Excerpts from my Quarterly Report - 1

Hello All,

It has been way too long. I know. Blame me. I owe your picture too!

Here is a little excerpt though to keep you going a bit:

Community Integration

Language learning is still as it was three months ago. I am learning words and phrases here and there but I am not advancing as I would like to be. One reason for this is my preferred language tutor is a fellow staff member and she is busier than I am! So now I am contemplating a different tutor, one of the school cooks, so I hope to progress.

Cooking has also progressed with my neighbors. We are teaching each other food preps and have continued making cakes. (Matoke peeling is harder than it looks!)

The World Cup soccer games were a nice way to integrate this quarter too. My husband and I would go to his school and to my counterpart’s house to watch the games. We would talk soccer at our schools and pick our favorites and so forth. It was great seeing their excitement and then being with them during the games.

I have also attended two weddings; one a traditional marriage ceremony and the other was a church wedding. The traditional ceremony was great because it was cross-cultural for all of us. We asked questions and really enjoyed ourselves. Then I was invited to taste the local brew with my colleagues. I do not know if you would call it integration necessarily but I find that sitting with people and talking, whether over food or drinks, is a casual (and fantastic) way to talk openly about what is happening around us.

This quarter I also help spread Ugandan culture. I attended the Busoga Opening Circumcision Ceremony in Mbale. I took many pictures and brought them back to my school. One of my tutors, Madam Zauma, is from that area and she was very excited that I went to the ceremony! She then proceeded to explain what was happening in the pictures to my neighbors and I. She was the only one from that region and no one else had ever been to the ceremony either. It was a great time.

I was also invited to an Ede celebration by my college’s Muslim students this September. They gave presentations about Ede and the Muslim faith. They were completely blown away that I did not grow up in a community with Muslims and that really they were the first Muslims I had talked to about their faith. I think we will have great conversations in the future about faith.

Ok, this may or may not be integration but I feel I have had a breakthrough with my neighborhood children. My husband’s aunt sent us coloring books and crayons. So far each day the kids get a coloring book page and one crayon. They switch colors back and forth and once they are done I tape their pictures to the window so they can see it. Usually after coloring we play games and run around. This helped solved a problem I had with one kid trying to kick me!

Additionally, my husband and I have attending minor celebrations here and there. We have been around our schools more often just to talk and give our neighbors/students/colleagues face time. We both have really enjoyed it.

The gift of Sports

Last term was trying. It took a lot out of me, and even when I had the successes I still knew I wasn't doing all that I wanted and I wasn't being truly myself. I set to resolve that this term both with my teaching and how I was interacting with the students.

To be more of myself, that was the approach I gave myself and I started it with my classes. I already knew that I was goofy looking and the kids all thought I was goofy sounding, so I decided the best way to keep there attention was through a little goofy teaching. I was simply more relaxed with them. I started doing things to keep them engaged just by being a little silly. I started exaggerating examples or mime different actions. The students also are used to chorus answers and shouting things out. I make it a point to tell them I can't hear an answer unless a hand is in the air and I usually make a funny sound to mimic the chatter they create. I started taking role and have been butchering names, but they like it all the same.

The biggest thing is I wasn't as active as I wanted to be and I wasn't as present outside of class as I intended. Last term taught me that the day scholars were a difficult crowd just because they wanted to cut so early, so I turned my attentions to the boarders. We only have girl boarders at my school which I think is an even better set up. First I encouraged Stacey to come to school one day and we just started throwing the frisbee around. It quickly picked up interest and we started an impromptu game of ultimate. The girls had also been clamoring for football for a while so I had snuck to Mbale and bought a used football using money from the Teacher Welfare I get from my school every month. I brought it to school one day and they started pushing for more. I started setting up Thursdays with the ladies, and after other plans didn't materialize, I added Tuesdays as well. The girls have been eating it up. Tuesdays they just scrimmage and have some fun with it and on Thursdays we actually do a little bit of training. They are all enthusiastic about it and they have never had the opportunity to do something like this before.

I hadn't been very active at site and now I have three days a week to run around a little and to show the girls a little different side. Also when I get Stacey to come and play they are even more excited. We are getting to learn each other a little more each week and I have big plans for them. We are setting aside a space in the compound for a pitch just for the girls. Mr. Oriokot and I have started some minor surveying and pacing of the field. We have also had some girls work on leveling some of the ant and termite mounds. I want to also encourage interclass competitions so more girls will come out to practice.

