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.