The Day is Here: Post #5: Love is Patient

What a week! Earlier this week, I taught the Ugandan equivalent of nursery school/Kindergarten at Faith. At first, I was thrilled as a group of wide eyed 4 year olds walked into the classroom. They were absolutely adorable, but I very quickly realized that teaching 4 year olds is not as easy/fun as playing with 4 year olds. This group was taught very early how to sit at desks, hold their pencils, and copy down whatever is written on the chalkboard. While they know how to be in a classroom, this group still gets distracted just as much as any group of 4 year olds. One student named Patience had a particularly hard time focusing and I had to keep saying her name to get her attention. Saying “Patience!” out loud so many times ended up being great reminder of what I needed most with those kids!

Without printouts and worksheets, learning to write letters/numbers becomes quite difficult. I’m not sure if you remember learning those fundamentals, but for me, I learned by tracing over dashes that made the shapes of letters/numbers and practicing over and over. Since there aren’t any printers, I drew my own dashed letters for the kids to trace over. This was a bit time consuming but really good practice for them. My handwriting tends to be pretty messy, but I really tried to step it up when making these trace over sheets because my disproportionate lines could make learning letters very confusing!

As the week went on, the number of kids in the classroom increased as well as the ages. Thursday and Friday morning, I was teaching math and English to 6 different class levels in one classroom! I felt like I was running sprints, dashing back and forth between different sections of the chalkboard. Once more kids are back and the teachers return, classes will be separated by age but with only a few kids from each grade level this week, it was easiest to keep them together.

Teaching English is not easy! For the younger students, I felt like I was performing “Sesame Street Live” as we practiced sounding out words and putting letter sounds together. This can get a little confusing because of my accent but I’ve been trying to adjust my pronunciation of some vowels (a and i) to help. For the older kids, I structured the lessons like my high school Spanish classes. Since Spanish was my second language, the way I learned to speak and write it is the same approach taken to teach these kids English. Learning English is hard because there are often more exceptions to the grammar rules than words that follow them!

Teaching math is fun! Numbers and operations have a much more universal language and there are very few exceptions to the rules. This week, I worked on number writing and counting with the youngest class, addition with carrying to the tens place with the middle class, and very basic cross multiplication with the oldest class. Running between different levels of work made it difficult to work with students one on one but I tried to sit down next to struggling students and explain concepts in new ways as much as I could. Faith needs a math teacher this term so I will be teaching 3^rd, 4^th, and 6^th grade math once all the students return!

Teacher Betty has given me guidance on how students are typically taught which has been super helpful! She’s a pro and specializes in teaching the youngest group. This week, she’s been running around getting the classrooms ready, making sure every student has a notebook, and organizing the curriculum book collection. The curriculum book collection is filled with a textbook, activity book, or lesson plan book for each grade and subject. They usually contain learning objectives and activities and are used by the teacher of the class. The publishers vary and many of these curriculum books were written over 15 years ago. While they’re not the most consistent and it would be ideal if every student had one of these books to study from and work through, it’s helpful that the teachers have some standard to teach from.

In addition to teaching classes, I played games with the kids at Faith and Good Hope this week! I have to make sure I explain directions slowly and simply or else the kids have no idea what to do. They’ve loved learning sharks & minows and tunnel tag!! I also brought jump ropes the other day and the kids loved playing with those, especially as a whole group (2 “spinners”, 1 person jumping in the middle). The students at Good Hope taught me their versions of tic-tac-toe and hopscotch- both which were very fun!

This week, Shadiah and Sami, two of my hosts at the volunteer house, left to go back to school. They’re both in Secondary School (Jr. High and High School combined) and live at school while it’s in session. Most secondary schools are boarding schools which makes it easier for students to focus on school work while they’re there. While we’re thrilled these girls are returning to school (both are sponsored as they’re families can’t afford school fees), the volunteer house is not the same without them! Mo, the other American volunteer, and I decided to throw a dinner party last Saturday to celebrate Shadiah and Sami!

Dinner prep started in the afternoon. We bought 2 chickens from a nearby market and made mashed potatoes, gravy, and guacamole! The avocados here are so fresh and abundant! Mo and I both share a love for avocados and are hoping to introduce Guacamole to every Ugandan we can. So far, those we’ve fed it to love it!

We invited Derrick, George Mike, the other KACCAD workers, and some of the teachers over for dinner. Everyone loved food (especially the guac) and ate plenty. Hidden, one of the KACCAD workers, brought over a speaker. Dinner was followed by over 4 hours of dancing. While I usually opt for a food coma nap after a large meal, dancing immediately after was a much better way to burn it off! The popular music here is a blend of American pop remixes, music from surrounding countries (Kenya and Nigerian are 2 big influences), and music made right here in Uganda. I’ve learned some of the music and some dancing basics thanks to Shadiah and Sami these last few weeks and a lot of it is really fun! The dancing styles match the music and range from reggae to hip hop. There are also a lot of traditional African dancing influences in most dancing styles. People here know how to move their bodies! Everyone dances and does it with incredible endurance.

I’ve downloaded some of the popular songs here onto my iphone and sometimes play them at school when we have a break. The kids are AMAZING dancers. Almost every one of them can do a split and cartwheel. They’re moves are creative and fun! I’ll take some videos to share in the weeks to come!

Thank you all for reading and cheering me on while I’ve been here! I’ve been learning a ton and hope these posts have given you at least a peek of what life is like here! It’s not always easy but encouraging notes, texts, and emails as well as frequent dance breaks help to get through the tough days. I’m so grateful!

Love,

Hannah

Working on some simple words and lowercase letters! Patience finishing up her work before joining her classmates for a break!

The walls at Faith were recently painted (yay!) but they're completely empty right now. The young kids get distracted so I'm making some things to hang up. Better to zone out at numbers than a blank wall!

John, Ibrahim, and Steven, some of my friends at Good Hope, dancing on a rainy day! John loves my rain coat.

Steven and I have become good friends. Steven is usually laughing hysterically or crying hysterically. Life isn't always easy for a 4 year old at Good Hope! He's a middle child and is often trying to keep up with his older sister. He loves playing with the older kids but sometimes gets lost in the shuffle being the little one.