Another good side effect is since I have turned away the boys, they have been pushing more and more for a program of their own. I have challenged them to organize themselves better before I am willing to work with them on this. Even if they get their stuff together I don't know if I will shift focus away from the girls. They have been getting better each and every week and it is fun to watch them enjoying themselves in a place they rarely have freedom. With the school system the way it is and the length and demand of their day, I am happy to add a little distraction for them to cut loose into that chaos. Who knows, everything might change next year if the Head Teacher lets me tackle the time table.

A whole new term

Two weeks. That was the time frame between when our first term teaching at our schools ended and our second term began. Durring that time we had two weeks of training from Peace Corps. We had new ideas pop into our head and we had no time to assess the ideas from last term. We had no time to implement any new improvements or strategies for making our next lessons more successful, making our presence more broad and our impact begin to show. No time to work out all the challenges we experienced in our first 12 weeks of teaching in Uganda.

And somehow everything is different.

Confronted with no time to change, Stacey and I are already feeling so much better about our second term teaching. Some simple changes are already having tangible results. The biggest things so far is Stacey and I are excited and enthusiastic about what is happening at our schools and finally defining our roles for ourselves.

The first thing I have done has been to start playing and letting my personality come through. The students already know who I am now. The initial shock from both sides has worn off and now they are going to get to know me. I have introduced ultimate to the girl boarders and have started doing a somewhat training regiment with football. In class I have found myself being a little more goofy. I let the students laugh at me a little more in class and I let them laugh at each other a little more as well. I tried to make myself available between classes last term, but I am sticking around after school to talk with teachers or be visible for the students. I have also started having Stacey come to the school once a week to interact with the studetns a little as well.

I have really started to focus my efforts on the boarders at the school. The day scholars are just too flakey to involve them because they want be out the door after a half an hour of activity. My first attempt to get to know the students was a discussion group and all the day scholars left after twenty five minutes. At lot of students come back and do work during the evening at evening preps, so I may try to use that time sometime soon to work with them, but I have nothing in the works at the moment.

I also came back to a school where my teachers were a little more excited as well. The science teachers went to another round of workshops and they were really pumped up on the inclusion of computers in teaching sciences. The workshop gave them the challenge to have a computer for ever department and passed out a ton of resources for the computer. I came back to a school where there was a drive to install and use more computers as well as materials to show them. The biggest challenge is teaching them how they can use all the resources and not abuse the information they were giving. One component was a bunch of old exams for every subject and every level so now the teachers don't want to put any effort into writing their own. They just want to print off what is there and give it to the students without really checking whether it is information they have reached or not yet. We will work on that this term though.

Another thing has been my disregard for the syllabus. Last term I was approached a couple of times by students to cover lessons they had already been 'taught'. I started this term with a completely blatant balk of the curriculum and just started with review of chemical formulae, equations, reactions and ionic equations. The students are enjooying having pproblems to work on and getting material they know they will need. So often they arent given the practice just the notes so they are getting so much more out of these lessons compared to their other ones on the same topics.

There have been some draw backs as well. I have already missed a week of time due to All Volunteer Conference and even though it was during beginning of term exams I haven't been able to start a routine. I also started a time table assessment and realized my school is completely inept at formulating a time table, keeping a time table and changing schedules as problems arise. I could literally devote an entire blog post to how messed up my time table is and the lack of effort or action to change any of it. On top of everything I am now starting to run out of time for all the activities I want to work into a week. I am trying to teach computers to the science teachers twice a week, have football twice a week, play ultimate once a week, start my discussion group up again, introduce a pen pal program for the students and address the other interests the students bring up to me. Something will have to give.

All in all things have been really solid so far this term and even though I know there will be other factors to stress us our, momentum is in our favor now. Get ready for a crazy few weeks to come. On our docket is school practice for the year twos for Stacey and the UNEB exam for the Senior 4 at my school. Only four more weeks for them to cram before the most important exam of their lives.

