So much has happened in these last couple weeks at Kyarusozi, so I will do my best to get everyone caught up. On our first full day in Kyarusozi all of us began our work at either the school or the clinic. Nora, Sarah, and I spent the day going to each classroom in the school and we observed all of the teachers and their classes. We did this because we wanted to find a "good fit" for ourselves. I ended up deciding to teach in the P1 class because I really liked the students in that class. They were very welcoming and had the biggest smiles on their faces the whole time we were in the room. Another reason I decided to teach in P1 was because of a little girl named Irene. I was walking around the classroom while we were observing on that first day there and she motioned for me to come over so I did and she handed me a mango. At first I was a little unsure if I should take it or not because I wasn't sure if it was her lunch, but she insisted so I did. She was so sweet and I felt incredibly touched by her simple act of kindness.

Teaching for the most part has been going really well. I can tell that the students are beginning to warm up to me, however, my American accent is still very difficult for them to understand. I've learned that if I slow down when I talk and use visual clues it really helps a lot. I've taught several lessons every day and I'm starting to take more control of the classroom. The P1 classroom teacher, Gertrude, has been good about letting me teach a lot of the subjects I like, like math and art. The first day I taught math, the students were learning subtraction, so I would say for example "eight minus three equals?"..... and the students just stared at me. I was like did I do something wrong, but then Sister Edith told me that they don't call it "subtraction", instead they call it "take away". Ever since then, math has been going much better. For the most part, it's been little differences like that that I've had to adjust to.

Something that our school does that is really great is that all of the students have a mid-morning break and they are served breakfast. It's the same thing every day, porridge in a little coffee mug, but it's good because this provides the students with a good solid meal at least once a day. A lot of the teachers even eat it during the break, but the three of us SMC girls usually have a cup of tea and a banana. Something that I've realized that all children in the United States take for granted is pencils and pencil sharpeners. The students here in Uganda maybe have one pencil each and they do not have pencil sharpeners, not even the "old school" kind that are attached to the wall. Instead, the students use razor blades to sharpen their pencils. The first week we were in the school we gave a pencil to each student and they were so appreciative. We also gave a pencil sharpener to each teacher for their class, but unfortunately all of the sharpeners that we brought have already been broken. We were hoping that next year the girls could bring over a couple pencil sharpeners that you attach to the wall so that we could put them in the hallway for all of the students to share.

Now, for all of you teachers out there, I know you're not supposed to have a favorite student, but I DEFINITELY do!!! His name is Reagan, and he is the cutest little thing ever. He is really shy in class, but he has the biggest brown eyes that I have ever seen and he always has this huge smile on his face. I could be having a rough day at school, but then I see him and my entire mood changes. We've walked home a couple times, and some of the kids will walk with us. Reagan always holds my hand and just smiles at me. Sometimes I feel like I'm not really doing much for the students here, but then I see him and I play with all of the other kids and they just hold on to me and then I realize that I am doing something important for them. I'm loving them, and if that's all I can do, then that's alright with me.