Raining Ants

            I woke up the other night at 3am to what I thought was another rainstorm.  It was not until I heard my neighbors excited shouting that I realized it was not raindrops pounding on my roof, but white ants.  My neighbors were all running outside with buckets in order to collect the white ants – a real treat here in Uganda.  When the rainy season begins, white ants come out and are attracted to light bulbs.  People run out to collect, roast, and eat them.  They are not actually white, but they get their name from their white wings.  I did not partake in the collection of the white ants, but instead, stayed hidden in my mosquito net and tried to fall back asleep.  I had to sweep up thousands of wings in my house and porch the next morning; confirmation once again that it was not a rainstorm.  My neighbor Betty invited me over for dinner the next day to try the white ants.  I know that these are a real delicacy, but I am not quite so sure how I feel about them.  They didn’t necessarily taste bad, but they did not look that tasty.  It was a crunchy, salty, meaty combo…and all I could think was “I’m eating ants.”  I, however, put on a smile and raved about how delicious they were.  Have a look for yourself…

            Last week while on a run, I met a man, Gowa, who asked me to check out his Community Health Center that he was starting in Namukalo Village.  Namukalo is in the Budaka District, and about a 15-minute bike ride from my house.  The students were taking midterm exams all weeks, so I didn’t have much going on.  I visited the Health Centre and talked with Gowa for a while about his plans and project proposal.  He started the health center because there are a total of 1,432 people infected with HIV/AIDS in Budaka.  Out of those 1,432 people, 160 adults and 375 children are infected within Namukalo Village.  The Gowa Aramanzan Community Health Center (G.A.C.H.C) was started in order to provide basic first aid to the community and HIV/AIDS education.  In addition, many of the households are poor and lack good nutrition, so he is working to provide the resources for small income generating projects.  I am going to be working with him at least once a week and help him get the center going.  I am going to help him with his budget and come up with ways to make the Center self-sustainable.  He told me that the reason that HIV/AIDS is spreading so rapidly in the village is because the men don’t believe in using condoms.  Hence, one of his top priorities is HIV/AIDS education, especially within the schools.  I think I need to introduce those condom slogans to the men of the village like “Don’t be silly, protect your willy” or “No glove, no love.”  I’m not sure how culturally appropriate they are, but I don’t really care – I want to smack some sense into these men. 

            I had a meeting with my counterpart and the head teachers of the 25 schools I will be working with.  My counterpart had each head teacher write down three expectations of a Peace Corps Volunteer.  I am glad that he did this because we were able to clear up some misconceptions at the very beginning.  While most of the expectations were legitimate, we did get a few that were a little out of my realm of work…

            I expect her to:

                        1. Take me to her land and give me a tour.

                        2. Improve our standard of living

                        3. Feed our students

                        4. Find American friends for all of the students

5. Build us new classrooms

            Thankfully my counterpart made it clear that I am here as a teacher, and just because I am an American, it does not mean I have an endless supply of money. 

            Power has been sporadic for the past week, and I have not had power for the past two days!  I am currently in Mbale charging all of my electronics, as well as the cellphones of eight teachers.  Cross your fingers for me that our power comes back soon…

The church next to my school

This is one way of carrying eggs...

My sitting room - I rearranged the furniture and put up photos

My gourmet kitchen

I have the best parents and sister!!  Willysha enjoying the goodies of my 4 care packages

My whale kiddie pool!  I stand in this to bathe...no joke.  Now water doesn't get everywhere :)

The road to my school

My best friend Kiera is doing an internship in Kampala.  She spent the weekend with me, and this is us making chapatti pizza.  Gourmet cooks like our moms!

Tails from the Latrine

            Every morning I find rocks and pieces of coal in my pit latrine.  There is also a lot of rat poop scattered around, so I attribute the mess to rats running around in the rafters.  On Saturday morning, it was relatively dark in my latrine, but I noticed that there was a rock in the corner.  I picked up the rock in order to throw it outside, only to find out that it was not actually a rock.  Imagine my surprise when I picked up something furry that squeaked.  Yes…I picked up a dying rat!  I screamed, dropped the rat, and quickly ran out of my latrine to wash my hands for thirty minutes.  I then contemplated what I should do.  Would it somehow crawl its way out of the latrine to die? Or would it die and attract maggots?  I really did not want to go back and get rid of the rat, but I knew I had no choice.  Thankfully, my neighbor had heard me scream and came to check up on me.  Betty was nice enough to grab a broom and sweep out the dying rat – and with each hit of the broom, the rat and I simultaneously squealed.  Betty thought my reaction was hilarious, and it did not take her long to tell the story to the rest of my school.  One thing I have learned since being here is that as a white person, I am a sort of celebrity.  Everyone knows everything that I do.  I have even had random strangers take pictures of me with their camera phones when I’m out in Budaka town.  When I throw out my trash, it’s a free for all.  The kids swarm the trash pit in order to look through my trash bag.  It is a little strange to go to my neighbors and find my empty can of Sour Cream and Onion Pringles being used as a pencil holder. 

