Facts & Figures

In the last couple of days, we have been confronted with many sobering facts and figures. Some surprising, others not, but all of them have made me think a lot. So, here’s a bit about what we’ve been thinking about in the last couple of days. Make of it what you will…

• Yesterday in my Special Needs education class I shared some World Health Organization facts about visual impairment. I shared that approximately 248 million people worldwide are living with visual impairment and 90% of these people are living in developing countries. Also, according to the WHO, 80% of all visual impairments can be prevented or corrected. Yet, when I asked my students how many of them had ever seen a health care worker to have their eyes examined, out of the 250 students I see on Mondays, less that five could say that they had.
  


• Although I had noticed it before, in a staff of over twenty tutors (teachers) only two, myself included, are women.
  


• At the beginning of the term three weeks ago we were asked to submit schemes of work (like lesson plan outlines for the term) by the following week. Today it was asked of the tutors how many had completed and turned these in. Only four tutors raised their hands (Ryan and I were two of these!)
  

Now for the big news: Our principal shared with us that at a meeting of all 45 PTC principals yesterday some really important budget news was shared:

• The PTCs are composed of two parts: Preservice (for future teachers) and Outreach (for those already working in the field). This term only 33% of the preservice budget was fulfilled by the government, and 0% of the Outreach budget was fulfilled. The PTCs are supposed to be 100% funded by the government.


• The government has currently provided funds for only 22 days of the current term, even though the term is supposed to be 69 days.


• All of the PTCs are 100% boarding schools. So, students attend school, sleep, and eat on campus. The money given by the government to feed, house an d provide materials for is only 590 Ugandan schillings (about 25 cents) per day.
  

As a result of what was shared at the meetings, if the government does not respond with more funds by tomorrow (Wednesday), the PTCs nationwide will temporarily shut down until more money is acquired. This would, of course, be absolutely awful for the students, the tutors, and primary schools who really need quality teachers produced at the PTCs. And, we aren’t sure what it would mean for us either…

All of this goes to show that Peace Corps service truly is never as you expect it to be. Although we knew we would learn so much through this experience, who could have imagined all of the different aspects that being here in Uganda would have helped us to think about and consider. Life sure is complicated, isn’t it?

Bump-Set-Spike!

So...Ugandan's love volleyball! Who knew?! Yesterday we got to enjoy a rousing game of V-ball with our PCV friend Bailey. Bailey teaches at an all girl's secondary school just a few kilometers from us and on top of being a science and computer teacher, has already taken on the job of Volleyball coach! So, she is working with 2 teams of girls at the school and getting them in the competitive spirit. It was a lot of fun to get to be a part of it yesterday!

There were many moments of classic Ugandan-ness during the match. The first being that the opposing team arrived two and a half hours late! Another hilarious moment was when the opposing team took off their warm up pants and was wearing a "traditional" volleyball uniform. The girls laughed and hooted and hollered!Something to know about Ugandans - they view womens' thighs as one of the most seductive parts of the body. They have no hesitation about breasts and are not shy about the frequent exposure of breasts in public, yet thighs are an absolute no-no. This is why skirts are so important for women here and why the Bweranyange girls were wearing athletic shorts like this: So....the thighs of the opposing team caused quite a ruckus!
Another funny moment was when, multiple times throughout the game, the Bweranyange girls would resort to kicking the ball. Of course "Football" (soccer) is a big sport here in Uganda, and I think it must just be a habit for them to use their feet. Desperate times call for desperate measures I guess! :-)

The girls were scrimmaging against a group of freakishly tall University students. They lost every game (best 3 out of 5) but they really put up a great effort! It was a little David vs. Goliath-esque, and we were proud of them for doing their best! A fun, sunny, afternoon!

Ryan's avocado adventures

So....we have two fantastic (and freakishly tall) avocado trees in our backyard (cool!). The only problem is getting the darn things down because apparently nobody in Uganda has given the concept of pruning trees any serious thought! **Shout out to Dad for reminding me that this (not that American fruit trees are curiously more conveniently sized) is the reason why fruit trees back home are so much easier to pick!

So, here are a couple short videos of my clever hubby choosing a safe and innovative alternative to the Ugandan method of picking avocados by climbing trees with machetes. The result? Two avocados and a man still alive to eat them! :-)

Enjoy!

~emily~

Classes Begin!

