I took a boda to the IC office, it is on the other side of town and thus costs 1000 shillings for the boda ride compared to the usual 500 we pay. Valerie who is the house mother of the IC office and also took us to St. Jude’s orphanage was there to lead us. It really helps to have an experienced person go with you, they know the nuances and the language and your experience is so much better this way. Hopefully, I talked about Katie who led us to Awere the first time. Katie speaks better Lwo than anyone I have heard in the IC house, and it is fun to watch and hear her joke with the Acholis. The other groups have had a kind of mixed experience with the Awer camp. Sometimes the people have been less than excited they were there. Today, we had none of that. We drove about a half hour away from Gulu to the camp. This is a camp where 50,000 people are still living in horrible and diseased conditions due to displacement from the war. We are within two hours of the Sudan at this camp. Another place of trouble and desparate conditions. Awer was what you expect when you think of the poor in Africa. Children everywhere some missing tops, the little ones often missing bottoms. As we walked through Awer, I was soon followed by about fifteen little children. It is a very bad place, and I wonder why these places exist. A small fraction of what we are spending on our war, could seriously make a difference here. I think I am very close to being able to send a picture home. If so, it is me with the children of Awer. IC is on the ground here and helping men and women make an income by the bracelet program. They are teaching saving and investing, and even in this place of desolation. There is a small loan program funded by the savings of the people making the bracelets. That is actual funding small businesses in this camp. We then went to a school that has been constructed in the camp by Save the Children. We met several of the teachers, there are 11 teachers for 1400 children in the primary grades. On the board, they were deciding how to allocated their funding of 16,394,000 /=. I was not sure but they may be only getting 35% of that money. If you turned away from the schools and away from the camps, you could see beautiful, rolling hills that stretched for ever. The green was green, green, green. On the way back, Valerie borrowed my camera to take a picture of a man wearing an apron saying, “since I’ve been microwaving, I have more time for misbehaving.” Kind of a surreal moment in a depressing day. This is usually where I try to end the message with a quote or a neat moment. I have neither today.
God Bless
Walk to Atanga SS
Friday, June 29, 2007
It's the little things
I do not know how this message will go. We are without electricity currently and different IC people are out back between the two buildings and discussing different things. Some God, some what happened today, Trisha is talking about her experience at Awer camp (similar spelling to my school, but two different entities). I guess I will also soon on this missive be talking about the same experience. But right now, I am marveling how many different things we have, small little, inconsequential things. Next week I will be demonstrating a math problem with post-it notes. Not available here. For our classrooms we were given large clumsy 2 hole binders with a very complicated system to reclose the binder. I went into town and bought a plastic folder clipboard folder for 8,000 /= (/= is the symbol for money, the dollar just fell here, but still buys close to 1600 shillings, so this purchase cost me a little more than $5). I then asked for a ream of paper, the shopkeeper asked, “One?” and I said yes and he said 100 shilling which seemed cheap until he handed me one piece of paper out of the pack. It is amazing that people will regularly buy individual sheets of paper. My friend Esau was hanging around waiting for me again today. I found out I could give him a pen, so tomorrow I will do that, but I really want him to walk to the courts tomorrow and play basketball. The assortment of kids I had last time were great, and I hope Amos (prounounced A-mos) shows he is an amazing kid. And I really look to reconnect with Kennedy and Geoffrey tomorrow. I am going to end this post here, because I think I want to separate this ordinary play from what I saw today. Read further for the Awer (away) camp story.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
no clever title
I forgot where we last were. But here are a couple of update items. I appreciate comments to my blog, and I really want to read them, so keep sending them, but I probably won’t be able to reply to your comments. The internet café is slow and I always feel guilty because people are waiting. I did read Caitlin’s and Laura Gallo’s comments so thanks.
My blog title was “Mia apa ario Acholi” I was wrong and have since learned better. 1200 is Apil acel ki mia ario” which translates to thousand one and hundred two. Okay so where am I, I will have nothing but cold showers for the rest of my time here (okay I just realized that is wrong, I might have a hot shower in Kampala), but anyway it is a big disappointment, when I wake up and there is no water. That means no shower whatsoever. I shaved with hand sanitizer the other day. It kind of worked. But in all the primitive conditions, it is amazing how used to this life style you get. The people are very friendly, all of the kids want to talk to you, and every one exchanges pleasantries. So far, I have done better with my English greetings because my Acholi is so bad, they usually can’t understand you. They also get a real big kick out of how much Americans talk with their nose. My new buddy Amos told me I am actually not quite as nasally as other Americans, he seemed to have a real adult perspective for a Primary 7 student.
