I arrived at Entebbe airport around 8am and was collected by our driver Charles, who drove us to Kampala where we met Amy Tew, one of the project leaders of African Revival. We drove to Gulu from Kampala. Along the way we stopped at a few places to get roadside snacks. There was heated plantain and samosas, which were very tasty! We arrived at Gulu at 3pm and checked in to our hotel. I have a lovely room with a balcony that overlooks a village situated towards the back of Gulu town. I can also see the edge of the market that sells food, clothes as well as hardware tools! Basically everything you could ever need!
On the way out we noticed a crowd of people watching TV in the reception area. There was an Arsenal vs Blackpool football match on and all the locals were fully engrossed in it! Had dinner with Amy Tew, Simonpeter and Josh, all from African Revival. We were introduced to the other teachers who were also on an exchange. Dinner was a buffet that consisted of a wide variety of beans in gravy, sautéed potatoes, and rice. During our dinner there were frequent power cuts. The power is irregular here and people are used to the power cutting out, sometimes for days at a time. Luckily we all had torches handy! Lots of hotels also have generators, although they often need to conserve how much they use it, as they are unsure when the power will come back on. I go to bed excited about the trip to the school the following morning.....
Monday 11th April 2011
I had breakfast this morning which consisted of toast, pineapple and some very tasty banana. Went for a short walk into the town to get a mobile phone, a job which I hate doing in the UK, but was actually pleasurable here. Phones are very accessible, most people have them and nearly every shop sells credit that you can top your phone up with. I was collected from the hotel and driven the short distance to Kasubi Army school. What greeted me on arrival will stay with me for ever and brought me close to tears. The whole school were waiting for me at the gate. Some pupils were in traditional costume and were dancing and singing, whilst all the teachers were lined up waiting to be greeted by me. Some pupils held up a sign which said ‘Miss G the teachers welcome a handshake from you’, and so, feeling like royalty I was walked along the line of about 20-30 teachers and shook hands with each one. The dance continued whilst I did this. The whole school were stood waiting patiently behind a rope and I walked up and down the line waving to the children. They all seemed very happy and had such fantastic smiles. There are over 2000 pupils at Kasubi Army and the teachers have many pupils in each class, but you can see the mutual love and respect that the students and teachers have for one another. We had a short assembly in which the whole school sang the national anthem, the school song and we had a short prayer. I was welcomed by the head and had to say a few words to the school.
Throughout the day I was shown around various classrooms in the school. There are 21 and some of the classes have between 100-150 pupils in each class. Much of the classes involve reciting words written on the blackboard over and over again whilst the teacher checks for pronunciation. One class I watched was on the parts of the body. Pupils stood up and recited ‘This is my nose, I use my nose for smelling’, ‘These are my legs, I use my legs for walking’, whilst pointing to the relevant body part and doing the actions. Considering how many children the teachers have in each class and how few resources, they really do an excellent job. Generally the pupils seem very engaged. They come in with their own exercise books to work in (many of these are homemade with a few loose lined pages folded and stuck between newspaper). There is obvious signs that efforts are being made to give opportunities to all. For example, there is a scheme called Echo Bravo in which pupils who had dropped out of school to have a baby, personal difficulties etc have a special classroom to work in and a crèche facility so that they can bring their children there whilst they study.
There are many links that I noticed throughout the day. At Kasubi and in Uganda generally there is a strong input from parents. The parents have a Parent Teacher Association and provide much needed money that doesn’t always get through from the government (all payments are made from Kampala and some teachers haven't been paid for over 2 years). Furthermore, whilst I was there they had an outside inspector come in to review the teaching practices and topics in place and to give support and suggestions for improvements. This was not so scary as our very own OFSTED, but not a million miles apart! They also have a national curriculum set by the government, which they must follow.
The teachers work a similarly long day, arriving at 7.30 and finishing at 5pm. Many have to stay to help out with extra curricular activities such as football and dancing.
Throughout the day I was encouraged to meet important people who had come to the school to see me (e.g. figureheads from the Army – who own the school, Head of the Parent Teacher Association etc) and to rest out of the sun and take tea – there is a definitely more relaxed atmosphere in the school, though that is not to say that people don’t work hard.
I watched a PE lesson, which I though was very resourceful considering they had no PE equipment. They had one chair which they placed far from the pupils and paired girls up with each other and boys with each other. Two boys or two girls would take it in turns to race to the chair and see who could sit on it first! This provided much amusement and was good exercise.
