One year at site

“The tenure of a Peace Corps…volunteer runs in predictable cycles: first is a honeymoon of several months of excitement and novelty, then the realities of working in a third world environment set in, the frustrations and doubt mount, and the next several months range from melancholic to depressing. Nearing the first year mark, they learn to live with and negotiate the new culture, again feeling quite good about the experience.” – Peasants Come Last by J. Larry Brown

 

This is a quote from a book I have been reading, and I think the cycle of culture shock and cultural adjustment rings true for many PCVs – it certainly did for me. Looking back at my time in Uganda, I can say that I certainly went through a period of low points around my 6-9 month time at site, but now as I reach my first year anniversary at site in mid-April, I can also see that things have improved greatly since then. I have learned a great deal about navigating within a complex culture, about accepting things I cannot change, and appreciating the relationships I have.

An important turning point came around February, when I had a huge change in mindset after a particularly bad week. I realized that I needed to stop worrying so much and learn to relax. I needed to take things one day at a time. I had to recognize that many challenges were beyond my control and learn to accept them. I needed to enjoy my time here and stop trying so hard to keep busy doing things that made me feel useful. I know it all sounds like really simple stuff, but coming to that realization was a huge burden lifted off my shoulders.

 

And just as I learned to relax and slow down my pace, things finally started picking up. Projects I had been trying to get off the ground from the beginning of my time here finally started to fall into place. These days, I am teaching computer to students, which has been quite the experience. I’ve also started a reading club with a couple of teachers. I received a book donation from the U.S. back in January. It’s been great to put all the books to use and to provide students with an opportunity to read for fun. Over the holiday, a few students participated in girls’ and boys’ empowerment camps organized by Peace Corps Volunteers. They came back inspired to start a club at school to share the things they’ve learned, so I have helped them to start a life skills club at school. I am also helping with the English Club by organizing movie nights. By showing movies in English, we’ve been able to raise money for the club, share about American culture, hopefully help improve students’ English listening skills, and of course provide entertainment.

 

Beyond my adjustment to life here, there are also many other changes that have occurred which will mark my one year at site. Many of these experiences make me appreciate the fact that I can stay here for an extended period of time. Otherwise, I would not have been around long enough to watch these changes unfold.

 

One especially encouraging experience has been watching the nearby children slowly getting used to me. It has been great to see each of them open up to me one by one. When I first came to site, many of them would run away from me and burst into tears at the sight of me. One girl in particular, Rebecca, was afraid of me for the longest time. Even by the end of last year, after 8 months of knowing me, she would still cry and scream and hide behind her older siblings whenever I came near her. Finally, over the holidays, I made a breakthrough with her. I don’t even remember what happened, but she stopped being afraid of me. Now whenever she sees me, a big smile blossoms across her face. After finally being able to see what a happy Rebecca looks like, I now know that she is one of the sweetest, most adorable kids around.

December Vacation

It’s Easter weekend, and I have a four-day weekend to rest and relax and catch up on things I’ve been meaning to do, including updating you all on what I’ve been up to for the past few months.

 

My mom’s visit back in December was great. She initially had quite the shock, but slowly she began to love and appreciate all the wonderful things that make up Uganda and Tanzania. During her stay, I gave her the “Peace Corps” experience, even though she didn’t really ask for one. Oops. This included living in my house in the village for a week, bucket bathing, using the latrine, and cooking on a charcoal stove (my gas tank was out of gas). She also tagged along on my wild adventure of searching for a full propane gas tank in a country which was suffering from a propane gas shortage. We took public transport everywhere, and together we maneuvered through the chaotic taxi parks. I even took her on 24-hour bus ride to Tanzania that caused her to catch a cold.

 

But the trip wasn’t just a series of culture shock moments. We had lots of delicious food. In fact, I think most of our time was filled with eating or getting to a restaurant. I took my mom to a local pork joint near my house where we feasted on roasted pork. My mom even made friends with some of the Chinese restaurant owners in Tanzania – both were from our home province.

 

We also went on a safari in the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater, which was probably my mom’s favorite part of the trip. We saw tons and tons of wildlife, including a leopard, a mama rhino with her child, and over twenty lions. One lion moved so close to our vehicle that I could have reached my hand out the window to touch it. During one of our lunches by a lake, an elephant strolled past in such close proximity that we could have walked over to it if we wanted. At night, water buffalo and hyena visited us at our campsites while we were sleeping in our tents. My favorite part of the safari was when we first entered the Serengeti, and the rains had just stopped. Out of the sky appeared a magnificently-sized rainbow which reached from one side of the endless plains to the other. A few days into the safari we realized that rainbows are quite common – they appear after every rainstorm. I think there a few places in the world where such a wonderful spectacle is possible day after day.

