Monday night was my first experience of a barbeque in Uganda. The Norwegian girl who I have become really good friends with was leaving on Wednesday, so she decided to hold a barbeque for all her friends at her hostel before she left. The food was really good but not quite what you would expect from a barbeque at home. We had chicken, Irish potatoes, roasted matoke and salad, followed by a food salad of pineapple, banana and passion fruit for dessert. Roasted matoke is definitely the best form of the dish that I have tasted as it actually had some flavor to it, unlike the majority that I have tried. Overall, it was a really lovely evening relaxing with friends including lots of photo opportunities to capture the memories.
On Tuesday I had to say goodbye to Line. It was really difficult saying goodbye to one of my closest friends in Uganda, especially as I am unsure when I will next see her again. As most of you have probably realised by now, we love Chicken Ghetto, so we decided to head there for Line’s last meal in Kampala. Usually it is just roasted chicken with spices and fried cabbage, peppers and tomato that we devour, but as a special treat we bought avocado and asked the ‘chicken president’ (as we like to call him) to add it to our dish. We also purchased some chapattis and then made our own wraps. They were delicious and definitely a good idea. After dinner, the time came to say goodbye, but I will definitely remain in touch with Line and maybe even take her up on her offer to come to Norway and go skiing!
As I am in Uganda for four months, I think that it is essential that I at least attempt to learn a little Luganda. On Wednesday night, I bought a book with some key Luganda phrases in it to try and learn some and one of the security guards from the hostel was teaching me how to pronounce some of the words. I am going to try a little bit more each week and hopefully by the time I leave Uganda, I will be able to at least hold a simple conversation in Luganda. This will be helpful as most of the boda drivers try to talk to you but usually in Luganda and I feel really rude not being able to reply.
Most of my week was taken over by school this week but I definitely enjoyed some new experiences at the weekend. On Saturday morning, our friend HM picked us up and we headed to a shop to buy some Ugandan Crane football shirts. Two hours and eight shirts later, Rachel, HM and I headed to Mandela National Stadium for the Ugandan Cranes v Burundi match. We were running a little late and just as we were walking up the steps into the stadium, we heard a might roar! The Ugandan Cranes were winning 1-0. I got the word ‘mzungo’ on the back of my shirt which several Ugandans found amusing, and I thoroughly enjoyed the match and got into the supporters spirit. At half time a crane flew onto the pitch which caused the entire crowd to erupt but they were even louder when the Ugandan Cranes won 4-0!
After the match we headed to the slums to visit the street boys again. We decided to make them some Irish stew for dinner but it was already dark by the time we got there so it was even more difficult than usual. The boys had never tried this dish before so when we added water to their meat, they thought we were trying to poison them. As we plated up the food, a thunderstorm started so we ate and had devotions under the shelter of the church. The boys loved it and all wanted a second portion. It was already 10pm by now so some of the boys started to get ready for bed. This really pulled at my heart strings as they slept on a bed on bamboo canes tied together and in a potato sack. Some of them didn’t even have a sack to sleep in and the rain was getting into the shelter. I felt so guilty heading back to my hostel and leaving them behind as some of the younger boys were frightened of the storm. Saturday night was definitely the most emotional I have been in Uganda and it has left a lasting impression on me. We are in the progress of arranging a night where we spend the night in the slums with the boys so that we truly understand their way of life. It is going to be an uncomfortable experience but I think it will mean the world to the boys.
Professional Development
Monday morning’s class this week was all about the broad field curriculum. This topic was also continued into Wednesday morning’s class as we discussed the advantages of this integrated approach. Thursday morning’s class was slightly more useful as it was about setting test papers that are going to be beneficial to a class, especially focusing on multiple choice questions. We had to come up with three questions in our groups- one higher order and two of lower order. We had previously chosen the topic of matrices which proved to be quite difficult to set multiple choice questions for, but Rachel, Ian and I worked together and managed to complete the task. This piece of work goes towards our coursework and overall grade for the module.
After class on Wednesday morning, I EVENTUALLY managed to spend my first day in school. The university still seemed to be in progress around the issue so I decide to organize it myself. A friend that I met in Kampala works in Montessori Children’s Academy in Muyenga so she invited me to visit the school and do my placement there. When I first arrived I had no idea where I was meant to be going but I managed to find my friend Rachel, she introduced me to some of the key staff and within no time I was placed within the Year 2 class with Teacher Irene. I was literally in the classroom no more than three minutes expecting to observe and she had me teaching. The class was in the middle of making Easter cards for their parents so she asked me to take over and to help them come up with a message to write inside their cards and some pictures that they could draw to decorate it.