Well it has been a little while since we posted because we finally have started the school term. The students arrived back last week. Most of the students arrived last Monday and Tuesday, and others have trickled in since then. It felt crazy to have all the students back again, after having the college campus be so quiet for a month. I (Ryan) started to teach last week because it was pretty obvious where I would be in the timetable, being as there is only one other computer teacher. The first week of lessons went pretty well. I tried to get an idea of how much they already knew about computers, which was much less then I had expected. So after that I decided that I would work on keyboarding skills with them. I have never taught keyboarding before so we will see how that goes, but I think it is such a great skill to have. So wafts of “find your home keys” can be heard emanating from the computer lab.

Emily worked on trying to figure out exactly what she would be teaching this week, which turned out to be much more work then we thought it would be. Two people that she needed to talk to from the math department only are in on Thursday and Friday, and the department chair over Special Needs Education was out of the country in Kenya. But she tried to do what she could; she was able to have a low-key week, which turned out to be good because she was a bit under the weather.

We had a very eventful weekend of getting stuff done. We planted sweet corn in our garden. Started painting our kitchen. Got lots of shopping done. Did a weeks worth of laundry which we have tried hard to avoid since getting to site. Our fingers still get the handwash virgin rawness from doing that much laundry. And most importantly of all our weekend accomplishments was finishing the 6^th Harry Potter together! Which if you are familiar with the series you will know that I had one sad wife on my hands who did not want to believe the ending.

This week Emily has gotten to start teaching her Special Needs classes, which she loved. She volunteered to take on the job of teaching the Special Needs curriculum and acting as a support person for the special needs students on campus when we found out that the college had neither a teacher or the money to hire someone to teach the subject. Her first week in, she is loving it. She hits her stride when she is in front of students and the change in country did not change that. She just went over what it means to have Special Needs, and did some getting to know you activities. All of Emily’s Special Needs classes are with 1^st Then all her math classes are with 2^nd years and are on Friday. So she is looking forward to getting to fill her time with other stuff during the other weekdays. She is hoping to go to some primary schools and help out with projects there, and possibly participate in a girl’s empowerment group that we think is already operating on the campus. years and are on Monday.

My second week teaching went well but remained bogged down a bit by a power outage and the fact that we have a holiday on Friday. So we are off for a three day weekend starting after we close up the lab tonight. Each Tuesday and Thursday nights the plan is to have open lab hours. I have looked over more computer labs then most people after my experience in Americorps but the computer lab here is a totally different beast. Let me leave you with some of the fun differences I have noticed:

USA: You open a lab and it is full an hour later.

Uganda: You open a lab and it is full an instant later.

USA: If someone is looking at me they are doing something they are not supposed to.

Uganda: If someone is looking at me it is because I am white.

USA: When someone has nothing left to do they leave the lab.

Uganda: When someone has nothing left to do they write inspirational words to their class stream about how they should work and how God Blesses Them.

USA: If the computers are full people wait.

Uganda: If the computers are full they merely push on to a chair with someone.

USA: When someone looks busy they are busy.

Uganda: When someone looks busy they are writing their name in bold colorful letters.

USA: Settings are locked and firewalls exist.

Uganda: Every setting is changed within five minutes by someone who can’t figure out how to double click on an icon as soon as they sit down.

USA: You announce closing a lab and it closes half an hour later.

Uganda: You announce closing a lab and it closes thirty seconds later.

Hoping everyone at home is well,

Ryan KJ (or Mr. Johnson as I am known here, Ugandans don’t do the hyphen)

Update + new pictures!

Hi Everyone!

We haven't written in a while, mostly because life in the last couple weeks has been more or less the same as when we last wrote. We've done a lot of cooking and gardening, and we've started running! (I know, right?!) For those who don't know me super well, I've hated running for as long as I can remember! But we decided now is the perfect time to try to start liking running, so we're giving it a go! Where else can you run through meadows past cows and incredible green hills. We've been at it two weeks now and I haven't failed yet, so there may be hope for me yet! We have a goal of being able to run a 5k before the next term of school is out....I'll keep you posted!

