ok so not much of an update from here. Was going to try to at least get a picture up but the connection is awfully slow today. One thing i will mention is that I've created a new blog for the school I'm working at. Its a little rough right now but i just wanted to get the information up so you could start reading. I'm hoping to finalize all the budgets for the projects and get some pictures up on the page as well as putting some more projects I'm working on.
here it is: http://www.saintadolf.blogspot.com
there is also a new email address: stadolfhigh@gmail.com
love and miss you all,
Eric
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Pop, Pop, Bang! three posts in one day!
So these three posts were meant to be just one, but I got a little long winded....i know, weird huh?...on each topic so decided to cut them up into three. So here's the update post I have been intending to write for the last 2 hours (as i now hit 5400 shillings of internet time). So we're about 3 weeks into the term, which is a short one - 10 weeks, really 8 once you factor a week of beginning term exams and a week of end term exams. And as I mentioned before I've got a few physics classes and a biology class. Yesterday I had my first session with the S3 physics class that I will be covering "light and optics" with. I brought in a box of goodies - flashlights, a globe to demonstrate a solar eclipse, a mirror, etc etc - for my lesson to ensure I gave them plenty of demonstrations of what exactly I meant by angle of incidence or penumbra. This got them pretty excited, especially when I mentioned that we would be in the lab next week to do some more. The other classes are going about as equally as well, once we got over the initial shock of, "wow the white guy talks", and "whoa, we're not used to actually seeing these experiments". Here's a picture of my town that I took on my walk up to the boulders (see last post). This is looking west towards the mountains (which weren't out that day, but you can see some of the foothills in the distance)
A call to arms: So for my S4's, I've been brainstorming a bit and would really like to do something specifically for them as they will not be reaping the benefits of a potential library, or upgraded lab facility, etc. What I've come up with is this (and i cant help feeling like I've already mentioned this in the blog somewhere, but i can't find it, so my apologies if this is a re-run -> i'm hoping to start a second blog soon of St. Adolf projects, where I can collect these ideas and let you all contribute your thoughts and ideas):
They are preparing to take their o-level exams in November, which will determine if they can move on to either A-level (our junior/senior years of high school) or leave school with the satisfaction of having an O-level education (this is really the equivalent of being a high school grad in america, as far as society's view). A few weeks ago I met with them and we talked about what they were lacking most in preparation for these exams. I mulled over their suggestions and weeded out the impossible options (getting 65 textbooks to them in 4 months, etc) and decided on this. Scientific calculators. As i understand it, the rule for the exams is if you have one (aka can afford it) then you can use it on the exam. out of about 65 kids 3 of them have calculators. Having this tool on the exam would inevitably boost their scores and prevent a lot of simple mistakes - you try finding the tangent of an angle without a calculator. I've done a little shopping around, although I need to do more, and I think these can be purchased for around 10,000 shillings each here in Uganda, or about 6 bucks. That is worst case scenario - raising money and buying them from a store. What I'm hoping is that I can get some kind of deal with either a company or wholesaler to get a bulk order through at a good price. So as I continue working on this here I opening the floor to you. Please email me any ideas or suggestions for this small project. With the calculators I'm hoping to get them a study guide with past exams, test taking strategies, etc, as well. But that is second fiddle to the calculators.
Okay so some random Ugandan moments, since I know you all get a kick out of these. First one happened this morning. I woke up about 8am or so, slept in a little since I don't have class on Tuesdays. Walked out onto the back porch with my cup of coffee and sat down. Pretty soon I hear a rooster really making a commotion. They're annoying when they just crow but this was more of an "im in danger yelping". Sure enough a few seconds later the rooster rounds the corner of the building and starts running through the backyard with the dog fast on his heels nipping it's feathers. This proceeds for about 5 mins as they make circles around the house. I shooed the dog away a few times but he was persistent. The next time they came around the corner of the house the rooster got wise and jumped up onto the porch. He started walking around clucking and came up to me, like i was gonna save him. Just then the dog jumped up onto the porch and lunged at the rooster. It ran the only way it could. Into my open door. So now I've got a rooster in my bedroom and the dog waiting at the back door for it. Of course the rooster go anywhere near the back door and the dog isn't keen on giving up. So I have to climb onto my bed and reach out and open the front door to let him walk out. The father's were standing in the courtyard and got a good kick out of seeing my door opening and the rooster walking out.