 

After the safari, we traveled down to Dar es Salaam for a week. Dar is not a very touristy place, and most visitors only travel through for a night on their way to Zanzibar, but I was very glad to stay there for a longer time. I have visited Dar before, but it was interesting how spending nearly a year in Uganda drastically changed my view of the city. My first visit to Dar a few years ago didn’t leave a strong impression in my mind, but this time around… I was constantly amazed by everything.  I was in awe of the stop lights, street signs, and the general order of the city compared to the chaos that is Kampala. Streets weren’t crowded with people, and motorcycle taxis weren’t even allowed in the city center. There was even a Subway’s and a Citibank. Having avoided schisto-filled waters in Uganda for almost a year, I was so excited to go swimming in the ocean, and Dar has some really nice beaches. Dar also has a lot of Middle Eastern and South Asian influence, and it was nice to explore the streets. Some of my favorite moments included watching people going for prayer in the mosque and waking up at dawn to the sound of call to prayer. We found a great outdoor Pakistani BBQ stand where we had fresh watermelon juice, butter naan, and the best spicy chicken wings I’ve had in a long time. We were there so often for dinner that the owner recognized us and pronounced us the best customers of the week.

 

Needless to say, it was difficult parting with my mom at the end of our trip. It was also hard to return to and readjust to village life so abruptly. The rest of my holiday time in January was pretty uneventful. Sara, my nearest PCV neighbor, went off on safari with her dad, and Matsuyo, my JICA volunteer neighbor was also vacationing in the East of Uganda. Most teachers at my school were also gone, as they had returned home to their families. So I spent most of my time trying to bake. Some things, like bagels and English muffins, did not turn out so well. While others, like biscuits and pita bread, were pretty tasty. I also read a lot of books and watched a lot of TV shows and movies (my favorite was a BBC 6-part series on the history of India). As you can probably tell, I got pretty bored trying to kill time… I was pretty ready for the school term to begin by the time February rolled around.

Quantity vs. Quality

The excerpt below was from an article that a volunteer wrote for Peace Corps Uganda’s monthly newsletter. I think it aptly describes many of the challenges we as volunteers face working in the Ugandan education system, and so I am posting it here for others to read. The subject of the article was a debate on teaching based on quantity vs. quality. Should we as volunteers teach 70% of the material, 100% well; or 100% of the material 70% well? The reason for the question is that the Ugandan syllabus covers an enormous scope, making it almost impossible to cover it in its entirety.

 

I prefer to teach for Quantity — 100% of the material, 70% well.

I have found that when I spend numerous class periods on one topic — engaging the students in skits, interactive activities, and practicals, rephrasing and re-explaining the subject material, offering a question box and then having “Revision Fridays,” … essentially everything I can do to ensure understanding of the subject— the students perform at the same level as they do for the topics I cover only briefly. One particularly poignant example of failed, thorough, topic coverage came at the end of my unit on “enzymes” last year. We had spent an unusually long period of time on the topic because I happen to love enzymes, and I was determined for my students to see their coolness. Finally, on the day before the exam, I asked at the end of a review session if anyone had any more questions. One girl slowly raised a hand and timidly asked… “Madam, what is an enzyme?”

Strange as this phenomenon may sound, I think the reasons behind it at a rural school in Uganda are fairly straightforward:

 

1. Students have poor English skills. As a result, no matter what I say or how many times I say it, the understanding is painfully limited. Ultimately, lack of English comprehension is at the root of all seeming obtuseness and inability to synthesize anything.

2. Students do not take sciences seriously. According to our Headmistress, Primary Teachers’ Colleges require strong scores in the sciences. Many of my students wish to attend A-level education, not a Primary Teachers’ College. But, because HSE is more expensive than a PTC, parents force their girls to attend PTCs if they are eligible. As a result, many of my girls purposefully study little and perform poorly. Others simply do not try because they want to marry after S4 and see little advantage to a strong science education. Lack of seriousness — for whatever reason — is also at the root.

 

I’ve come to the conclusion that I cannot significantly alter a lifetime of poor English teaching, speaking and comprehension skills. Nor can I change significantly my students’ internal motivation for factors beyond my control. As a result, I might as well teach at a rate — 100% of the material 70% well — that completes the syllabus and leaves me with at least one source of inner peace. The dedicated students will succeed either way, and the performance of the others does not change.

