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
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