Gulu has been running on generators for about 3 days now; the town is on the same grid. It's pretty amusing to walk through town and hear the humming of the machines. The house has been out of power for the same number of days. So when darkness falls the headlamps and candles are about - unfortunately when this happens, the pump for the water is cut short as well and we have run out of water; therefore, we are taking jerry can baths and sanitizer wipes for cleaning.
With 2.3 weeks left, we have a lot of work to complete: research to finish for our schools (Keyo is investigating the "teaching/learning community" so we have surveys and interviews lined up that Angeline and I concocted), we have to create a handbook to leave with the school that is the work we did in the classroom while we were here (lesson plans/objectives etc), and we were just assigned to complete observations of other teacher teams at our schools, complete reflection sheets for the weeks, and there is a conference (two day) next weekend and we are being asked to investigate a whole 'nother issue (we were told last night, but I am forgetting right now - one school is working on solving the problem of economic instability amongst teachers - to say the least they are heavy issues, but we will be working on it as a whole Keyo Team, Ugandan and American teachers) and give a 20 minute presentation at the conference - it's not impossible, just daunting with issues of illness, days off, transportation, lack of technology - but as they say TIA (This Is Africa)
It was pretty funny this morning because I was walking back from the displaced site (I was planning on teaching today, but Angeline called as we were walking to cancel the day because Justin, her youngest, has been ill) - so I went to the displaced site with Daneen and Lisa and tried to see if the Head Teacher was there to re-schedule our interview for our research - on my way back to the house, Alex (Daneen's teacher) called the phone to tell Daneen that they were on their way to the hospital because his wife was in labor (we have been expecting this) - so it was a moment of panic because I needed to get a hold of Daneen before she left for the original site on the truck to tell her Alex was not going to school today either, otherwise she would have a 30 minute lorry ride for no reason and would have to try to Boda back, not to mention I would not know how to get a hold of her at the original site - so I had to think quickly - I called Florence (Lisa's teacher) and got a hold of Daneen (who had just gotten on the truck to leave) I told her "get off the truck!" so she got home and took off to the hospital to be with Alex and his family - we made it work, for sure!
I am going to visit Angeline today and see how Justin is, we have some research we are participating in for Amy's dissertation and we have to voice-record a planning session; it involves using drama in the classroom. The ironic part of this is that when I first met Angeline she was talking about how it is so important to create these types of activities in the classroom. So, where I do not use drama in the classroom it sounded as if Angeline did. Therefore, I told Amy that she might want to use us in her research (as she is using 2 other team teachers at different schools). Funny part is, Angeline does NOT currently use drama/theater in the classroom, but would like to. So, here we are, two teachers who do not use theater in the classroom and we are trying to create activities to incorporate in the current lessons - note: we are working on prepositions - so somehow we are going to use theater to teach prepositions, how I got myself involved with this, I have no idea! So after recording a planning session Amy will come observe the lesson - I'm pretty sure given our circumstances the lesson will fall on its face, but hey, that's all part of research right? LOL - Pray for our souls on this one!
Thankful for a cloudy overcast day -
Shalom
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