Today I again planned next weeks lessons with Nyeko Alfred, who I almost always call Alfred. Nyeko is a name given to him when he was born, and describes the time he was born into. I am pretty sure Nyeko means Innocent. We had a good time planning our lessons for next week and also asking questions about Uganda and answering questions about America. In the afternoon, I went to Gulu High School and watched Danielle teach a Senior 1 class about linear equations and y-intercept. She did a great job with her partner Patrick. It was amazing to see this 5’3” woman command this class room of 120 girls. Oh by the way, it is considered dress code in all schools that I have visited that the girls and boys both have hair that is almost shaved. Often with the little kids the only way you can tell the differences is through their skirts.
Not sure if I mentioned an amazing job that a woman named Filda is doing at a place called St. Jude’s Orphanage. They have about 83 kids and they have them all smiling and interested in all kinds of activities. The older kids help raise the youngsters, just like they were in a real family. Each group of 7 or 8 kids has a “mom” that lives and works at the orphanage.
We also had a great roundtable meeting at Awere. All 5 of our teachers are ready to go. I am working there with Adam, Wendy, Trisha, and Terry (I share a phone with Terry and she has more than a first name in common with Terri Gaffney). They are both very down to earth and always willing to help. The Awere teachers are Solena, Alfred, Nancy, Beatrice, and --------. When I cam home Kennedy was waiting for me again. He really is looking for something to do. I met Esau again, and a new friend Amos. I am planning on playing basketball with that gang plus more on Thursday afternoon. Until then, it looks like I will be pretty busy. This message might not get to you for another 4 days. Oh, keep your fingers crossed a couple of the women have had to use a dewormer and are still a little under the weather. Amy, kind of my boss, just like my boss Winnie (ha ha), spent most of the time walking back and forth to Gulu high puking. Although it was not much, it was constant. Luckily I had one of the Thiemann gifts of Charmin to go, so she was grateful. Later, she ran our roundtable meeting at Awere without missing a beat. See you soon, by the way I expect to be able to guide the Cardinals to the Series again with my sheer force of will, please do not let my job get too tough, make sure they are within shouting distance.
My blog title was “Mia apa ario Acholi” I was wrong and have since learned better. 1200 is Apil acel ki mia ario” which translates to thousand one and hundred two. Okay so where am I, I will have nothing but cold showers for the rest of my time here (okay I just realized that is wrong, I might have a hot shower in Kampala), but anyway it is a big disappointment, when I wake up and there is no water. That means no shower whatsoever. I shaved with hand sanitizer the other day. It kind of worked. But in all the primitive conditions, it is amazing how used to this life style you get. The people are very friendly, all of the kids want to talk to you, and every one exchanges pleasantries. So far, I have done better with my English greetings because my Acholi is so bad, they usually can’t understand you. They also get a real big kick out of how much Americans talk with their nose. My new buddy Amos told me I am actually not quite as nasally as other Americans, he seemed to have a real adult perspective for a Primary 7 student.
Today I again planned next weeks lessons with Nyeko Alfred, who I almost always call Alfred. Nyeko is a name given to him when he was born, and describes the time he was born into. I am pretty sure Nyeko means Innocent. We had a good time planning our lessons for next week and also asking questions about Uganda and answering questions about America. In the afternoon, I went to Gulu High School and watched Danielle teach a Senior 1 class about linear equations and y-intercept. She did a great job with her partner Patrick. It was amazing to see this 5’3” woman command this class room of 120 girls. Oh by the way, it is considered dress code in all schools that I have visited that the girls and boys both have hair that is almost shaved. Often with the little kids the only way you can tell the differences is through their skirts.
Not sure if I mentioned an amazing job that a woman named Filda is doing at a place called St. Jude’s Orphanage. They have about 83 kids and they have them all smiling and interested in all kinds of activities. The older kids help raise the youngsters, just like they were in a real family. Each group of 7 or 8 kids has a “mom” that lives and works at the orphanage.
