Saturday, 31 May 2014
Tuesday, 27 May 2014
The Third and Final Term
After the best holiday ever we've found ourselves back at school for our third and final term as teachers in Uganda. As I'm writing this we have exactly 10 weeks and 4 days left and I say it all the time but it absolutely doesn't feel real. ALL of that stupid homesickness or tiredness has vanished and I'm enjoying being back so much! All I needed was the best holiday ever to refresh me and I'm back and seriously enjoying working harder to make these last months count.
At school I've planned and started a new topic of speaking and listening. The freedom to teach whatever I wanted that I previously found limiting through my inability to gauge that they needed to learn, had become a blessing as I decided to use my class time to do activities that involve the children exercising their free speech, improving their spoken English and raising their confidence - things that the typical Ugandan 'talk and chalk' teaching that I'd recently adapted to doesn't really do. They're gaining skills completely outside of the curriculum and the annoying reality of Ugandan exam system is that it won't help them to pass into the next year - a typical example of an English exam question might be: "'Bethany likes Uganda more than England.' Rewrite this sentence using: --- prefers -- to --." or "Complete the proverb: 'An early bird...". - HOWEVER, the most successful Ugandan's I've ever met have been the ones with the best spoken English skills and I feel like what I'm doing in that classroom, with time, can actually make a difference. And it's a lot more fun that reciting proverbs!
I did my first speaking and listening class on Monday 19th of this month to my Green Valley P5's. Any volunteer will tell you what a struggle it is to get a class to use their imagination after years of copying from a board and reciting definitions so it was a struggle to say the least. After asking them to tell the class about their holidays and talking them through the steps of making a presentation, I ended the lesson with 12 students giving a beautiful recital of the exact example I'd but on the board a long with a name change. haha! It went a lot better at Duhaga Boys Primary School - on of the perks of teaching at two schools is that you're always able to improve on your lesson plan when you run it a second time. The class really enjoyed and we got some seriously cute presentations. The next step was a clarification lesson for Green Valley and a session on 'Sales Presentations' for Duhaga Boys!
Second to that I was also assigned the job of teaching P6 about carpentry... so that's happening... hahaah
Mustard Seed, the babies home, is also keeping me busy. Everyday except for Wednesday I finish with classes and head that way. I try to go as early as possible because the kids are still at school and I don't have to deal with their over-excited-antics. When there in the mornings I help in the laundry section, mostly ironing the children's uniforms because the aunties don't believe that I can wash clothes without a machine. I also get to polish shoes and at break I make beds... I occasionally pitch in with baby feeding time too - which is the most difficult thing I've ever done. I've never asked why and am only assuming that it's a finance issue but they don't have bottles for the babies and feeding a new born milk out of a plastic mug isn't an easy feat. I don't think they like letting me do it because the baby is literally just covered in milk by the end. I wouldn't let me do it either. It doesn't sound like a lot of work when it's written but it keeps you on your toes.
On Monday I helped the nurse take three of the babies for immunization at the local health clinic. When I entered the mothers started asking the aunty that I was escorting how I, a mzungu, had produced such black children. hahaha. The needle was big and they all cried and everyone laughed at the fact that I wouldn't watch. After getting back to the home we then took another baby, Christopher, who was born with cerebral palsy and abandoned at the home, for therapy at the hospital. I'd never been there before and was shocked at how poorly equipped it was. We entered to find an assortment of shockingly-makeshift apparatus including metal poles with pillows attached to which babies were tied with bandages to correct their postures. The nurse let me take the mother role for Chris's therapy and the doctor narrated to me the ins and outs of the place and practice. He talked about the poor quality of the services for the disabled and discrimination in Africa; that the decision to keep a disabled child is a huge one mainly because the view is that they will never become independent. He was saying that the burden is too big for already poor families to support that child in health care or therapy or anything like that. As well as that the center we were in is the only one of this side of the country, meaning transport also amounts. It was hard to hear but so good to learn about and watch. It made me feel like I want to be an occupational therapist. And he taught me how to work with Chris at home to improve his muscle strength and it made me so happy when we got back and put him in his crib and he immediately rolled himself over (something we'd just watched him teach him to do.)
I don't know. I said I'd work hard and I really feel like I am and it feels good and for sure any unhappiness experienced before can definitely be put down to the fact that I wasn't working like this. I've had the best year ever and I can't believe it's almost over.
I'm about to start my community report which all volunteers have to complete for Project Trust as part of their OCN Qualification and basically an insight into an aspect of the community we've been living in... so that'll be keeping me busy too. For suuuuuuuure these 2 months are going to fly by.
