Hello everyone! I hope this message finds you all happy and well! I cannot believe that August is already here!

At the beginning of my English classes I have my students write a journal entry. While I think it is a great way to give them practice writing, I often dread this part of the class. Children in Uganda are taught in a way that is so different then we are taught in the states and getting them to do anything that does not involve remote memorization is like pulling teeth. I started out by giving them a question to answer such as what do you do before you come to school? I would give them an example of what I did before I came to school. After explaining it to the whole class a couple of times I would go around to each of the five groups and explain it again. After that I would then go around to individual students and ask them things like, “Do you fetch water? Do you greet your mother and father? Do you put on your uniform?” I then began giving them a word bank to choose vocabulary from and explaining everything in both English and Luganda. It really did not make much of a difference. Yesterday I asked them what they would like to do after they finished secondary school and in the word bank I put possible careers along with other options. Over half of the class’ entry went something like this, “I want to be a shop keeper. I want to be a driver. I want to be a doctor. I want to be a singer. I want to be a dancer. I want to be a priest. I want to go to university. I want to be a teacher. I want to be a farmer.” I was thinking a bit about this and why they would answer this question in this way and I came up with two reasons. The first being that from the time they begin school they are taught to memorize sentence structures. For example, I cannot tell you how many times I hear classes repeat “I see a boat. I see a car. I see a house. I see a person.” When the children master reading this out loud the teacher says, “Great they can read.” It is clearly memorization. If you ask the child what they just read means they could not tell you. If you changed the sentence structure they could not “read” the words. My second hypothesis is that children are never asked or given the chance to think about their future. As Americans from a very early age in life we are asked what we want to be when we grow up. When we say we want to be a doctor, a singer, or the president, we are encouraged. This simply is not the case here. It seems that most children assume that their future will be the same as that of their parents a farmer or a shop keeper.

I have talked with my counterpart about the issue of memorization and the lack of creativity and critical thinking in the education system and we are planning to hold a workshop with teachers after the holiday. I have been doing some research, but if you have any ideas of activities I could do in my class or share with the teachers please be sure to let me know.

While my Luganda is improving, my English is slowly deteriorating. I was grading my students papers the other day and I starting getting confused whether or not what they were writing was correct. For example, almost all of them would put that they lived at Kiyumba instead of in Kiyumba. I had to ask a friend if using at was correct. I can no longer spell anything. Now, the children at Discovery Middle School where I student taught would tell you that I was never very good at spelling in the first place, but it has gotten much worse. I was trying to write the word doctor the other day and I could not figure out how to spell it. This sort of thing happens all the time and I often find myself with my face in my dictionary. I fear my life after Uganda.



The other day my school had an open day in which they invited the community and political leaders in the community. They have been preparing for this event for the past few weeks which means that the children have not been in class. Instead they have been making crafts and singing. Those who were not involved with this project spent their day playing football or practicing multiplication at my house. I found this whole even rather frustrating. Music, crafts, and P.E. are all part of the curriculum, but it is never taught at the school. Now they have this event and they do nothing but these things. If they would have been teaching these courses all along these children would have had time for learning core subjects as well these past few weeks. Also, why aren’t all the children involved? Here they tend to pick out students who have “ability” and only those ones are allowed to participate. The invitation I received for this event invited the public to come see what their children learn at school. I found this quite amusing. It should have said, “Come see what some of your children have been doing in the past two weeks.” The day of the event I invited Lisandro, the Peace Corps volunteer that lives nearest me, to come. The day was long, but for the most part entertaining. Many people gave speeches and talked about me for a while, it was in Luganda so I am not sure exactly what they were saying. I smiled and nodded as if agreeing. I can only hope that they were saying good things; Fredrick assures me that they were. Towards the end of the event the children were singing their last song, a catchy number in local language wishing us all farewell. I soon noticed that in the song the were calling out the names of certain “important” guest to come up and dance a bit. Lisandro and I are enjoying the performance and then the Vicar leans over and tells me that they are calling me up to dance. Thankfully Lisandro was kind enough to come up with me and we danced in front of the entire village. The village thought it was great because they are always surprised when the find out I can do anything. They honestly do not think muzungus know how to do anything, but be a doctor. After the ceremony we get escorted to the important peoples’ room to eat more expensive food than the villagers. I hate when this happens. The villagers got beans, rice, and sweet potatoes which are some of my favorite foods. I on the other hand was served beef and rice. The most important people were served chicken.

