work

I’ve been hanging out in Kayunga a lot these past few months trying to get all my projects established before the term lets out. The library at Bishop Brown is going well. Pupils fill it everyday and we’ve started checking out books. I was a little hesitant to check out books because there are so many pupils and no real way of identifying them, but it is going on well so far. The next step is to have a meeting with parents about allowing their children time to read. Children have so many chores at home that they don’t seem to even have 5 minutes to do their own thing. On Monday, November 24th Wasike (my counterpart) and I will talk to parents. We will try to encourage parents to get involved by helping their children read, but most parents don’t know English. Maybe this could be an opportunity for the parents to learn as well!!! Or at the least the parents will allow them time to read on their own.

The library doubles as a classroom for disabled children taught by a Japanese volunteer (similar to Peace Corps) and she is very involved in making decorations for each coming holiday. One day she ran up to me asking about Halloween and how to teach the children about that. Here class is anywhere from 2 to 5 pupils. She ended up hanging up bats, ghosts, witches, and pumpkins all colored by her pupils. After doing that, pupils who came into the library to read and do puzzles couldn’t stop asking me questions about Halloween. Try explaining the holiday to children and you’ll see how ridiculous it sounds. “Well, we put on clothes to pretend we are something else and go around to different houses to find treats. We cut out pumpkins and put candles inside. We walk around houses that have been made to be scary. We ride in carts pulled by tractors filled with hay drinking hot chocolate.” Their questions, “Do adults dress up too? Why do you waste a pumpkin that can be eaten? Why would you walk into a house that you know is scary? What is hay?” Anyway, now the library is decorated with a huge Christmas tree on the wall and they all know about Christmas.

The library at Bishop Brown has a good number of books, but they keep coming, so Ssezibwa is also getting a library. This is one of the projects I want to finish by the end of the month and hopefully the teachers will allow it to be open over term break since the pupils have two full months off of school.

The computer classes are still happening. The desktop computers at Bishop Brown had been down and those are now working and can be used by any teacher within the town council area. One laptop was placed at Ssezibwa so the teachers there and teachers of surrounding schools can be taught by teachers that have been previously taught. That school is to the south. On the 22nd of this month, I will bring two laptops to Kanjuki UMEA, a school to the north so teachers of surrounding schools to the north can also learn. A big problem with always having the classes at Bishop Brown was transport for teachers so now most teachers and within walking distance of a computer.

Penpal letters have come to a stand still. In the beginning, I was collecting all the letters and sending them home with family member who sent them to the school, but now they are responsible for sending their own letters. Teachers had told me the pupils would be able to afford the postage, but now other teachers are reporting to me that they cannot afford. It has been a bit of a frustrating battle, but hopefully we will find a solution to that problem soon.

The reproductive health program has stopped. We did it at 9 schools in the Kayunga area and also 1 school at Joseph’s site in the east. I enjoyed that program. It appeared to be very beneficial to the girl’s we taught and from what the male peace corps volunteers said, also the boy’s.

The last thing is literacy training for the teachers on how to use the story books in their classrooms. A friend, Brett, came to hold two different sessions. One was on ‘free reading,’ and the more recent one on ‘guided reading.’ Both went well, but it has been a struggle getting the teachers to actually use the books. Next term I will try to push them to use the books enough to see the benefits, but for now the pupils read in the library during their break time.

I have lots of pictures, but like always I have to wait until I get to internet that is fast enough to upload.