—-

In my own experience, I’ve found other reasons for teaching for quantity instead of quality. I have had many of my A-level students complain to me for reviewing material too much. For example, last term I wanted to cover trigonometry thoroughly because it seemed like many students did not understand the subject and had never even learned the unit circle (banange!). I only realized later that the students did not appreciate this because trigonometry had already been covered, and they wanted to move on to other topics for the sake of syllabus coverage. In fact, many students see class solely as the time to receive the necessary notes from the teacher since textbooks are scarce. To them, class is not a time for asking questions, participating in class work, reviewing material, or even general understanding of the material. Understanding of the subject will come later when students review in their free time. Syllabus coverage is the most important thing to them because at the end of their two years as A-level students, they must face fierce competition in national exams to secure a spot in university. The thought of not covering all topics on the syllabus is very distressing. Unlike in America where we can consult the internet or other textbooks, students don’t have other resources for learning the material. The notes they receive in class are their sole resource.

 

As a result I’ve had to adjust my teaching due to these challenges, opting for chalk-and-talk lecture style in place of better teaching methods to get through all the material faster. In many ways, it goes against everything I’ve been taught and what I value in a good teacher, but this is the reality. I have to adjust myself to work “somehow” successfully in a broken education system.

an update in pictures

The third and final term of the school year has come and gone. Here are some highlights:

Much of the first half of the term revolved around planning one of the teachers’ introduction ceremony (traditional wedding ceremony) and wedding. Weekly meetings were held at the school in which the teachers would help organize and raise money for the wedding. Wedding planning started about one and a half months before the event and continued right up to the week before the wedding – talk about last minute! Here is a picture of me and some other teachers at the introduction ceremony. I had a a traditional dress made just for the ceremony.

A big problem at my school and other schools in this region is that students and teachers are very much inclined to speak in the local language instead of English. I really wanted to start an English club at my school to help promote the use of English in the school, but none of the English teachers or my headmaster seemed very keen on the idea… I found out later in the middle of the term from a student that there was already an English club at school (why the other teachers and my headmaster never informed me of this is beyond me). The members of the club call themselves “English Rockstars,” and it is exciting to see students taking initiative to organize themselves in such a way. But the club does need some work. Before I joined, a club meeting consisted mainly of students sharing new vocabulary and idioms and then a word from the president. I have been able to do a few activities with them, but I hope to do a lot more with the club next year.

About midway into the term I was robbed one night while I was sleeping. I won’t go into the details, but basically the thieves were able to open my windows from the outside. The inside of my windows has bars, so they weren’t able to come in, but they took what they could from behind the bars. I had to have my windows replaced, which consisted of busting a hole in my wall. I was slightly worried that I would have to spend a night with a giant hole in my wall. After all, this is Africa where things happen at a painfully slow pace and ridiculous things such as a leaving a hole in a wall can be considered normal. Thankfully, they were able to replace the windows in one day. With the robbery came a very negative shift in the term. Many other challenges and frustrations arose, and by the end of the term I was emotionally drained and very much ready for the end of the school year.

The end of the school year coincided with two happy events. The first was spending Thanksgiving with my language group, and even our language instructor came. We cooked a full Thanksgiving dinner for the nuns and priests at Willysha’s (pictured on the right) site. The dinner included the best turkey I’ve ever had, dinner rolls, green bean casserole, vegetables with avocado and yogurt dip, stuffing, mashed potatoes, New England pumpkin, pumpkin pie, and apple pie.

The second happy event was the arrival of my mom. She was here for three and a half weeks, and I was able to give her a pretty comprehensive tour of East Africa for the short time that she was here. I think she really enjoyed her time here, and it was tough saying goodbye.

IMG_3169

Classroom pictures

Some JICA volunteers came and visited me at my school about a month ago to watch me teach. Sho, one of the volunteers, was kind enough to take some pictures with his nice camera. Now I finally have some good pictures of my students to share with you. WordPress is not letting me upload pictures, so here is the link to the facebook album.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100102933786662.2457735.113446&type=1&l=179aaabc22

 

 

i am lost

“You are lost.” This is how Ugandans tell you that you have been MIA, and I have certainly been lost in terms of writing on this blog. A lot has happened since my last post. Although I’m pretty busy these days, I wanted to give a short update about what I’ve been up to. The school term ended in August, and I had a month-long holiday which was packed with Peace Corps training. Training was the first time I got to see everyone from my training group again since we began our service back in April. I ate lots of good food like pad thai, pizza, Ethiopian food, lots of Chinese food, macaroni and cheese (made with real cheese), real coffee, barbecue, salad – things which I now think of as rare delicacies, and I ate without any guilt because I had lost ten pounds during my time at site. One of the teachers even commented that I looked fatter when I returned to school.

