Day 12: The rain down in Africa

29 June, 2010

This morning I woke up extremely well rested. Too well rested actually. Right before we left it started to pour. We walked to school in the muddy rain. Word of advice: rain water falling off the roof is NOT used for shower water. Just a little piece of wisdom for anyone who is planning on showering out of a bucket any time soon. The walk wasn't terrible. I did forget my rain jacket, though. Luckily I remembered my umbrella.

I got to the school and NONE of the teachers showed up for an hour or so. I started teaching P2-and by teaching, I mean I reviewed what I think we did last time-and then P1 started getting out of control (I think I already mentioned that they are in the same classroom and face different directions). I gave P1 an assignment labeling body parts and headed back to P2 to grade their science assignment. Once I finished grading, P1 finished their assignemnt, then I graded it, and then the teacher FINALLY came back. She didn't know where the science book was and went to look for it. Soon the other teacher walked in with the book. Needless to say, I was exhausted by breakfast/snack time.

I was with P1 all day from then on. They were crazy! They would not stop talking...and I don't understand most of what they said. I made them put their heads down for 60 seconds without talking, and that took 25 minutes. They almost missed their break. The thing is that with that punishment I feel guilty because for some of them, this is their first meal of the day. Luckily, they all got to go to break. I wouldn't take it away completely, but I would take away their free time for misbehaving and not listening. I got offered popcorn and bread by 3 different students.

I forgot to mention that at snack we tried paw-paw (a fruit, the taste of which I don't remember) and we had spaghetti for lunch. I also had more casava for snack. 300 shillings. Soooooo good!! :)

I played a few games with the kiddos at lunch and after school. I played catch with Nambooze. Hollie bought her her own ball because she wanted something to play with since she can't run around with the other kids. She had so much fun the last few days with that ball. It has her name on it and everything. Her English name is Angel, though, so I wasn't sure who Hollie had been talking about these last few weeks. She even got the other kids to play ball with her. The other kids are so good with her. They play with her and help her do everything that she cannot do herself. Yawef, one of the boys, is her friend. He is so sweet and very protective of her. It's really adoreable.

At the end of the school day, I gave all the P1 and P2 students new pencils and pencil sharpeners. They all sharpen their pencils with razor blades and it scares me every time. They were very excited and by the time I got outside ALL the kids at the school were saying, "Teacher, Teacher, give me sharpener!"

After school we all walked home and then headed straight to the supermarket. Appareitnly Mi jeung was famous today. She had so many kids run up and hold her hand and one little boy asked her for money.

We went to fetch water as soon as we got back from the supermarket. I wish I had my camera today at the well. There was a great view of the rays of sun coming out of the clouds over the hill. The village kids were all playing by the well as usual, and our "water, water, water" kid was there. Every day there is a boy who is probably about 11 or 12, who says, "water, water, water" really fast as we walk down the path to fetch water. His Luganda accent makes it even more adorable. I really like fetching water with the other girls. It's always the end of the day, the sun is going down, and all the kids are laughing and yelling, "how are you, muzungu?!"

When we got back, we ate dinner and got ready for tomorrow. After dinner we made "fruit salad," which consisted of cutting up mango and papaya (which was not as good as I thought it would be), putting it in a bowl, and cutting up pineapple into slices, eating it seperately. Pineapple here is AMAZING! I wish I could take it home with me.