We also had a great roundtable meeting at Awere. All 5 of our teachers are ready to go. I am working there with Adam, Wendy, Trisha, and Terry (I share a phone with Terry and she has more than a first name in common with Terri Gaffney). They are both very down to earth and always willing to help. The Awere teachers are Solena, Alfred, Nancy, Beatrice, and --------. When I cam home Kennedy was waiting for me again. He really is looking for something to do. I met Esau again, and a new friend Amos. I am planning on playing basketball with that gang plus more on Thursday afternoon. Until then, it looks like I will be pretty busy. This message might not get to you for another 4 days. Oh, keep your fingers crossed a couple of the women have had to use a dewormer and are still a little under the weather. Amy, kind of my boss, just like my boss Winnie (ha ha), spent most of the time walking back and forth to Gulu high puking. Although it was not much, it was constant. Luckily I had one of the Thiemann gifts of Charmin to go, so she was grateful. Later, she ran our roundtable meeting at Awere without missing a beat. See you soon, by the way I expect to be able to guide the Cardinals to the Series again with my sheer force of will, please do not let my job get too tough, make sure they are within shouting distance.
Monday, June 25, 2007
No Water, and a malfunctioning iPod
I felt really dirty that we had no water again, as I would have to go into my first day of school without a shower. Things got worse, when my roommate Hadley woke me at 7 am, I rolled over slept for five minutes, and then woke up I checked my iPod and it said 9:55 am Kampala time. WHAAAAAAAAAATTTTTT how could I oversleep on my first day of school, I did my best to get ready quickly, what that entails is a little different when you cannot shower or shave. I was not happy as I thought at least one of my colleagues should have work me up. It was a matter of minutes until I saw Scott, I asked him what time it was, and he said 7:06 crisis averted. I was introduced to the student population at 8:00 am, all 851 students both boys and girls. Good first day, I have to cut this short so I can go look for school supplies. See you soon.
Mia apa ario Acholi, One Moo Nu*
Mia apa ario Acholi Acel Moo Nu
1200 Acholi, 1 White Guy is what the title says. This morning I have a meeting at
10 a.m., so I had to get up early if I wanted to go to Mass. I was not sure if the Mass was at 7, 7:15, or 7:30. As I was getting dressed, I could hear the organ, so I quickly put on a shirt and tie, and hustle across the street at 6:45 am. It turns out the only two people in the church were me and the organist. It appeared for awhile that this Mass was probably going to be for fifteen to twenty people. Sometime around twenty minutes later, a deacon? knelt behind the first row of pews, and start leading a small congregation in the rosary. I had wanted to go to a Mass in Lwo, and did not think this was it, but it turns out that there was not one English word spoke through the rosary service, then the priest listened to confessions at the front of the church, as the congregation chanted prayers together. The Mass eventually started. They had straw mats up front for the children to sit on. Soon every pew started to fill up, except for the one with the Moo nu. I could not tell if there were being shy or respectful, but once Mass began, I noticed there were people outside and I quickly glanced around and saw that there were probably more than 1200 people at this Mass. Coming near the end to go sit on the straw mat was a little boy of about 4, who was wearing a St. Louis Cardinals t-shirt number 30. I am outside looking down at the ground and there are white ant wings all over the ground, they are the size of maple leaf helicopters, and look just as plentiful. Well hopefully my prayers this morning, will allow me to do my best tomorrow on the first day of school at Awere.
*Actually there were 3 moo nus, but more on that later
1200 Acholi, 1 White Guy is what the title says. This morning I have a meeting at
10 a.m., so I had to get up early if I wanted to go to Mass. I was not sure if the Mass was at 7, 7:15, or 7:30. As I was getting dressed, I could hear the organ, so I quickly put on a shirt and tie, and hustle across the street at 6:45 am. It turns out the only two people in the church were me and the organist. It appeared for awhile that this Mass was probably going to be for fifteen to twenty people. Sometime around twenty minutes later, a deacon? knelt behind the first row of pews, and start leading a small congregation in the rosary. I had wanted to go to a Mass in Lwo, and did not think this was it, but it turns out that there was not one English word spoke through the rosary service, then the priest listened to confessions at the front of the church, as the congregation chanted prayers together. The Mass eventually started. They had straw mats up front for the children to sit on. Soon every pew started to fill up, except for the one with the Moo nu. I could not tell if there were being shy or respectful, but once Mass began, I noticed there were people outside and I quickly glanced around and saw that there were probably more than 1200 people at this Mass. Coming near the end to go sit on the straw mat was a little boy of about 4, who was wearing a St. Louis Cardinals t-shirt number 30. I am outside looking down at the ground and there are white ant wings all over the ground, they are the size of maple leaf helicopters, and look just as plentiful. Well hopefully my prayers this morning, will allow me to do my best tomorrow on the first day of school at Awere.
