Breakdancing competition
Cucumber and okra from my garden
Drama Club Performing
This last school term ended abruptly and so I’ve been in a bit of a whirlpool of chaos for the last month: the Ministry of Education and Sports decided literally overnight, less than a week before final exams were supposed to start, to end the term a week early, forcing us to move our exam schedule up and cancel the last days of classes. Our final assembly was spent watching the drama club, which had gone to perform in front of the African Union in Kampala, perform again for us, which is just too cool (see picture). The Ministry also decided to begin the next term two weeks early. My two weeks of vacation, therefore, were entirely consumed by 2 Peace Corps in-service trainings (one week each) after which, I had to return to Kitgum and literally, hit the ground running. The first conference was in Gulu (just south of Kitgum) and involved language lessons, cooking a large Indian meal for some volunteers, and spending a full day with my language instructor and her family at their home, all culminating in an absolutely lovely birthday. Right before I left for the conference, I received a wonderful birthday package from my family and some family friends including pictures, gardening gloves, really good coffee (Uganda has a nasty habit of exporting all of its quality coffee), and of course, 2 lbs of Virginia Peanuts (you may laugh, but sharing those peanuts with me made the days of 2 volunteers in town and every person left at the school). On my actual birthday, I spent the morning at the pool (funny things like nice pools pop up in areas where a lot of foreigners come to do development work), the afternoon at a breakdancing competition and in my language instructor’s village and then evening in a local Ethiopian restaurant with some wonderful people and food and a surprise birthday cake (I felt very lucky to be living in Northern Uganda with some seriously quality people). THANK YOU to everyone who sent me messages, emails, videos, and cards. If my birthday says anything about the coming year, I think 24 is going to be a good one. The second conference was right outside of Kampala and involved technical training and the first gym I’ve been in since leaving America (quite small, but still…). After the conferences, the majority of my training group (about 20 of us) hitched up our bags and headed to the Nile River for some white water rafting. Let’s just say that the Grade 4-5.5 rapids of the river are not for the weak hearted and while I was confident in the experience of our guides, I was surprised that the only serious injury occurred: one girl chipped her tooth (this was quickly remedied by Peace Corps Medical, but definitely got the song “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth” stuck in my head) seeing as each boat flipped over at least twice. In the morning Rafting Company’s bus was a bit delayed, causing me to miss the early bus and leaving me potentially stranded in Gulu. Thankfully, I was able to stay with a PCV couple in Gulu that night, just in time to partake in a sushi feast they happened to be making and to meet one of my fellow volunteer’s students with whom I played Sudoku the whole way. Unfortunately, I was doomed to sit by a broken window that happened to kill a little bird on the way…I guess you win some and you lose some. I arrived back in Kitgum with a long to-do list including setting and grading beginning of term exams and making 8 kilograms of peanut paste to bring along with another 8 kilograms of black beans to some volunteers who do not have access to such items the next week when I would return to Kampala for the All-Volunteer-Conference (above, you see a picture of the first 2 cucumbers from my garden...unfortunately, it didn't rain at all during the 2 weeks I was away and so those are also 2 of the last cucumbers from my garden). As I left for Kampala once again on the 8am bus, now loaded up with 16 kilograms of assorted food I realized a few things: one, for some reason everyone and their mom was leaving Kitgum that Wednesday morning causing the bus to leave a half hour early rather than the more typical hour late and leaving me to squeeze into the back row of the bus (which has enough room for 5, but of course, we fit 6 people and gives the ride out of Kitgum the flair of a rollercoaster since you spend about a third of the time airborne as the potholes and bumps throw you out of your seat---aka, middle school bus rider’s dream come true). The security woman at the hotel outside of Kampala loved the fact that I, like a good mother visiting her child at boarding school, came loaded with food, including carrying my peanut paste in a jerry can (this is a very village aka non-Kampala thing to do…but the good thing was that no one in Kampala looked at me that day and expected me to have any money to give them—they may have been searching their pockets to give me money instead). The All-Volunteer’s conference was wonderful and I came away with a lot of new ideas and resources which bring me to the many eggs that are in my basket right now. I am awaiting 20 lbs of novels from a US group called Bookaid to help the English Department improve the students’ composition grades (as of now they are failing and English is crucial for a student to continue to the Advanced Level). This shipment may be followed by 800 more novels…but that is still up in the air… Also, another female teacher and I are starting a Life Skills Club, addressing issues like hygiene, HIV/AIDS, early pregnancy, and girl empowerment. The first official meeting is on Sunday, during which we will be making reusable menstrual pads…we’ll see how this goes…a little shy of 200 girls from Senior 1 and Senior 2 have signed up…oi. At the end of the term, the club will host a Music, Dance, and Drama event and 5 girls will accompany me and my counterpart to the first annual Camp GLOW in Uganda, which is a camp for girl empowerment that PC volunteers have implemented all over the world. Tomorrow is the first of the schools regular debates (we’re going to try for every other week). The topic is “Should school in Uganda be compulsory?” There are a few more things that are in the works, but I’ll leave those to a later time. Until then, I hope all is well. It's raining almost everyday here, including torrential storms that pounded so hard and so loud on the tin roof of my classrooms during 2 classes on Monday that teaching was impossible (my Senior 1 math class doesn't have glass on the windows so the entire class and I were bundled together on one side of the room to stay dry, yelling at each other to communicate...I gotta tell you, sometimes life is a trip). Maybe one of these days I’ll learn to update my blog more regularly so that it’s not a novel every time.
