Post #7: Length x Width

Last Monday, I was greeted by a number of new faces when I arrived at Faith to teach. Finally, the school had enough students to expand beyond 1 classroom! The school was now spread out with a classroom for Primary 6 (6^th grade, highest class at the school), Primary 4 (no Primary 5 due to a lack of students in that class level), Primary 3, Primary 1 & 2 combined, and the 3 levels of “nursery school” (Top, Middle, and Baby class).   I quickly learned the names of the new faces thanks to the help of the kids I already knew. As I mentioned earlier, the math teacher that was supposed to be at Faith did not return for this term so I’m stepping in! It’s really nice to get to fill a need, but this position also brings huge responsibility. As much as I love math, I’m not a math teacher. I’m terrified to think that my lack of experience and poor timing of topics could result in these kids being unprepared to pass their exams at the end up the year. Still, even the math teacher with 0 qualifications is better than no math teacher.

At the beginning of the week, there were 3 teachers including myself at school. With 5 classrooms (2 of those rooms containing more than 1 class), you can imagine this made things a little difficult. I still haven’t figured out how to be in 2 places at once, but it sure would have come in handy last week. For the first few days, I was sprinting in between the 3 highest classes teaching both math and English. Once the other 2 teachers showed up, the mornings became much less exhausting and more productive.

My youngest class is now a group of Primary 3 students. While they’re not as adorable as the Baby Class students, they’re much more independent! There are 12 students in the class and each one of them is so enthusiastic about learning. As soon as I step in their class, they start squealing with excitement and shouting “MATHEMATICS!”  It’s a little difficult to balance the fun and focus with this group. This class has a good group dynamic, which can either be “seriously focused” or “crazy fun”. There seems to be no in between.. I’m working on little tricks to get their focus back quickly from “crazy fun” mode and am still grateful for all their laughter and joy, even when the timing isn’t ideal.

In P. 3, we’ve been working on measuring. The curriculum book for this unit includes activities for them to practice measuring lengths of given lines, drawing a line of a given length, and lining up a ruler correctly. As soon as we started working on this unit, a big problem arose. Only 1 student in the class had a ruler. As you can imagine, this made teaching 12 kids how to measure very time consuming. After two days of quarrel filled ruler sharing, I took matters into my own hands and cut up some cardboard. When I gave out my hand-made rulers out to my students the next day, it was as if I’d just handed them golden tickets to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory! They were beyond thrilled. Within minutes, each student was constructing lines and rectangles of the correct lengths. We learned how to calculate perimeter & area this week. Shout out to whoever donated a tape measure- it was kind of random but I threw it in my bag. It has since created a classroom supply of cardboard rulers and has been the center of a variety of math demos! 

In my Primary 4 class, we’ve been learning about time and dates. This class has 9 students and each of them puts great care into neat handwriting and perfectly straight lines under final answers. Some of them even rotate between pencil and pen when appropriate. These kids put my chicken scratch and notebooks filled with doodles to shame. I’ve been teaching this group how to convert days to weeks, hours to minutes, years to months, etc. I’ve also been showing them how to add/subtract particular number of days, months, and years to a given date. This class has a HUGE range of abilities. A few students fly through the exercises and can get most of the answers in their heads. For others, it takes a few tries to read the problem and interpret the directions correctly.  And then there are a couple of students in my P. 4 class who are extremely behind where they should be. It’s both frustrating and difficult, but I know I’m here in Uganda for these kids. These kids get left behind and the gap between what they know and what they should know will only grow greater as they get older.  At this point, I’ve identified the kids who are really struggling and I sit beside them whenever I can to go through the steps of the problem slower or offer an alternative explanation. Often times, the brightest few get bored quickly and the ones who struggle give up because they can’t figure out the problems. In an attempt to motivate the students, I started tallying points for correct answers- Girls vs. Boys style. It’s worked like a charm! I simply draw a T chart on the board and award point throughout class. My students have never asked me if there’s a prize for the winner.

The group of kids I’ve grown the closest to these past 2 weeks has been my Primary 6 class.  There are only 6 of them and they’ve all known one another for a long time as a result of going through their primary education at a small school like Faith. They love to joke around and are so interactive. They’re English is great so we can have casual conversations in addition to talking about what they’re working on. This group doesn’t have the crazy energy that the younger students have, but they work really hard. We’ve been doing geometry (finding perimeter & area of quadrilaterals, circles, and irregular polygons) and they’ve struggled more than I expected them to. It takes them a really long time to complete problems that involve multiplication. Many of them still draw out boxes and dots for simple 1 digit by 1 digit problems like 4x3.  To help them recognize the products of simple multiplication problems better, I started giving them “timed tests”. You probably had to do these in elementary school- the tests that contain a bunch of simple multiplication problems that you figure out as fast as you can. This may have been how you learned to add quickly or, if you were lucky to have as great of a calc teacher as I did, complete basic trig problems in a couple of seconds. These tests allow the students to practice their mental math and start to wean off of the 12x12 multiplication table. I created a few levels so that the students are strong with the basics before they move onto more challenging problems like 7x8 and 9x6.  I imagined the students would grumble and/or become stressed out about these tests, but to my surprise, every time I announce it’s time for “timed tests”, the whole class cheers!