We've also branched into sigeeri cooking. A sigeeri is a super common cooking method here in Uganda. It consists of a clay or metal pot-like stand that you fill with charcoal. Then, you can put pots and pans on top to cook with. Our host family had at least 4 sigeeri's going at any given time, and cooking dinner on them usually took no less than 3 hours! Not surprisingly, it takes a great deal longer than cooking on a stove top, so we use it rarely. (We bought a two burner gas stove top before we left Kampala that is our primary method of cooking - thank goodness!!) So, mostly we use our sigeeri for a dutch oven. So far we've baked sourdough bread, deep dish chicago style pizza, chocolate cake, and brownies! It works really well and expands our choices of what we can make!

We've still not been able to get any mail at our new site, which is disappointing. Here in Uganda everything comes to PO boxes and nothing is delivered to actual houses or businesses. We are grateful to be able to use the PO box at our college, and yet we aren't exactly sure of the system yet. So, much of this week we've been trying to get a hold of the single PO box key so we can walk into Bushenyi and see if we have any mail. Since Monday, nobody has been able to find the key. Just this morning, someone told Ryan that the person who kept the key left their job here and took the key with them (What?!). Which means, the college has not gotten any mail since said person left. I have no idea how long it's been, but it's been at least a month since no mail has arrived since we came to the school. But, they are sending for the key keeper and with any luck we might have access to the mail in the next week or so! One of those situations that would never happen at home, but here in Uganda you just have to laugh!

Monday the students return and we begin teaching shortly thereafter - the actual start of class is still yet TBD (Ugandan time, of course). We are starting to panic mildly because we still don't have much of a sense of what we are going to be teaching and it's beginning to feel quite real now that we are only a few days from standing in front of students. Yet, this is just the Ugandan way - everything in due time. So, hopefully by next Friday I will have been given some idea of my teaching load, and maybe will have even gotten in front of some students! I'm ready to get going, but a little anxious at the same time since I still don't have a great sense of exactly what it is that I'm getting into! But I've been missing teaching and working with students, so I really look forward to getting back into it! Ryan has fortunately been able to work somewhat regularly in the computer lab with his counterpart over the holiday, so he at least has some idea of what's coming. But, I'm sure we will both be learning a lot and having some interesting and potentially awkward moments in the next week or so as the term gets started. We'll keep you posted!

And...here are a couple of links to some new photo albums I just uploaded on facebook. I tried to avoid looking like a tourist the first few weeks of being here, but decided yesterday it was safe to break out my camera! I think it gives a decent sense of where we are and what we've been up to. Enjoy!

This one is mostly just views around the landscape of our village : click here

And this one is specifically our college and our house at the college: click here

All right, I'm out. We think of everyone all the time and miss home a lot! Thanks for the emails and letters and keeping posted! We hope you all are well and love and miss you all!

~emily~

Friends & Cheese

We've been at site now for a little over a week, and things are going well, but slowly. Because of the timing of things, we have arrived at site just as most people are leaving. This has its advantages and disadvantages. It's nice to have some time to get settled and begin to get to know our community without the stress of figuring out teaching on top of it, but it's also a lot of down time! Most of the tutors (professors) at the college have gone home for the holiday, and classes are out. Unfortunately, we don't know what we are going to be teaching next term so we can't even work on preparing lesson plans. It's a little hard to get here, all geared up to do good work, and find 4 weeks of downtime waiting for you at site!

But, we're trying to make the best of it and enjoy a little relaxation in the mean time. It's a good time to get to know our new community, and spend some quality time together! So, we've started our garden, gone on walks, experimented cooking things from the market (Cassava! I got an individual lesson from one of the women in the market), practiced our Runyankore with some of the community members, and read a lot of Harry Potter out loud to each other! I've felt a bit homesick, but I know that as relationships start to develop and our work here starts to feel more significant it will help me feel like our time here is being well spent. Also, I watched "Singing in the Rain" and plastered our living room walls with pictures of people and places from home, so that helps bring some cheer too! :-)

Tonight we had some of our PCV neighbors & friends over for dinner. We made garlic naan and a coconut milk curry...delicious! We loved hanging out and chatting - so nice to be with friends! Also, they were in town today so they picked us up some real, live cheese! Gouda! I'd never had gouda at home, but I'm pretty psyched to have some cheese in our pantry and a great excuse to eat it all in one sitting! (no refrigerator!) So...Friends and cheese, who can ask for more? ;-)

Keep in touch,

Emily

New photos

So, I still haven't figured out the best way to do this....But I added some new pics from PST and swearing in to my facebook album. Check them out!

new pics - click here!

Emily