The past few days have been an adventure to say the least! On Saturday I "led" the second group of teachers (they arrived 2 weeks after our group, there are 18 of them) on the Rhino Sanctuary trip. I did not attend with Group One due to finances, so the reality of the blind leading the blind was manifest. It actually went pretty well, and I was really just the point person for logistics (transport, accommodations, monies etc) and I got to see the rhinos for free! We took off from Gulu 10am Saturday morning and arrived about 3 hours later to this amazing sanctuary for rhino's in their natural habitat. We arrived at 1pm, dropped our gear off into these guesthouses and then went a'trekkin - we saw 3 rhinos (2 pregnant females and the dominant male) - I was literally standing 10 feet from them. They werefirst at rest beneath a tree and then some 10 minutes after we arrived they got up and were feeding and walking around and there we were (apparent little stick figures to them, I suppose) following them on foot as they grazed and roamed. It was so great. We stayed the night at the sanctuary and came back Sunday afternoon. Now, I do believe I have failed to mention that 20 high school students from the US arrived Friday night at the IC house where we are staying. They are students whose schools are participants in the Schools For Schools program for Invisible Children. Here, international high schools partner up with a specific school in Northern Uganda that IC works with and they raise money directly for the school - it is quite the amazing program - it is how Keyo SS (Displaced) will be able to move back to its original site: Schools for Schools funding. So, these teenagers arrived on our doorstep Friday night - well, let's just say that the house was not built for so many - There are 3 bedrooms that hold 2 3-tiered bunks, plus a garage, and an attached building with 2 more rooms with the same bedding situation. The garage has been transformed into a bunk-dorm for the students, as well they are scattered amongst us teachers - it is great that they are here, and I think it's a phenom. experience for them, all the while there is ONE shower in our building for 30 people (NO EXAGGERATION) and with minimal water and a pee-only toilet, it's been quite hectic. I have found myself getting up at 5AM to shower so I don't have to wait in line - prep school was enough for me in those regards. Regardless, they are some great kids and have been really encouraging to have around!
Now, Sunday night Group 1 (my crew) returned from Safari - and these poor souls - it has not really rained since we have been here, and on their way back from the park they had two tires blow on the glorious mutatu and they were driving in the mud on an axle for the rest of the way and did not get home until 10pm - so it was a crazy, late, muddy, full night on Sunday eve - then, yesterday, Hero (Amy's daughter) was discovered to have lice, which created a full lice check of ALL HUMANS in the house and massive cleaning (a louse, I have not:) poor Agnes has been doing laundry all day. Only 3 other adults were found to have the lice; interestingly enough, is is those who went on Safari - so, the Safari crew came back with some bugs as well as some other unfortunate stomach problems - praise God for being poor and on the Rhino trip!
This week has been GREAT in class, I really wanted to focus on being right in the moment with Angeline and we created some excellent preposition activities:) We wrote out 35 sentences (simple ones) that were imperatives (commands) that the students could perform in the classroom. We then paired them up and they had to come to the front of the room and one student read the command aloud while the other performed the command - it went over soooo well. After each pair 'performed' we asked what the preposition was and they all knew! It was a riot because we had created commands like "Go to the latrine" and "Run after the ball" and so they were doing just that - the students loved it and we had FULL participation. Angeline and I have been working on breaking the 80 minutes of class into 2 40minute sessions (ex: 40 minutes grammar 40 minutes reading comp) as opposed to the usual 80 minutes of one focus - this way the students get that much needed mix - it worked perfectly today, after the activity we finished a reading comp. activity identifying main ideas of a paragraph. It was an exhausting time (3 times in a row with no break), but Angeline was really happy with the planning and timing - it's been a good teaching week so far:)
For now, I got back to the house from school today and Amy asked me to run the Roundtable discussion at Sir Samuel Baker Secondary School. Since all of the lice drama, she has no time to do that with all of the other logistical work (Group 3 comes in today). So, I am off to pick up sodas for the RT and Boda off. Roundtables are held weekly at each of the schools that are participating in the Teacher Exchange. It is a time for Ugandan teachers and American teachers to come together at the same time at their school and do some team building, discussion, evaluation etc. Therefore, my day just got very squished. I am to type up the work we have been doing for our Conference and print out copies for our team - sounds easy but when there is not an available printer hooked to an acutal functioning computer it becomes a fascinating ordeal. The RT is at 4pm and I will have my Boda wait for me and I will return to the internet cafe' to return Joanna's computer to her (I have been working on her MacBook lately) at 530 and then I will have to get to Ma's computers to type up our notes and print them out before they close for the evening. Omony Alex (Daneen's partner teacher) asked if we could have the notes before our RT on Thursday, so I am working to comply...
The conference is this weekend, wish us well!
Shalom
|
