Teaching

Today was my first day at Nullesse Primary School. I was introduced to Josephine, the head master and the entire school at 8:30am this morning, at what they call parade. Parade is the morning assembly of all of the students for singing of the national anthem, school song, and recitation of prayers, as well as general announcements. Every eye was on me as I stood on a block in front of all of the students in their blue uniforms, wondering whether I would be in their class or not. The school is on a compound, surrounded by rubbish that pigs are eating. The floors are made of hard red dirt, the roof from tin, and the walls from sticks, grass and mud. There are chalkboards in every classroom, as well as wooden benches and tables. Children must pay to go to school; this is not easy for many families to do, especially if they have many children. There are three terms a year and each term costs a minimum of 25,000 shillings, which is roughly $20. This is a lot of money in Mukono. As with the Seattle School District, there aren’t enough textbooks to go around, or school supplies; the water is not good; and the teachers must teach according to the Republic of Uganda Curriculum Guide so the students can pass an exam at the end of the year (think WASL). I am teaching P1 and P2, the equivalent of first and second grade. My lessons for tomorrow are on verbs and past tense (English) and poultry keeping/ why do we keep domestic birds? (Science). The latter will be a bit of a cultural difference, but Teacher Mary (whom I am working with) will be able to fill in the Ugandan specifics.

Our diet consists mostly of white rice, beans, matooke, bananas, pineapples, cabbage, and kassava. Yesterday I ate lunch at a place called Best Meals , where I had chicken (with the ribs showing) and chips (French fries). The ketchup was a bright pink color. Sometimes I help Esther prepare the meals, by either snapping peas or tearing the ends off of french beans (green beans). Yesterday Chris, Melina (another volunteer) and I went into Kampala, the capital city, and had African coffee and a pastry at Vassili’s Bakery. African coffee is delicious; it is brewed in milk. Being coffee addicts, we loved it!
At this moment I am sitting in the main lounge area of our building and Natalee is pinning clothes pins to my skirt. Just a moment ago they were on the tip of all of her fingers. She keeps laughing and laughing away, with her beautiful white teeth and big brown eyes. Her laugh is priceless. I just finished folding the clothes that were hung to dry outside. Yes, I did wash my own clothes (for those family members that won’t believe it!). When Chris wakes up from his nap we will go to the Internet Café and post these. The internet is 500 shillings for twenty minutes; that is about thirty cents. Our American money goes a long way here.