Market, School, and Pizza...

Here are some highlights and interesting things about the last 10 days…
- Me, Evan, and 4 other volunteers went into Kampala last Friday with Jacinta, Namatov, and Naiga. We went to the big market and I got a feel for how much different items will cost. As in South Africa, there’s a lot of back and forth between the merchant and the customer before a price is decided. Because we’re white, we get the “mzungu price” which is always really high, and then you have to talk them down to a small fraction of what they originally asked. The market had everything from jewelry to bags to wooden salad bowls and spoons to animal carvings, and much more. After the market we all went out for lunch and treated the girls to something other than rice & beans.
- Last weekend, after a couple volunteers did a barbeque for the children, the older girls stayed up dancing in our house for a while. At one point they had a soda chugging competition with the sodas left over from the cookout, then the dance party turned into a fashion show. Some of them are quite shy with us still, so it was nice to see another, more confident, side of them.
- On Tuesday and Thursday of this week I went to Entebbe Junior school, with Evan and Marta, to observe our children in class. I spent a couple hours each in baby class, middle class, and P1. There are 2 classes for each level so I didn’t get to see everyone, but I was with Ishmat and Ruthie (baby class), William (middle class), and Jimmy, Johnny, Che Che, Achen, Lucas, and Malayaka (P1). For the 3 nursery levels, the classes are split randomly, but starting with P1 they are divided by ability. The P1 class I attended is called East and it’s for the weaker students. We have one child, Shakira, in P1 West, which is the stronger class.
I was impressed with the nursery program and pleased to see that our kids were well behaved there. The teachers are enthusiastic and kind, and they have an effective teaching style. The kids are learning their numbers and letters, as well as important social development skills. The sing lots of songs, read stories, and participate in physical education twice a week. I think it’s a great introduction to school for the young ones.
The P1 teacher that I observed was also very nice and seems to well-liked by the kids, but the Ugandan education system needs a lot of improvements. It’s known as one of the best in central/eastern Africa, but it doesn’t compare to our schools in the U.S. All the kids do is copy material from the chalkboard, repeat after the teacher, and memorize material. There’s really no critical thinking involved. For example, the kids in P3 are learning about maps, so at home when we asked each of them what a map was they all responded “a map is a projection of an object as seen from above.” Besides the fact that this definition is incorrect, the kids are only learning the exact words that are written by the teacher. If we ask them more questions about maps they usually can’t come up with an answer that’s in their own words. Now that we’ve seen the way they learn, it’s obvious why this happens. The teacher repeats things many times and the children just parrot it back to her. They don’t ask open-ended questions and they don’t use any creative teaching techniques. Plus, because there are no text books, and because the teachers stress good handwriting, the children spend most of their time copying things into their workbooks. The all have excellent handwriting (all of our P1 kids from Malayaka House write nicer than Evan), but it takes them forever to write.
We’ll be back at the school a couple times next week so I’m sure I’ll have more to say about the P3-P6 classes. And on Saturday I’m going with Marta and Evan to the parent-teacher meetings for the nursery children so that might be interesting.
- Lastly, we had an exciting pizza night last week. We had 17 guests which included the usual volunteers, some German teachers, a couple of our business partners, and a group of Spanish guys who work for the UN. The East African hub of the United Nations is here in Entebbe and some of the guys spend time at Malayaka House in between their projects in the Congo, Sudan, Burkina Faso, and many other troubled countries. Jacinta made 14 pizzas and the night brought in a profit of about 150,000 shillings ($65). It was a bit of a crazy night, and the girls were exhausted by the end of it, but all the guests enjoyed the food and the atmosphere so hopefully they’ll tell their friends.
That’s all for now – thanks for reading! I’m going to post soon about Uganda in general and what it’s like living here, but if there’s anything specific that you’re wondering about, or a subject you’d like to hear more about, feel free to comment or email me at sregan3@mail.smcvt.edu.