It all comes down to teaching

In the end it comes down to teaching. Otim John, my team teacher, urged us this week to narrow the gap between teachers and students. I just taught a class where each student sought the answer after finishing the problem. If we can bridge this gap not to fear the teacher , then their curiosity becomes their question. By asking questions the students unlock their world.

When that happens anything is possible. Either in an air-conditioned class room where a young girl works on her laptop or under a mango tree where a young girl asks good questions.

4th of July- Acholi Style

Last night,  after a great conference we went to a party at the Acholi Inn.   There were about 200 people there,  and we had hamburgers and french fries,  and some kind of burrito thing.  Wonderful,  wonderful food.   There was also much beer available and almost all the partiers got up off their chairs and danced.    Daneen gave me a plastic Statue of Liberty hat,  so I lit a napkin on fire and stood like Lady Liberty,  until the napkin start burning my hand.  Later,  Amy surprised us with some sparkling candles,  which were really more like fountains or roman candles.  It was a great fourth.  The DJ actually played the Star Spangled Banner,  and all of the Americans stopped and sang that song as loud as they could.   It was pretty cool.  You could definitely feel some pride.  I hung out with Lisa, Lauren, Abby, and a lot of the Group I girls.  They are leaving in a week,  and I am going to miss their energy,  and their talent.    Luckily,  Lauren is a Wildwood Gangsta and she is already excited about going to a game in the bleachers.   Lauren and I have also pledged to have at least one talk a month in St. Louis talking about the people and students of Uganda.

      The Acholi Inn has a real swimming pool and a bunch of us beat the heat and jumped into the pool.  Next it was off to Bambu to finish the night.  I made sure Michelle's (a new San Diego teacher from Group 3) and my boda boda kept in contact as we travelled down dark roads into the night.  The boda boda drivers dropped us off at a dark and closed Bambu.  They took off and Michelle looked at me like what the hell did you do to me.   We quickly got the bodas back and got directions to an ex-pats party up the road.  So we roared off on our bodas deeper down dark Ugandan roads.  I don't know what Michelle was thinking,  but I was hoping like hell to find this house,  because I had no idea what I was going to do if we did not.  We found the house and all was well.    Not a bad party,  and a very interesting group of people.  Mick and Lisa sang some more,  and soon Michelle and Raysa wanted to go home so we walked into the darkness home with the Bavabuka hip hop dance crew (a great group).  It took me an hour and a half to walk them to their lodging.  It is called Elephant Graceland,  and has a shower in every double room and a sit-down toilet.  I am so jealous.    When I finally got home, I told the night guard that I was probably the last.  David said,  "Oh no, there are many left."  I think the last of the crew may have wandered in the wee hours of the morning.   Let's see--who was that.  One guess, Trisha and JRob???

I will probably text post this week and more longer posts will happen over the weekend.  Justin, an American has agreed to let me use his laptop,  which is great news since yesterday it took an internet page a minute and a half to load.

Still thinking about those 10 Sacred Heart students and the dreams they shared with me yesterday.  A good weekend,  many great people here.  Walked home from buying beads at the IC house with Mike F.  He is a great guy and I will have to write about him sometime,  I promise.   Also my bed at Atanga is starting to splinter,  and I will soon find mind self on the floor falling through the frame.  So a former student helped me procure 5 40 inch pieces I am going to use for bed slats.  At the time,  I did not know there were 40 inches,  but I had marked their length on my tie.   So I went to church with a purple shirt and a green tie (apologies to the fashion conscious AP stats girls),  but I needed the tie to measure my boards.   I walked into a Lwo Mass with 5 boards and was the only white person there.   I got quite a few MORE stares this time.   I also did not know the etiquette if I should clap for some of the announcements at the end that the congregation did.  I obviously did not know what they were clapping about!!

But I chose to applaud on 4 different occasions something that I will never know...

John

Coach Magee and the Sacred Heart Basketball Team

Amy, the director of Invisible Children's Schools for Schools program had asked me to present at the teaching conference. She wanted me to teach 10 young women, and present how we can use sports in Uganda to empower young women and get them to do more. So 10 wonderful young women from Sacred Heart, an all girls school, showed up at the conference not knowing what to expect. They are: Agnes, Alicia, Prossy, Gladys, Beatrice, Mildred, Mary, Dosoline, Caroline, and Susan. I enlisted the help of another teacher Sasha, and in the front parking lot of the Guzco center, we started to teach these young women basketball. We started out by telling them that if at least they tried they would be successful, and if they tried both Coach Magee and Coach Sasha would be proud of them.

