The P7 members did their final exams (Primary Leaving Exam otherwise known as the P.L.E.) on the 7th & 8th of November. They were so excited to be done with school. They stayed around for the weeks and had a football match with the other members of the school on Thursday of that week. On Saturday, 12th Nov. they had a party to celebrate being done. On Friday they were making their preparations and they wanted me to take pictures of them cutting up their goat. They were so excited and happy about getting to celebrate with people.
They invited all of the teachers at the school and other people who work around the school. Osborn was the Guest of Honor but he had gone to Masaka town to get some things for a building that they are separating into different rooms for Abby and I to live in so he did not come until around 3 PM when the party started at 11 AM. The party was so much fun and it was good getting to celebrate with the P7 pupils before they left the school. The food was really good as they gave us goat, rice, and matooka along with a bottle of soda. They also gave us some performances and then HM Rogers and Osborn both gave a speech. Osborn opened the dance and it was great to see him having fun with his children. We took a picture of all of the teachers, P7 pupils and invited guests. Afterwards, Osborn told me to go back in and dance with the pupils. I did and I danced with many pupils and secondary students until they turned off the music almost two hours later. It was awesome to just enjoy dancing where they are having fun and not having to monitor the behavior of the youth. The behavior of these children is so different than those in America. I was the only teacher besides the one running the music and there was no fear that the children were going to try and dance inappropriate. I danced with many different people and never once did someone try to touch me more than on my hips or the middle of my back which is different than school dances in America.
I talked with Osborn some about my plans for the holiday and I think I shall try and go to Kenya for a week to see some friends because we have from the 12th Dec. until the 12th of Jan. for holiday. It will be my first time not with my family for Christmas so that will be a new experience. It has been interesting for me to notice things about holidays. The other morning I woke up and realized that the next day was Veterans Day but we don’t celebrate most American holidays here so that is different.
Yes, I have heard the Obama will become the next president of America. I had forgotten that the elections were coming up until I was in Kampala a couple of weeks ago and they were talking about it on the news. The people here are very excited that a “black” man will be the next president of America. It is hard to explain to people why you may not have voted for him since you are in a country that is full of blacks but most of them are open to hearing your explanation instead of just getting mad at you.
We are preparing for our Open Day that will occur on the 28th November. Every day from 3:40-5:15 PM the different houses work on their song/dance and their athletics. It is great to see the children having some time to play and get out some of their energy. It will be an amazing day of competition because we already are having some competition each week with their sanitation, smartness, academics, English speaking, and discipline. We will have some visitors from America here to enjoy the day with us also.
We begin final exams on the 24th Nov. and will have one a day for the first four days of the week. The two weeks after that we will sit as teachers and discuss which children should be promoted to the next class and which children we will encourage to repeat the class. There is a lot of stress on teachers as they are trying to finish up the syllabus before the end comes.
Since the P7 party we have spilt my P5 class into two different classes to help improve the promotion rate. As of the end of Sept., only about 30 of my 94 pupils would have been promoted to P6 next year. I now only have 48 pupils in my class which is a much easier number to manage and see who really understands the concepts and who needs more help. The other half of the P5 are being attended by the P7 teachers in the classroom that has been occupied by P7 before their exams since many of them only had one class after P7 left. We are hoping that we will be able to promote at least 50-60 pupils, but it still seems like a small number.
For Open Day, Abby and I have decided that the money, that we help provide the school each month with, will go to mainly buying t-shirts for the teachers. We will be getting an uniformed t-shirt that can be worn at Open Day and other such events where we want the teachers to look uniformed and smart. Each shirt is Sh. 10,000 (about $5.50) and the teacher are being asked to pay Sh. 2,000 (about $1.10) and we will cover the rest of the cost. They will be collared shirts with the school logo and motto on them. The children are buying caps at Sh. 300 (about $0.06) for Open Day. The caps are made for each house so it will be easy to see which children belong to each house.
