Field Notes Received 1/29/10

Notes from Uganda - Week 3

Today I met my Smile Africa I classes. The English class was first and ladies started arriving at 1:30 for a 2:00 class. They told me proudly they were "keeping good time." When Janet arrived, she was my interpreter to begin the class to state the basic rules and though they gasped when she told them the rule "English only" in my classroom, they all stayed - they all tried, we all laughed and clapped and had a good time. I am anxious to meet them next week to see how much they have retained.

The Smile Africa I Literacy Skills class is going to be a bit more difficult. There are a couple of ladies who need the basic skills writing and others who are more advanced. They are interested in learning record-keeping for their businesses. HELP!!!! This is not my area of expertise, but I will give it some thought and see if I can help a bit.

(Back to English) There are 3 ladies who have some difficulty with pronunciation but they persisted and got lots of encouragement from their classmates. I hope they don't get discouraged and not return.

Following my second class, Janet came to me and said she thought the method I was using to each English was a good one because already the ladies are speaking some English words AND they greeted her in English.

Alex, the driver helped me shop on the way home as Kathy and I are trying to prepare a surprise birthday party for Leah Monday evening. As I will be out of town the next 3 days with Pastor Peter, I needed to get some shopping done today. Hope we can make it happen.
Saturday - I tried to make arrangements last night with Peter for pick up this morning. He was having car trouble. He had his car at the mechanic and couldn't get home. The problems continued this morning. He finally picked me up in an old, dirty vehicle which Elizabeth said was "the oldest car in Tororo" - maybe in all of Uganda. Then to town for many errands which took a very long time because every 10 steps Peter took, he met someone he knew and had to chat with. From there he went to Juba to deliver some money and pick up someone to take to town - back to town to have a tire changed, drop off Methusaleh and finally we were on our way with a jerk and a snort and a grind! We had an hour's drive ahead to Busowa at 50 k per hour. We went "pole-pole", Swahili for slowly, slowly. I had agreed to help with gas for the outreaches with Peter. However, this was 30,000UGX ($15.00) and Monday will be 20,000UGX ($10.00) which comes to $25.00 a week for those 2 days alone, roughly $250.00 for the time I am here. This my budget will not allow. I just do not have enough money. Something will have to be worked out - the money has to come from somewhere or these people will not be served.

The church at Busowa is a thatch roof full of holes set on poles with no walls. We were warmly welcomed and then began my evaluation/registration process. We will have 3 classes here as we do at True Vine. I hope it works. They fed us dinner before we left. I ate some cooked cabbage with a little carrot and a sweet potato - not very sweet and very mealy. We got back to Tororo after dark.
On the way Peter told me about his helper (the drummer at the nursery school graduation in Juba) who is wrongly in jail for murder. A man driving a motorcycle hit and killed a girl who lived in Juba. Her father sought revenge by killing the motorcyclist - cutting him in two. When the police came to investigate, people in Juba (Muslim Sudanese) who don't like Pentacostals which the drummer is, told the police the drummer had helped the father slay the motorcyclist. So he is in jail. He will have a trial soon but no one can help him as it will cost any witness for him about $1,000 to testify (bribery). The man is a widower whose wife died recently in childbirth, so he has a newborn and 4 other children. Fortunately, his fellow church members reaching out to help care for the children including buying milk for the baby.

There is a never-ending stream of tragic stories and great need.

SUNDAY - I woke in a panic this morning - feeling overwhelmed by the need to find money, come up with lessons and make our food last. We have not yet been here two full weeks. Also I woke up with "the runs" probably from eating the food in the village, which we ate with our fingers, by the way. After working on a budget and schedule, I feel more confident about personal things. Now it is only lesson preparation I need to plan for. The following is my schedule for the week:
Monday - Kingdom Preparation Center (KPC) at WikusTuesday - Smile Africa 2Wednesday & Thursday - True Vine: 9:00 nursery, 9:30 lower primary, 10:00 Adult Reading, 11:10 upper primary, 11:45 to 2:00 lunch and preparation, 2:00 adult ESL (English as a second language), 3:15 adult Literacy Skills (reading and writing).Friday - Smile Africa , ESL and Literacy Skills with different objectives than my other LS classes.Saturday - KPC at BusowaSunday - church and KPC at Juba Next time, if I do this again, I would schedule differently. I plan to write an evaluation to include input from the 3 leaders,Peter, Wilber and Ruth, at the end of my time here. Perhaps it might help Hope 4 Kids make decisions about further service here in adult education. It was a long hot day and I am exhausted - having difficulty thinking straight.
MONDAY - Today was a long day. I started by cooking a huge pot of rice and a pot of pumpkin. It is Leah's birthday so Kathy and I had a surprise party for her. We fed over 30 people. I can't believe it. We also had fried potatoes, tomatoes and avocados and Pastor Ruth brought her famous samosas - a deep fried filled dough. The filling is spices, meat, carrots and rice. They are wonderful but I am sure not too healthy. We also had some chapati and we brought sodas. Pastor Peter picked me up in the morning and we drive a "washboard" road all the way to the village of Wikus where I registered and evaluated a new group of adults. We will have 3 classes there. We got home at 5:00 picking up the soda and Pastor Ruth on the way. We fed Pastor Peter before the party began as he had a long drive home. The house was decorated with signs, balloons and streamers. We had a birthday cake and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. But there were lots of plates that came back to the kitchen filled with brown rice - what a waste! Since the Ugandans usually eat polished rice, I guess they did not like it. A big wast of really healthy food.

