Keyo Secondary School

We met our partner teachers last night at Churchill Courts in Gulu. I am working with Acan Harriet. She has been at Keyo for two years. Teaching for Harriet was a last resort; she originally wanted to be an accountant, but the schooling did not work out for her. I asked her why she chose to teach English and not math, and she said that she thought that English was more marketable. I think that she has gotten to where she enjoys teaching more.
There are three of us teaching at Keyo: Lindsey (a T/Ex participant with me last year), Amanda (from Texas), and me. Lindsey and I made the boda boda trip out to Keyo. The boda boda ride was 35-40 minutes, which is very long on the back of a motorcycle, especially when you are riding sidesaddle. However the trip was beautiful since the landscape is amazing. Once we arrived, we met the head teacher, Carristas (sp), Alex, the horticultural teacher, and Lindsey’s teacher, Grace. Harriet quickly ran over from the athletic games to meet us. The school is on a hillside, and it is very pretty. There are two new classroom blocks that were built by Invisible Children; the S3 and S4 streams are housed in those. The other classroom blocks consist of dirt floors, old desks, and open walls. There is a chalkboard that is propped up against one wall. They also have a library, a small computer lab with about 10 computers, and a staff room.
Once we had our initial meeting and orientation with Amy and Danielle (T/Ex director and asst coordinator), we walked over to the athletic field to watch the athletic events. Keyo is part of Amuru district, and so the schools in that district were competing in a track and field competition. Harriet was one of the team leaders, and so she was very interested in how the students performed. The Keyo boys won the competition last year, and so they were defending the cup. Harriet said that the boys were excellent and that the girls were average. It was so much fun to watch them compete. Almost all of the competitors ran barefoot; some had on track uniforms, some wore shorts only, or cheerleading skirts (on some of the girls). We also watched the shot put, the javelin throw, the triple jump the high jump. Those competing in the triple jump did not jump into a sandpit; they just jumped on the ground. There was no cushion for them to land on in the high jump; they just jumped over the bar and onto the ground. No wonder these athletes are so good in the Olympic games. The winners of the district competition compete in the regional competition, and then the winners will compete at the national level. It was so much fun to watch these events and be a part of it.
It was a great first day at Keyo, and I am looking forward to spending time there and working with Harriet. However I am not excited about the boda boda ride.