This last Saturday the children who are fully sponsored by the school dug (weeded) in the garden (and I forgot to bring my camera to take pictures but I‘ll get some on another day). Every Saturday they are they are supposed to work in the work as “payment” for school. The garden has corn that helps provide lunch and breakfast for the children. I got bored at the school since I don’t teach most Saturdays so I went over to see what they were doing. I ended up changing clothes and then digging with them until they finished. It was a good feeling to do something physical and knowing that I was doing something for the food that I eat for lunch every day at school. The children kept asking if I was tired and I did not get tired but I did get a blister on my hand. They have invited me to work with them every week and I think I will try and do that. It is great getting to spend time with the children and getting to know them more. Many of them are the children whom I have taken their stories so I know them better than most of the children.
On thing I have noticed recently is that when they are digging, playing football, or running in P.E. the children take off their shoes. I was bothered by it for a night but as I was thinking more I about it I realized that many of these children only have one pair of shoes and if they spoil them (ruin their shoes) then they will not have anything to wear. I took off my shoes when I was digging with the children because they kept filling with dirt when I had them on. I keep thinking if there is anything that can be done to help the children get more shoes. Here in the village you do not have to have shoes to go to school, which is good because at least half to two-thirds of the school does not have shoes, but in the city you MUST have shoes or you will be chased away from (not allowed to come). The children are supposed to wear black shoes as part of their uniform but we do not discourage the children who wear shoes of any kind. Some of the children come from 1-5 km (0.61-3.1 miles) and many of them walk that distance but some of them have bicycles.
I had a good talk with some of the secondary boys on Saturday after I finished digging. They wanted to know where I had been and they were very surprised that I had been digging and they did not believe me until I showed them my hands and feet. They then invited more to a dance that was going to happen that afternoon to celebrate the end of the year for S.2, although they start their exams today. I went and at first it was only secondary students. Once I arrived they allowed the primary pupils to come in and dance. I had a lot of fun again and it is good to just enjoy being with the children and having fun with them.
We are busy preparing for our visitors, our final exams, and the Open Day. It is beginning to keep me busy and the children are having fun spending time with me doing athletics. They are surprised by me dancing and that I enjoy doing athletics. It makes me want to begin training more so that I can do more physical work around the school and with the children.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
being on duty & library
The week of Oct. 13-19th I was on duty at school. That means that another teacher, Tr. Ronald, and myself were in charge of making sure that the compound was cleaned every day, that the cook had firewood and water to cook with, and take attendance. In addition, whenever a teacher or pupil had a problem, we were the ones who they came to. I also had to serve breakfast (porridge and a doughnut to each teacher) and lunch (posho and beans to each teacher). It is hard sometimes making sure that each teacher had gotten food, but it was a good experience. It was a lot of work and I was very tired every night. I had to be at school at 6:45 AM and I went home around 6:00 PM every day that week. I am glad that the week is over. At the end of the week, I had to write a record on what occurred during the week for the school to have. The teachers receive 5,000 shillings for the extra work that they do that week.
I had one really interesting event happen while I was duty. I was in the P1 classroom taking attendance on Thursday. The class teacher had her baby on Sunday so she was not here for the week so her assistant teacher was in class all week. The assistant teacher was in talking to the HM so I was the only teacher in the classroom. As I was finishing counting the pupils, they started screaming and running for the door. When I looked up, I saw that the electrical wires had started smoking. I was not too concerned but I knew that the pupils needed to get out of the classroom. The pupils had panicked and were pushing each other to get out of the class. They caused such a jam at the door that no one could get out very quickly. They were pushing each other down and stepping on each other. Once the pupils got outside the classroom they stood close and the other teachers had all come to see what was going on. Tr. Ronald had gotten the fire extinguisher but there was no need to use it since the fire went out by itself. It shows me how little these pupils and teachers know about fire safety. I was concerned about getting the pupils at a safe distance just in case something happened. The teachers finally were able to get the P1 pupils into another class and got the other pupils back to their classrooms.
In addition, we had a man from the Dept. of Ed. who came and looked at the school. He had come about a month ago and looked at the classrooms but this time he wanted to look at the dorms. He had brought some papers from the Department of Education and Sports and from the police about the 33 school fires that happened in Uganda from April to June of this year. The government had placed many requirements on the schools and if these requirements are not met then they can put us on probation or close the school. When he looked at the dorms, he was not happy about the conditions and warned us that someone from Kampala will be coming to check on the school sometime during the term which means any where from today until 12th December. HM called Abby and I into his office to discuss the situation. When HM talked to Pastor Betty, he asked if some of the older girls could move into the house for some time because they will check the dorms but not the house. On Friday (17th Oct.), Abby moved back into my room and we will be living together for some time. On Sunday (19th Oct.), the girls moved into the house and 8 girls moved into the room that Abby was living in.
