On the 20th of July untill the 24th I went to a very intense but exciting training course on the island of coll (where I went for selection and also where I will go for debreifing)
The four days were action packed full of lessons, presentations and discussions with our desk officer Jen who answered all our unaswered questions. During our training we also got extremly helpful talks from a current primary teacher who gave us so many ideas and tips on how to teach younger ages to older ages and how to discipline kids without using violence, which unfortunatly is quite common in many ugandan schools. We also got horribly graphic slideshows on all the illnesses that could occur (note to self never ever wear bare feet outside!) and some serious talks about theft, accidents that may occur and the dangers of being in a different country. Basically just be as sensible as you can and hopefully nothing too bad will happen! (I hope)
On the training course I also met my partner jessica, I was so relieved to get on with her and cannot wait to spend my year with her! we also found we had a scary amount in common, not quite sure how project trust managed that one!
On training we also had to prepare individual lessons of 10 minutes and 20 minutes, although the 20 minute lesson seemed quite daunting at first, when I stood up infront of a group of fellow Ugandaners I found the time went by so quickly! The two lessons actually helped a lot and made us all feel more confident about teaching.
Jess and I also got the chance to have a one on one discussion with Jen about our project, we found out that we will be sharing a large room with two beds and will do most of our cooking, cleaning etc on our front door step. There are also 3 bore holes nearby so we are spoiled for choice on where we fetch our water from! Our host Deo who funds the Salvation school where we will be working funds it by selling his own artwork and lives in a building like ours attached to the back of ours. Jen told us that Deo is one of the nicest and most inspiring guy you will ever meet and that he will soon become like family to us. Safe to say we cannot wait to meet him! We also got to see some pictures of the Salvation school we will be teaching at, I was amazed at first to find out that it is made out of papyrus and is so small! (size of a medium sized shed) And in the pictures there were little 5 year olds walking in ready to be taught. Jen said that it does break your heart how far some of them half to walk to get to the school. The school is literally on our doorstep which is also quite handy!
Previous volunteers that are out in our project right now have concentrated more on the construction side of the project, by building a pig hut and a shower cubicle for the lovely bucket showers were going to experience for a year! However Deo wants me and jess this time to conentrate more on the teaching side of the project. I have allready started to collect some basic resources like pencils, rubbers etc as from the pictures the school looks very very basic with only a small blackboard at the front! I was also hoping to have wall displays but im not quite sure if blu tac will be able to stick to papyrus..
Anyway as it is the 1st of August today that only means one thing, it is exactly 1 month until i head from london heathrow to Uganda! People keep on asking me whether I am scared, nervous yet and of course i am a little bit but i can tell you the excitement, anticipation totally outweighs it!
I have been given my address for my new home which is :
Good Hope Initative
Myanzi
Mubende District
P.O Box 376 Mityana
Uganda
If any of you have some time to kill please feel free to send me a letter no matter how big or small. I will really appreciate it and will write back! (Bare in mind it takes about 3 weeks or longer to get mail from Scotland) I will also try my best to head to Mityana which is the nearest major town which is about 15 to 30 minutes away to access the internet to update my blog monthly.
Thanks for reading!