In the beginning it looked a little rough, the students were all wearing sandals, and we were practicing in an uneven, brick patio. But slowly there difficulties were removed and they worked hard to get better. I introduced the bump splash to them, a kind of high five, where it was easy for me to give them positive reinforcement. They worked incredibly hard in the hot sun, and slowly start keeping their hands together, taking that step, calling for the ball, being in a ready position. We moved them to a star passing drill, and there were a lot of mistakes. It was interesting, because Sasha and I were now being observed by 90 teachers as they walked around to the different workshops. I made a point about emphasizing the positive reinforcement, and slowly but surely they became better. During this time, 2 Ugandan teachers who had an interest in basketball, joined our practice and were instructing the students in Lwo as we were coaching them in English. It got really confused for awhile and I admit it was a first for me. Since, I did not know Lwo, I did not know what these coaches were saying One later told me he had been trained by Russians at their basketball academy.

Surprise, Surprise the food was delayed, so we continued to practice. We were supposed to have 2 hours with the students, but it soon became 3. We talked to them about how success individually on a math test, could be translated into team success as a group. We had a very wonderful conversation eating our lunch in the grass. I talked to the girls about their reach, and then Sasha brilliantly asked them where they saw themselves in 5 years. These amazing young women told us that they would be in Parliament, an accountant, a social worker, another accountant, an environmentalist, and a lawyer. These are the best at Sacred Heart and I think some of them will and can achieve these dreams.

The demonstration of the star drill in a conference room full of teachers went great. The girls had their best moment of the practice session. Sasha and I traded ideas of what we tried to give these students besides just a sports practice. I talked about how as a coach, I was able to help my students in all phases of their education. We continued to talk, as these 10 continued a flawless star drill in very camped quarters. They were truly an amazing bunch, and they were quite thankful of what Sasha and I had given to them. I think these 10 may have benefitted greatly from this little workshop. Sasha and I both received many positive responses from both Ugandan teachers and American teachers. Justine told me that she was so touched that she almost cried during our presentation. We got several pictures, that I will try to post if I ever can. The students asked me if I could give them more basketball training. And I am going to do my best to do that in the last part of this month.

As I stood on the brick patio, waving good bye to my team, I realized these 10 wonderful women might be the last group ever to call me Coach Magee. If that is true, I am very proud of what the 12 of us accomplished today.
Coach Magee

More good times at Bambu

I am sitting in an internet cafe waiting 30 seconds for each page to load. Morgan is on my left, and Jill is on my right, two new teachers from Group 3. Jo Mallory is back, and yes JRob, I gave her the appropriate greeting.

We had our first day of teacher workshop today with 90 some teachers. Learning how to be a better teacher and help our students more both in Uganda and at home. Of course, I have no idea why I am going to teacher training on a personal trip. It was actually a good day and we had a breeze the whole day, which is so much better than last year, when I sweated so, so much.
During my talk today, I encouraged the Ugandan teachers to think past their reach, and envision great things for their students. Dana, a sweet smaller one from Group 1, wrote down something I said. WOW. But the line was, and I think I will use it for my Nerinx students this year is, "If you can see, touch, or envision your future, you are not reaching far enough."

For instance, Shona, who would have ever thought that I would be spending my third straight summer in Uganda. Last night, most of group 2, and a few from the other 2 groups converged at Bambu. It was a good night, as I had burned a CD of dance music off of Joanna's computer. She had a good mix, although her Prince selection was a little weak. But she had Yeah, Golddigger, Ride wit me, and Holiday (still the best Madonna song). Although, I also included Like a Prayer for the unwashed.

We have another day of conference tomorrow, and then a 4th of July party at the Acholi Inn, the oasis of western style in Northern Uganda.

Oh, I almost forgot, I am working on having Lisa Swetman fall in love with me for four days, and then break her heart on Thursday night at Bambu by cheating on her with the stubborn one, Abby. If you recall she is a great singer/songwriter and I think this has the making of a hit. So although a few feelings may be hurt....I am doing it for the art.

still a little bit off (z-score higher than 3),

your friend, and son, and brother, and possibly just a stranger,

John


ps AP students send me the good news when you get your scores.

