My October in Uganda!

Hello again everyone! ill try not start every blog with my amazement of how fast time goes here but i am really in shock that i have been here for 2 months already! October has been a crazy action packed month and i am so excited to tell you all about it!
We are still very busy with teaching at the moment which is still so much fun! the kids are very comfortable with us which is a plus as they are not scared to ask questions anymore if they need help (this was quite a big problem as they didnt ask any questions in any classes!) We also created an attendance and behaviour award chart which is working wonders! one of our main problems with classroom management is violence. My god they love to fight with each other! Im pretty sure the majority of the kids in our school are immune to full on blows to the face. But when i say "hey deo if i see you punch gloria one more time you will not get a tally mark so no sticker!" and he suddenly stops mid punch! If i am totally honest i dont blame them for being so violent as the teachers at our school cane the kids when they do something like coming late to school, talking in class, not cutting their fingernails the list goes on. So the kids are brought up with violence being acceptable. What really got me confused was that another teacher would come into class and cane the kids for hitting each other... it doesn't really make sense at all! When the school is all together to sing songs, etc the p4s are given twigs to patrol around the rest of the kids and are allowed to whip them if they are misbehaving. When im in charge i tell them not to, trying my hardest to break the violent cycle!
Ive also introduced stuck in the mud at break/lunch times they love being taught new games! they got quite a surprised when i played with them and darted under their legs to set them free! I also taught the p2s the hockey kockey in my read and write class, it was such a hot day and i felt i needed to give them a break! (to be fair it was educational as the story was to do with a boys right and left hand that i made up) as there are quite a few of them it got a bit crazy but was so much fun.
Jess and I are also currently in the process of teaching the p4s they hey arthur! theme song. Its going very well and they always sing it to us at break times. When we were teaching it to them they demanded me to dance while they sang so now they all know a couple of my fantastic dance moves that they like to practice at lunch times!
In Uganda dry season is slowly creeping up on us, it gets so hot here! This also means no more water in the water tanks! Im not looking forward to the walks to the bore hole in the blistering heat dieing for some water. Dry season also means the grass is going to be growing faster which means there will be an increase in malaria in the school unfortunately. Deo is also wanting to organise an organisation to come to our school to test the kids for HIV. I think this would be a great idea and me and jess are looking into places that would help us out with that.
We are also hoping to set up a library here as the resources here are so limited. The children love to read but have no books to do so. We give them some books to read some time and they love it so i think i library would be a great thing for the kids here as it would also improve their english.
We are also hoping to start up a secondary project in the hospital in Myanzi, we havnt organized anything with them just yet but the work will probably most likely be measuring kids, filing information, sorting out drugs for patients etc.

During our October we had a week of exams. it was pretty odd being on the other side of exams, it doesnt feel like long ago since i sat my own exams. All classes have exams, even baby and top class! although the exams for baby class are to draw a woman carrying a jerry can on her head. They get it wrong if they dont draw something vital like her legs.
Marking exams was actually weirdly fun! you come across some cracking answers like 'he beat her with a snake' and 'when he goes home he bathes his women' the list goes on! Its also quite frustrating having to mark something wrong when they are so close to the right answer or have not read the question correctly... oh god im sounding like my teachers! I ended up having to mark a lot of exams as i told joyce i would mark her exams and ended up with a humongous pile! i didnt mind though although i found myself having to down my porridge in a oner and nearly missing lunches due to marking exams!
The exams were really helpful however with showing us just what the kids needed to improve on. Reading and understanding what the question actually asked was a big problem as they knew the answer but just didnt know what the question was asking for. It was a shame but were all determined for them to improve.