I’ve tried to make the P. 6 lessons as interactive as possible. The easiest way to teach all of this would be to stand up at the board and write the formulas for each shape’s area and perimeter and have them copy it down.  I want these kids to really understand these formulas though. While it’s been difficult to find visible examples of certain shapes/culturally relevant figures to reference, I’ve managed to get creative a few times on the spot!! Pencils, pens, and hands allowed for some great examples of parallel lines and the shakes they make. Chalk on the floor and that handy tape measure (thanks again!) allowed me to explain the constant ratio, pi, that exists between any sized circle’s diameter and circumference. I’ve also been teaching English to this class. I have not been as creative with the English lessons but I’m working on it. The “curriculum book” for P. 6 English is simply a general English grammar booklet.

School starts at 7 and I teach until 1. There is a break in the morning so the kids can run around for a little bit in between subjects. I usually spend a chunk of this time setting up for the next class and chatting with Teacher Betty. The oldest kids usually hang out in their classroom so sometimes I’ll join them to chat about life. Other times, I join the masses outside and try to organize a game. It can be pretty difficult since so many of the kids running around are from the youngest classes and barely understand English/my accent but usually, a few kids from the older classes will join in and help out. They LOVE learning songs with little dances. I’ve been so grateful for the songs I keep in my back pocket as a result of my camp counselor training. While I try to teach the group new ones, they usually want to sing the same ones I’ve been singing with them since the beginning. They’re favorites are “Boom Chicka Boom” and “The Alligator Song”.

I’ve been so fortunate to have another volunteer by my side during my time in Uganda so far! Mo is a Texas Born, Australian raised world traveler. She’s a surfer, artist, extreme hiker, rafting instructor, and free spirit. By the time I arrived, Mo had been here for 2 weeks and already had an address book full of friends in her Ugandan phone. She has an amazing ability to connect with people and form friendships wherever she goes. She claims to be 19 but I’m not really sure how that’s possible. This girl has had a life packed to the brim full of heartbreak, triumphs, adventures, unusual experiences, and friendships. She would have had to start as an infant to fit all of it in at a normal pace of life! I think the catch is that Mo has a very different pace of life than what may be considered normal. While we’re pretty different, I’ve loved getting to know Mo. In the absence of TV and movies, I’ve been grateful for her many amazing and entertaining life stories!

Mo is spontaneous and incredibly compassionate- especially towards animals. Last Thursday, she came upon a man selling a baby monkey on the side of the road. Upon a closer look, she could see the monkey had not been fed in a few days and wasn’t being taken care of. While some people may spend weeks or months contemplating the idea of adopting a pet, Mo did not need much time to make her decision. She came home that night and told me she had something to show me. I was both shocked but thrilled when she pulled out a baby monkey.

“Yaz” is now about 4 weeks old. We’re pretty sure she’s a Capuchin monkey who was tragically taken from the forest and from her mother not long after her birth. She eats bananas and sugar cane and drinks lots of milk! Mo is a natural expert on everything nature related and while she’s not the biological mother of Yaz, she’s done everything she can to give Yaz the best life a monkey out of the jungle can have. I’m not sure what the long term plan will be for Yaz. Without her mother, she’ll die if she’s returned to the forest. Sadly, there aren’t many wildlife refugees here in Uganda for orphaned and trafficked animals. We’re looking into some options though and hoping for the best future for her. In the mean time, it’s been a lot of fun to see Yaz grow! I’ll include some photos- she’s pretty adorable J

Sunday night, Mo received news that her brother passed away. She flew back to North Carolina the next day in order to make it home for the services. Sam was 20 and was killed in a car accident Saturday night. Please keep Mo and the Taggart family in your prayers as they deal with this sudden and unimaginable tragedy.

Thank you all for the continual love and support. I think about home, school, friends, and family everyday and miss it/you all very much! Still, I’m so glad I’m here and grateful I’ve had the opportunity to press “pause” for a couple of months. It’s weird not having homework or to-do lists and only checking the internet every few days, but it’s been wonderful to see what that time gets filled up with instead. More to come next week!

