The "Reward System," Jackfruit, Football Tournament, Losing Power and Water, Protests Across Uganda!

Although I believe that the solution to many of the world’s problems is education – I'm not so sure that my calling in life is teaching. I am so blessed and happy to be where I am doing what I am doing, but I don’t think teaching is how I’m going to save the world. I'm using a trial and error approach to tackling the worlds problems. But who knows, I still have about 5 weeks left and I got some great advice from two of my brilliant Aunts so things could definitely change!

Last week (4-7) was semi-frustrating and challenging for me. I work all weekend on an English exam for my students, half of them showed up! So I postponed it, and then the students finally took the exam only half of them passed. The ones who didn’t are the students who don’t come to class every day and don’t finish their homework. Its hard to explain to them – if you don’t do these things (come to class and do homework) you are not going to learn English. You are wasting your time and mine. I had my friend Jacqueline, the tailor woman who has been making me some clothes, come into the classroom to translate for me as I scolded some of the students.  I really want to help people here, but I'm realizing that they have to want to be helped. Everyone just expects hand outs or things to come easy for them. When they see me, they think - Muzungu (Swahili for white person) - she has money, she can solve all of my problems and take me back to America with her. I can't count how many people have asked me to take them or their children back to America with me. Its hard to explain how difficult something like that would be.

The kids in the Environmental Education class are VERY excited for the Jinja field trip. We put the date in stone (although nothing is really set in stone here) – Monday, August 15^th. I’m hoping that Paul can arrange a shuttle from Kampala which will save me a ton of money, other wise the round trip with a taxi rental will be about 300,000 ugx ($120). I introduced a “Reward System” as a way to keep track of the students who are doing well in the class. They can gain points by completing homework, outstanding class participation, volunteering to be “on duty” for the week (watching students to make sure they aren’t littering), doing well on the final exam, etc. But they can also lose points for being disruptive in class, volunteering and NOT doing their job, lying/cheating/coping, littering, etc. P5 is still behind on lectures but this week I am doing some “reusing” activities with P6 and P7. We will be making plastic bottles into things like: candle holders, juggling clubs, weights (for weight lifting), bowling pins, lava lamps, "tornado in a bottle," funnels, vases and holders for things, juicers, piggy banks, and maybe even a bracelets if we have time. Its hard to get in all the information I want to teach about the environment, the school only gives me 1 hour a week with each class. There are so many things I need to teach them about. Next week I think we will focus on land, air, and water pollution. I would really like to get to Climate Change including all of its effects and causes. We will see if time permits.

All of the phones here are like track phones; you have to buy minutes which are called “airtime”. When people don’t have airtime, which is often, they “beep” you. Which is they call you and then hang up, so that you will have to call them back and use your airtime. But HA, I have found the solution, I just beep them back!!

Apparently the main source of electricity in Uganda (unsure at the moment what that is) has been minimized so we had 4 days (4^th-7^th) of no power. Wait, it came on for about 4 hours one night. Thursday (7) I went to the SWB house again for dinner. Their neighbor, Major Alex (works for he gov’t) gave them tons of fruit so we had fruit and corn and samosas for dinner. Samosas are like little triangles that are filled with rice or beans. They are tasty, cheap, and probably not that healthy for you haha. I met three new locals that night: Grace, Dennis and Herbert. Grace and Dennis go to a local Primary school (not where I work) and Herbert is one of their older brothers who is my age. They brought us jackfruit from their garden/yard. Jackfruit is so amazing; it taste like starburst and it’s the biggest fruit I have ever seen!! 

Jackfruit in a tree!

They walked me home so I didn’t have to go alone in the dark. People here are very nice about that sort of thing; I appreciate it a lot too. I don’t feel unsafe here, but it just takes one idiot to do something stupid!

I learned on Friday (8) that we could also lose water. There was no water that day from about 7am-9pm so that was a new experience. I went to meet my friend Bangi (a local who works with SWB and is attending University in Kampala next term) and show him how to start a blog. He is one of the most open minded, level headed, reasonable, Ugandans I have met. He has a lot of good thoughts and he is very interested in Journalism. He wants to become a lawyer, and I honestly think he will succeed; he is very hard working and has a lot of determination. Two qualities that are not all that common here. It also helps that he has a sponsor from the US who sends him money for school fees and food. People are capable of are amazing...they only need the opportunity to prove themselves and succeed. After Banji left with the SWB volunteers I finished my work for the school and headed to the football field to watch the football tournament with all of the local primary schools! It was so much fun and very disorganized!! All the schools from p5-p7 had no school and there were so many teams and even more spectators. Each school had their own little cheers and stood behind the opposing side’s goal to chant! The goal was just 3 sticks nailed together. The majority of the teams played with no shoes, all of the teams played with no shin-guards (something that protects your shins from hard kicks and that is mandatory in the US). HOPE school did very well – 2 wins and 1 tie. I have some videos and pictures, but havent had time to upload them onto my computer. Next post will have many pictures for sure.

