Typed the morning of Wednesday the 22nd of July.
This Friday, to round out my week of bouncing around town for work, I went to a small nursery school run out of a Swedish woman named Erika’s home. I spent the day helping five children between ages 3 and 5 with geography, mathematics, and English and monitored playtime as well. It was really interesting because it was such a small atmosphere and the students were really getting attention to help them learn. I helped children find different cities on a map of Uganda, made sure they counted, added, and subtracted straws correctly, and made sure they copied down the right letters. Now, I haven’t been to a regular school in Uganda yet, which is a real shame because i know it would be a very interesting sight.
Just from footing passed a small school on my way to the matatu from George’s place and passed St. Anne’s on my way to NACWOLA I’ve heard the drone of hundreds of children reciting numbers and reading words off the board. Some of my friends refer to it as “chanting class.” Rote learning can really only take you so far. Since they are paid by salary and there is little accountability, there are a lot of cases of teachers not even attending class. There are still many schools that are basically a teacher sitting under a tree talking to students with no materials or curricula. Being in a small school with adequate attention being given to students was really nice.
I went back to the school yesterday to help out some more. The power and water were both out (water is apparently out in all or most of Lira town, so we’re all rationing and Erik borrowed a bunch from us last night) but we were able to still do some math and some English. I’ll probably go back at least one more day before my time here is up. Here are a few pictures from my two days at school:
Scott Ross 