Lesson Plans, Teaching and Marking...I feel right at home!

Can't believe it's already been three weeks! I have been especially busy the last week and a half because classes started last Monday and I have six different preps (Math for S1, S2, and S3 as well as Physics S1, S2 and S3), not to mention all the other things that are going on around here.

The kids I teach are really great kids. Most of them, as I think I might have mentioned before, are drop outs....not the North American kind, but the Ugandan kind...meaning that they haven't been going to school because they haven't been able to afford it. URF works really hard to find them sponsors or allows them to stay at the school through cost sharing. The students are really motivated to learn, but at the same time they really don't have it easy. A bunch of kids come here from Mbirizi a village at least an hour's walk away. All the kids have to wake up really early to get water and firewood and then be at school by 7:45am. School gets out at 4pm and then the after-school program goes until 6:30pm. The after-school program is from my understanding, supposed to be a chance for the kids to review what they learned at school since as soon as they go home they have to start doing their chores again. By the time they are done, it is dark and they don't have electricity in their homes so they can't really study. I know this sounds a little depressing, but when you see the kids you don't necessarily think about these things because they are all so happy to be there.

The best part about teaching is that the students call me Master Marissa! How cool is that. In Uganda the men are called Master and the women Madam. But really...how much cooler does it sound to be called Master?? The kids laughed hysterically the first couple days, but know its known...I am Master Marissa, Uganda's first female master! We write on chalkboards...really old crappy chalkboards which drive me crazy with all the dust...not sure if there is really an alternative. I think I'm going to go into Masaka sometime this week and make some handouts for the kids instead.

One last point about teaching...the curriculum here is a crazy mess. They learn all sorts of things and the strangest order. They learn about Forces in three dimensions and Brownian motion! before they have even learned any trigonometry or calculus...in fact, to put things in perspective, they are teaching this to S1 - S3 kids (which is the equivalent of grades 8-10). In addition, all the teaching and testing is done in English, even though a huge percentage of the kids don't understand a fraction of what's going on. I had to give my kids a beginning of the term test and the results so far have been miserable! I'm going to really have to think of a strategy to help these kids. That is pretty much my mission for the next couple weeks.

So what else have we been up to here in Masaka?? Well we had a mzungu night out last weekend! It was amazing...Renato, Daniel, Fred and Charles (a Waliggo brother) went into Masaka and went out for the most amazing dinner of all time. Butternut squash soup, a toasted piece of bread with MELTED CHEESE (one thing that I crave sooo much is cheese), fried chicken and fries...oh and don't forget a delicious bottle of french white wine! If I can do that once a month (maybe twice...who am I kidding) I will be a happy camper. AFter dinner we went to a club called 'ambiance'. Yep, that's right...a club in Masaka. It was really fun, although we didn't stay too late since we were all pooped from the week's work.

We (and by we I mean 4 ridiculously great guys) finished paving the school this week. Abdul was the "boss" and he was such a kind gentle soul. He and his friends worked so hard to finish the school. It is so much better now that everything is paved. Hopefully no more jiggers for the students (and teachers) at Hope Academy! They also gave us some tips on digging as we tried to make a garden outside of the school. Abdul came down and in 2 minutes he had dug up more than the 5 of us had in 20 minutes. It was sad to see the workers go, but they said they would come back this Friday to play soccer with us. It will be nice to see them!

Another great thing are stars...there are millions in the sky. I can't begin to tell you how beautiful it is. The other day while I was on the phone with Chris, I saw the most beautiful shooting star of all time. Oh then there's the calf who we've named Darla. The other day I was walking up from the school and Darla started following me up to the house...right into the house! She is a cute little thing.

On Saturday evening, we went to a "Nigiina" which is kinda like a birthday party for a woman in a village (meaning she gets presents) except its not really her birthday. Every month the women in the village pick a different lady and they all buy her presents. We ate food, played with kids and danced until it was dark. The Ugandans certainly know how to dance and party!

Another couple projects that we have got going are we put up some tarps at one of the child-headed families houses because they had a HUGE hole in their roof over their bedroom and seeing as though rainy season is well underway, this posed a big problem. We have yet to see if the tarps have helped, but hopefully we'll get to go to check it out later this week.

At the same time, Dan and Chris have started a campaign to build a new boy's dormitory for the kids at Nazareth Orphanage because the structure is literally about to fall. If it sounds like there are lots of projects on the go, it is because there are! Daniel and I have been discussing some of these issues, because it seems like everyday someone (usually past volunteers who are now back at home) wants to start a new project. The big problem is that there are only really two people here (Fred and Adrian) to implement the projects and their plates are more than full. They don't like saying no to any of the projects because they want to help as many people as possible, but at the same time I am sure they will burn out if they keep this up.

Anyways, we will be going to Kampala this weekend for a mixture of events. We will be dropping Renato, Dan and Chris off to the airport, meeting with an NGO called Uganda Crafts (they are going to sell the crafts that the women in our empowerment group make so they can generate income), take the empty water bottles to be recycled, oh yea...and go clubbing and eat some good food. I will add some pics later.

Miss you all
Misss
xoxo

Oh yea...there was a mouse running around the house last week and Renato bought some rat poison and well...the picture pretty much tells the rest!