I finally got the dishes done and crashed into my bed. Leah was surprised and pleased, so I think it was a very special birthday for her so far from home. It also took care of all of our social obligations in one fell swoop.

TUESDAY - This day did not start well. I woke up feeling dizzy. I spent a quiet morning reading and resting while the Ugandan woman (Silvia) who lives in the compound cleaned the house. Alex came to pick me up at 1:"00. By now my stomach wasn't feeling well. We went to Smile Africa where I had 2 classes to teach. I was there about 15 minutes when I realized I would have to hurry to a bathroom for an "evacuation" emergency. Fortunately, I made it on time but wasn't sure what would happen next. I stayed for my classes and by the time I left at 4:15 I was feeling much better. Obviously, my body did not like something I ingested and when it rid itself of that something, it was happier. I cooked dinner - whole wheat pasta with pesto sauce (both brought from the States), leftover pumpkin (from the party) which had a syrup of sugar, water, butter and cinnamon (from home), fresh pineapple and guacamole with crackers. The guacamole mix also came from home. They have wonderful large avocados here. We always drink bottled water with our meals. The sauce/seasoning mixes from home are the packets one finds in our grocery store. I only brought 2 individual spices: oregano and cinnamon. There are Indian spices here as there is a rather large Indian community here in Tororo. These Indians originally came to work on the railroads in the 1800's and now claim Uganda as their native land. They have been here almost as long as the USA has been a country. I spent 4 hours in the evening correcting papers and developing lesson plans. I had a tough time getting to sleep as they kept rumbling around in my head.

WEDNESDAY - My mother had an expression she used when she felt overwhelmed. She would say "my head is so full." Well, right now, my head is full. Today I went to True Vine a 9:30. I had to return 3 borrowed items which took a lot of walking all over the compound and I had 3 classes to teach. I seem to be planning too little for my ESL classes, and too much for my Reading and Literacy Skills classes. The frustrating thing, as always in Africa, is the lack of punctuality. Also, new people keep showing up for classes. As I am sure you know, lessons are built on previous lesson, so trying to bring new people in has become too difficult. I turned away 4 students today for my LS class. On the other hand, 3 people who should have been there, were not. Obviously, continuity is a problem. I added 2 people to the Reading class which was a lot of review today so that worked. Three new people were added to ESL. Tow of them will be okay but the 3rd may struggle.. I got home at 4:15 pooped!! I did some laundry and ironing. Fortunately Kathy and Leah did the cooking tonight so I could work on tomorrow's lesson plans. We had 2 bouts of power outage today - don't know the cause, but this is another frequent occurrence here. When the fans go off the heat is stiffling. I perspire on my cheeks from under my sunglasses. Sun

