SAFARI!!!!!

Part of the Safari Team!

I went on an African safari! I can’t even believe it! How many people can say that? I’m talking- standing in a van with a raised roof, African animals walking right next to you, savannah landscape… this was like The Lion King brought to life, and I got to experience it! It was totally worth it.

There were 8 of us from our group who decided to go. We went to a beautiful place called Murchison Falls, where there was African jungle and savannah pretty much right next to each other. Six of us traveled on Thursday night to meet our country directors already in Kampala (the capital of Uganda). We had taken a taxi there, and again I was reminded how much I don’t like taxis here. The back of the seat in front of me was broken, and the man in front of me was leaning so far back that there wasn’t room for my feet on the floor. I sat sideways with my knees pulled to my chest and the seat in front of me digging into the side of my legs. I’ve never really had a claustrophobia problem, but I think I might be getting one! Sarah Blackhurst was my lifesaver that night. She sat next to me, and would stroke my arm and let me listen to her ipod to try and maintain some sanity. What seemed an eternity later, we made it to Kampala. We then took bodas to the hostile where we were staying. We’d heard what its like to be on a boda in Kampala (let’s just say not very safe) …but luckily, no problems! Actually, I rode a boda with Abby, and our boda went a different direction than everyone else’s. We kept asking our driver, “You are sure you know where it is?” Here we were in this huge city we didn’t know at all, with a driver we’d never met, its dark and we’re going pretty good speeds. But we got there with no problem (and maybe with a little prayer.. : ) ). That night Sarah Kidd and I shared a bed (someone had to, and actually once I realized it, I knew it was going to end up being Sarah and I in that bed! But I didn’t mind.) I fell right asleep because I was exhausted (and a little cranky from the taxi ride). The next morning our Safari guide, Eddie, came to pick us up in the safari van. There was so much room! It was glorious! We stopped to have some rolex from a street vendor, then we were on our way to Murchison Falls. I slept for a lot of it, until we reached the park. This was the jungle part of Murchison. Before we even got into the park we saw all kinds of chimps, one of them stealing for a local nearby. It was really neat. Eventually we drove to where we were staying- a place called Yebo lodge, which was really a series of bandas. A banda is a mud hut. That’s right. I slept in a mud hut on a safari! Talk about legit. We did have beds with mosquito nets though. And I’ve never been so grateful for a net. (When I crawled into bed later that night there were dozens of mosquitos just sticking to the net).

That day we went on our first game drive, and we went on two more in the days following. We saw tons of kob (kind of like antelope), 3 lions, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, antelope, monkeys, a leopard, a jackal, LOTS of giraffes, (my FAVORITE). Sometimes the animals were pretty close to us, and other times I was amazed that our guide was able to see them. We saw every animal that we really wanted to see and had a great time. I’ll let a few pictures tell the rest. I loved it!!

Elephant!!

Giraffe

Poor picture of a chimp

The Funny Things Said...

Jessica, a teacher at Fairway Primary School

I love the cultural differences that I’ve been able to experience since being here. Some of the things people say I can’t really imagine being said in the US, at least not in front of me. But here, I find it hilarious!

Boda boda driver:

“You are heavy. I think you eat nice meals.”

(Yes, thank you, my self esteem just shot through the roof :) )

Our teacher friend, Jessica:

“Oh no! The mosquitos, they have gotten your face!”

Me: “Actually Jessica, that’s acne.”

Jessica: “What’s acne? Oh, your skin? It does not like the weather?”

Me: “Right…it does not like the weather…”

Random man I met at the church in Kampala:

(as I walked past him without saying anything)

“You will not greet me??”

me: Oh, I’m sorry. Hello, how are you?

Man: Fine, how are you?

Me: I’m doing well, thanks. What’s your name?

Man: (tells me his name)

Me: I’m called Ashley.

Man: Are you married?

Me: No, I’m not married, I’m single.

Man: I want to marry you.

Me: Well….sorry. You’ll have to keep looking.

(Wow, and all this time I thought marriage was a miracle! Who knew it could be this easy :) )

Jude, a young man in the branch. He was talking to Sarah and I about dating in the US:

Sarah: “Every boy loves Ashley. They just line up to date her” (ps, not even remotely near a fragment of the truth)

Jude: Oh, so they like her because she is heavier?