We have been without power a lot lately because of the rain and it effects a lot of thi
ngs. The rain here is helpful because it provides water for drinking, cooking, and farming, but it also is damaging because it is such a hard rain and causes lots of erosion. . I has been raining almost every day since I have come back from Kampala and it rains for about 30 minutes to 1 ½ hours. Thankfully we have the generator at night so that makes it easier to cook, bath, and do other things around the house with light instead of in the dark. Last week we were without power for almost 3 days. They turned on the generator around 7:00 PM and would turn it off again around 9:30 PM after preps were done. They then turned the generator back on around 4:00 AM for the morning preps. I heard the generator every morning when it was turned on and I got up every morning to turn off our light because there is switch to our room in the general living area and someone would turn it on out there. They normally would not turn on the generator but the Senior 4 students are taking their final exams, and the Primary 7 pupils are going to take their final exams on Monday and Tuesday so they want to make sure these pupils have plenty of time to study.
On Friday, 24th October, we had Visitation Day at the Primary School. It is a time when the parents come to the school and talk with the teachers about how their child is doing. It is like Parent-Teacher Conferences in America, but the pupils still come to school. In the morning, the pupils did revision work and then were able to read some books until lunch time. In the afternoon, we showed a film. I was in with Tr. Siraje listening to him talk with our parents all day so that was interesting meeting some of the parents. The pupils were so excited about having their family come visit them. The parents of the boarding pupils brought money for spending, and food for their children. As I was thinking of this day the next morning, I was thinking how the pupils without parents feel about days like this. It happens every term, but you can tell that it is hard for children without parents as they see their friends’ parents coming and visiting.
We had a revision workshop last Saturday. It was an interesting day. We had teachers from every subject talk about how they would revise with their pupils. HM would talk a little between each teacher. It was a hard day for me because many time I felt like the HM was putting down his staff for not doing proper revision with their pupils. He was saying that if we really did revision like it was presented then our pupils would do better in class. I was realizing that almost all of the presenters were from P.6 and P.7 who only have a max of 44 pupils compared to the other class who have 92-116 pupils. HM wants us to spend time going over questions and doing revision, but I wonder how we are supposed to get through the syllabus when we are doing so much revision. It is something that I am still struggling with and I’ll just have to see how things go in the future.
On Monday, I started organizing the books in HM’s office and cataloging them. It is amazing how many books we have that cannot be used by the primary pupils. Tr. Abby and I are discussing what we can do with the books that cannot be used by the Primary School. I cleaned all of the books and organized them so it looks really good. I have started cataloging them so we know what books we have and hopefully by the beginning of the new year, I will have done all of them and then we can do a library where the pupils can actually check out books and take them home. As I was organizing it made me wish that I had studied to be a librarian and had supplies to do maintenance on the books. I am thankful for the experience that I have dealing with libraries so that I have an idea how to catalog books and care for them. These teachers and pupils have no idea how to care for books which is hard when you are taught at a young age how to treat a book properly. Abby and I are thinking of talking to the teachers about how to treat books and what rules we give to pupils so they will understand and try to treat the books the same way. The picture to the left shows what the library currently looks like. The books that are standing are ones that I have cataloged and the ones that are laying down I have yet to catalog. It will be a long process but I’m looking forward to it.
Yesterday, I traveled to Kampala to pick up a package that my parents sent me. I am amazed at God’s awesome hand more and more every day. I got my hair done Thursday night in an Ugandan style and it took FOUR hours to do it. We did not completely finish it so we need to redo some of it when I get back, but it was 12:40 AM and I was leaving early in the morning so we decided just to make it look okay enough for me to come. It is nice because it should be able to stay in for about 2 months so I will not have to worry about doing anything to my hair for that long which is really nice. I got up around 5AM to catch the taxi early in the morning. Tr. Ronald took me on Pastor Kato’s motorcycle around 5:40 AM. We got to Kiwangala as the taxi was filling at the petrol station. It was nice timing and I was able to get on as soon as it finished filling and then we went on our way. The toughest part was getting into Kampala and having to wait for about an hour to get out of the taxi because we had to park before they would allow us to unload.