Field Notes received from Bonnie 1-22-10

Notes from Uganda - Week 2 We went to True Vine Ministeries for worship. At 9:00 when we arrived the service was underway. Pastor Wilber was in the middle of his FIRST sermon. The attendance was about 1/4 capacity. At the end of his sermon we were invited to come forward to address the congregation! GULP!! I don't do well extemporaneously. I need to prepare. Most Ugandans, on the other hand, can stand and speak for 15 minutes at ANY time. Then we were invited to sit in front in what in most American churches would be the choir position. We barely got seated when we were fetched to meet with Pastor Wilber in his office while lay leaders continued the worship service. We discussed our proposed schedules and what he would like us to do. He gave me the names of his Amin. Assts. who will be our contacts. When we finished our meeting we all returned to the worship service. During every worship service, there is dancing as well as singing. A woman sitting next to me interpreted some of the words to what was being sung in Luganda, the 2nd official language of the country, along with english - "glory to the Father" and Praise to Jesus". A group, like a youth choir, came to the front, by\ut they danced rather than sang. Then we heard a SECOND sermon from Pastor Wilber focused on the text about where to store your treasure - what do you treasure - because your heart is where your treasure is. Again, more singing and praying - communal prayer, but each individual prayed his own words. Announcements were given, includinig about our nurses work in the clinic and my classes. Then there was an altar call for new people who wanted to name Christ as their savior and wanted to join True Vine. When they had been introduced and welcomed they met in Pastor Wilber's office as the rest of us continued in dancing, singing and praying. At about 12:30, the service ended. Remember, it had already begun when we arrived at 9:00. That means the worship service was longer than 3 1/2 hours. After worship we were greeted by old friends and also many new peopel welcomed us. One of the drivers, Matia, drove us home where we had an afternoon of relaxing with our Ugandan friend, Timothy. We played Scrabble and Scattergories. Timothy did very well at Scrabble but Scattergories was more difficult for him as it is a culturallty-biased game toward the US. We had an early evening dinner at the Prime Hotel. I had my first tilapia this trip. It was delicious. By the time we finished, I was ready to go home and go to bed. Monday - Silvia, the caretaker's wife, is doing our laundrty for us - by hand in 2 dish pans of water, one of suds and one for rinsing. She is lucky - she has a line to hang things on. Most women here just dry their clothes on the ground or buses. Everything must be ironed to kill the bugs. We are doing our own ironing. Kathy and Leah went to Smile Africa. A boy came in with a severe wound on his foot which had caused his whole lower leg to swell - it had not been cared for soon enough. Kathy had brought some special medicine for wound care that draws so they applied that, baandaged it and hopefully tomorrow the mother will return and there will have been some improvement. Pastir Oeter oucjed ne yo abiyt 11:00. I was able to sue the morning for lesson plans and setting up my student records books. We went to Juba where I met women for 5 hours. I had to repeat myself 4 times as the women came in staggered groups. They were on "African time". There were 17 women who had no school at all, but who want to lern English - some to be polite to visitors, some to read their bible, all to improve their livlihoods. They hope for better means to earn a living. Most were living on what they can grow in their gardens. I have one feisty 75 yar old. While trying to gather information about the women, when she was asked if she knew any English (many understand quite a bit, but don't speak), she said with a look that was a bit scornful, "That's why I came here."
Notes from Uganda - week 2, cont'd. Later when we were discussing how often we would meet - sadly, only once a week - she remarked, "You eat only once a week and expect that will be enought?" Obviously, she is motivated. After the meeting she came to say good-bye, shook my hand with a beautiful, big smile on her face. We have a total of 22 for the English class and 14 for the Literacy Skills class, including, one 18 year old young man. (These figures are for Juba alone.) I hope he endures for the entire time. I admire his courage to come with all of the women who range in age from 18 to 75. Tuesday - I went to Smile Africa, met with Pastor Ruth to ask if the children could sing for Leah on her birthday next Monday. I also wanted to let her know how pleased I was with the organization she had done for the classes I will be holding there and how excited I was about working with the women. I helped Grace and Katherine (the cooks) "pick" rice, visited and played hand games with some children. When Janet arrived we met with our new group of women. We went through the same routine again, dividing into English class and Literacy Skills class. The problem I see developing is fitting in the people who speak some English, understand more, but have no or little schooling. So far there have been a couple in each group which will present a challenge as they reaally don't fit in either class I am offering. The delightful thing that happened is 75 year old Fatuma showed up for this class as well and so far she is the only one who has attempted to say alound some English words. She has so fingers left. She lost them to leprosy (I have not seen her feet) and she has bad cataracts in both eyes, but she has a most joyful spirit and an eagerness to learn. Today, occured a bit of a trauma - As I was getting dressed this morning I heard a very loud buzzing. Into my room came a 2 inch long bumble bee with a wing span of at least 3 inches. It was the BIGGEST bee I have eve seen. I had no means of getting rid of it. Thus, I tried not to make it chase me but hoped it would die before I returned home but also I bought bug spray on the way home. However, when