(again, thank you. I may need to see a therapist upon my return :) )

Music Competition

Unfortunately, along with a lot of other posts, this one is way overdue! A couple weeks ago, our team found out about a primary school music competition that was being hosted here in Mbale. We thought it’d be a cool cultural experience, and also a good way to be more involved with the schools, so Sarah and I wanted to attend. On the day of the of the competition, we had some other things to do, but since it was an all-day affair, we showed up a few hours after it started. As we approached the gate to Northroad Primary school (where it was held) we saw a small crowd of people outside. We joined the crowd to see what was happening. Apparently they had closed the gates, and since the place had filled, they weren’t allowing any more in. So as Sarah and I were standing around deciding what to do, a man inside the school comes up to the gate and starts yelling, “Open the gates! Let them in!” We didn’t really know why, but suddenly we were invited in and the gates closed behind us. Then we walked up to the table where you pay for entrance. There we saw another teacher friend, Apollo. He spoke with us for a minute, and we asked him how much it cost to get in. “Oh, for you it is free,” he said. We assured him we’d be willing to pay like everyone else but he insisted. So we left the table and made our way to the hall where the performances were happening. I began to see why they weren’t letting any more people in, the place was packed! So much so that you really couldn’t move much. Chairs were long since gone and people were just packed in every corner. Dancers were lined up waiting to go on stage, and I began to wonder how we’d even make it inside. But then a young man spotted us, told us he knew where we were sitting, and parted the crowd until we got inside. There we saw some other volunteers from our group and sat with them, after others insistently gave up their chairs to us. Once seated, I heard the MC talking. He said, “And we’d like to thank our American dignitaries who have just joined us…” American dignitaries? If only he knew that I was a nobody in the US! We hadn’t met most of the people at this competition, but just because we were from America they treated us much better than we deserved.

The dances and performances were awesome. I was impressed with the energy of the youth and their creativity in costumes. They also did some speeches and poems, some of which I videotaped and could show you when I get home!

Buna Buyoka

Buna Buyoka is a tiny mountain village. Maybe 200 people live there. For the majority of the earth’s population, you’d never know that they existed. In fact, I wonder how they were discovered. They live at the very top of this mountain, about an hours hike straight up from the road (and yes, it was a hike). One of our NGO partners, CFA, have a motto that they “touch the untouchable and reach the unreachable”. I like that, because this village they found certainly fits the description. Several weeks ago members of our team hiked up there with CFA to do some evaluation. The overall consensus was that Buna Buyoka needed a school. CFA gathered a few volunteer teachers together months ago, and now they meet in basically their only building-a church, or maybe outside if the church is occupied. The elders of the village said that they realized it was too late for them, but not for their children, and education was the most important thing to them.

So the team called in “the teachers.” Sarah and I have lost our identity while we’re here, and now we are affectionately called “the teachers” because we are always together. Last week on Tuesday we traveled up there with the project lead for the school, Devin and a couple members of CFA. The plan was for them to work on the building of the school while Sarah and I met with the teachers.

On the hike up, Devin kept saying, “We’re almost there” “we’re almost there,’ and I was thinking, “where is this place?” But we finally made it. I knew when we had reached it because suddenly there were like 50 kids coming down the mountain singing a song over and over again about “welcome visitors”. They were darling. They sat us in front of their church and the children sang songs for a while. Not too much longer they ushered us in to have breakfast, which consisted of roasted maize (corn) and tea (which is really water, milk and sugar). After that Sarah and I met with the teachers for a couple of hours. We asked them about their greatest challenges, and learned that their highest schooling was S4, about the equivalent of a high school diploma. They have had no training in education or teaching, and their English wasn’t as good as the other teachers Sarah and I have worked with. (Luckily, one of the CFA members stayed nearby in case we needed help with translation.) Sarah and I visited with them about basic lesson planning and management, professionalism of teaching and other things. In what felt like an hour later, we were told it was time for lunch. They fed us heaping amounts of rice, beans, posho, and other traditional food. Then we went to finish meeting with the teachers. I really don’t feel like we did much good, I hardly knew where to begin. At the end of our session though, Sarah and I asked them to write down some of the goals they will work on for teaching, and many of the things they mentioned were things we had discussed, so hopefully something sunk in. We are also hoping to invite them to our final teacher seminar this Wednesday.

After all the teacher talk, we got to just play with the kids and Sarah taught them a dance. We had a great time. Before we left, Devin told me that this small village had been praying for years for white people to come and help them. I don’t know how much help we really are, but I’m certain God hears the prayers of those good people. He also hears my prayers, because while we were on the mountain top it was pouring rain. The rain beat against the tin roof of the church so hard we couldn’t hear each other at all. So by the time we were ready to go, the ground had turned to slushy mud, and I was ready to mudslide down the mountain. I took two steps and had to hold a tree branch to keep from falling, it was so slick! One of the older men of the village (called “chef” because he makes a lot of the food) grabbed my hand. He literally pulled me down that mountain, and stayed with us the whole way. I had taken off my shoes because my feet had better traction in the mud, and when we stopped at a small spigot, he washed my feet and legs and the hem of my skirt. I was so touched by this man, and by this whole village.