*Actually there were 3 moo nus, but more on that later
Kennedy, Geoffrey, and Junie
After leaving Awere, I went into Longtic to post the last four posts. That is where you left me. I also had a great afternoon. First, I went through the market to look for batteries. I found amidst small soccer balls, shoe brushes, and assorted sundries I found
4 AAA batteries, labeled Tusker and written instructions in either Japanese or Chinese writing. I felt real good about finding my batteries, and they did work in my TI-83 so I am a full fledged math geek again. I decided to walk home, the boda drivers who usually hang out in groups of three or four at a corner would encourage me to ride with them. My response is “Amito wot a wot a” which means I want to walk. They just look at me and laugh. As I walk down the street I try to greet everyone. With either Hello, Apwoyo (which is kind of like aloha it means many things including thank you), Kopa Ngo (what’s up), or Kopa Di (what’s going on, I may have that one wrong.) If you ask any little kid, “How are you?”, the respond, “I am fine”. Some of the little ones like this so much, they then respond, “how are you?” and that cycle often repeats itself several times.
I ran into two 12 year olds on the last block before the IC house. After the normal greeting, these two approached me and asked me what my name was. We then talked for about five minutes. For you Chicago people, Kennedy was wearing a Naperville, Lisle Park District soccer jersey. I then asked them if they wanted to play basketball, so I went into the IC house and got my cheap rubber basketball, and in pumping it up. The needle poked through to the other side of the ball. I could see the disappointment on both boys faces as they thought the game might be over. Luckily I had brought two basketballs. The three of us, walked up to a big field where they had four hoops and two rims. We shot and I helped them with their shooting technique, more kids came over but there were very reticent to join our game. Eventually, Junie joined our game, he was a friend of Courtney and Kennedy. Then Tony joined who compared to the rest of the kids can play, he has a correct form jumper, and can drive the hoop. I had to work to block his shot. Including after he faked me once I spun as he went by me and blocked it with the back of my right hand (this last sentence is for Ed and Mike Barry). Tony is in Senior 4 at Awere, so I expect to see him again tomorrow. Eventually we played a game of 4 on 5. Not all of the kids understood how to play defense. My team won and the best part was the worst kid, who really did not understand the game made 2 of the 6 baskets. Oh, I almost forgot. If you don’t know when you are shooting in America and make a shot there is an expression “gimme my change” and the others have to give you the ball again. I taught these eight kids this expression, and would not give them the ball again until they said it. It was hilarious, especially since in Uganda ---change means changing money exactly, where balance is the amount back from a payment. Luckily I had to get back at 5 pm for dinner, because this out of shape old man was starting to get tired. Kennedy, Geoffrey, and Junie walked me back to IC and they were teach me Lwo on the way home. They pointed to a chicken and said “gweno” when they pointed out two goats, I told them their names were “Geoffrey” and “Kennedy”, they laughed Junie the most, but luckily a chicken wandered out from the high grass, and I got to say “There’s Junie” G and K then got to laugh the loudest. Geoffrey then asked if I would come back next year. We are cautioned not to make any commitments to the Acholi that we may not be able to keep. So I said, it is too soon to tell, and I don’t know, it may be difficult. Then Geoffrey looked at me and said, “Tonight I will pray that you come back again next year.”