The picture is of the two crested cranes who come to the parish pasture in the mornings. (The dog likes to chase these as well)
Last week I decided to attend a meeting at the school of the parents of the S4 students, the students, members of the PTA and staff. In typical Uganda fashion the meeting (scheduled to start at 10am) got going around 11:15. One of the first things they did was to invite me to change from my comfortable seat within the crowd, most of the way back where I could hide, up to the front where they had a few desks turned around facing the audience. I halfway expected this to happen but hoped I could just sit back in the shade of the mango tree and observe the meeting. So I walked up and sat next to Father Moses (who is on the board of directors for the school, and my supervisor). It worked out well that I changed seats because he was able to translate for me throughout the meeting, which of course was all in Rutooro. This isn't so bad I thought, obviously I wont be expected to say much since they're conducting the meeting in Rutooro. First item on the agenda. Opening prayer. "Myers Eric, will you lead us in the prayer please" <- this of course was said in Rutooro but I at least got the point that they were talking to me. I turned to the father to ask for my translation and he kind of grinned at me and said "umm, they want you to lead the prayer". Oh, fantastic! I stumbled my way through it...in english mind you....which is probably good because that means most people didn't know what I was saying and probably though it was a pretty good prayer. The rest of the meeting I was able to just slump back and read the notes the Father was writing in english for me. I lasted almost all the way through it. I left around 2:00pm because I had a class. I think the meeting wrapped up soon after I left. Just a shade under 3 hours, which is pretty short for Uganda. Needless to say next time I go to a meeting I will have a prayer ready to spit out. As well as brush up on my Rutooro introduction of who I am, where I'm from, etc etc.
Okay, I think thats pretty good for one day. Hope everyone is enjoying summer! Oh and a bit belated but Happy Father's Day to my dad and any others reading this. You too Chris! You guys are the best. And thank you to shara also, i forgot you in my care-package-preparers-pre-emptive-thank-you".
Love and miss you all.
(ps, I snuck a picture of "the treehouse" below. More about this at a later date, just know that it was in the middle of a jungle filled with monkeys ;)
A call to arms: So for my S4's, I've been brainstorming a bit and would really like to do something specifically for them as they will not be reaping the benefits of a potential library, or upgraded lab facility, etc. What I've come up with is this (and i cant help feeling like I've already mentioned this in the blog somewhere, but i can't find it, so my apologies if this is a re-run -> i'm hoping to start a second blog soon of St. Adolf projects, where I can collect these ideas and let you all contribute your thoughts and ideas):
They are preparing to take their o-level exams in November, which will determine if they can move on to either A-level (our junior/senior years of high school) or leave school with the satisfaction of having an O-level education (this is really the equivalent of being a high school grad in america, as far as society's view). A few weeks ago I met with them and we talked about what they were lacking most in preparation for these exams. I mulled over their suggestions and weeded out the impossible options (getting 65 textbooks to them in 4 months, etc) and decided on this. Scientific calculators. As i understand it, the rule for the exams is if you have one (aka can afford it) then you can use it on the exam. out of about 65 kids 3 of them have calculators. Having this tool on the exam would inevitably boost their scores and prevent a lot of simple mistakes - you try finding the tangent of an angle without a calculator. I've done a little shopping around, although I need to do more, and I think these can be purchased for around 10,000 shillings each here in Uganda, or about 6 bucks. That is worst case scenario - raising money and buying them from a store. What I'm hoping is that I can get some kind of deal with either a company or wholesaler to get a bulk order through at a good price. So as I continue working on this here I opening the floor to you. Please email me any ideas or suggestions for this small project. With the calculators I'm hoping to get them a study guide with past exams, test taking strategies, etc, as well. But that is second fiddle to the calculators.
