kob.  We also saw hundreds of water buffalo.  As we got a little further into the park we saw elephants.  We were in awe.  They were so close to us, and it was incredible being able to see them in their natural environment.  We probably spent much more time than we needed to looking at the elephants, but we didn’t realize we would be having several more encounters with them as the day went on.  Eddie was finally able to convince us that we would see more and that we should move on.  And it was a good thing we did, because we were able to witness a python suffocating a kob.  It was in the distance and low to the ground so we don’t have pictures of this, but it was pretty neat to see.  Next we saw the lions.  There were three female lions, two male lions, and about four cubs.  The cubs mainly slept while we were watching them, the males wandered around, and the females were doing some hunting.  One of the female lions was lying in the grass, and Eddie told us she was hiding from the kob and was going to attack when one wasn’t paying attention.  We waited and waited, but never saw this happen.  It was really interesting watching the behavior of the kob in the presence of the lions.  The kob would all face in the direction of the lions, and the males would stand close so that they could warn the females when the lions began hunting.  It was quite noisy with the kob calling to each other in what was almost like a whistle.  Some other animals we saw in no particular order were one lonely hippo (and many, many more later), a monkey, a lizard, eagles, and the Crested Crane (the national bird). 

Lizard

Kob

More kob

Elephants

Male Lion

Crested Crane

Katie ad I with the hippos in the fishing community

After our safari tour in the car, Eddie showed us the salt lake that is located within the park.  He then took us to a fishing community that also was in the park.  We got there after the fishermen had already come in from the morning fishing, and were able to see them preparing the nets for the next time they go out, as well as emptying some of the fish into basins that were then being carried away by the women.  The fish that they catch and that everyone eats here are tilapia.  I couldn’t help but think how scary it must be living among the lions, elephants, buffalo, and so on! There were hippos swimming right out in front of their fishing boats.

Salt Lake

We then went on a boat cruise safari.  We heard it was something we should do, but didn’t realize how amazing it would actually be.  We were on a pontoon-type boat for two hours and we were able to get super close to a ton of animals.  It was not only cool to be able to see the animals up so close, but it was also just a completely relaxing couple of hours.  We were able to sit back, kick our feet up, and just enjoy the beautiful day, scenery, and animals.  We were on cloud nine.  We saw a lot of the same animals as we did in the car, but we were also able to see more hippos, a crocodile, and tons of birds.  There are over 612 species of birds, which is probably why there were birds in every direction that we looked!

Cute little baby!

Elephants we saw on the boat cruise

Hippo

Crocodile

So many birds!

Water buffalo

And then after the boat ride our happiness and excitement continued when we went to eat at Moya Lodge.  The lodge is situated on the top of a hill that overlooks the beautiful lakes that we had just been on for our cruise.  What’s more, we ordered a cheeseburger and pizza for lunch! This was our first encounter with American food since being here, so you can imagine how clean our plates were.  Following lunch, we spent an hour shopping in the hotel gift shop.  This was also our first time shopping, so we may have gone a little crazy, but we were just too excited to start buying gifts for our friends and family. 

Our view from Moya Lodge

It seemed as though we were leaving at the perfect time, as it started to rain pretty hard as soon as we got back in the car.  We were making the drive out of the park when we were stopped by a herd of elephants.  They were crossing the road right in front of us.  We were so excited!  But then we all became a little nervous because we overheard a man talking at lunch about elephants almost charging his car.  Our driver, Samson, waited it out while the elephants passed, and we were able to grab a few last pictures of my now favorite animal.

Elephants passing in front of us

We made one more stop on the way home and that was to a few craft shops.  They have about six of them conveniently located right outside the park.  So Katie and I did a little more shopping and we felt good knowing that our money would be going to the women in the shops who made them.

To bring us back to reality when we got home, there were a few cockroaches and a lizard all waiting for us in our room!  So naturally, Katie and I were talking to, yelling at, and maybe even barking at the lizard to try and get it out of our room.  Well we didn’t realize our window was open and Doreen, who was in the back with some of her family, heard us.  She came in to check on us and she told us she heard us and said, “I have to go check on my babies!” And sure enough she came in and said, “My daughters, what is it?!”  She is such a good mother!  

