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Dear all,
It has been a month since I updated this blog and a lot has happened! I have been trying to for a long time but bad internet connections, preparing for a school fete/carnival, illness and generally being on the move has stopped me!
I spent the last month living in Lukaya, near Masaka in Uganda teaching in Good Shepherd Childcare Centre and living with a host family. It was a great experience but after a month we decided to move on for various reasons; one of which being that we were not really sure about the organisation running the school. The kids were amazing though and so much fun, if not trying at times!
I taught baby class (anywhere ranging from 3-6) , P2 (about 7-8 years) and P4 (9-10 years). I taught various subjects, mostly English but also maths (the kids in P4 were so clever I had to relearn most of it!) and very occasionally science if the teacher was away. Anyone who went to secondary school with me will know that it really isn't a great idea for me to be teaching anyone science!
Classes were really difficult at times, especially with baby class. There were 75 of them and it was hard enough to find activities to keep them all occupied and learning, never mind watch out for the ones who were sleeping on the floor, peeing themselves or climbing through the windows. I did have some great days with all the classes though. Teaching baby class colours and playing musical chairs with them (with cloloured spots on each chair and they could only sit on the colour red) was a real highlight- really cute video to come of this- teaching some of the kids in P2 how to count after we discovered they didn't know the number 15 existed and kept getting their maths wrong, doing addition in colour by numbers with P2 and playing scrabble and benchball with P4.
On the last day of school before we left we had a carnival for all the kids and it was such a great day. We set up different activities for them: decorating masks, bowling, pin the tail on the donkey, etc and then we had races and doughnut eating competitions (again videos to follow). It was a brilliant day. Afterwards the kids all did African dancing for us and sang goodbye songs; I got teary as always and found it really hard to say goodbye, especially to certain kids.
Our host family generally consisted of Mama Maria and Martini (a cute baby who we were told was 9 months old then a week later celebrated his 1 year old birthday), Mama Claire (a helper) and her daughter Claire. The dad worked away most of the time and there were more kids, Rita, Maria and Mark but they went to boarding school so we only spent a few days with them. There were also various people in and out of the house helping of all of the time such as Mama Winnie who deserves a special mention as she always gave us extra beans to help us wash down our matooke and was generally lovely.
The house was nice; the toilet on the other hand... I'm fine with squatting toilets. I'm not fine with the small bees nest that was on the wall. It became a running question whenever we went to the loo... any bees out today? If yes i'll hold it for a few hours. Also the inside of the house became a toilet at times as babies it seems don't wear nappies in Uganda. That resulted in some, what are in hindsight, hilarious moments and some other really horrible ones!
We kept ourselves sane on the difficult days with trips to Kampala and Masaka for food that was not Matooke (boiled and mashed plantain type stuff) and by spending time with Cochava (a really funny and lovely volunteer who we lived with from Israel) and Levi and David; two really great American guys volunteering at HDDC Orphanage who had their own place with a stove. We managed to make pizza and apple crumble on a gas and charcoal stove. Genius. We also spent some time up at the orphanage playing with the kids who were such amazing kids and so fun to be around.
Since leaving we travelled to Rwanda. Rwanda in general is such a beautiful country; it is really hilly and the lushest country I could ever imagine existing in Africa. It is more reminiscent of pictures of Bali etc than Africa! We spent a few days in Kigali, generally seeing the city and visiting the Genocide Memorial Museum which, after doing my politics module in thrid year, I really wanted to do while I was in East Africa. It turned out to be an experience which I am glad I have had, but even more harrowing and sombre than I had anticipated.
After that I was ill for a few days which was really rubbish but i'm back on top form now! We came back to Uganda after visiting Lake Kivu in Rwanda and deciding we preferred Uganda! We spent last night on an island on Lake Bunyonyi in the south of Uganda reached by canoe which was peaceful and so beautiful.
So that is everything for the last month! We're moving on to see some national parks and hopefully track chimpanzees tomorrow. I will update again soon. Thanks to everyone who has sent me life updates; it is so nice to know what is going on at home!
Lots of love x
- comments
Edward Kanyesigye Next time visit us at Nyamunyonyi Tourism Resort is located on a peninsula on Lake Bunyonyi, Africa's second deepest lake. The resort offers stunning views of the lake and its many islands. It has a variety of activities for guests to enjoy, including canoeing, bird watching, boat cruising, and hiking. The resort also offers gorilla and chimpanzee trekking tours. Gorilla trekking is one of the most popular tourist activities in Uganda. It involves hiking through the rainforest to see the endangered mountain gorillas in their natural habitat. Chimpanzee trekking is a similar activity, but it involves seeing chimpanzees instead of gorillas. Nyamunyonyi Tourism Resort is a great place to relax and enjoy the beauty of nature. It is also a great base for exploring the surrounding area.