Okay so some random Ugandan moments, since I know you all get a kick out of these. First one happened this morning. I woke up about 8am or so, slept in a little since I don't have class on Tuesdays. Walked out onto the back porch with my cup of coffee and sat down. Pretty soon I hear a rooster really making a commotion. They're annoying when they just crow but this was more of an "im in danger yelping". Sure enough a few seconds later the rooster rounds the corner of the building and starts running through the backyard with the dog fast on his heels nipping it's feathers. This proceeds for about 5 mins as they make circles around the house. I shooed the dog away a few times but he was persistent. The next time they came around the corner of the house the rooster got wise and jumped up onto the porch. He started walking around clucking and came up to me, like i was gonna save him. Just then the dog jumped up onto the porch and lunged at the rooster. It ran the only way it could. Into my open door. So now I've got a rooster in my bedroom and the dog waiting at the back door for it. Of course the rooster go anywhere near the back door and the dog isn't keen on giving up. So I have to climb onto my bed and reach out and open the front door to let him walk out. The father's were standing in the courtyard and got a good kick out of seeing my door opening and the rooster walking out.
The picture is of the two crested cranes who come to the parish pasture in the mornings. (The dog likes to chase these as well)
Last week I decided to attend a meeting at the school of the parents of the S4 students, the students, members of the PTA and staff. In typical Uganda fashion the meeting (scheduled to start at 10am) got going around 11:15. One of the first things they did was to invite me to change from my comfortable seat within the crowd, most of the way back where I could hide, up to the front where they had a few desks turned around facing the audience. I halfway expected this to happen but hoped I could just sit back in the shade of the mango tree and observe the meeting. So I walked up and sat next to Father Moses (who is on the board of directors for the school, and my supervisor). It worked out well that I changed seats because he was able to translate for me throughout the meeting, which of course was all in Rutooro. This isn't so bad I thought, obviously I wont be expected to say much since they're conducting the meeting in Rutooro. First item on the agenda. Opening prayer. "Myers Eric, will you lead us in the prayer please" <- this of course was said in Rutooro but I at least got the point that they were talking to me. I turned to the father to ask for my translation and he kind of grinned at me and said "umm, they want you to lead the prayer". Oh, fantastic! I stumbled my way through it...in english mind you....which is probably good because that means most people didn't know what I was saying and probably though it was a pretty good prayer. The rest of the meeting I was able to just slump back and read the notes the Father was writing in english for me. I lasted almost all the way through it. I left around 2:00pm because I had a class. I think the meeting wrapped up soon after I left. Just a shade under 3 hours, which is pretty short for Uganda. Needless to say next time I go to a meeting I will have a prayer ready to spit out. As well as brush up on my Rutooro introduction of who I am, where I'm from, etc etc.
Okay, I think thats pretty good for one day. Hope everyone is enjoying summer! Oh and a bit belated but Happy Father's Day to my dad and any others reading this. You too Chris! You guys are the best. And thank you to shara also, i forgot you in my care-package-preparers-pre-emptive-thank-you".
Love and miss you all.
(ps, I snuck a picture of "the treehouse" below. More about this at a later date, just know that it was in the middle of a jungle filled with monkeys ;)
An ode to Amos
So I had "one of those days" recently, which tend to frequent my new life in Africa. Call it culture shock (which peace corps does), call it weakness, call it whatever you want. But there's just some days where you don't want to leave the house. In the states I would say I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, so I guess in this case I've woken up on the wrong side of the world, and a day in Africa with the constant "muzungu, give me money" just seems like the worst thing imaginable. But alas, i'm here, and i'm not leaving....so i'll deal with it. Finding a way to deal with it (besides walking immediately to the local watering hole) can sometimes be tricky.
In this case I decided to take a hike to these "stones", or boulders, that sit on a hill above my town. I've often looked at these boulders, which are just visible from my back stoop at the parish, and wondered what the view would be like from there. Well, now you know almost as well as I do. This picture (or any) really cant do justice to the view from up there. you have 360 degrees of rolling green hills, banana plantations, little stone houses, and mountains. You can see as far as your eyes (or the air) will let you - which I'm estimating is about 60 km's on all sides.
