Day 13: That's what it's all about!

30 June, 2010

Kelly left for Kenya this morning. He is missed and the teachers at Hope keep asking about him.

Today was my first day walking to the school by myself, which will be a normal thing come Friday :( It's much less interesting without other people to enjoy it with.

Namale, one of the kids in my P1 class got sick today. She seemed a little off and then she fell asleep in class and was taken to the headmaster's house to rest. The teacher said she had a fever and she was going to get her some medicine.

This morning was much more productive than yesterday. Nothing of great note happened until the afternoon. I was having lunch with Betty and she said, "They go to chapel now," speaking about the kids. So she walked me to the "chapel," which is one of the classrooms. I sat at the front of the classroom, facing all the kids at first. Then I moved next to Mi jeung who was sitting at the side of the room. The kids led everyone in praise and worship (I'm not sure of the difference there). Then James, the man who runs the orphanage, introduced as the "man of God," came and preached to the kids. Parts of it were uncomfortable because of the emphasis on converting, the fact that he was speaking Luganda almost the whole time and the kids would all start looking at us and laughing, and that he mentioned that we are from "developed countries" and none of our schools look like this, then all the kids laughed. We weren't sure how to react to that. I tried to keep a neutral face. It was a good experience though, different I must say, but good nonetheless. I'm glad we went. The teachers laughed when they asked me how it went and I took longer than 2 seconds to respond.

After chapel I didn't feel like teaching so I took the kids outside to sing and dance. P1 was the only class allowed to come out. I wanted P2 to come out because they are always stuck in the classroom doing work from the board and they look so sad when the other kids get to sing songs in the classroom and I put up their art work. I work with P1 more so there is nothing I can really do about it, but next week they are definitely coming out to sing and dance. Anyway, the kids were tired so we went outside. I taught them the hokey pokey and they taught me a song that has "tippy, tippy" or "chippy, chippy" in it, and one other one I can't remember. Then we sang "10 Little Monkeys" (which I changed to 5, because 10 is just too long), "Old McDonald," "If You're Happy and You Know It," and "10 Little Fingers." I'm pretty sure my voice is almost gone. Some of Hollie's kids in the baby class escaped and came to join in our singing. A few of them were promptly forced to go back, but others stayed.

Nambooze had a lot of fun being able to go outside and participate in the song and dance with the other kids. When we started to do the "whole self" and "booty" parts of the Hokey Pokey the first time, she looked at me and said, "Teacher..." She looked so sad, so I put her on my back so she could do it too, since she has to lean against the wall the whole time. They all had so much fun! When we went back in, close to 4pm, the P2 class was being whipped. I'm not sure what for, but a few of the kids were crying. I felt so horrible. I wanted to take them out too but they were in the middle of an assignment. Next time, I will ask the teacher if they can come out with us as they finish their assignment, so at least they will have something motivating them and they can participate in the fun.

Social work time:
It is interesting that in the U.S. if you put your hand close to a kid's face for a high five or shake your finger at them as part of a song and their first reaction is to flinch, you automatically think there is something wrong and may even call CPS if there are other songs. Here, though, it's normal. It's a hard decidion too, whether to use a branch as a pointer, because it is hard to point to everything on the board from where I am standing. It's so sad and it hurts to see a kid associate you holding a stick with beating. I don't want them to think of me that way, but it's part of the discipline and part of the culture here. I try to use my finger and extend my arm as far as possible. Not that long ago, it was part of the culture in the U.S.

This is a depressing way to end an entry so here's something happier...

I love the music here. There is always music playing and birds are always chirping and making strange bird calls. It will be weird not hearing those strange cackles every morning once I go home.