Acheal and his little brother and older sister stopped over after the games. I got to play doctor again; his sister seemed to have sprained her wrist. They thought the bone had moved to the middle of her wrist when she fell because it was extremely hard in the middle (they thought the hard spot was the bone). Alas, it was just very very swollen already. I splinted it with some pencils and showed them how to wrap her wrist with a stretchy ace wrap. I bought her some ice, gave them some extra money for more ice later, and told her to keep it elevated and NOT to move it if at all possible. It looked awfully painful…. She has not been at school since the accident. That night I ate dinner at Shandraki and Espoire’s house. I wanted to visit Fabrice to practice French but there was no time – didn’t finish dinner until about 10:30pm.

The power came on Saturday night and stayed on! It was a very pleasant change of pace! I made sure to charge all of my things because I had no idea how long it would stay on because it had been out since Tuesday (with the exception of a few hours one of the nights). I was going to go to Kampala over the weekend to meet up with my friend Ilan who is doing an internship with USAID, but when I called him his phone was disconnected. After an email I discovered that he was not enjoying his internship so decided to leave for India and is spending the rest of the summer traveling. That reminded me how lucky I was to have such an amazing experience here in Ndejje; although it has its downs, this place is remarkable.

I don’t think I’ve stressed enough how much dust there is here. None of the roads are paved and EVERY TIME a car or a boda drives by I have to hold my breath. My allergies have been so bad these last few days I thinks because of the a fufu (Lugandan for dust).

On Sunday (10) I went to Lighthouse Gospel International Church in Zana (a village or two towards Kampala). At first it was pretty exciting lots of singing but then the preacher started to constantly ask for money and remind his congregation that God won’t/can’t help them unless they give money to the church. This was coming from the preacher who was preaching from and iPAD!! An iPad in Africa is not a common sight, in fact, it was the first one I had seen.After mass (2 1/2 hours later) I was required to go into the chapel with all of the other “new comers/first timers” and we were pressured into joining the church and I was forced to memorized John 3:16. Want to know a good way to scare someone into never coming back? Do that to them. 5 hours after I had left my house to go to church, I finally returned home to start some school work.

Acheal and his older brother Samuel stopped over on Sunday after church. I had talked to him on the phone a couple of times but this was my first time meeting him. I served them some tea (the power was on so I could use my electric kettle) and shortly after they left Jacqueline arrived to surprise me with a dress she made for me. Last weep, she misunderstood me and cut one of my dresses too short (so I was unable to wear it to school to teach) so to make up for it she made me a new one! It is so beautiful, I am very happy with it. I will post pictures of it soon.

There have been many protests, because of the rise in price of commodity and petrol, throughout Uganda again these last couple of weeks. Josephine, my neighbor who took me to church, works at the Owino Market in Kampala. Owino is the most insane and crazy place I have ever been. Its scares me and I will not go alone, but it is definitely an experience. I will try to take pictures next time I go. But anyways, last week Wednesday and Thursday (6-7) the markets were on strike so she was unable to work. Then Monday the matatus (taxis) were on protest as well. They threatened to go all week but resumed on Tuesday. Read more here.

Monday’s English lessons went well, 4 students and they learned about possessive pronouns and family members. After my English class the SWB volunteers talked me into going to Sipi Falls with them. I have always wanted to go there and I missed my last chance to go with the Italians that Paul lives with. Fearing that this would be my only other opportunity, I jumped on it! I left Tuesday (12) for Jinja and will spend Wednesday/Thursday (13/14) nights in Sipi and then go back to Jinja for the weekend (15-17) like I had planned. The school was 100% ok with me taking off work. I figured they would be, because people do things like this all the time here. “Oh plans have changed we can't do this anymore.” Nothing is ever concert or set in stone here and nothing is reliable. Nothing. NOTHING!

I woke up Tuesday with a sore throat and a bad headache that lasted all day. Traveling from boda boda (motor-bikes) to Kampala, onto another boda boda to go around Kampala, to a looooooong matatu ride to Jinja onto another boda to Bugajali Falls (where Paul lives) was not ideal. But thankfully, the taxis were not protesting any longer; getting to Sipi would have been near impossible and would have cost an arm and a leg. I hope I'm not getting sick; I'm going to take extra good care of myself these next few days to ensure I stay healthy. I am in Jinja now, feel betting and waiting for the rest of the crew to head North East to Sipi. It will take about 5 hours on a matatu (can't wait) but everyone around has been saying its nothing short of spectacular. Great wildlife, tons of hiking trails, and apparently the scenery is second to none. I believe we are going to  hike the three water falls that are in Sipi and hopefully take a coffee tour. They also offer rock climbing and abseiling, but we will see if my wallet can afford their tourist prices. Looking forward to this mini vacation :)

Sorry for the lack of photos - next post will make up for it! Videos and photos galore!