Transportation

Oh transportation in Uganda...How difficult you can be...Hah

(I would like to preface this by saying I love Uganda. Even though this is a rant I love this country and am very happy I am here. After my last frustrating post I remembered all the awesome kids I am here for! Anyway I digress.)

So in Uganda there are several different types of transportation; Bike, Motorcycle (illegal to us), Private Hire, Matatu Taxis, and Huge Buses. And well feet, I guess, but that is not the point today.

Bike transport is awesome and convenient. Tony and I both have bikes to ride around site and when we are away in other towns we could utilize Bike Bodas or Bike Taxis. These are nice and you can actually talk with the Boda men about there day and what is this or that.

Motorcycles are illegal for PC Volunteers to use and ride on.

Private Hire cars are nice sometimes, but can be expensive. We don't use them much but they can have competitive prices and fits lots of people. For example, another PCV learned that ten people can fit into a manual Toyota Corola car. Impressive.

Matatus are what we take most often. Imagine a van in the US but with more seats. Usually you have three people in the front, driver included, and 4 rows of 3 seats in the back. Legally they can carry 14 passengers, the driver, and conductor (the money man). The seats farthest on the left fold down and swing to the side to make an instant row. The matatus are often in varying degrees of disrepair. In our area it is not uncommon for the doors to only open from the outside, the main door to fall off its hinges, windows to be stuck open closed, metal poking out of the far left seats (watch your clothes!), I think you get the idea.

Plus depending on where you live matatus have “bonuses”. On average there are 5 chickens and several rice sacks of posho flour. Monthly we ride with goats. And because we are lucky in Teso, instead of carrying 14 passengers we typically have 20 passengers. Oh yes, bonding time is had by all.

The Buses are roller-coasters. Depending on the company you travel with you could have a bus that is falling a part without any suspension (or a driver without concern for pot holes) or a nice bus. Some even have movies! Poorly dumbed over movies but still movies! These bad boys often have sweet horns as well. High pitched musical squeelings happen a lot. They are just something you need to hear.

Safety on these things is pretty self-explanatory; don't be stupid. Don't take a Bike Boda on a really busy street. Never get into an empty matatu. Never travel at night. Never sit in the back of the bus (you will bounce so high your back will hate you for days).

So today, Tony and I were traveling from Kampala back to our site. Overall the trip went well. It took a long time but that is not uncommon and the bus driver was pretty safe.

This bus was supposed to travel to Soroti; a town past our site and we were going to get off early. Well we got to Mbale (thirty minutes from site) around 7, it was getting dark, and the bus emptied. It was about to over heat. So in light of this new situation our bus conductor made arrangements for a matatu taxi to take the rest of us out to Bukedea, Kumi, and finally Soroti. This didn't sound so bad because there were enough people going that direction to completely fill the taxi. We could have taken off right away. We all wanted to take off right away because it was getting dark. Literally the whole taxi was full and just waiting for the conductor and driver to get there butts in the taxi and leave.

We waited.

The conductor brought 8 pineapples into the taxi because he wanted to take them home. Imagine the annoyance!

We waited.

After our bus conductor made arrangements with the taxi driver and conductor they came over. We thought we were going to get going. Nope. They decided to have all the people going to Soroti get out of our full taxi and get into a different one going to Soroti. They wanted to fill some other one!

Tony, me, and one other person were the only people not going to Soroti! They pulled everyone out and tried to tell us that now our taxi was only going to go to Kumi and would leave right away. Mind you there would be a total of 5 of us in a taxi that usually has 22 people in it on a regular day. BS! I was so mad they didn't just leave with our original group.

Then Tony and I got out of the taxi because we didn't feel safe at all. I mean two white people all alone in an empty taxi at night driving with who knows what people. Bad news. Either they would rob us or once we got to Bukedea make us pay for the empty seats. My gut said they would rob us.

The conductor and driver were not happy. They tried convincing us that they would leave then and the driver said he would “eat the cost” of an empty taxi. We still refused. The conductor then tried to pull over another taxi to take us to Bukedea. We still refused. Now this meant that the conductor had to give us our change back. Which he did and was still trying to convince us to go in the taxi but we kindly thanked him for his efforts and then headed to a hotel.

Frustrating, yes.

Overall good transport, yes.

Glad I listened to my gut, yes.

Had a drink, yes.

Love,

Me

PS – More blogs to come!

