As this was yet another stressful week full of lesson planning and resources making, Rachel and I didn’t really get up to many other adventures. We did decide to treat ourselves to a yummy Chinese on Tuesday evening though after both having our tutor visits earlier that day. We headed to the Red Lantern and ordered some dinner including prawn crackers. When they arrived, the crackers were a variety of colours including pink, green and blue. They seemed a little odd but we munched away at them anyway. Rachel ended up spending the remainder of the evening being sick. We are unsure if this was anything to do with the crackers but it seems quite likely as I was also ill the following day. This is just a warning against multicoloured prawn crackers for all of you!!
On Friday evening, Rachel and I headed out for dinner with a few friends. Unfortunately, one of our friends had received some bad news this day so we spent the evening trying to cheer her up. After dinner at Javas, we headed to the good old faithful of Emin Pasha for some live jazz music and then onto Iguanas for some dancing. It was a lovely chilled evening to celebrate the end of teaching practice.
Although it was a struggle, I managed to pull myself out of bed and down to Zai Plaza (a Ugandan shopping mall) for 9am this morning to get my nails done. Wasswa, the nail artist was so excited when I told him that I was heading to Zanzibar the following morning and ensured me that he was going to make my nails look amazing and then I could advertise for him whilst I was away. They did indeed look very good. Everyone commented on them. I’m not sure whether people will want to travel from Tanzania to Uganda thought to get their nails done though.
I spent the rest of Saturday morning sorting out money and other bits and pieces for heading to Zanzibar. Around lunchtime, I headed to Kiwumu slums to visit the street kids and prepare lunch for them once again. Kate and I headed deep into the slum to buy some beef and rice. The rice bag split on the way back but luckily we managed to save it. Whilst dinner was cooking, some of the boys were playing football. Next thing we knew, one of the boys was lying on the pitch. Kate initially ran over to see if he was okay, but after realizing something was wrong, Rachel and I rushed over to attempt to help her. He was unconscious but we didn’t want to move him in case he had any unseen injuries. Whilst Kate and Rachel attended to the boy, I phoned Roscoe (the man in charge at our hostel) and asked him for advice on how to get him to the hospital. Roscoe immediately came to the slum and offered to take him but by this stage (20 minutes later), the girls had managed to get the boy to come round and he didn’t need to be taken to the hospital. Thankfully HM arrived not long after this so he was able to speak to him in Luganda and check that he was fine. This has to be one of the scariest moments of my life. We had no idea who to contact or what to do if the boy died. Did anyone care enough about these boys to come and help?
On Saturday evening, Rachel had organized tickets for us to go and see a talent show in the school that she has been teaching in over the past few weeks. After a long trek down a muddy road, we reached a beautiful school. It was far more westernized than the one that I had been teaching in and seemed to be well equipped. When Rachel had mentioned a talent show, I assumed that it would be in a small assembly hall with a few acts, and a barely audible sound system. Boy was I wrong. They had put in so much effort for the occasion. A stage like you would see at a Snow Patrol concert back home had been erected on their football pitch and they had djs and lights galore. At the interval, they even had local artists perform. Rachel and I had no idea who they were but the kids were going crazy at the thought of them being there. To be honest, I thought that the kids who performed were better than the artists.
Professional Development
This was my final week teaching in Montessori Children’s Academy and involved many different lessons once again. I had the opportunity to go swimming with my Year 2 (primary 3 in Northern Ireland) and get into the pool with the children. Teacher Jen had reminded me on Friday to bring my swimming things to join them in pool and then ended up forgetting her stuff herself. I do feel that it was beneficial to be in the pool with the children as I was able to encourage them to progress a little deeper into the water, which they were comfortable to do when they knew I was there to help them. One little boy kept pretending that he was drowning even though he was a strong swimmer. My stomach was in my mouth most of the time trying to ensure that everyone was safe.
On Tuesday morning, both of my tutors came to visit me during the same lesson. I initially panicked a little at the thought of six adults (the two tutors, the teacher and three classroom assistants) all watching me teach, but it all went well. They both gave me positive reports and said that I would be a great teacher if I continue to teach in the way that I did.
I had the opportunity in school this week to teach the children some more songs. They really enjoyed ‘Our God is a Great Big God’ and ‘I may never fly like Superman’. They were still singing them out in the playground for days afterwards. We also had several weddings in the playground this week. Different members of the classroom were being matchmakers, pairing the others and having a wedding ceremony at lunchtime. One of the little boys even asked me to marry him. He came in the following day and told me that he had to call the wedding off as his daddy told him that he wasn’t allowed to marry anyone older than him and started crying. He wasn’t too upset though as he ended up marrying one of the girls in the class by lunchtime.
Friday was my final day in Montessori. As glad as I was to finish my entire lesson planning, I hated the thought of leaving all of my pupils behind. We spent the day learning about the water cycle and taking lots of photographs to concrete the memories that had been formed there. Teacher Jen helped the children make cards for me during their art lesson and I received a huge hug from every individual before I left (even the boys who are ‘too cool’). One of the little boys told me that he was going to hug me forever as he didn’t want me to leave. I hope to return and visit them again before I return to Northern Ireland.
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