Yesterday I went for a run and on my way back I stopped to greet some villagers at the shop. They immediately said, “Nalubega, you know how to run?” After explaining that yes, I do know how to run. They then continued to tell me that I was becoming fat. I found this rather interesting because I am not becoming fat, but also because can you imagine coming back from a run in states and someone telling you that you are becoming fat? They would tell you the opposite to encourage you. But here in Uganda things are different. If you are big you are considered beautiful. It is a sign of wealth, showing that you can afford to eat. They are shocked when I tell them that I do not want to become big, but seem to accept it when I tell them that if I become big that I will have to buy new clothes and that I do not have money.
When a child in America loses a parent we call it a tragedy. When a child in Uganda loses a parent they call it life. One of students that I am the closest to is Bonny. He is an amazing child. He is smart and eager to learn. He has great manners and is just a great kid to be around. The other day I was talking with him and he told me that both of his parents are dead and that he lives with his seventy-four year old grandfather. Another student, Irene, has also lost both of her parents and is living with her grandmother. Most of the time I speak with students and they tell me that they have lost at least one of their parents. I have chosen to speak about Bonny and Irene because they are constantly amazing me. They are beautiful children who I believe will do great things if they are given the opportunity, which is something hard to come by here in Uganda.

Recently I had a friend from home write me an e-mail and she told me that she would not even have a clue as to how to do half of the things I do here. It got me thinking about what it means to be an American and living in another country has definitely given me the opportunity to see how incredibly lucky we are. I would say that most Americans could easily do the things I am doing here in Uganda. As Americans there are many things that we do and that we expect that all people can easily do. We assume that if there is a problem that there is a solution. While we may not know the solution we most likely know how to find the solution. We understand how important communication is and most people find a means to do so. I cannot tell you how many times there has been a problem here which is the direct result of no communication. We understand the importance of showing up for work and doing your best. We believe that people should be held accountable for their work and majority of people hold themselves accountable. We know how to think critically and we love to ask “why?” While many feel that politicians are corrupt in comparison to the corruption elsewhere in the world we have nothing to worry about. We have hope for the future. As children we are told that we can be anything we want to be and I believe that for Americans that is pretty realistic. A majority of us do not have to worry about becoming an orphan. We do not have to worry about finding clean drinking water or water in general. My point to all of this is twofold. First, as Americans we know how to do things and we do not even realize it. I would say that I am a rather average American. I’m not incredibly smart or creative, but here, in comparison, I am because as a product of the American school systems I have been taught to think in a way that people in Uganda have not been taught to do. There are some very bright Ugandans, but they have no idea what to do with their intelligence. I have a friend here named Peace and every time I tell her I am going to do something she tells me that it is impossible. I love showing her she is wrong and that I am able to do most things I try because I find a way. My second point of all of this remember how privilege you are. I feel that Americans catch a lot of slack, but be proud you are an American. You do not realize how talented you are and how much you know how to do until you live in a country that has not been taught to do much more than memorize. I stopped refruting when Ugandans tell me that I am rich. They are right. Materially I have more than they probably will ever have in their lives and I do not even have a job. The amount of resources and privileges I have is incomparable to theirs. My education, not even counting university, far surmounts theirs. No matter how much or little you feel you have, you are rich.

Anyway, I apologize if this is just a bunch of rambling. It is a product of my writing in an internet cafe. I hope you are happy and well!

Peace and Love,

Autumn