            I finally heard from my counterpart!!  He called me on Tuesday and asked if I was around because he was at the school.  I was in my pajamas and in the middle of laundry...great timing.  So I had a meeting with Cosmas (my counterpart), Sister Goretti, and Steven (the head teacher) in my sweat pants, a baggy t-shirt, and messy hair.  I looked very presentable.  Cosmas looked very skinny, so I think he was actually really sick.  He was pleased, however, that I managed to start my own work in his absence.  Next week I will finally go to my coordinating center and meet with all the head teachers of the schools in my catchment area.  I am going to be getting more work now because I will start to visit the schools and work with the teachers on lesson planning and classroom management.  I am going to work with teachers to implement more critical thinking in classrooms, rather than rote memorization.  As for classroom management, I am going to give teachers methods of maintaining order in classrooms with over 60 students.  (Google is going to be my best friend!)  My counterpart also knows that I am firmly against the caning of students, and he wants me to talk with teachers about alternative discipline methods.  So I will primarily still be at St. Clare’s (the school I live at), but occasionally I will visit the other schools and meet with teachers.

            I still really enjoy teaching, and I have a lot of fun hanging out with students after school. The other day I tried to teach “Duck, Duck Goose” to some P4 students (I called it Lion, Lion Zebra).  I am not so sure that they actually understood the game, but they had fun nonetheless!  Afterwards, Claudia handed me a note, and it is by far the cutest one I have received.  As I said, I'm a sort of celebrity - I receive fan mail.  Claudia’s note was put in an envelope that had “love to love,” “kiss to kiss,” and “read it alone” written on it.  Here is what the note said:

            Dear my best friend,

            Your names are Teacher Nikessa.  I love you so so much.  My names are Akiror Claudia.  I am in P-4. You are beautiful.  You are brown.  I can want to be your friend. Can you want to be my friend?  Circle yes or no.

FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY

Obviously I circled yes.  Seriously, too cute! I am curious to know what “you are brown” means – she is probably referring to my amazing tan (yes, I’m being sarcastic).  “For God and my Country” is Uganda’s national motto for those that were wondering.  

            Teaching the teachers computers started out to be a more difficult task than I expected.  Some of the teachers would show up to class about 45 minutes late and say, “You know us Africans, we can’t keep time.”  Therefore, I usually had two different lessons going on – one for those who showed up on time, and another for the latecomers.  I found a copy of Mavis Beacon, however, which has made it much easier.  Now it no longer matters that teachers show up at all different times.  They were so excited after I installed the program – they love how it tracks your speed and accuracy.  It was like kids in a candy store when I first showed them the program, and now it is all they can talk about.  I told them that if anyone can type faster than me at the end of two years, then they will get a prize.  (As to what that prize will be, I’m not sure…)

            I ran out of water on Wednesday and I decided that for once I would go to the borehole myself.  I walked outside with my jerry cans and as I passed the lower primary block (P1-P4), students rushed to grab my jerry cans from me.  They actually fought over who got to hold them.  I didn’t have to do any work – the students not only cut the line, but they also insisted on pumping the water!  I did, however, carry the full jerry cans back to my house.  I carried two 20L jerry cans at the same time because I didn’t want to make multiple trips.  The students were going nuts that I could actually carry two and were all yelling “LOOK AT NIKESSA CARRY WATER!”  I will say, though, my arms and shoulders felt like they were going to fall off the next day.  After carrying them back to my house, I started to make my way back to the borehole to fetch the last jerry can.  Students, however, were in a huge group all carrying the jerry can back to my house.  I wish I had my camera at that moment because it was the cutest thing to see about eight 6 year olds trying to all carry the jerry can back to my house.

            I have started to send out postcards to people, so email me your addresses if you would like to get some snail mail from yours truly :)

           

Dental Floss and Toothpaste

           I have a newfound love for oral hygiene products because I have discovered they can be used for so many different things!  Last week I developed about 200 hundred photos to put up in my living room.  I hung them all up on my wall with toothpaste.  My living room was minty fresh for a few days and now I get to look at the photos of all the people I love and miss every day.  Last week my power was out for four days and I really had to do my laundry.  Obviously I do not need electricity to hand wash my clothes, but I iron everything because I am paranoid about mango flies.  I decided to hang dry my clothes in my house.  Can you guess what I used for my clothesline?  Dental floss.  Pretty amazing how strong that stuff is; it worked really well!  I do not floss, so I am glad that I finally found a use for all of that dental floss Peace Corps provided. 

