Lesson #2: Rain boots are not solely for water

Mulembe!

I hope this message finds you well! Enjoying the beginning of Fall, and equally as important, the beginning of Clemson/UT football!

This week has been a bit of a whorlwind as school started on Monday, and Caiti and I truly began to dig in and work.  On the first day of school, there was a morning assembly where all of the students lined up by grade in the school courtyard, around 300 students total. They looked extraordinarily cute in their uniforms, red checkered shirts or dresses with a maroon sweater. At the end of the assembly, all of the 6^th grade students danced and sang songs of welcome for us, into which they actually inserted our names. I am now known as Teacher Lacey, although most students can’t say that so it becomes Teacher Lac. The 7^th graders have all decided to call me Teacher English, which I think they find kind of funny because of the irony of being from the US. It has been really nice to start getting to know some of the students and kids in the village this week, and I’m looking forward to meeting more of them and getting to know them better as time goes on!

School days are long at AAH. The students report to school at 7:30, and classes start at 8 am. The younger students get out of school at around 4:30 pm, while the older students have lessons until 6 pm. Each day, they break for breakfast and lunch which is provided by the school. There is a national standardized test that all seventh graders must pass in order to advance to secondary school. If they don’t pass, that is the end of their road for school, so the older students seem to work extra hard to do well on this exam. Our students at Arlington are very bright and motivated!  I’ve been continually impressed by their work ethic and dreams for the future. I’ve had students tell me that they want to doctors, lawyers, teachers, and even chemical engineers, and each day, its very cool to observe how hard they work to earn these dreams.

On a different note, I’m also learning very quickly how multifunctional rain boots are. The rainy season in my region of Uganda runs from March through November, so almost every afternoon, it rains for a little while. The road up the mountain to the school is made of reddish brown clay, and many people had told me that the road became muddy when it rained so BE SURE to have rain boots. In my ignorance, I just kind of thought, “Sure, that makes sense. It becomes muddy, but I’ve dealt with mud in the US too so no big deal.” FALSE. The first time we got an afternoon shower, I was not expecting it and had walked up to the school in only my sandals. It was when we went to leave and began walking down that I realized “mud” for them was similar in magnitude to flooding in downtown Charleston. So I’m attempting to walk down this MOUNTAIN as mud is piling on the bottom of my sandals and creeping up my legs. We must have looked so funny. We already stick out because we’re white, but that afternoon, we were also the foreigners taking baby steps and sliding down the mountain as small Ugandan children went gallivanting past us barefoot, haha. It was an experience. The trip down was full of laughs though, and by the time I reached the bottom, I felt triumphant for not falling although my feet and calves were brown. So lesson learned, rain boots combat mud as well as water. I have them with me at all times now.

In addition, I have slowly but surely been starting to wrap my head around my work. AAH has so many different projects going on, that it has been difficult to get a handle on them all and discern my place. The main things that I think I’ll have a hand in this semester is the rebuilding of a local elementary school and the distribution of practice tests to outreach schools (most schools here cannot afford printing costs). In addition, I’m hoping to partner with the FIMRC clinic to start health education in the outreach schools, as well as do some library training for local teachers to help them prepare for lessons. I’m going to be traveling around in the next week or two to visit the government schools that AAH partners with, and I’m sure I’ll gain a much better idea of feasibility at that time.

In other news, this week I learned that our front yard is full of chameleons!! Pretty cool, huh? Also, I am finding that stickers are great ways to make friends. (If they don’t have elevators, I’ve got to meet people some other way, huh?!) I’ve gotten to meet some local children who are not at AAH simply by passing out stickers.

 

Well, that's all I have to report for now! I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the Fall!

Peace,
Lacey