We Are The Champions

Before I write this week, I would just like to say thank you to all of you for your concern, and please know that Evan, Jackie, and I are very safe in Kasese. We have many people here who care for us and are looking out for us, our university back home is consistently checking in, we are registered with the US Embassy, and we honestly feel totally safe and very grateful. Please keep the rest of the country, especially the families of those who lost loved ones in Kampala on Sunday, in your thoughts and prayers.

Despite Sunday's tragedy, so many good things have been happening at our school this week that I don't even know where to start.

I guess first of all, we were visited at school on Wednesday by King James' wife, Faith, and their one-month old baby daughter, Klair. King James is the Headteacher at Rwentutu School (not to be confused with the American "King James" aka Lebron James, who apparently is now playing for Miami? What is going on back in the States???) and his daughter was absolutely darling. He was so happy to be able to introduce her to us, and, I realize this is quite the claim, but she is actually the most beautiful baby in the world.

Team Teaching: With the Canadian team here this week to guide our instruction, we have been working together with the Ugandan teachers to teach the Literacy activities the Canadians have planned for us.  Since both we and the Ugandan teachers are learning the activities and lessons at the same time, this has kind of opened the door for opportunities to team-teach with them, and it has really been wonderful.

Over the five weeks that Jackie, Evan and I have been at the school, we have formed great bonds with the teachers and have gently accommodated our presence and our teaching into their system while also trying to integrate some of our own ideas and practices.  The Rwentutu teachers have observed us teaching, and we have observed them, but now I think we have finally reached a point where it has become comfortable enough for us to have deeper conversations with each other about our teaching.  I taught right alongside Erasto this week in Primary Three, and after only a few minutes into our first lesson, we were feeding off of each other like we had been team-teaching for years.  I made a conscious effort to show him my "thinking" when I teach, and I avoided making all the decisions but instead would ask him, "What do you think we should do?" or "Do you think the students are getting this?  Should we keep going?"  This way, we were able to reflect together on how children best learn and get what they need at the school.

I feel like this has lowered the "pedestal" I was put on when I first arrived (and I think Jackie and Evan would agree), and I am so happy to be seen as more of a colleague and as less of an "expert."  Erasto was actually the teacher who handed me the chalk on my first day at Rwentutu and insisted that I please teach the rest of his lesson!  This week Erasto and I have been in the classroom together, and I think the teachers are beginning to see that we don't know all there is to know about teaching, but that's okay!  While we may have some new and helpful ideas about how to teach so children can better understand and comprehend the material, we respect the teachers and their teaching styles and are learning just as much from them as they are from us.  We're not here to drastically change their school system – it certainly may be different than any classroom I've seen in the United States, but different doesn't mean worse.  What they have works for them, and the teachers are wonderful teachers who just approach teaching in a different way.  Evan, Jackie and I are here to share our teaching practices, provide new insights and ideas about how to best educate children, and most importantly, we are here to build trust and community with the students and teachers at Rwentutu so we can continue partnerships like this in the future.  Our bonds with the teachers only continue to get stronger, and I can't believe we only have three short weeks left at the school.  We have really become a part of their community, and it feels awesome.

 Riding the school truck to the other school for the competitions

 

Sports and Games competition: On Thursday this week, there was no school but instead a Sports and Games day held at another school located farther into the Rwenzori Mountain foothills.  Once a year, all the schools in the remote area gather together for a Sports and Games competition which includes a soccer tournament for the boys and a netball tournament for the girls.  The Canadian teachers brought brand-new uniforms for our boys and girls, and they sure looked sharp out there on the fields with the other schools!

There were five other Primary schools at the tournament, and at any given time I would say 30% of the crowd was watching the soccer and the other 70% was watching us.  It was funny because the Rwentutu children treated us absolutely normal and acted like it wasn't strange at all that three white people were a part of their teaching staff – yet another sign that our children have become comfortable with us, and see us as part of their school instead of as visitors.  The Rwentutu teachers thought it was hilarious that we were being gawked at; this was most likely the first time the children from the other schools had seen white people so I guess we were quite the spectacle.  I actually had forgotten what it felt like to have a hundred eyes watching my every move, or what it felt like to sit down to rest for a minute only to look up and see throngs of children surrounding me, wide-eyed and watching to see what I would do.  It reminded us of our first week at Rwentutu, and it was pretty cool to reflect back and see how far we have come.

Our children felt pretty special to have us there, though, and we definitely cheered our hearts out for them.  It was awesome to see these children out there competing; it almost made me feel like a proud parent!

Our boys (in yellow) on the soccer field

Cheering our hardest after our girls scored in netball!

 "Concession stand"

American Flag:

Finally, to top it all off, this week the American Flag was added to the flagpoles of Rwentutu Community School.  We had asked our university supervisor to bring one from the United States when she visited last week, and the students and teachers were thrilled.  The school had been flying a Ugandan flag and a Canadian flag (the Canadians have visited every year for the past four years) but this is the first time anyone from the United States has come to their school, so the American flag has not been flying…until now.  It was an incredible feeling to watch as the students sang their Uganda National Anthem and raised not two, but three flags up on the new flag post in front of their school.  I mean, it's no landing on the moon…but in some ways, it felt even better.