Absentee Bloggers

So after setting an unprecedented record of thirty days without a blog post I felt the simplest update was in order. This and the fact that Chris Warren has to send me a facebook message with a reminder that is has been a month since updating. I do not feel too bad though because life has been busy for both Stacey and myself. We have been able to talk to some on skype or facebook chat as well as text and over the phone. And since we share this blog I feel entitled to pass at least half the buck to Stacey as well.

But on to more important things- like what have we been doing this past month. So August started with a bang. Just before the end of the school term the government felt the need to remind us it was there and in control of everything we do. Attention all schools, you must close your term one week early and open back up after only a two week holiday. YEAY US!!!

The reason is because there is the largest amount of students taking the O level leaving exam this year which means many schools do not have the space to give it. Therefore some schools are going to shut down while exams go on and reopen for the rest of the students to finish their term.

My school pulled off a heroic effort and my teachers buckled down and were able to send kids off to holiday with their report cards in hand completely filled out. Many schools didn't even try so I feel like my guys deserve some props. Stacey and I then had to immediately take off for Pallisa to do our language IST. There are stories abound from that, but we will save for another blog post.

After Pallisa we met up with the other people from our training group and all of our counterparts to have a grand ol' time at Ridar Hotel in Seeta. A couple things to note from our training. Twenty nine boarded the plane in New York and flew to Uganda, 29 made it through home stay, 29 made it through future site visit, 29 made it through swearing in, and now 29 have made it through our in service training. That is right we are still batting a thousand.

Time there was great and both Stacey and I accomplished some good things with our counterparts. The best thing I got out of IST was a positive attitude. I realized many of my friends had the same struggles I had, many of them have the same SOB students, many of them accomplished as little or less than I did. I also set some pretty lofty goals with my counterpart, but they are still obtainable and I came back to a lot of enthusiasm from my science department about computers and ICT resources for science classes.

After a week there and an extra night to hang out in Kampala Stacey and I welcomed the trip home. Two weeks away from home is always long and when you are constantly active and engaged with Peace Corps staff or your counterpart one on one it wears you out. And on top of that we woke up the next morning and went right into school.

One week of classes, one weekend a home and then back for training round 3 for our school "holiday." Next on our plate is All Vol or All Volunteer Conference. This is all us putting on workshops for eachother. This is our time to network and meet everyone else in country for the first time. It happens once a year and I am excited, but also nervous about burn out. I promise, we will keep you posted.

Some assignments

So I am by myself tonight because Stacey traveled to Nyondo to visit our friend Alyssa a day early. I have been doing some thinking, as dangerous and abnormal as that is for me, and wanted to lay out some roles for all of you back home.

We have been getting a lot of love from everyone back home and at times it has been overwhelming. We have been asked for package ideas so much our list is almost always exhausted. Here are a few items we will always take though:

Mac and Cheese

Drink Mixes: propel, gatorade, crystal light, etc.

Beef Jerky

Tuna

Pictures

Books

I do have some more specific tasks for a few people out there and this will be updated once Stacey has her say.

Family- Keep up with the love and connection from back home

Michael- Once you get back from Mexico, keep me up to date on the music world

Chris- Find a way for me to not return home weighing 120 pounds

B-Gay- Keep cheering for Arsenal so I always have someone to make fun of as their season folds half way through

Kevin- Give me the inside scoop on the Packers

Mike Lee- Inspirational Texts and RPCV wisdom

Lon- Research a CRC-9 antennae for a Hiawei modem for us

Everyone- BOOKS!

Bri- Keep us updated on your PC developments

Hicks- Support Stacey's crazy bottle cap endevour, the excel sheet is awesome already

Everyone- Travel Plans!

Everyone- Comments on our blogs!

Well thank you for everything and let me know if you want to change up your assignments.

Like I said things will shift a bit once Stace has her input too. Thanks for all you have done already. You really help to keep us sane. I spent over an hour last night chatting with three people at once and it made my entire night. So we will keep buying internet if you keep talking to us online.

