Today was a very interesting day at school. I was not excited to go since yesterday (Monday) was a very frustrating day. The lesson that Harriet and I had planned did not go the way that I expected, and I just began questioning what I was doing here in Uganda and what possible change could I make (yesterday I thought no change was possible). So I left the house at 7:45 am to make my class at 8:20 am (did I mention that I ride a boda boda for 40 minutes to get to school?).
The class did not start until 8:45 am (hello, African time), and mostly it was Harriet lecturing on how to express purpose using “in case, in fear of, etc.”, you know, sayings that we never use in normal conversation, and yet somehow still tested on the Ugandan national exams. As I was listening, a chicken walked into the classroom looking for grubs. It was hysterical to me, although no one else even paid attention. When both classes finished, we headed back to the Staff House, and I finished reading Same Kind of Different As Me, by Ron Hall and Denver Morris. It is an amazing book and such an amazing testament to faith. My favorite quote from it is, “Every man should have the courage to stand up and face the enemy, because every person that looks like an enemy on the outside ain’t necessarily one on the inside. We all have more in common than we think.”
We were supposed to watch the KOBS class, (Knowledge of Behavior and Self), which has been implemented in the 11 Invisible Children schools. However the teacher did not show up. Instead Katherine Sasser, who is a fellow IC teacher and is teaching at St. Joseph’s Layibi, came to Keyo because she is interested in creating a female empowerment group for students, but Layibi is an all boys’ school. We spoke with Calistas, the head teacher, who loved and supported the idea. At lunch, we met with the female teachers, who became excited as well. We plan to implement the first class next Tuesday. I am so excited about this and the opportunity to enrich these students’ lives. I think the girls need it, especially after what they been through connected to the war.
After lunch, Harriet invited me to use the computer lab to play games. There are only 18 computers at the school, and when you consider that the average class size is 60-70 students, then you can see how ineffective a computer lab of 18 computers is. So mostly the faculty use the lab, and most often they use it for entertainment. For about 30 minutes, I played Spider Solitaire, which was pretty fun. Harriet then invited me to a meeting for students on Health and Reproductive Issues. It was led by two people from Windle Trust. The students first completed a survey about self-confidence and health. Then they began to ask the students to respond to statements saying True or False. Most of the statements were about HIV. After this, the students received handouts about “what is normal” for males or females. I have to say, I found these sheets a little embarrassing, and I am an adult. I can’t imagine what these teenagers think of the “fact sheet.” It was an interesting meeting, but it was cut short because we then left to go to the VSLA meeting.
After the VSLA meeting, Amanda and I were waiting to take the school truck back to town when Calistas called us over. He told us we could ride back to Lacor with some of the community members who help with co-curricular activities. So Amanda and I hopped into a car with two nuns and a father. I figured we were the safest we were ever going to be on the roads of Gulu, especially since the radio was tuned to hymns. There were a couple of close calls with big trucks, but we made it safely to Lacor and picked up boda bodas for the rest of the journey into town.
All in all it was one of those days that made coming to Uganda worth it.
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