4 AAA batteries, labeled Tusker and written instructions in either Japanese or Chinese writing. I felt real good about finding my batteries, and they did work in my TI-83 so I am a full fledged math geek again. I decided to walk home, the boda drivers who usually hang out in groups of three or four at a corner would encourage me to ride with them. My response is “Amito wot a wot a” which means I want to walk. They just look at me and laugh. As I walk down the street I try to greet everyone. With either Hello, Apwoyo (which is kind of like aloha it means many things including thank you), Kopa Ngo (what’s up), or Kopa Di (what’s going on, I may have that one wrong.) If you ask any little kid, “How are you?”, the respond, “I am fine”. Some of the little ones like this so much, they then respond, “how are you?” and that cycle often repeats itself several times.
I ran into two 12 year olds on the last block before the IC house. After the normal greeting, these two approached me and asked me what my name was. We then talked for about five minutes. For you Chicago people, Kennedy was wearing a Naperville, Lisle Park District soccer jersey. I then asked them if they wanted to play basketball, so I went into the IC house and got my cheap rubber basketball, and in pumping it up. The needle poked through to the other side of the ball. I could see the disappointment on both boys faces as they thought the game might be over. Luckily I had brought two basketballs. The three of us, walked up to a big field where they had four hoops and two rims. We shot and I helped them with their shooting technique, more kids came over but there were very reticent to join our game. Eventually, Junie joined our game, he was a friend of Courtney and Kennedy. Then Tony joined who compared to the rest of the kids can play, he has a correct form jumper, and can drive the hoop. I had to work to block his shot. Including after he faked me once I spun as he went by me and blocked it with the back of my right hand (this last sentence is for Ed and Mike Barry). Tony is in Senior 4 at Awere, so I expect to see him again tomorrow. Eventually we played a game of 4 on 5. Not all of the kids understood how to play defense. My team won and the best part was the worst kid, who really did not understand the game made 2 of the 6 baskets. Oh, I almost forgot. If you don’t know when you are shooting in America and make a shot there is an expression “gimme my change” and the others have to give you the ball again. I taught these eight kids this expression, and would not give them the ball again until they said it. It was hilarious, especially since in Uganda ---change means changing money exactly, where balance is the amount back from a payment. Luckily I had to get back at 5 pm for dinner, because this out of shape old man was starting to get tired. Kennedy, Geoffrey, and Junie walked me back to IC and they were teach me Lwo on the way home. They pointed to a chicken and said “gweno” when they pointed out two goats, I told them their names were “Geoffrey” and “Kennedy”, they laughed Junie the most, but luckily a chicken wandered out from the high grass, and I got to say “There’s Junie” G and K then got to laugh the loudest. Geoffrey then asked if I would come back next year. We are cautioned not to make any commitments to the Acholi that we may not be able to keep. So I said, it is too soon to tell, and I don’t know, it may be difficult. Then Geoffrey looked at me and said, “Tonight I will pray that you come back again next year.”
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Nyeko Alfred
A lot of new posts today. I am sitting in an internet cafe for the first time in Gulu. Last night we had our dinner and today. I went to the Awere school and spent the morning there. It was an awesome experience, I wish you could all see the greeting we received from a class of Senior 4 students who were working on Saturday to prepare for their placement tests into either Advanced Senior 5 (the one path to University) or O Level Senior 5( kind of the equivlant of community college). We were led there by Katie who probably speaks Acholi better than any moo nu I know. She was caring on long caring conversations with the children. We saw them hand print cloth that they would be making into dresses for a special occasion. And then Alfred and I sat down and planned how we would team teach, we added 3 points to the contract: (1) that we would be available for our students, inside and outside of the classroom (2) we would do something, (ha ha sorry my mind is so full of so many thoughts and experiences) that I forgot something that I knew when I started to type this paragraph , and (3) Alfred and I agreed to stay in contact over the next year and beyond to help Ugandan and American students do better. YOU should see some of the math that they are doing, in split log make shift classrooms. with no resources. It is inspiring. Remember Awere is a displaced school so they can only build temporary classrooms the land belongs to the Ugandan railway, and through complicated land laws they cannot build more permanent structures.
This is unbelievably amazing and my eyes are filled with tears as I write this on how special this place can be. Don't worry mom I walked over to Holy Cross church and I plan on going to 7 am mass tomorrown.
Wenen
This is unbelievably amazing and my eyes are filled with tears as I write this on how special this place can be. Don't worry mom I walked over to Holy Cross church and I plan on going to 7 am mass tomorrown.
Wenen
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