God’s creation is amazing and breath taking at times. As I was traveling the sun was coming up and it was the best sunrise I have seen here. In addition, there are valleys around where I live so we would come over a hill and the valley would be filled with fog that was truly breath taking. It is at times like that I marvel at God’s plan to make us the way He did and blessed me with eyes to see the beauty of His creation.
I picked up my package and was so excited because my parents did not tell me what they had sent me. I went to lunch with a friend after picking my package so as we were waiting for our food to come, I opened it. I felt like it was Christmas but early. I was so excited to see a few new clothes, some red marking pens, a few sewing supplies, and some candy. It was so nice to see Skittles, and Butterfingers, along with some trail mix. One of the hardest things here is getting sweet (candy). There is a limited variety and nothing that we have in the states so it was great to eat candy that I am familiar with. I shared a little of it was my friends, Hezron and David and they were intrigued by the new candy. I treasure hearing for any of you, whether it is in an email, letter, or package. It is great to know how people are doing in the states. If you send me an email or letter I will write back, but it may be some time before I am able to get to the internet or the post office to send you something since I only go into town once a month. I pray that you are all doing well. God’s blessing!
I had one really interesting event happen while I was duty. I was in the P1 classroom taking attendance on Thursday. The class teacher had her baby on Sunday so she was not here for the week so her assistant teacher was in class all week. The assistant teacher was in talking to the HM so I was the only teacher in the classroom. As I was finishing counting the pupils, they started screaming and running for the door. When I looked up, I saw that the electrical wires had started smoking. I was not too concerned but I knew that the pupils needed to get out of the classroom. The pupils had panicked and were pushing each other to get out of the class. They caused such a jam at the door that no one could get out very quickly. They were pushing each other down and stepping on each other. Once the pupils got outside the classroom they stood close and the other teachers had all come to see what was going on. Tr. Ronald had gotten the fire extinguisher but there was no need to use it since the fire went out by itself. It shows me how little these pupils and teachers know about fire safety. I was concerned about getting the pupils at a safe distance just in case something happened. The teachers finally were able to get the P1 pupils into another class and got the other pupils back to their classrooms.
In addition, we had a man from the Dept. of Ed. who came and looked at the school. He had come about a month ago and looked at the classrooms but this time he wanted to look at the dorms. He had brought some papers from the Department of Education and Sports and from the police about the 33 school fires that happened in Uganda from April to June of this year. The government had placed many requirements on the schools and if these requirements are not met then they can put us on probation or close the school. When he looked at the dorms, he was not happy about the conditions and warned us that someone from Kampala will be coming to check on the school sometime during the term which means any where from today until 12th December. HM called Abby and I into his office to discuss the situation. When HM talked to Pastor Betty, he asked if some of the older girls could move into the house for some time because they will check the dorms but not the house. On Friday (17th Oct.), Abby moved back into my room and we will be living together for some time. On Sunday (19th Oct.), the girls moved into the house and 8 girls moved into the room that Abby was living in.
We have been without power a lot lately because of the rain and it effects a lot of thi
ngs. The rain here is helpful because it provides water for drinking, cooking, and farming, but it also is damaging because it is such a hard rain and causes lots of erosion. . I has been raining almost every day since I have come back from Kampala and it rains for about 30 minutes to 1 ½ hours. Thankfully we have the generator at night so that makes it easier to cook, bath, and do other things around the house with light instead of in the dark. Last week we were without power for almost 3 days. They turned on the generator around 7:00 PM and would turn it off again around 9:30 PM after preps were done. They then turned the generator back on around 4:00 AM for the morning preps. I heard the generator every morning when it was turned on and I got up every morning to turn off our light because there is switch to our room in the general living area and someone would turn it on out there. They normally would not turn on the generator but the Senior 4 students are taking their final exams, and the Primary 7 pupils are going to take their final exams on Monday and Tuesday so they want to make sure these pupils have plenty of time to study.On Friday, 24th October, we had Visitation Day at the Primary School. It is a time when the parents come to the school and talk with the teachers about how their child is doing. It is like Parent-Teacher Conferences in America, but the pupils still come to school. In the morning, the pupils did revision work and then were able to read some books until lunch time. In the afternoon, we showed a film. I was in with Tr. Siraje listening to him talk with our parents all day so that was interesting meeting some of the parents. The pupils were so excited about having their family come visit them. The parents of the boarding pupils brought money for spending, and food for their children. As I was thinking of this day the next morning, I was thinking how the pupils without parents feel about days like this. It happens every term, but you can tell that it is hard for children without parents as they see their friends’ parents coming and visiting.