Love,

Hannah

(Left to Right) Prisca, John, Aisah, Abel, John Paul, James, and Jovia, some of my wonderful (and enthusiastic!) Primary 3 students!

Helpful to have when teaching how to measure

Some practice problems for my Primary 4 class- girls were in the lead as you can see from the tally on the left!

Primary 6 is the place to be!

 Saturday spent at Teacher Betty's house hanging out with the kids I got to know my first few weeks! Robert right here is probably the cutest thing on 2 feet! He never lets me leave without a high-5

John Paul who I got to know early on is now in my P. 3 class! I usually find him doodling and drawing. Last weekend, I brought paper and colored pencils for the group of kids at Teacher Betty's. Most kids drew houses and flowers and pigs. When I asked John Paul what he was drawing, he explained "you're not supposed to recognize it". This kid is a budding abstract artist!

A much needed dance party at the end of the week!! 

Mo and Yaz on our first day with her! She only wanted to be held and to drink milk. She slept a LOT our first few days with her. 

Yaz loves being outside and climbing around the volunteer house porch!

Any banana left in here?

Post #6: It's Lit

This week was a little bit different than my other weeks in Uganda, because we had some visitors at the volunteer house!! On Saturday, Sarah Baird and Ben Kerman, founders of Let There Be Light International, arrived at the volunteer house. Their organization is combatting energy poverty and has made some huge differences in this community and others nearby since it started in 2013.

Many people in Uganda light their homes using Kerosene lanterns. Kerosene is both harmful to the environment and its users’ health. Not only is it the cause of countless horrible burns, but it also puts people at high risk of a variety of respiratory illnesses and eye problems.  Refilling these lanterns can become quite expensive. As a result, some households use light very sparingly making it very hard to do anything after dark (7pm these days).  

Over the past several weeks, I’ve joined George Mike for a few “Solar Light Outreaches” at the health clinic in Bulenga. We’ve gone to the clinic during its highest populated time-when vaccinations are being offered to infants.  Mothers fill up the clinic and form a line out the door sometimes. While they wait for the vaccinations, George Mike and I teach the group about renewable energy and the advantages of using solar lights instead of Kerosene lanterns. We bring a Pico Solar Light to demonstrate how to recharge the light. They’re extremely easy to use, safe, healthy, and very bright. While they require money up front, there is no maintenance/refilling cost. These lights last 3-5 years and can end up saving households a significant amount of money. Many of these mothers have never heard of solar energy before so our goal is for them to learn what it is and why purchasing a solar light may be worth considering.

Some of these women end up purchasing these lights, which is fantastic and supports the local market for solar lights.  For some people in Bulenga and in other villages in Uganda though, the cost of a solar light is completely out of the question. Let There Be Light International provides solar lights to vulnerable people can’t afford solar lights. The organization also promotes solar lights and helps those with the ability to purchase them understand their advantages.

Sarah and Ben Baird are from New Haven and have been connected with KACCAD (the organization over here I’m volunteering with) since they volunteered with A Broader View a number of years ago. It was SO fun to get to know them and spend time with them this week! It was a wonderful taste of home to be with Americans (Sarah is from Buffalo so we instantly bonded over love of Wegmans). They had some great stories from their multiple trips here and also shared some helpful insight. They are two of the friendliest and most selfless people I’ve ever met. While their organization has done some incredible things over the past few years, they’re super humble about everything and looking for ways to help more.

On Tuesday, I got to join Sarah and Ben as well as the other KACCAD workers for a Solar Light Distribution in the Gomba (a few hours away from Bulenga). After a bumpy but beautiful drive, we arrived in Gomba and were greeted by a large group of people, excited for the events of the day. Local leaders had spent the weeks prior selecting the most vulnerable households in the community to be recipients of the solar lights.   The recipients fit into one or more of the following categories: elderly, disabled, HIV/AIDS, new/expecting mother.  All morning, I worked with a translator to interview recipients about their living conditions, lighting needs, and previous lighting methods. After gathering information, everyone went outside for a ceremony/series of speeches. Many local leaders spoke in addition to Sarah (founder of LTBLI), Derrek, and George Mike. After a couple of hours of trying to understand Luganda (the language of most of the speeches) and hanging out with some local school children, it was time for the distribution! I got to take pictures and see the firsthand reactions of the recipients!

People were so thrilled about receiving these lights! Hugs, laughter, and smiles were abundant once the distribution began. After hearing stories all morning ,it was clear to me just how much of a difference solar lights could make for these people. Almost all of them suffered from health problems as a result of Kerosene lantern. A few people there had suffered horrible burns. Many of them had a difficult time completing daily tasks because of the limited light Kerosene provides. Additionally, school-attending children living in these households had very little ability to study/read/do homework after dark.