Lucky for me this "hike" turned out to be a walk up a driveway. Yep, at the top of the hill right next to the boulders is a little house. Which is good for me as this means I can walk up here quite easily, and therefore will be using this as a stress reliever for the next two years. While I was sitting on one of the boulders admiring the view and trying to pick out the parish in the distance - which in the picture above you need to find the long rooftop right in the middle off to the right of my collar, then move right till you see the cow pasture, then further right where u'll see a little rooftop just on the edge of the frame - a young boy of 15 came up and sat next to me. I soon learned he lived in the little house next to the boulders, and his family has lived on this hilltop for over 75 years. This was Amos. And although he spoke very little english (even less than i speak Rutooro) we sat on the boulders for a couple hours, mostly in silence, save whenever i would question him about something in the distance. Which he usually responded with just a confused look and then a smile and then "yes". The one successful conversation we did have was when I asked him (in broken Rutooro) which was his favorite view (noogonza kulaba nkaha - you like to look where). To answer this he brought me over to the largest rock that looks west to the Rwenzori's and pointed off in the distance and said "snooze, in morning". Of course my first thought was to agree and say, yeah me too, i never get up on time. But what he meant was that in the morning he comes to here because you can see the snow on the peaks of the Rwenzori's. Something I will definitely be trying to make it for at some point. So why an ode to Amos, this young boy who sat mostly in silence with me for 3 hours? Well it gave me a subtle reminder that for all of those people who sit on the side of the road and shout "give me money" or some other thoughtless remark, there are people like Amos who just want to share something with you or sit next to you for a while (next to = 5 feet away and slightly behind me where he can investigate my every movement).
And now....a cow for Rosie
Ask and yee shall recieve. I present, an ankole cattle (his horns aren't as big as most of them usually are...around 2-3 feet each...but don't tell him [or is it her? i cant tell from the picture], he's a little sensitive about the subject). This cow is one of 10 or so the parish has. Also pictured is the parish dog, who I've dubbed Marx, because he was nameless and for reasons I won't mention for fear of a lightning strike. He just got done chasing the big black cow, who is still running from him, hence the blur.
Please forward all other requests to me via the comment link below.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Ding Ding, School's in
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ha, i wish i had a picture of this title. there is one somewhere on kel's camera i'll have to put up soemtime. so they have bells at the schools here in Uganda. They also have a bell ringer. Why you ask? well the "bell" is actually just an old wheel from a car hanging from a tree. so they have a boy (or girl) designated to hit it a few times with a stick the call the kids in from breaks, lunch, etc. just an fyi for you all.
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so i've started classes...and absolutely loving it. I think I wrote (its too slow to go back and read it now, and i just want to get something up before my time runs out) in my last blog about having a couple classes and then covering topics for other teachers. Well that has now changed...and now I have 4 of my own classes! all mine to do as i please. I have Senior 2 (east stream and west stream) physics, senior 4 biology (which i taught over the holiday as well) and senior 3 physics. BTW streams here are a way to cope with the lack of teachers. All the Senior 3 and 4 kids sit in the same class (about 60 of them) and they are the only senior3/4 class in the school. Senior 1 and 2 have "streams" which just means there are 2 classes....just like in the states there would be 2-5 1st grade classes in a given school.
ok so i've got 4 classes total, and...thankfully...mostly physics. The picture (which doesnt seem to be loading...i'll try it again in another post) is my senior 2 east physics class. Its a little dusty because, well, the class is dusty. there's no glass in the windows, and concrete floors, so you do the math. Much more to come (when i have more time) and i'll also have more pictures as i have kelly's camera on loan for the next month.
special thank you to everyone i've talked to that is putting together a care package. Bruce and Dolores thank you for the magazines! they were great, and are currently being cut up and used to decorate my walls as i have read them cover to cover twice now. Chris and Bridget/General and Woody: thanks for your emails and care package preparation. It really means a lot to know you all are thinking about me.
Oh! i will mention this before i go. Kevin asked me about the LRA situation in an email, and I'm sure others are wondering about this as well. yes, they (Uganda and Congo) are escalating their dispute with kony after the failed peace talks, but i'm totally safe. This will be occuring in the congo and in northern uganda (both areas we are not allowed to go to), and appears will be mostly confined to those regions, which i am well away from. I will keep you updated on it though.
Love you all.
Eric
ha, i wish i had a picture of this title. there is one somewhere on kel's camera i'll have to put up soemtime. so they have bells at the schools here in Uganda. They also have a bell ringer. Why you ask? well the "bell" is actually just an old wheel from a car hanging from a tree. so they have a boy (or girl) designated to hit it a few times with a stick the call the kids in from breaks, lunch, etc. just an fyi for you all.