Devin and I agreed that they are some of the closest people to God. Both in physical and spiritual proximity.

Some boys from the villageTeacher Talk
Joseph and Mary
Building the school

How can you resist them?
The village

Teachers Strike

Today Sarah and I had an appointment to go and video tape our favorite teacher-Apollo. He had attended the science teacher seminars, and had asked us to come and watch him. We were so impressed when we did, that we wanted to record him and play portions of his lesson in the next seminar. When we showed up to Bujuloto Primary School, everything seemed normal at first. We were ushered into the headmasters office to sign the visitor's book and spoke with her for a few minutes. But then she explained to us that the teachers were on strike.

Last week the President of Uganda, Museveni, announced that there were not enough funds to raise teachers salaries. The speech, I believe, was broadcast on the local radio station last night, and today, nearly all teachers have gone on strike-everywhere. Apollo was the only teacher at the school. Beyond him was the headmaster and 2 deputy head teachers, but they were the only ones there. "What are all the students doing?" I asked. Gertrude, the headmaster told me that the students were still working at their desks without a teacher. This is crazy, I thought. We left her office and waited for Apollo to be ready to teach his lesson. I walked past a P1 class that looked like it was getting rather unruly. I stepped inside to find the over 100 students copying numbers from the board. There were 2 older girls with sticks who were walking around and whacking them if they got too much off-task. Despite not having a real teacher, they still stood and greeted me in their usual choral response. I walked around for a couple of minutes praising the students on their writing and they calmed down considerably. Then Apollo taught the lesson he had so carefully prepared, pulling in students from other grade levels to fill the room because many pupils weren't there. After the lesson the headteacher excused all the students from the school.

On our way back home, we found a crowd of students outside the municipality's office demanding their teachers back. I don't know how long the strike will last, but this is crazy.

ps, I found out how much teacher salaries are. They are paid about 200,000 UGX. aka, $76/month. And I thought I was paid poorly.

Here's a link to read about it:
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1208418/-/bl1svaz/-/


Sarah and I with Apollo's class

One of our favorite teachers, Jessica.

Project Update:

This week we taught the last of the practical science teaching seminars! There were hiccups here and there, but overall it went really well. With all the seminars combined, there were over 200 teachers trained in the scientific method, (they’ve never heard of it) higher-order thinking skills, inquiry teaching, assessment, active participation, and other things. We also showed (in small groups) 15 science demonstrations or experiments that use materials that cost either nothing or very little. The demonstrations all came from the Ugandan curriculum so the teachers can actually use them.

The response from the teachers was very positive. On the first day of the seminar, we took surveys to see what people thought or what they would change. In the “other comments or suggestions” section, over 70% of the teachers said they would suggest future seminars, or just longer seminars so there is more training time. We have also heard of several teachers who have already started to share the information with their colleagues (YES!). Right now we are trying to organize one more seminar that will be for the head teachers. This one will focus on student-centered learning and inquiry, and how the head teachers can sustain the information we have already given the other teachers.

Through the seminars, we have become good friends with Mike, the District Education Officer. He has been extremely helpful, and he is so supportive of what we’ve done. He even introduced us to his boss, the Chief Administrative Officer- over all of education in Mbale. He also seemed impressed with what we’ve done, and they agreed that we could go to the Teacher Education College this week! That way we can get an idea of how the teachers are trained, and start at the root of the problem.

The seminar

Jordan teaching condensation

If Only Missionary Work Was This Easy...

Also last week Sarah and I went to recruit for our English classes. We’ve had a steady number of 10-20 usually, but some days there are more attendees than others. So we went down to a supermarket and bought something similar to poster board, and made signs about the class. We knew of another popular supermarket (called BAM) so we were going to stand outside there and tell people to come to English class. Well, unfortunately, we never made it to BAM. All we did was hold up the signs as we walked, and we were stopped every few feet. It was crazy. Everyone sounded interested, even if they didn’t actually make the effort to come to class. In fact, we had people sign their name on a sheet of paper if they were going to come, and in less than 2 hours, about 70 people signed up. Really, only ten of them came to the next class, but I was still impressed. One man in particular, Anthony, started recruiting for us. “Come here,” he said, “these people who live here don’t know English.” He showed us this slum area where sure enough, English was fairly limited. He translated for us, and was the one who brought the ten people with him to class. “Next time I will bring 20!” he said. I guess we’ll see how it goes tomorrow!