After the distribution and in the days following, I got to join Sarah and Ben for visits to the homes of past solar light recipients. It was incredible to hear about the impact 1 light can have.  Sadly, I don’t remember most of the recipients names (I think my “learning name” spot in my brain was maxed out this week after learning new names at school!) but I do remember a few stories. I spoke to an old woman for a while who lives in a room with her husband and 2 grandchildren whom she takes care of. While her “house” is a small room, it’s a much more functional place now thanks to the solar light. The kids can study at night now and she uses the money they would have spent on Kerosene to purchase medicine.

We visited the home of an 8 year old boy with Hydrocephalus. When we arrived, we were greeted by a 6 year old girl who keeps the house and takes care of her brother and younger siblings during the day while her parents work. Though he smiled when we came in, I know life is very hard for the 8 year old boy we met. Treatment and therapy are extremely expensive, so he spends all day in bed. Their house was very dark during the day so the solar light made a significant difference in the brightness. While this home has a lot of needs, I’m glad the little girl at least had a safe and healthy way to use light during the day.

The toughest part of this week was visiting the home of a mother with triplets on our way back from Gomba. Twins are extremely uncommon here so you can imagine what a surprise this young mother received when she gave birth to three babies last week. The father took off immediately (not uncommon, a woman who gives birth to triplets is thought to have something wrong with her) leaving this now mother of six completely abandoned in the delivery room. When we arrived at her home, our crew could barely fit in the little room she and her 6 children live in. There was blanket in the corner, some basins for washing clothes, and a wooden stand with a small Karosene lamp. The mother, who looked about my age, was feeding her tiny babies and apologizing for how wet her home was becoming (it was raining outside and there were a couple of leaks in the room/walls). We asked her some questions and spoke with her for a few minutes. She has no source of income and no family to speak of. I stood there stunned and heartbroken. Looking back, I wish I had said something encouraging or hopeful. But I was so speechless in the moment. Sarah gave the woman a solar light which will provide some financial relief and safe lighting to this family. But it was so difficult to walk away a few minutes later knowing this woman needed so much more. I have been thinking of this mother a lot since we visited and have been praying that her community knows her desperate need and that they will wrap their arms around her family to keep them afloat. I’m still trying to brainstorm ways I can help her and her family out.

Going around with Sarah and Ben filled this week with heartbreak and hope. I won’t forget the homes I stood in that were so far from anything I could ever imagine living in. Many of the people I met this week survive extreme hardships everyday. While a solar light may not change that, it can certainly help these survivors live days that are longer, easier, safer, and brigher.

Thank you all for reading and the continual encouragement! I also did a lot of teaching this week and have some great stories about some of my new students to share! More to come in the next post J

For more information on Let There Be Light, check out there website here http://www.lettherebelightinternational.org! Next time you find yourself with some extra pocket money or a desire to help others in a big way, please consider donating to this INCREDIBLE organization!

In addition to providing lights to over 2,000 homes, Let There Be Light has also installed solar lighting systems to 9 health clinics in Uganda. These health clinics are in remote areas where they are the only source of medical care for thousands of people in surrounding villages. Having solar lights means that people can easily locate the clinics at night, the clinic can extend its hours, and emergency procedures can be performed after dark.

Sorry if these pictures are a little out of alignment....

Light recipients from the Solar Distribution in Gomba! Everyone was dressed up for the occasion!

Preparing for the Light Distribution at the KACCAD offices. Lots of work goes into the interviewing process to make sure the best and most helpful information is gathered.

Sarah, founder of Let There Be Light, speaking before the distribution!

New Mothers run to hug eachother immediately after receiving their lights!

They're pretty excited about this!

This little guy could not wait to use their new solar light!

These kids will now be able to do homework and study after dark!

A KACCAD volunteer explaining how to use the solar light to a group of women.

This man was the first person I interviewed! He was one of the first in line when we got there at 8am and he lives quite a journey away (we saw him walking home). I can't imagine what time he had to wake up to get there on time! He was so eager to receive his light. After interviewing him, he kept coming back to the table asking when the lights would be given out. He stuck around for a while afterwards and had the happiest look on his face with his new light in hand.

I didn't even ask her to pose for this! 

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. 

Shadiah and Sami joining me at Faith one afternoon to read story books!

A fun and delicious trip to an international cafe in Kampala before the girls left! 

Hanging out on the porch of the volunteer house- Saturdays are usually very relaxing!

"Dinner" and "Party"! Meat, including chicken, is a delicacy here! Each hen cost about 7 US dollars each

Preparing some veggies to flavor or dinner with

Pre-4 hour dance party!