Walking with Hope

This morning, since I was getting a ride back to Gulu at the end of the day, I decided not to ride my bike. Read the previous post for more explanation. Anyway, halfway down on the journey, I met Hope, one of my senior 3B students. We talked quite a bit. I told her that Hope was big again in America and there were posters all over America with her name on it. We talked about crops mostly, as she asked me about every crop we had in America, and the crops they had in Uganda. On the most frustrating week in Africa, I hate that God is so obvious in his signs to me. Walking with Hope (really, I can handle some nuance). It was a wonderful conversation. Hope is 16 and I would love to have her pen pal with Rachel Kuehnle and Mary Dang. If you know those 2, tell them to send me their cel phone numbers(on this blog's comments)---I might even try to let you talk to Hope. So if you don't know Hope or Rachel or Mary, listen to me, they are all wonderful young women, who are doing their best to just be friendly, and make the world a better place. And I know a couple of hundred more just like those three.

Hope is on my mind,

John

Heat, Sweating profusely, and the Chicken Man

I don't know if I have told you this, but it seems like every room I get in this place has absolutely no air circulation. So I often just lie in my bed and sweat for an hour or two until my body equilibirizes (word?). My room in Atanga also catches the end of the evening sun, with its metal window, it really is a hot box. So today, when I came home from school, I stripped down to the barest minimum of culturally acceptable clothing, grabbed two bottles of Chinese water, and a plastic chair. I was going to sit out front, but realized of course that would get the same sun. So I took my plastic chair and walked across the street to the shade of a big tree. Of course, every little kid (human kind) and every little kid (goat kind==there are a lot in Atanga) came by and stared. The children said either How are you? or something in Acholi, a few adults stopped by to introduce themselves and chat. One was the brother of the man who stopped me yesterday, he showed me a bent bike part, and installed it on my bike for 3000/= or less than two dollars. Now I am sitting 3 or 4 inches higher although the juxtaposition of the seat, my handlebars, digging into my legs, and the lack of brakes, probably means I am going to crash soon. But this man, the bike man, was my savior..... The ride to school is downhill, and only makes me sweat through my shirt.... The ride back is all uphill, so first I ride through corn fields, and dodge little chickens...I call this part the chicken farm. Then the next part is the hill of death, although not so steep, it is sometimes hard to find the smooth bike path, and I am also a fat old man. But the second part of this obstacle course, might be the most treacherous, I call it the P.O.D.A.L. which is the Path of Derision and Laughter. I pass by the primary school grounds and at least 200 students every day come by to laugh at the large man on the small bike. The third part is flat as I roll through town, so I call it Friendly town, but the last part to get home has a nice uphill grade, so I call it Not so Friendly town. This usually happens around 5 oclock here. So if you are up at 9 am St. Louis time, think about me on my journey, you will laugh. Welcome to the PODAL. Anyway, thanks to my new seat, I made it home in good shape, although still very warm. I took refuge under the shade tree, and met my new friend Kidega Francis. Kidega means the father did not love the mother and wanted her to get away. Anyway, Francis warmly welcomed me to Atanga and told me that he was going to give me a young chicken next week. He said through the translation of his brother, the bicycle repairman, that I could eat it or watch it grow. HMMMMMMMMMMM

God bless the Chicken Man and all of you,

John

Remembering What is Important (Even when I don't want to)

While I was on the rhino trip, someone broke into Bill's room and stole my laptop. Upon further review, it looks like my US cell phone, another power cord, and 200 dollars was also taken. It has been a very frustrating week, as I really do like to communicate and that might be kind of tough now. I have to remember that this hardship is what the Acholi people have dealt with for 20 years. It is really frustrating, but when I got back to Atanga, I found my worn 30 year old scapular that I thought I had lost. I guess it was just a remembrance to me that material things are nice, but what is really important to all of us are the things that we cannot possess **there is no colon on this computer** love, friendship, kindness, and in the case of the scapular---faith. We should be reminded that I know that I am travelling with the good thoughts and prayers of many of you that I know, and some that I don't know (Jon Bryant's mom's prayer circles). All of the extra marks including the apostrophe are in the wrong place on this computer. It is torture typing contractions and possessives. LOL. I will work to overcome these frustrations and represent you well by giving my best to the people of Northern Uganda

respectfully,

John


not so respectfully, I WANT MY FRIGGING LAPTOP BACK!!!!!!!

John