In the afternoon we had lunch and an assembly was held in which there was more traditional dancing and some short sketches. I was dragged into one of the dances to participate and I am not looking forward to the video footage – although they assure me I gave it a good shot!
I has been an extremely busy day and no doubt tomorrow will be too, so I am going to get fed and watered and let it all begin again tomorrow!
Tuesday 12th April
What another fantastic day. I watched my first Geography lesson today. It was on soil degradation. The teacher went through the main causes of soil degradation and then some of the practices that could be used to overcome them. The pupils seemed generally very engaged and were well behaved at answering questions and waiting to be instructed to write their work down. Their books were generally very thorough, they had studied electricity and magnets as well as other parts of Physics that I am never likely to understand! The teacher had prepared a flipchart with coloured pictures (drawn by himself) prior to the lesson. This showed practices such as crop rotation and terracing to the children, which they could then draw in their books. At the end of the lesson the pupils filled in the Geography questionnaire that I had prepared. It was interesting to see that many answered questions with a simple yes or no answer, even if the question required more than this. They also struggled to understand the concept of a rating scale in which 1 meant you were very unhappy and 10 meant you were very happy. I think this was a new concept to them and some of the questions threw up interesting language barriers. Furthermore, in answer to the question ‘What is your most treasured possession’, a question which we thought might draw responses about items that they own, many replied with ‘their education’. To have the idea that education was a possession was a very different way of seeing things and I found this very touching. The following lesson was Maths in which pupils were working out problems using Venn diagrams. Again, the level of teaching was very good considering how many pupils were present (a register stating 25 girls were present and 47 boys was drawn on the blackboard – very different from SIMS!) and the pupils worked hard. At the end of the lesson they filled in the questionnaire written on behalf of Textiles. Again many of them found this difficult as some words they were unfamiliar with and the concept of fashion, seemed insignificant to these children. Following the questionnaire I showed the pupils the videos that the student panel had produced, as well as an RE video produced by some year 11s. This went down very well and many of the pupils were clamouring over each other to see the laptop screen, a theme which followed all day as I showed as many pupils as I could until the battery ran out.
The afternoon was extremely busy. We divided up the badges that St Phils had made between the older classes, as well as giving out the plain badges for them to make. The badges brought so much pleasure. They were clapping, laughing and cheering when they heard that they would get one each and were very studious about producing a badge to send back to England. Many of the younger pupils however, were very upset that they had not received a badge or could not participate in the fun. Many were following us around, crying and waiting outside the head’s office asking for a badge. It made me feel very guilty and I wanted to ensure all the children felt that they had been treated equally. Thankfully we have 700 blank badges left that some of the children can make and we have decided to distribute the badges that some of the older pupils made, to the younger ones, so that everyone receives one. I know that the girls at St Phils would want these children to have something which will make them smile and to remember our school by, so I feel confident they will not mind that not everyone will get a badge back when I return to England.
At this point, I feel it necessary to fill in all the small wonderful additions to my day that have made me feel so welcome. First there is the special handshake. I am unsure what this is for but it seems that when I am greeted you clasp hands in a kind of ‘secret handshake’ that best friends would reserve for one another, thankfully I have picked this up quickly! Furthermore, there is little rushing in Uganda! The heat means that I am frequently encouraged to sit and rest in the Headmasters office, to have tea, (a lady comes in with a bowl and soap and a large teapot of cold water to help you wash your hands), bread (which they dunk in their tea), and bananas (that taste better than any banana you have ever had at home). There is much laughing and talking as well as formal introductions. They have a wonderful politeness that makes you feel as if you are stepping back in time. Each teacher was asked to stand in front of me and explain what they taught and to which class.
The headmaster, Patrick invited me to his house after school. It was very humbling to see. He had a large, but very dilapidated old government building, which would look very grand if it was renovated. He has 6 children and has adopted 3 orphans. His wife, Alice works in a kiosk (a shop at the side of the road, in a shack), that sells drinks, phonecards and food to passers by. We sat and talked and I showed Patrick and Joy (the Head of English) photos of England. It was a very relaxing time and it was exactly how I imagined people to spend their time after work. There has been another long powercut today. Patrick and Joy explained that this is why they buy food each day at the market, as the power is so unreliable they cannot use fridges. They were curled up laughing when I explained that many people in England did their shopping online and had it delivered. To them, this was a totally alien concept, as for them, visiting the market is a social as well as necessary journey.
Another busy day and more badges await me tomorrow. I have been informed that I will also be taken to a local hospital, which I am sure will be very interesting. Until tomorrow! Goodnight.
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