9/14

We arrived at school this morning only to be told that we would be getting yet another new driver starting tomorrow.  Apparently our old driver, Morris, was cheating them out of money.  So, onto the next.  Hopefully Samson is our third and final driver while we are here. 

Anyways, today I wanted to assess my students to see if they had learned what I was teaching them this week.  I first did my math assessment with the students.  I had the students complete an exercise that I designed in their exercise books and then when they were ready for me to check that I also asked the students some oral questions.  Almost every single student was in a good place.  I think a large part of their comprehension came towards the end of the week when I worked to make the graphing activities culturally relevant as well as more visual.  The final thing I had the students graph this week was how much maize certain students had.  Maize is basically like corn, but it looks and tastes a little different.  Anyway, I had five children go into the room at school where all the maize is kept and had them bring some maize back to the classroom and then the students could visually see what they were graphing.  This worked very well, so I will continue to try and make my lessons culturally relevant with visual components.  I think the visual component is key in teaching these English Language Learners (ELLs).  On this note, Katie and I have been talking a lot about how great this experience will be for us when we come back and teach in the States where we are likely to have ELL students.  We are learning different strategies to use and methods of teaching that best suite the needs of these students.  Katie and I were even talking about how this program would be a great way to earn an ELL/ESL certificate…what do you think Maggie?!

We got a call in the afternoon from Enoch, who wanted us to come back to town and meet with him so we could discuss arrangements for our new driver as well as for our safari tomorrow.  So we packed everything up and then went to get in our car and it was gone!  We called our old driver, Morris (who was supposed to still drive us home today), and he said “I’m coming, I’m coming!”  Well, he never came.  So an hour or so later, our new driver pulled up in the school car (the one we were supposed to be using while here but have not been because it has been broken) to take us home.  By now we are used to frequent changes and are learning to become more and more flexible and understanding.     

9/13

After waking up with a cockroach in my bed last night, I was up all night with images of a cockroach crawling all over in my bed, so needless to say I did not get much sleep at all last night.  But the students were able to wake me up and brighten my day as soon as I got to school.  As I walked in I heard some of the students singing the days of the week song I had been teaching them, and then as I started pulling some of my teaching stuff out of my backpack the kids were picking them up and reading the vocabulary words I had been teaching them.  It showed that my students were not only interested in what I was teaching them, but that they were actually learning it too!  And then to lighten up my mood a bit, one of the girls told me I had a bad singing voice, oh kids! 

The school day ended up being a bit mixed up, as Katie’s teacher was not at school due to her baby being sick.  This meant that my classroom teacher was teaching in both classrooms when Katie and I weren’t teaching our lessons.  At the beginning of one of the periods where I was not teaching and when my teacher was in the other classroom setting up their lesson, one of my students asked me, “Teacher, can we learn?”  It melted my heart.  It just goes to show how much these students value and appreciate their education.  And it is that value and appreciation that pushes me to keep challenging myself in my teaching so that I can provide them with the best learning opportunities. 

During break and lunch today I worked on putting up a Word Wall in my classroom.  The way a Word Wall works, is that you put the letters of the alphabet on the wall and then under each letter you put vocabulary words that the students are learning.  This is perfect to use here, as the kids are learning a new set of vocabulary words each week in their English lessons.  The idea is then that the students can use the Word Wall so that they can keep practicing the words in their reading, writing, and speaking. 

And because it is Thursday, we had Chapel again today.  It is one of my favorite parts of the week, seeing all the kids together singing, dancing, and drumming.  Not to mention I usually get to hang out with a baby or two during it.

And one more thing to keep us on our toes today was a rat in the classroom.  Katie was just about to start teaching again when a rat scurried past her feet.  But not to worry, within a matter of seconds the boys in her classroom had the rat by its tail and were taking it back into the field.  They ran right past me with it, and I sure am glad they weren’t my toes that it ran over!