Field Notes, Received 2/4/10

NOTES FROM UGANDA -
Week 4 Friday - January 29: Classes went well - came home, cooked and prepared for tomorrow. Kathy had an exceptional day helping to prepare for the Introduction. She and Leah will both have lovely stories to tell.

Sat - Jan. 30: Kathy and Leah left this morning for True Vine to receive help in getting dressed in the gomases they had borrowed. They got home from the affair at 8:00 p.m. having had a lovely time. I cooked beans this morning while waiting for Peter. He arrived an hour late with yet another story of car woes. I met my Busowa classes today for the first lessons. It was a bit of a challenge because we were in their wall-less church so we constantly had a large audience. I managed to get the uninvolved adults to stay away but the children were something else. These ladies who are struggling to learn new words and phrases, stumbling in pronunciation, become very shy under the scrutiny of an audience. It is definitely a hindrance to learning. The best part of the day was rocking a baby to sleep while the child's mother wrote her personal story essay. The next best part was the beautiful full moon tonight.

Sun - Jan. 31: Last night I forgot to mention when I left Busowa yesterday, one of my students gave me 2 eggs as a thank you. I know it is important to allow people to show their appreciation by gifting me but it is so hard to accept when they have so little. Kathy and I went to Tororo Pentacostal Church this morning. This is Pastor Ruth's church. The whole atmosphere was a bit more sedte than True Vine. The preacher was very good - he spoke about "what God each of us worships." Kathy and Leah went out to the bush to Janet and Aquari's compound. Pastor Peter picked me up for Juba. I am seeing one woman alone. I have great hopes for her. I think she is very bright and she seems motivated. She speaks English very well which she learned working as a house girl. She has never been to school and does not know how to read and write. However, she was able to say/read the ABC's. I asked her how she learned them and she said she listened to the children. The english (ESL) class again was fun. There is so much laughing and clapping. I have determined that my LS class is not able to be an LS class after reading their essays. Some students' spoken English is really very good, but their writing is very poor and their reading skills so-so. So my plan is to start with phonics. We will work on the sounds of the letters, make words by adding letters at the beginning or ending of letter combinations, such as __at, __in, __up, etc. If they can learn to sound out the words they should be able to improve their reading and basic writing. Of course, there is at least one student who comes to me after each class and says, "I want to learn to read and write" and I explain again that this is where we start, that this will put them on the right path. I think THEY think I can wave a magic wand and make it all happen right away. I wish it were so simple. One last tidbit - I was ready to return home when Peter said he had a flat - the never-ending car problem saga. All one can do is shake one's head and laugh!

Mon - Feb 1: We had a long, hot, dusty ride to Wikus. We had first lessons today in all classes. My son, Kent, has offered to make Certificates of Completion for each of my students. He will ring them when the H4K team comes in April. I will leave a list of students with each leader. The last week of classes I will have class photos taken and then when I get home I will have copies made for all those who lasted until the end. So other than whatever knowledge and skills the students have gained, they will also have a photo and "diploma'. We have been having regular power outages. The rains have not yet begun so the Nile is low. All the power for the whole country comes from a hydro-electric plant on the Nile in Jinja. When the water gets too low, they start rationing the power. I don't know if that is what is happening now, but the power went off again first thing this morning which means no fan.

Tues. - Feb. 2: Oh, the day was hot - even the Ugandans are complaining. Everything is so dry and dusty. If there is a bit of a breeze, it blows the red dust around to cover everything and makes the air thick. Yesterday, after our long drive, Pastor Peter told me, my hair looked pink - the red dust. I was at Smile Africa today. My English class ladies are so much fun. We laugh with each other and at ourselves and at each other. They seem to be retaining (some vocabulary/phrases) and we add something new each class. Today we tried a "you are welcome" response to follow a "thank you". It took a while for the concept to sink in. By the time they left, I think about 1/2 of them understood, but we will keep working at it.

Wed. Feb3: Leah and I went to True Vine. I bought 3 pair of reading glasses for my students who need them. Leah and I have been talking about her coming to my classes as a guest lecturer on health issues. I will speak to Peter and get his reaction. A new thing happened today. On the way home from True Vine, we ran out of gas so I had to shell out money for gas and a "piki-piki" (motorcycle) ride. The driver came back with one large (1.5 liter) plastic water bottle and 2 smaller ones filled with gasoline which he set on the seat while he opened the gas cap. After emptying the bottles he took me home. This was a typical Ugandan solution to the problem. My True Vine LS class is speeding along. I didn't have enough prepared today so I had to "wing it" a bit. Hopefully, I have prepared enough for tomorrow. We will study punctuation. I don't want to bore my classes by repeating the same material. On the other hand, I don't want to move on to new material until I am sure they understand what has already been presented. I wonder just how much our (theirs and mine) accents are getting in the way of understanding.

Thurs. Feb. 4: Some good news to start the day - Kathy has given the money for the surgery for the little boy with the protruding lower intestine. The date has not yet been set for the surgery but it might happen before she leaves the end of February. Sylvester from True Vine, picked me up this morning. He initiated a discussion about Muslims, asking if we had any in the US. I said we did and their numbers appeared to be growing. He expressed his sadness that, at least here in Uganda, the Muslims are antagonistic to the Christians. However, he said that he believed God would change their hearts and he has seen many conversions. In fact, his neighbor, a local leader of the Muslims, who expressed very strong views has become a Christian. Sylvester said when he learned this he was shocked and could hardly believe it, but he gave the Holy Spirit praise and thanks. After my first class, Reading, one of my students returned to tell me she could no longer come. As she told me why, it became a familiar story. Her husband, who is an unbeliever, kicked her out. He doesn't have a job and becomes abusive when he drinks. She has 4 boys, the oldest is 12 and the youngest, 5. She had been living in a rental but can no longer afford it. She can't pay school fees and has no money coming in. She needs to take her children to her mother in the village and then look for work. She is a soft spoken, lovely, young woman who was really trying hard in my class. I was pleased with her progress so I am very sorry to see her leave. I told her I would pray for her and she was welcome back anytime. During my English class we had a huge thunderstorm. This got scary because the roof leaks and big puddles formed on the floor around the electrical equipment for the computers. If you will recall, I teach in the building that is the computer lab. What a mess! The rain sounded so loud on the tin-sheeted roof we could hardly hear each other even though we were sitting right next to each other, but the ladies struggled valiantly on, not wanting to waste the time in which they had come to learn. One of the ladies does not have much use of her legs - she crawls into class wearing her flip-flops on her hands. She has a tricycle she pedals with her hands to move herself about outside. it was heart-warming to see her classmates carry her outside to her trike so that she didn't have to crawls through a puddle on the floor from the leak in the roof. Then my last class of today - it has dwindled in size but what a joy the remaining students are. We get along quite well with our accents. They are very attentive and interested and ask questions. It is fund working with them! We are working mostly with grammar which can be pretty dry stuff, but I enjoy it and they are doing well. Again, it is such fun! The rain was very welcomed even though we had laundry on the line. It settled the dust down and cooled the air. It will be comfortable sleeping tonight. I am sending this before I lose it again!! Bye til next week.