We had a revision workshop last Saturday. It was an interesting day. We had teachers from every subject talk about how they would revise with their pupils. HM would talk a little between each teacher. It was a hard day for me because many time I felt like the HM was putting down his staff for not doing proper revision with their pupils. He was saying that if we really did revision like it was presented then our pupils would do better in class. I was realizing that almost all of the presenters were from P.6 and P.7 who only have a max of 44 pupils compared to the other class who have 92-116 pupils. HM wants us to spend time going over questions and doing revision, but I wonder how we are supposed to get through the syllabus when we are doing so much revision. It is something that I am still struggling with and I’ll just have to see how things go in the future.
On Monday, I started organizing the books in HM’s office and cataloging them. It is amazing how many books we have that cannot be used by the primary pupils. Tr. Abby and I are discussing what we can do with the books that cannot be used by the Primary School. I cleaned all of the books and organized them so it looks really good. I have started cataloging them so we know what books we have and hopefully by the beginning of the new year, I will have done all of them and then we can do a library where the pupils can actually check out books and take them home. As I was organizing it made me wish that I had studied to be a librarian and had supplies to do maintenance on the books. I am thankful for the experience that I have dealing with libraries so that I have an idea how to catalog books and care for them. These teachers and pupils have no idea how to care for books which is hard when you are taught at a young age how to treat a book properly. Abby and I are thinking of talking to the teachers about how to treat books and what rules we give to pupils so they will understand and try to treat the books the same way. The picture to the left shows what the library currently looks like. The books that are standing are ones that I have cataloged and the ones that are laying down I have yet to catalog. It will be a long process but I’m looking forward to it.Yesterday, I traveled to Kampala to pick up a package that my parents sent me. I am amazed at God’s awesome hand more and more every day. I got my hair done Thursday night in an Ugandan style and it took FOUR hours to do it. We did not completely finish it so we need to redo some of it when I get back, but it was 12:40 AM and I was leaving early in the morning so we decided just to make it look okay enough for me to come. It is nice because it should be able to stay in for about 2 months so I will not have to worry about doing anything to my hair for that long which is really nice. I got up around 5AM to catch the taxi early in the morning. Tr. Ronald took me on Pastor Kato’s motorcycle around 5:40 AM. We got to Kiwangala as the taxi was filling at the petrol station. It was nice timing and I was able to get on as soon as it finished filling and then we went on our way. The toughest part was getting into Kampala and having to wait for about an hour to get out of the taxi because we had to park before they would allow us to unload.God’s creation is amazing and breath taking at times. As I was traveling the sun was coming up and it was the best sunrise I have seen here. In addition, there are valleys around where I live so we would come over a hill and the valley would be filled with fog that was truly breath taking. It is at times like that I marvel at God’s plan to make us the way He did and blessed me with eyes to see the beauty of His creation.
I picked up my package and was so excited because my parents did not tell me what they had sent me. I went to lunch with a friend after picking my package so as we were waiting for our food to come, I opened it. I felt like it was Christmas but early. I was so excited to see a few new clothes, some red marking pens, a few sewing supplies, and some candy. It was so nice to see Skittles, and Butterfingers, along with some trail mix. One of the hardest things here is getting sweet (candy). There is a limited variety and nothing that we have in the states so it was great to eat candy that I am familiar with. I shared a little of it was my friends, Hezron and David and they were intrigued by the new candy. I treasure hearing for any of you, whether it is in an email, letter, or package. It is great to know how people are doing in the states. If you send me an email or letter I will write back, but it may be some time before I am able to get to the internet or the post office to send you something since I only go into town once a month. I pray that you are all doing well. God’s blessing!
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