I returned home in the evening, it was gone. HOORAY!!! I had an interesting conversation with Janet about the religions in Uganda following a woman telling me she was Protestant. I explained to Janet what that mans in the US and asked what it means here. She then explained there are three main religions in Uganda: Roman Catholic, Islam and the Church of Uganda. The Church of Uganda is known as the Protestant church and in colonial times was the Church of England, also called Anglican (or for us, Episcopalian). The 4th, newer group are the Pentacostals, which is sommetimes persecuted by the others, particularly the Muslims. Wednesday - Today was a typically scheduled day at True Vine. they were over an hour late in picking me up, then Pastor Wilber had told me Robert Ikibu would be making he arrangements and schedule for my teaching, then Robert told me Babra would. However, when I arrived at True Vine, Pastor Godfrey was the one who found me and told me he had been registering students and they were to meet me right away. I had understood, I would meet them at 2:00 so Told him that. He then told people. I then spoke to Babra and asked for a schedule - while I was waiting for her, Pastor Wilber came in and told me, I shouild meet the students now and then tomorow at 2:00. Sooooooo, I went back to find Godfrey to see if we could round up students - some were there so we did the introduction/evaluation - otheres were to eturn at 2:00. I waited until 3:00 and none came, so I left. It will be interesting to see how True Vine compares to the other 2 groups in accomplishment because at True Vine, I wll be meeting with the same students on both Wednesday and Thursday. Also, because of how the groups are comprised, I will have 3 classes. The third class will be for those students who speak English quite well but have little schooling. Also, Pastor Wilber ants me to work with the children in the school: nursery, lower primary and upper primary. Nursery and lower primary are on holiday right now so to begin it will only be upper primary. I have no idea how many classes there are at each level so for my first visit I will observe and then hopefully be able to consult with the teachers. It was a long, hot day with many frustrations but many good people who are trying hard. Today we hae been here one week. It fells like a moonth or more. Leah went to the market outreach with True Vine nurses and Kathy went to Mbale with Pastor Ruth to consult with a doctor about a child who is in desperate need of surgery. His lower intesteine is protruding from his rectum about the size of a very large pear. It bleeds constantly, he can't wear regular clothes, is extremely painful and is full of lies. Pastor Ruth is going to try to raise the funds for the surgery. Right now, thinking of the child, I feel ashame, fussing about my "frustrating" day. Please pray for the child. Thursday - As I write this Thursday evening, I am pooped. I went to True Vine at 8:30 to pick up some books at their school library - some easy reading Dr. Seuss books I had donated. Unfortunately, I could not find them, but I did find one that might possibly work for the reading class. that class has 4 students, one of whom showed up 10 minutes late. However, as it turned out it was a time well spent with Agnes. We reviewed the ABC's by name and sound, spoke about vowels with long and short sounds and the 2 consonants with 2 sounds. Then we did an exercise creating words by adding a beginning letter to "at". She worked very hard at this tas, This is also an opportunity to expand vocabulary, as some words which can be made in English were new for her. I sent her home with some homework of making another list of words, using the same process, but using "in" as the letters to be added to. She seemed pleased with our time together and so was I. Following Agnes, I walked over to the P7 class. the kids were all outside and the teachs were on break. The board was full of information and exercises on pronouns - pretty sophisticated. I was impressed. I will have to review a bit before I face the class. Finally, the teach returned, we met and talked about scheduling and how I might be of help to him. After walking back across the compund to the comuter lab where my classes are being held, I ate my "bring-along" lund: a granola bar, some turkey jerky and a bottle of water. I had 2 hours to prepare for my next group - the English class. I used the first hour but had difficulty keeping my eyes open the 2nd hour. finally, my first student, a traditional mid-wife arrived on time. By 2:15 I had 6 of my 10 students. We did a brief introductin with the interpreter who then left and we started. They did very wll and had fun doing it. Only one lady had difficulty speaking up, but she finally managed to be herd. They zoomed through what I had originally prepared so I had to improvise a bit. We laughed and clapped and spoke some English. My goal is to give them enough vocabulary and courage to meet and speak with the Hope 4 Kids team members when they arriv in April. Lastly, at 3:00 my Litereacy Skills class arrived - mostly right on time. These are people with more education haaving reached Jr or Sr. High level, though none graduated. Two of them are pastors and 2 are pastor's wives. We did some reading out loud of different skill levels so I could see where they were in accomplishment and then I had themwrite a half page about themselves, again to see what skills need improving. I felt the class went well. Jane, one of the pastor's wives, came to me afterward and asked if she could be in both my morning Reading class as well as the Literacy Skills class as she feels she really needs the work in speloling (phonics, etc.). That is what is so exciting about this whole venture - these are people who so very much want to elarn and improve their eduction. Now the challenge for me is to come with the rest of the lessons. I think there will be a lot of one-on-one work, so it is a good thing the classes are small. One final note, I fell asleep last night saying my prayers about 8:30 and did not wake up until 7:00 this morning. I guess I was tired. Will write more next week.