Recapping the last few months

Sep 5th-6th I joined some fellow PCVs in Jinja for a weekend of bridge (yes, the card game)
Sep 7th The term began
Sep 25th-27th I traveled to Kenya
Oct 12th Senior 4 students began exams
Oct 24th-31st I was in Kampala for a Peace Corps training on life skills
Nov 5th Exams for S1, 2, 3 and 5 begin
Nov 9th Senior 6 students begin exams
Nov 27th Term ends, students get their report cards and everyone goes home
Nov 28th – Feb I’m still working on this bit but it will probably include some long drives, good food and tall mountains

Kenya: A good friend of mine’s father passed away. She’s the school’s bursar and a lecturer at Busoga University (who is also doing her masters and raising three kids…). So a group of people from the area went to Kenya for his funeral. First off her place is a long ways away. Migori – it’s basically in Tanzania. So we left at 7am, and arrived at 8pm. Many thanks to my aunt who sent me The Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - it was a great read and kept me entertained throughout. The scenery was pretty spectacular, changing from arid to cool and moist and back again. After arriving we stayed up for a while, greeting people and watching the dances. Most people started trickling home around 11pm, and I crashed in my sleeping bag on a wonderful patch of flat ground. I was gently woken around 1am for some supper and tea and then promptly fell back asleep.

Sunrise was early and beautiful. Her place is far away from any town so it was quiet and peaceful and flat. It reminded me of the southwest a little, though the plants were completely wrong. We tried to help in bits and pieces with the cooking and serving of food, but often as not we were politely turned away. Around 10am or so the ceremonies began with singing, dancing and rejoicing that Mr. Aketch’s soul had moved on. Prayers and testimonies were given by friends, relatives, and a politician or two. Unfortunately, we had to leave early to avoid traveling at night. I wish we could’ve stayed longer, the place was beautiful and the people very kind. We reached Kisumu around 7:30, scrounged some dinner (a lot harder than it sounds; we ended up with fries and bananas). Sunday was church, with a very interesting preacher...from Tucson, AZ. Go figure. Then a little shopping before heading back home.

Life Skills: we stayed in a nice hotel with good food, friendly people, and a pool! I went swimming about twice a day. We had some interesting discussions about what could and should be talked about, especially with Ugandan students. Should we talk about condoms? How about masturbation? How young? What can be done to discourage girls from dropping out of school? (My school has more girls in S1 but more boys in S4) We also played a lot of games that are supposed to encourage various life skills. If you know me, you know I had a lot of fun.

Exams: went well. I’ve finished marking Senior 5: the lowest mark was 24/80 and the highest 56/80 so not great, but not too bad either. I’ve started marking Senior 2 biology: two students got 19/20 on the multiple choice section! The short answers seem to have been more challenging, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

A Busy Week

So here's what I had wanted to post a while ago, but got foiled by incompatible systems...

Last Monday (Sep 7th) was the beginning of term and we jumped right into exams.
Thursday the Kabaka tried to travel to Kayuga, was impeded by Museveni and sparked riots throughout Kampala.

Friday we had a meeting about starting a garden at school.

Saturday was for laundry, cleaning, and gingerbread (I’d found molasses from the local waragi man!). Okay some explanation is needed there. Waragi is the local home brew made from millet and molasses and probably a bunch of other things that I don’t know about. It would been interesting to learn but I don’t like hanging around there too much (I don’t want to spoil my reputation…).

Sunday I went to church with Mr. Mbiro and attempted internet – which was out of power. I came back in time for chemistry with Barbara, bread, and more gingerbread. Then I stayed up late marking S2 papers and preparing my lesson.

Monday found us beginning classes and discussing the arrest of the librarian on charges of defiling an S2 girl (turned out he was innocent and had just offered the girl a place to sit when his neighbor wasn’t there. He was still in jail for 3 days), and a good rain for the first time in a while. I also picked up my package from Aunt Barby (t-shirt, book, National Geographic, puzzle, cat toys and Sees candy!).

Tuesday was laundry, digging, school, and then market day and a lot of wandering around town. I stayed up late watching The Wedding Planner and eating a Sees Candy Lollipop. Mmmm….

Wednesday I had my first math lesson (wonderful), got three banana suckers (used to grow new banana trees) from the head teacher, and had just sat down with Eva (a student) to talk biology when it started the hail! This turned into a downpour which lasted over an hour. We took refuge in the girls’ hostel where Matron (who runs the hostel) taught me some Lusoga.

Friday was math, after which a student walked up to me and handed me his assignment. In Braille. So, now I’m trying to learn Braille which is like learning code, so a lot of fun. We have two teachers at my school who are blind and they are both helping me to translate what my student writes and to learn how to read, write, and type Braille. At lunch I volunteered to join a poultry project. The garden project is underway - Madam Rebecca says the man with the plow will come tomorrow; Mr. Dhimbuzzi says some S5 students are interested and proposed Saturday for making a nursery bed; construction has begun on the chain link fence that they’re putting in near the guesthouse. This will hopefully the crops from the goats as we start a vegetable garden. I tried internet again with no luck, but had a wonderful evening with Madam Everline and Madam Hope. I found Peter at Christine’s when I came back, so I have now begun Braille lessons. It’s been quite the time, and we’re still not off ‘Stand fast’ from the riots last weekend.

9/19 –
We are now officially off ‘standfast’ and everything is calm. The plow man has still not come and many teachers went for burial today so there was no discussion with S5 students; the chain link fence has been put off until the chicken house is completed (hopefully Monday). So the gardening project is delayed, but should be back on track next week.

I'm okay

Last weekend there were some riots in Kampala surrounding a disagreement between Museveni, the president and the Kabaka, or king, of Buganda - the kingdom that Kampala is located in. This is just to let everyone know that I am fine and never felt I was in any danger. As I am in a different kingdom, the only affect I saw were some interesting discussions in the staff room.

I had written a longer post, but vista and XP are not compatible...

I hope you're all well.