After helping them to complete their cards, Teacher Irene asked me to teach them a song. The only song that I could think of off the top of my head was “Our God is a Great Big God”. Thankfully the children loved it, especially as it had actions to go along with it.
As soon as I had finished teaching them the song, I was handed a book with ideas for art lessons in it and told to choose one to do with the class. The book had plenty of good ideas but as my resources were limited to a sheet of A4 white paper each with some colouring pencils, and the lesson had to be taught immediately without any preparation time, I had to pick something fairly simple to do with them. I decided to talk about different flags with them (including the Ugandan and British flags) and then asked them to design a flag for their own country. Their flag had to tell me something about their country. By the time we finished discussing flags and our ideas, it was lunchtime. Lunch consisted of beef and pilau rice with cabbage. I wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. After lunch we continued with our flags. I asked Irene for a sheet of paper for each child and she had to send a child down to the office to get some as they have zero resources within the classroom.
The children who get the bus home left around 2.45pm but those who did not get the bus did not seem to have an exact time to be picked up. Parents arrived for them between 3pm and 4pm and this seemed normal. There was no bell to end the day like we have at home. The teacher just has to wait for the parents to arrive.
After class on Thursday, I headed to Montessori again. Irene had asked me to prepare a lesson on syllables for the class so I brought a bag of objects with me as a resource. On route by boda, it started to bucket down with rain. By the time I arrived to my classroom, I was soaking wet and even still had the entire class come running to the door to hug me.
The work that the class were set to do before I arrived really shocked me. This is what was written on the board :
1) Write the numbers from 1-300
2) Write the pairs of 2 (2,4,6…) from 2-200
The class is only Year 2 and capable of completing this task but it is just so tedious. I dread to think what would be said to me if that was one of my lessons.
One of the boys in the class who has special needs came up to me looking for attention and I told him that he had to return to his desk and complete his work. Teacher Irene informed me that it was too difficult for him and to ask the classroom assistant if she had a colouring sheet for him to keep him occupied. She didn’t have any so the two boys with learning difficulties were left doing nothing because of their disability rather than being helped. I spent some time trying to teach the two boys their colours whilst the rest of the class completed the task, and the excitement on their faces because they were getting some attention was unreal.
Later in the afternoon, I taught my lesson on syllables. The class seemed to enjoy it and I realised just how clever they were. They were far more advanced than I had expected for Year 2. I printed the word ‘syllables’ on the blackboard and they were able to read it without difficulty.
As I had no class at university on Friday morning, I had to be in school for 7.30am. When I arrived, some of the children were already there. This was the last day of term before Easter so they were having a party. Firstly, there was assembly. It was a special Easter assembly where each class presented something to the rest of the school. Three little girls from the preschool class did some Buganda dancing. It was so cute and funny to watch. Whilst Year 1 were performing their song, a girl in my class came over to me and said that Teacher Irene said I could do “Our God is a Great Big God” with them. I nearly died on the spot as I had only sang it with them that first day and I felt like I was singing to the entire school on my own. After all of the children had performed, the teachers also got up and did some Buganda dancing. They made me join in which was rather embarrassing as Ugandans are all very good dancers with smooth moves whereas I prefer the chicken dance variety of dancing.
After a two hour assembly, my class returned to the classroom for their party and some games. The note sent home to the parents the previous day had asked that the children were collected from school between 11am and 12 noon on this day and when I left at 1.30pm, several parents still had not arrived to pick up their children.
My first few days of experience in school have really opened my eyes to a different classroom than at home. Back at home, we are so used to having multiple resources and facilities for teaching but here, they have the bare minimum. The thing that struck me even more is that I am in a very good school for Uganda so I dread to think what a normal public school is like. I hope to be able to visit one during my time here. Special needs assistance is also non-existent here and I have noticed that it just results in the children falling further and further behind. This has emphasized the necessity for the diagnosis of special needs and how vital it is to cater for these needs. I am unsure whether it will be a possibility, but I would love to spend some time with the two boys I mentioned above, giving them the attention they need to progress. The short time that I am here is now going to make a huge difference in the progress but hopefully it will show the other staff that these children can learn if they are given the opportunity and not just forgotten about.
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