In other news my bestfriend flew nine hours to see me for two weeks and we went on safari and it was great! In other other news, here's some pictures of my schools as promised. And of my safari because it was fabulous.
At school I've planned and started a new topic of speaking and listening. The freedom to teach whatever I wanted that I previously found limiting through my inability to gauge that they needed to learn, had become a blessing as I decided to use my class time to do activities that involve the children exercising their free speech, improving their spoken English and raising their confidence - things that the typical Ugandan 'talk and chalk' teaching that I'd recently adapted to doesn't really do. They're gaining skills completely outside of the curriculum and the annoying reality of Ugandan exam system is that it won't help them to pass into the next year - a typical example of an English exam question might be: "'Bethany likes Uganda more than England.' Rewrite this sentence using: --- prefers -- to --." or "Complete the proverb: 'An early bird...". - HOWEVER, the most successful Ugandan's I've ever met have been the ones with the best spoken English skills and I feel like what I'm doing in that classroom, with time, can actually make a difference. And it's a lot more fun that reciting proverbs!
I did my first speaking and listening class on Monday 19th of this month to my Green Valley P5's. Any volunteer will tell you what a struggle it is to get a class to use their imagination after years of copying from a board and reciting definitions so it was a struggle to say the least. After asking them to tell the class about their holidays and talking them through the steps of making a presentation, I ended the lesson with 12 students giving a beautiful recital of the exact example I'd but on the board a long with a name change. haha! It went a lot better at Duhaga Boys Primary School - on of the perks of teaching at two schools is that you're always able to improve on your lesson plan when you run it a second time. The class really enjoyed and we got some seriously cute presentations. The next step was a clarification lesson for Green Valley and a session on 'Sales Presentations' for Duhaga Boys!
Second to that I was also assigned the job of teaching P6 about carpentry... so that's happening... hahaah
Mustard Seed, the babies home, is also keeping me busy. Everyday except for Wednesday I finish with classes and head that way. I try to go as early as possible because the kids are still at school and I don't have to deal with their over-excited-antics. When there in the mornings I help in the laundry section, mostly ironing the children's uniforms because the aunties don't believe that I can wash clothes without a machine. I also get to polish shoes and at break I make beds... I occasionally pitch in with baby feeding time too - which is the most difficult thing I've ever done. I've never asked why and am only assuming that it's a finance issue but they don't have bottles for the babies and feeding a new born milk out of a plastic mug isn't an easy feat. I don't think they like letting me do it because the baby is literally just covered in milk by the end. I wouldn't let me do it either. It doesn't sound like a lot of work when it's written but it keeps you on your toes.
On Monday I helped the nurse take three of the babies for immunization at the local health clinic. When I entered the mothers started asking the aunty that I was escorting how I, a mzungu, had produced such black children. hahaha. The needle was big and they all cried and everyone laughed at the fact that I wouldn't watch. After getting back to the home we then took another baby, Christopher, who was born with cerebral palsy and abandoned at the home, for therapy at the hospital. I'd never been there before and was shocked at how poorly equipped it was. We entered to find an assortment of shockingly-makeshift apparatus including metal poles with pillows attached to which babies were tied with bandages to correct their postures. The nurse let me take the mother role for Chris's therapy and the doctor narrated to me the ins and outs of the place and practice. He talked about the poor quality of the services for the disabled and discrimination in Africa; that the decision to keep a disabled child is a huge one mainly because the view is that they will never become independent. He was saying that the burden is too big for already poor families to support that child in health care or therapy or anything like that. As well as that the center we were in is the only one of this side of the country, meaning transport also amounts. It was hard to hear but so good to learn about and watch. It made me feel like I want to be an occupational therapist. And he taught me how to work with Chris at home to improve his muscle strength and it made me so happy when we got back and put him in his crib and he immediately rolled himself over (something we'd just watched him teach him to do.)
I don't know. I said I'd work hard and I really feel like I am and it feels good and for sure any unhappiness experienced before can definitely be put down to the fact that I wasn't working like this. I've had the best year ever and I can't believe it's almost over.
I'm about to start my community report which all volunteers have to complete for Project Trust as part of their OCN Qualification and basically an insight into an aspect of the community we've been living in... so that'll be keeping me busy too. For suuuuuuuure these 2 months are going to fly by.
In other news my bestfriend flew nine hours to see me for two weeks and we went on safari and it was great! In other other news, here's some pictures of my schools as promised. And of my safari because it was fabulous.
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