Besides eating food and reconnecting with my group, I also traveled to Jinja to go white water rafting on the Nile. The Nile is the only place in the world where rafting guides will purposely tip over the rafts, and it’s safe to do this because the river is deep and warm. We went through several grade V rapids. To give you an idea, the highest grade of rapids is grade VI, which are impassable. It was quite the adrenaline rush, and I can now say I have rafted the Nile. How many people in the world can say that? Before you start planning your rafting trip on the Nile, I do have to warn you that any contact with a fresh-water body in Uganda is possible risk for contracting schistosomiasis, a treatable but not-so-fun disease. So be warned!

Besides possibly contracting a disease which causes worms to grow in my body (I still need to get tested to whether I am schisto-positive), the holiday was a wonderful break from village life. At one point during training, a bunch of us were sitting around playing Nintendo 64 Mario Kart projected on a huge screen while also eating pizza, and I thought to myself, “Am I really in Uganda right now?” It was nice to be able to wear pants whenever I wanted and speak in my normal accent instead of a slow Uganglish accent. And most of all, I valued being with people who knew exactly what I was going through. Needless to say, returning to site and being alone was a significant readjustment.

This school term has been both better and worse at the same time – more frustrations, more challenges, but also more successes. What’s unarguable though is that the term has flown by. Only 5 more weeks until the end of the term and the arrival of my mom!

Hopefully I will provide an update about this school term before the term ends.

pics

Every time I finally take the time to update this blog, I’m always overwhelmed with all the events that have happened and thoughts I want to share, and it becomes daunting to write anything. For now, I will leave some pictures of my adventures from the past month.

 

just for fun

So WordPress provides me with some site statistics for my blog, which – as I learned today – includes search engine terms that have led people to my blog. I thought some of them were pretty funny, so I am posting them here. I bolded my favorite ones. Most of the search engine terms are related to Miley Cyrus going to school.

uganda peace corps

gulu hotel

education blogs from the peace corps in uganda

speak luganda

how many people speak luganda

school based training

kajjansi progressive secondary school

peace corps uganda february 2011

walk to work in uganda on the 5/5/2011

miley cyrus education school

wie trainiert miley cyrus

mailing address

peace corps blog 2011 math

information on miley cyrus school and training

how safe is uganda 2011

miley cyrus school

uganda 2011 lonely planet

how were uganda houses like

miley cyrus first day at secondary school

lonely planet uganda modem

things to look forward to in uganda

stuff my bra airport

which subject miley cyrus dint like in school

chloride content latrine uganda

miley cyrus school grades

pitlatrine contaminating bore hole water during raining season

what does double rainbow over my house mean

miley subject at school

why does uganda feel so hot

miley cyrus chiristian school

example of burnt odor

day in the life of a ugandan student

luganda language

peace corps application timeline

what country speaks luganda

how many students attend grade 1 in uganda

school based training wikipedia

how can i make my boobs look bigger by stuffing

love in luganda

burning plastic smell in room

uganda copy neighbours houses

what is it like in uganda?

my house uganda

what is white foreigner in ugandan language?

plastic in the air

how to help uganda baseball team

where is the ethiopian restaurant in gulu (only because it is close to impossible to find, especially using the internet)

speaking luganda

is it safe to go to uganda 2011

uganglish

baseball growing in uganda

A Wonderful Discovery

It’s funny here how little things can make me so happy here. Like getting a package or a postcard. Or having a nice conversation with someone. Or finding a carrot at my nearest trading center. Or finding a Chinese supermarket, which is exactly what happened a week and a half ago. Motoko, the Japanese volunteer who works with Sara, had told me and Sara about it, and Sara and I finally had the chance to go to Kampala and check it out for ourselves.

Motoko sort of gave us directions to the supermarket, but I was worried we wouldn’t be able to find it. My worries were put to rest when I saw a giant sign written in Chinese. Can you spot it in this picture?

Chinese people aren’t very creative with naming things, as you can tell by the English.. The Chinese says: “Chinese Supermarket.”

All the delicious things I bought. :)