Also, for the record I am having horrible internet troubles right now. There are more picture but they're just not uploading : /
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| Rachel & I going out for my birthday!! |
The month before my birthday we had school break. The public schools in Uganda have 3 terms, which last about 3 months each, then a month in between terms for school break.
The first week of school break was spent at a training near Kampala. This was for all the volunteers that came with me in November an their Ugandan counterpart (the local teacher they work closest with). The workshop focused on the work we will be doing for the next two years. This includes but is not limited to implementing small reading groups, building/improving libraries, using alternatives to corporal punishment, and developing secondary projects.
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| My ccounterpart, Jacinta, accepting her certificate |
My counterpart is awesome! Her name is Jacinta, she is about a year older than me. I'm super lucky because she's progressive, smart, and an all around cool chick! She also has the most adorable little boy who just turned 1. His name is Gabriel, but we call him Gabby and he's really warming up to me! He and I kick the soccer ball around during school and he's taught me 'samba omipera' (kick the ball).
The next week myself and some friends went east to Jinja to see the source of the Nile River. We stayed at a cool place that look out on to the Nile, it was beautiful. One of the days a few of us went kayaking on the river with a local guide, Abraham. We started off paddling against the current, next, we went into a cool cave, then poured some drinks/opened some beers and lazily floated down the river back to the site. (FYI there are not alligators in tis section of the Nile : /)
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| Our view |
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| Getting into the kayaks |
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| Us and Abrihim (note the cooler!) |
After our little excursion on the Nile we continued more east and little north to Mbale. This town is right next to Kenya near Mt. Elgon.. We met up with some other PCVs and basically chilled by the pool for a few days.
Okay now you're probably wondering... "How did you get all this free time? I remember you saying you only had a few days off a month!?!". My answer is loopholes!!! Before traveling to Jinja I stopped at a friends site and made instructional materials with her for her reading groups. While relaxing by the Nile I met with another member of VAC (Volunteer Action Committee) to discuss what we'd present at the upcoming meeting. Then finally in Mable, well in Mable, I just utilized one of the 'free weekends' we get and, like I mentioned earlier, chilled ; ). (We are allowed two weekends a month to be away from our site, it's a nice luxury advocated for us by our country director!)
So after Mable school break is a little more than halfway finished. Myself and my friend Rachel decided to go to Masaki to help clean out another volunteers science lab (loopholes baby!).
A little background: 75 student in a classroom is considered small in Uganda. This makes buying books/materials/etc. for each student nearly impossible. So when a school receives materials it's stored away in closets, shelves, head-teachers offices, because 1. There is not enough for all the students, thus planning a lesson around them is difficult 2. The teachers (especially with science equipment) don't know how to use the equipment 3. The teachers don't trust the students with the equipment. These reasons are just more verification for a PCV to be at these schools. 1. We can train teachers to use whatever equipment they have despite their class size 2. We can train the teacher how to use them 3. We can develop initial lesson to teach the students about lab safety/how to use equipment/etc. to familiarize them with the equipment.
Anywho, we spend about 4 hour going through two closets of some pretty awesome science equipment; of course we had to battle the infinite cockroaches, dead bats, gecko poop, and spider webs first!
Now, correct me if I'm wrong but I think that feat deserves a mini vacation!? (that's what we thought). So us and a few other PCVs met at the islands in Lake Victoria. Myself and 3 other girls traveled to the Sesse Islands via the WORST roadS I've ever been on. Our trip to the islands sounds so glamorous but our actual trip was comically horrible. We mockingly called our trip 'Sex in the City 3: Sesse Islands', identifying each of us as one of the main characters, me being Charlotte ; ), and made mocking jokes throughout this excursion. I'd also like to add that a few days before this I was violently ill, and my stomach wasn't performing at it's best.
SO, the 4 of us crammed in the back of a little van meant for 7 but actually had 12 AND there was jerry-cans of gasoline in the back (we were off to a good start). In this car we drove an hour of the bumpiness road I've ever been on that lead to the CREEPIST dock I've ever seen; it didn't help that it had just stopped raining. From there we waited for the ferry that would bring us to the island. (surprisingly the ferry wasn't as shoddy as your probably picturing). Once we got to the island all 12 of us got back in the van and got on another bumpy, curvy, swerve-y dirt road. About 30 minutes into a young girl threw up, so that was nice. A little while after that we had to stop for 20-30 minutes to wait for a rock to be blown up so we could pass. FINALLY, we got to the little town, Kagalangala, where our little resort was waiting!
We stayed there for a few days (using the second and finally free weekend), lounging, canoeing around the island, and eating PB&Js (remember volunteer "salary").
On the way back to my site I stopped and met friends in Kampala and we went out for my birthday, having a lot of fun! I was able to enjoy a delicious burger, a whiskey sour, and a mimosa!!
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| Rachel and I, again before going out, again |
So now I've been back at site for a few weeks, and I'm starting a lot of projects I'm excited about. I've implemented a 'Teacher of the Week' to motivate my severely underpaid colleagues. I've also developed and implemented 'English Speaker of the Week' to encourage all the students to use English (that's the language they are assessed in, so knowing it is helpful). I've started my small reading groups, and more teacher trainings. The project I'm most excited about is the building a library at my school!! There is SO much going into this project so I'm just going to dedicate another post to that. Be on the look out because this is going to be an awesome project and I might need your help!
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| The pupils excited to see who gets the award! |
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| The recipients from each grade! |
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| Calling out the names! |
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