------------------------------------------------------------
so i've started classes...and absolutely loving it. I think I wrote (its too slow to go back and read it now, and i just want to get something up before my time runs out) in my last blog about having a couple classes and then covering topics for other teachers. Well that has now changed...and now I have 4 of my own classes! all mine to do as i please. I have Senior 2 (east stream and west stream) physics, senior 4 biology (which i taught over the holiday as well) and senior 3 physics. BTW streams here are a way to cope with the lack of teachers. All the Senior 3 and 4 kids sit in the same class (about 60 of them) and they are the only senior3/4 class in the school. Senior 1 and 2 have "streams" which just means there are 2 classes....just like in the states there would be 2-5 1st grade classes in a given school.
ok so i've got 4 classes total, and...thankfully...mostly physics. The picture (which doesnt seem to be loading...i'll try it again in another post) is my senior 2 east physics class. Its a little dusty because, well, the class is dusty. there's no glass in the windows, and concrete floors, so you do the math. Much more to come (when i have more time) and i'll also have more pictures as i have kelly's camera on loan for the next month.
special thank you to everyone i've talked to that is putting together a care package. Bruce and Dolores thank you for the magazines! they were great, and are currently being cut up and used to decorate my walls as i have read them cover to cover twice now. Chris and Bridget/General and Woody: thanks for your emails and care package preparation. It really means a lot to know you all are thinking about me.
Oh! i will mention this before i go. Kevin asked me about the LRA situation in an email, and I'm sure others are wondering about this as well. yes, they (Uganda and Congo) are escalating their dispute with kony after the failed peace talks, but i'm totally safe. This will be occuring in the congo and in northern uganda (both areas we are not allowed to go to), and appears will be mostly confined to those regions, which i am well away from. I will keep you updated on it though.
Love you all.
Eric
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Kampala
So trip to the big city this weekend. Finally got my first sweet care package that has been waiting for me at the peace corps office. Thank you soooo soo much Shay!! It's absolutely awesome. Here's a quick rundown of the highlights: ramen noodles, grape jelly, a portable fan!!, lots of crackers, pringles, a pitcher, granola bars, batteries, pretzels, etc, etc, etc....soo great! the portable fan might have already gone through 2 batteries :) but i've got more than enough AA's so it will be going strong for a while.Went to the Uganda v. Niger football (the real football) game yesterday. Had tons of fun. They won 1-0, although we missed the goal as we were moving from the sunny seats to the shade (a diff of at least 15 degrees) but had a great time all around. The entire city was alive with fans yesterday afternoon and had a great atmosphere. There were about 30,000 fans at the stadium which was about 2/3rds full....including a young ugandan man in a bra leading cheers (so very culturally inappropriate). Here's our sweet $1.50 cranes visors we bought at the market in kampala. I also had a flag that we bought with the visors but our driver's flag fell off halfway to the game so i held one out the window which got snatched by a girl driving by on a boda.
Other than the game I've just been hanging out and eating good food that I can't get in the village, ie: pizza, chinese, salads, etc.
School is getting underway now, last week was the first week of the new term. They have beginning of term exams all week until this monday. I did not set any exams this term but I did supervise the s4's for two of theirs. Keeping watch for cheating becomes quite difficult when you've got 65 high school students crammed 4 to a desk in a dark room...but I think overall it went pretty smoothly. This week I will start teaching two streams (classes) of s2 biology, as well as finishing up the topic I was working on with the s4 physics class. I am hoping to get some more classes added to my load, but as of right now I will just be covering various topics in different classes so they can move me around to interact with as many kids as possible.
Had an interesting trip back from fort portal one day last week. The matatu's are always a great source for stories. This particular one I was on ran out of gas about 20km's from my village. So we pulled over on the side of the road and the conductor took a jerry can and ran down to the gas station at the next town which was about 2km's away. They had no gas. So the driver flagged down a boda driver who drove up to the next town to look for some. Took about 20 mins before he came back, this time with gas. So the conductor poured it into the tank (using a piece of cardboard as the funnel) but then wanted to also put a little into the fuel line for good measure. So how does one get gas into a fuel line from a jerry can without a funnel?? well you use your mouth! Next thing I knew he had tipped the jerrycan up and took a big mouthful of it, then leaned over and spit it into the fuel line and spit the rest out onto the ground and we were off! Never a dull moment, and there is absolutely no such thing as impossible. There's always another way to do something.
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