Another thing i have noticed about the school textbooks that teachers use as a guideline for what the kids should know are very heavily based on death, abuse and diseases. As a lot of the stories for p3's are written about things like a childs mother being very sick and how the chld has to care for them but then they die and they are so upset. this story here is a fill in the blank story! Alot different to the happy, stories there are for the kids back in the uk! Its quite sad though as they use stories like this so the child can learn easily as they can relate to the stories. They also have to learn about malaria and child abuse very early on. One break time i was sitting outside with the kids and one of them wrote on the bench in chalk "what is child abuse?" i didnt quite know how to reply! But it just makes me realize how much they must go through at such a young age. I admire all the kids here for how they just get on with life and still seem so happy! Alot of the kids parents have passed away so live with a distant relative and after school and before school have to do numerous errands and look after their siblings. Cissy has to take in her younger siblings in every now and again and when we are teaching we will just be passed a crying child (that peed all over me once while i was teaching!) teaching and trying to calm down a hysteric baby is quite a challenge, trust me! The kids also have to collect water from the bore hole and one story in the textbook was about how a child spilt a lot of the water on the way back from the bore hole so her mother didnt give her any dinner and the moral of the story was that she would never disobey her mother again. Its quite shocking reading these stories and i usually make up my own stories for them instead. ontop of all of this a lot of the kids have to walk very far to get to school so the fact they have to do their chores after this huge walk amazes me. I honestly dont know how they do it.

During classes i still get many suprises! the other day i was teaching my p4 class and i looked up from the board and was face to face with a huge rat! In the p3 class i was also marking Becams work when he causally whipped out the biggest bug you have ever seen and just started stroking it! I got the fright of my life! Lawrence also is making sure im fed by providing me with mangoes every day! hes brilliant. Ive gotten so close to my p4s, i dont want to say goodbye to them when they move to st noahs for p5!
All of the kids english is actually dramatically improving! im so proud of them all. There are some phrases that are sticking with them that dont make much sense like;
extend-move
touch- meaning take so "touch my book!"
assist me with the - can i have the..
so sweet!- when something tastes nice even when its savoury.
the pen is over- the pen has run out
i actually find myself using these phrases as well!

Our cooking is still questionable.. Yesterday night i had stones in my rice.. no idea how that happened! I think it was allready in it when we bought it in the market in Mityana. Edith comes round to visit us alot and taught us how to make rolex's! they were very succesful so we shared them out with everyone and sent edith home with some for alice and others. We ended that night taking out the wind up radio and all dancing to it in the moonlight! how ugandan of us.

This month i also have to tell you about Justuce and Mariams wedding! Basically Jess and I were the photographers for the wedding which meant we got the best view in the church! I was all up and close during the exchange of the rings, signing of the papers everything! We even got pictures of Mariam getting her hair done, her nails done and when she had just put the dress on. She looked amazing! The other fort portal volunteers were all the bridesmaids in their lilac dresses with a gold sash around the waste. Mariams sister lippy was also a bridesmaid who i love! she is hillarious! (she said we all have to go to kampala to experiece a crazy night dancing! haha) anyway once mariam had gotten ready we all got piled into different cars. I was put in with a bunch of family members, they were all very nice! we then made it to the church, a couple of hours late but hey were on african time now! we then all crammed into this church for the ceremnoy to begin! it was so nice to see even if it was through a camera! after the ceremony we all got piled into different cars again. This time i was with mariams mother who was so sweet! I was finding it hard not to speak luganda to her as they all speak ritoro there! we then headed to faiths mums house for a meal and speaches and of course dancing!! The dancing was hillarious, at one point we were having a dance off with the preacher, one thing to cross off the list of things to do! However dancing here your guranteed to look around and see a 5 year old dancing better than you.. one of the hardships of living in uganda! Then after a lot of hugs and "god bless you!" and "you were sent by angels!" we headed back home. It was such an amazing event to be invited to and we have now not only been invited to a wedding here but been photographers at a wedding!

Myanzi our nearest village still makes me so happy every time we walk there! We are welcomed by david shouting ABIIIIIII (he has confirmed us as being his friends) we also get greeted by gerald the guy who sells bananas who says were his daughters... we also have all our street food guys, my god the street food is good! meat on a stick is my personal favourite. its like a big communal family myanzi is!

So overall this month has been awesome, ive still not had a bad day yet! ( i phoned home the other day for the first time as apparently i was weird for not) i thought it may make me homesick but it didnt at all! i think im not homesick because everyone here is like a family to me. Its pretty amazing.

thanks for reading!
Abi