            Last week proved to be more successful in the working department.  I never did hear from my counterpart, but I have started teaching at the school where I live.  As to when I will visit the school where I am supposed to work…not so sure.  This is Uganda, so I have to take the initiative to make my own work.  Thankfully, the school where I live needs me to teach!  I am teaching P6 and P7 math three times a week for forty minutes each.  The first day of teaching, I went in completely blind, which was a little nerve wrecking.  Francis (one of the teachers) asked me to come visit his P6 class.  After he introduced me to the class, he asked the class, “Would you like her to teach you today?”  They all cheered, “YES!”  So, he handed me a piece of chalk and said, “They are on long division.  Good luck.”  I was caught off guard and all I could think was, “I haven’t done long division since the fourth grade!  Isn’t this what calculators are for?”  Fortunately, I was able to remember how I was taught how to do long division and I was able to pull off the lesson.  I am glad, however, that I am now able to prepare for my lessons.  As Caroline says, “If you didn’t barf, poop your pants, or show up naked…it was a success.”  

            I really like teaching so far and the students are really excited to have a mzungu as their teacher.  All of my students give me their complete attention, and I even have a few teacher’s pets.  I’ve gotten a few avocados and mangos, which is great.  I always thought teacher’s pets were annoying, but if you are a teacher, they are pretty great.  I am struggling with how students learn here – there is no critical thinking and it is all rote memorization.  When I write anything on the board, they will copy it all down.  If I draw a picture in order to show something, then a student will inevitably ask if they have to copy that down too.  I have learned not to ask yes or no questions because the answer will always be yes.  For instance:

“Do you all know how many minutes are in an hour?” 

In unison, they all responded, “Yes!”

“Ok, how many minutes are in an hour?”

Compete silence. 

            Students do not admit they do not know the answer to a question because they are afraid they will be caned.  Also, they speak so quietly when you ask them an individual question.  I have decided to bring candy to class and I will give it to the students that speak loudly and clearly!  It is going to be a challenge to deal with the education system here, but I think slowly and surly I will be able to make a little bit of a difference.

            I am also teaching the teachers three times a week from 7PM – 9PM in the computer lab.  The school has 15 computers, but they are just collecting dust because no one knows how to use them – hence the students do not get to learn either.  I decided to start a class for the teachers so that they can continue to teach the students when I leave.  My first lesson on Thursday was cut short because the power went out…  I did not get very far in my lesson either because as soon as I started to explain the parts of the computer, the teachers asked me to write it down on the board.  (I’m not kidding when I say they have to write down everything here).  I wish I could make handouts, but I think from now on I will write down the notes on the chalkboard and they can copy it down after class.  I am teaching again today and the lesson is: turning the computer on and off.  I am not joking.  It was a little crazy to me at first because I am so used to everyone knowing at least the basics of a computer. 

            The students are really excited that I am here and I am always invited to their dorms.  I sit on one of the bunk beds, and 50 students surround me and ask me questions about America.

“Are there really flying houses in America?”

“Do you eat matoke? Do you eat posho?” – They are surprised when I say no.

“Do people have HIV/AIDS there too?”

“Can you take me to America?”

“Is everyone rich?”

“Are there black people in America?”

“Do they cane their students in America?”

“Is it true you eat snakes?” – Where they go this, not so sure.  They must be watching Survivor.

“Is there really a High School Musical?” 

And my personal favorite…

            “Sing us a song!”  - I am sure some of you just laughed out loud thinking of me trying to sing to 50 students.  I have not done it, yet.  I always say I cannot think of a song to sing (which is true).  Also, we all know I do not have a good voice, I fear I will make them all deaf.  I don’t think I am going to get out of it though.  I think after the first song I sing, they will no longer ask. 

            It was only a matter of time...I finally got sick.  I think it was from drinking untreated water.  When I went to the P6 dorm, one of the students gave me juice, which she diluted with water.  I didn’t really think anything of it until the next day when I was sprinting to the latrine.  All I could think was, “You idiot, they probably don’t treat their water!”  In all honesty though, I probably would have still drank the juice if the thought had crossed my mind when it was handed to me.  I wouldn’t want to be rude…  What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger, right?  Plus, I am fine now!

            I hope you all had a great Memorial Day Weekend two weeks ago – I definitely had my first wave of homesickness not being able to go to Laguna to see the Knapton family.  I could have used a weekend of lying by the pool and a good BBQ.  (There you go Steve, you got your shout out…)