Time Flies...

Last Wednesday, we finished the unit on Malaria. We briefly reviewed the life cycle from Monday and then talked about symptoms, when to see a health worker, and prevention (the big one). I taught P2, P4, P6, and P7. P6 and P7 both did the pre and post assessment for the lesson. For P2 and P4, we took a short field trip to the surrounding areas to look for places that mosquitoes could potentially breed, such as in maize and in stagnant water. The field trip helped to reinforce the concepts that the kids learned in class, and they all had a great time and enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately, P6 and P7 couldn't have the field trip also due to limited time.

I've been transcribing the lesson-specific pre and post assessment questions, and from the responses, the kids seem to already know a lot about Malaria. It seems the next step would be to put this knowledge into practice. I'm not quite sure what is the barrier behind putting knowledge into practice is right now. My guess is probably access since many of the kids responded that they are "extremely worried" about malaria and many definitely believe it to be
widespread.

On Thursday, we had a staff meeting at the school with the headmistress and teachers. During the meeting, we talked about possibly getting cement floors for the classroom if our budget allows since the many kids run barefoot on the dirt floor and Jigers. It's also really dusty in the classroom when the wind blows. We are also planning a school-wide sports/field day where the kids are divided into colors. Sadly, the day of the tournament is set on the Saturday after I leave as that is the only day we could get the field. I'm really sad to be missing the tournament since it sounded so fun and a great way to end the projects and the kids are all so excited about being in their color teams (each of us have been assigned to a color too), but I guess I'll just have to be
filled in afterwards.

On Friday, we played soccer and netball with P5-P7. We had a little pre-tournament match-up where we had different color teams play each other. On Saturday, we had vocational training again with the basketweaver and carpenter. The kids are really good. One girl finished a big basket with pretty designs, and the boys made stools and molds for making bricks in carpentry.
On Monday (yesterday), I started the unit on hygiene/parasite. We got back late from Kampala since the taxi was late, so I was only able to teach P6 and P7. I introduced what parasites are to the kids (which many knew already), the symptoms when we get infected by parasites, why parasites are bad, and how we get infected by parasites. The kids really liked the pictures of parasites and you can hear eeewwws throughout the classroom as the pictures get passed around. I had two picture of people doing different things at a lake (ex. getting water, fishing, swimming, peeing) and we discussed what is happening in the pictures and how parasites could be transmitted because of the actions. They responded well to the visuals. We'll be covering prevention on Wednesday. Today, we played games, such as duck duck goose, with the nursury kids and they really enjoyed it. I can't believe that time is passing so quickly and that I'll already be leaving Uganda next week. The weeks really flew by.

Success & Suggestions

(from Dillon)

Everything is going amazing here. The work at school is coming along slowly but surely, and we're even thinking about taking on some new building projects before the summer is done. I'm working with Alaana alot on the health and nutrition classes, which I think has been a great arrangment. They can be a little stressful even for two people, so I can't imagine how stressed Alaana would be handling them alone :) They are coming along nicely though. Right now, we're talking with the students about Malaria. With the older kids, some of it is review and with the younger kids, some of it a little tough, but overall I think the students are learning alot. Vocational training has also been a huge success; the parents have been really eager to come to school and teach their trade, and the students are equally eager to learn. We're thinking about leaving a pretty big chunk of money behind to continue the classes after we're leave. We're having trouble deciding how and with who we should leave the money though.

The best part so far has been interactingwith the kids and seeing all of Uganda. The kids at school literally fight to hold our hands, which is cute and makes us feel like we're doing something right :) The people in Uganda have really embraced us as well. We've made a huge number of friends and contacts, which has been an enormous help. They let us stay with them whenever we are out of town, and help us get in contact with the right people etc. We're even thinking about having one of our contacts back to Duke in the spring through the Duke Conversations program, maybe to help educate the next group a little bit? Just a thought.

The toughest part has been being away from all the ammenities of the States. Warm showers, clean clothes, etc. But I enjoy roughing it, so no major worries there.

In the upcoming weeks we'll just be working on our projects and maybe starting a few new ones. We're also thinking about doing a fun excursion or two before we leave -- maybe a rafting trip or safari? We just feel like we can't leave Africa without doing something like that!

Project Progression

Everything is going amazing here in Uganda. The first couple of days were pretty stressful -- getting adjusted to a new culture and all that jazz, but now I feel pretty much at home. It definitley is a different world though.

As far as work updates go, there have been some pretty big changes in all that we have been doing. We have found ourselves a little swamped with all the different projects going on, so as predicted the corn cobb briquette program has been temporarily been put on the back burner. For now I have been helping everyone else with their projects, especially with Alaana and Shaunte who have been working together doing nutrition/health. With the language barrier and the big number of kids we have, classes haven't been progressing quite as fast as expected. So we've been focusing on that alot. Overall though, the projects have been a big success so far. The town seems to like us alot and support all that we are doing, and the kids have really taken to us. People are starting to get a little fatigued/sick with all that has been going on. Right now, there are three of us that are temporarily bed-ridden with some stomache problems. I've been healthy so far though, and hopefully things will stay that way :)

Update

The secondary school was really great. Very large campus with lots of subject-specific buildings. They also had a vast garden and had a good system in place of 4 kids to a row, each responsible for their own little plot. I think Ryan and Roey's visit is going well so far, they met with entrepenuer students at the school and talked with them about starting their own businesses. Today they were supposed to go to Tororo but their ride didn't work out so they're coming to the vocational training school with us to watch their brass band. We went to the site earlier and got a tour of the facilities which were pretty great. There were a lot of international volunteers helping as well. The team meeting was basically to make sure we are on time to school and prepared. Things are going well in Mbale, tomorrow we'll hike and then back to Kampala for a day, then dinner at Kaliika's again.