Peace

Just an Ol' Fashion Update

So I am sitting here at the kitchen table after a nights work of marking and recording quiz scores and figured I would add my two cents to the blog. As I sit here I am enjoying the smell of dinner which Stacey is so lovingly preparing since I am having a productive night of school work. Coupled with the smell of garlic and onions sauteeing is the sting of fresh varnish, slowly drying on the two new dining room chairs delivered yesterday (only 10 weeks after we put in the order) which was the result of Stacey pestering our local carpenter every half an hour to send them here from town now that they were finally finished.

Due to issues with that carpentry project I took on one of my own, installing boards in our closet to give us some shelves. We have two beautiful and large closets, one in each bedroom, that have been great for odds and ends because while they have the runners for shelves, there was not a single board in place to set a book, bag or box upon. Since there is some minor construction at my school I worked out having a 12 ft board dropped off at my doorstep. My Deputy 2, who is also our Agriculture teacher (Mr. Oriokut), is awesome and also scrounged up a saw for me to use. On both Saturday and Monday I spent an hour or so measuring and cutting two foot sections off of my plank adding three shelves in my tool closet.

My handy work is exceeding not only my own expectations or thoughts of what is possible, but also the thoughts of those at home. While calling back to the land of cheese to give the best friend pep talk to Michael the morning of the wedding I got the quip "Tony, I never knew you were so handy." Necessity is the mother of all skills. And if he wants help with projects around the house when I get back he should be careful with his criticisms. Just Kidding, Michael.

Speaking of the home front, I do want to say congratulations to both Michael and Amelia. This is the event I am most disappointed in missing while being abroad, but I know the Markons were well represented and I have gotten full updates and pictures from the family. It was good to know Brandon kept up tradition as well. Enjoy the honeymoon, ours only beats yours by 719 days.

Also I will have to say I have felt great I have been able to catch more than just my Mom and Dad on the Sunday night (or afternoon for you) calls. It hasn't always been easy to keep in contact either from technology issues, busy schedules or absent mindedness on our part, but the amount of people I have been able to hear voices of and share my experiences with has really made my day. Also remember skype works really well for chatting (typing) and ok for calls.

But now on to life in our sleepy complex. My school term is wrapping up with exams this week and next. Very shortly after that we have some language and technical training for Peace Corps and thanks to the Ministry of Education and Sports we have added a new wrinkle. Late last week we found out that instead of ending the term on the 13th of August we will now be ending on the 6th as well as starting our new term on the 23rd of August. We get a whole two week break, YAY!

In all reality this really sucks.

We get to cram all of our grading into one week, get to go to training for one week and have one more week to prepare for beginning of term exams. Also that leaves only a few days to prepare for new lessons and new classes.

Teaching this term has been a real roller coaster. The S2s are great some days and an absolute handful the next. Classes have been interesting as well because I am still working on a balance with how I structure the lesson. So far it has been dominated with lecture because I only see them once a week for each subject. It is hard to cover both content and practical work with only a 80 minutes a week. Next term I will probably have them more and will change up some of my lessons. The bigger development will simply be switching days in which I have the S2B class. Each class is broken into two streams and right now the only day I see the S2B is on Monday. Monday is also market day and the most common day to skip class. Rarely has attendance been over 50% for my afternoon lesson on Mondays.

The S1 class has been absolute hell. I will save those stories for latter in the year if I ever want to recall them at all. Any semblance of the generic African child striving for education to better their life, is only happy to have a school to go to and just needs someone to give them a chance, has forever been dashed from my mind with the actions of the students in that class. Some days I feel like I could be working with inner city youth.

Things will change a lot, especially with my familiarity of the school, staff and students, for next term. The problem is the time for me to adjust has just been thrown out the window. I do have some big goals for next term. I started a small discussion group just to give students more of an avenue to talk with me and I want to push that more next semester. I also want to lead some athletic program, either football or disc, and try to get some interest drummed up for a club of any kind. I will be working on computer literacy with my staff as we have installed a computer in the staff room and I have been slowly plotting ideas for each level of computer experience. I will also be helping guide the slow, but well intentioned development of a student computer lab. Top this all off with more presence in the S4 preparation for the UNEB exam and my calendar is looking pretty stacked.

I am really jacked for IST because it will be the first time our group is all together since the day after swearing in. And while there is work on the horizion, I am starting to get a feel of what I am capable of, what my school might be able to handle, and where I might be able to squeeze my square peg into the circle that is St. Theresa's Okunguro.