Classroom Chaos

Taylor and I completed our first day of teaching the P-3 class and let’s just say, culture shock! Before coming to Uganda, I had this idea in my head that the students were going to be nothing like those in America. And boy was I right…and well so completely wrong at the same time. I had always thought the students were going to be great listeners, never messing around or getting distracted, and just beyond excited to be there learning. I am going to flat out say that I have so much more respect for American classrooms after today. Any class or student that I ever thought was difficult doesn’t compare. And I don’t put it on the kids here, I just think it’s the culture. And I'm not familiar with this culture quite yet.

I found that it’s completely normal to leave the classroom if you are done with your work, don’t feel like doing your work, or are just bored. It’s also normal for cockroaches two inches long to be in the classroom and the way to take care of them is to kick them. I personally thought it was best to stand on a stool behind Taylor. Chalk disappears just as quickly as guitar picks do, and I’m quite sure they go to the same place. It’s also normal for kids who are not even attending school to sit in your classroom all day long. Standing on the tables is a normal occurrence as well as fighting.

And this is normal. Trying to do anything “fun” is simply out of the question. We realized that quickly. The only way to teach in the classroom is to have the children either copy from the board or their books into their notebooks and then have them solve problems or answer questions. Time does not matter in the classroom, unlike in America. The pace is slow as a tortoise. When the students are done with the assigned work they again leave the classroom or find someone to fight with. Those who become bored or frustrated also leave the classroom.  

During our math lesson on counting from 400-500, only about half of the students were able to complete the task. Some zoomed through, others just didn’t want to do it, and some just didn’t understand. When we tried to explain they became frustrated and gave up. Multiplying by 10 was the same way. We had two students who asked for me problems to solve, while some became frustrated and gave up and left the classroom, while other just sat there not doing anything when we tried to explain.

Working one-on-one only seemed to frustrate some kids more. I think it’s really going to take Taylor and I some time to figure how exactly these classrooms operate. The chaos is not something we are used to. I mean at one point, there were five girls and boys playing with Taylor’s hair while she was trying to read a story. In this moment, I understood why Yvette’s friend cut her hair off when she was in Uganda. It really is a huge distraction.

I am quite sure that both Taylor and I were counting down the minutes until the end of the day because we were just so confused by everything. Riding the boda-boda home, we both said a big hallelujah to the fact that it’s a three day weekend. Taylor and I absolutely love it in the family home. The children are the sweetest little things ever. They never let us take our own plates after dinner, always want to give us hugs, and will do anything for us to spend time with them.

I realized just how big their hearts really are tonight when one of the boys came and asked me if we could play guitar together. He always asks to pay my guitar while I play his. After dinner he worked on teaching “Auntie” (Taylor) how to play guitar. He had so much patience with her. One of the girls then asked to see photos. I showed them the printed photos I had brought along, and Taylor pulled her laptop out. All the kids were gathered around her asking about each photo. One of the girls even grabbed my arms and wrapped them around her.

It was movie night, and I fell asleep on the couch from the long day. I woke up realizing I had my feet propped on a stool, and took them off and said, “I have my feet up where someone could be sitting!” and took them off. One of the girls said to me, “No, Auntie, you put your feet up!” And insisted I rest my feet instead of her sitting.

It’s different here, that’s for sure. The school was different today, but Taylor and I are going to work together this weekend to come up with a plan to help the class run smoothly next week. I am thankful for all the kids in the home and their generous and loving hearts. They have such big hearts for God and simply enjoy life. Joy. Joy is what they have.

I am thankful for this experience and all that it will bring to my life.

Day two, skittaly dittaly do

Another day is down in the books. I found myself waking up at 5:30am, unable to fall back asleep. I just listened to my iPod for a while until Taylor and I actually woke up. For a good part of the morning we observed one of the home school classes which was helpful since we will be teaching the P-6 home school class soon. The kids teach themselves for the most part, reading out of one book together and then copying it down into their notebooks. This makes me a little nervous for teaching, but that is not at all how teaching is done in American schools.

We then ate some breakfast around 10:30am, which was bread and jelly, a banana, and some yummy tea. The bread is quite dense compared to ours in America, but it quite tasty. The bananas are much better than those in America, tasting much sweeter. And the tea, well…nothing really compares. While eating our breakfast Mama Sara came to ask if we were ready to go into town to exchange our money and do a little shopping. We gathered out things and headed off on a boda-boda to the chopping center.

I think my mom would freak if she saw these boda-boda rides. The driver, Taylor, and myself all sit on one little motorcycle, without helmets and speed down the road. I don’t think there are speed limits here and there are speed bumps literally everywhere. Oh yeah, and they drive on the “wrong” side of the road. Weird, and a little scary as well. I find it better to simply look at my surroundings rather than at the road.

Upon arriving at the shopping center we went to the bank to exchange our money. Taylor and were quite excited to realize we made $40 profit on this. Or so we think. We could be doing our math wrong. Be we like to think we actually did make a profit anyhow. After the bank, Mama Sara, Taylor and I went to the super-market. This was kind of like a Walmart. They had everything. We first went to get notebooks for the students. Mama Sara gave Taylor and I money to pay for them and then she headed on her way since she had somewhere to be. Taylor and continued to shop around putting hand soap, room spray, a converter, a small bag of chips, and some cola in our basket. We also amused ourselves with the fact that alcohol is a lot cheaper here. We figured it was a supply and demand issue in the states. I mean, just walk into and AMC suite. Our items totaled up to 10 American dollars which was 19,000 schillings.

After, we had a bit of time before our boda-boda driver would return so we just shopped around and then waited painterly for him to arrive, while talking to a shop worker. She told us about children who were left for the streets by their parents. She told us how they would sleep in the pipes at night and would beg for money or for you to buy small items from them during the day. We soon headed on our way back to the Family Home where we sat on the back porch with another one of the home school classes. We also learned a bit of Ugandan.

This soon turned into hanging out with Joshua and Nicole who are both two years old at the moment. They are absolutely adorable and have won our hearts over. We played hide-and-seek with the older kids and then went inside for worship. The power had gone out at this point and we ate dinner together in the dark. The children always serve us our food and clear our plates for us. They also really enjoy when we have leftovers because they have some big appetites. They serving sizes are huge.

Dinner then lead to Taylor and I crashing on the couch before the girls decided they wanted to braid our hair. It only made me fall asleep easier. I then grabbed my guitar tuner and one of the boys guitars to tune it for him. I had noticed during worship that is was crazy out of tune. While grabbing something from my room, I returned to find the boys out of their room and playing my guitar. They were so excited for me to be tuning their guitars. We then played some worship together before they were off to read before bed.

At this point, being nearly 5 days without showering, Taylor and I decided to attempt to wash our hair…in a bucket and the sing. I think it worked.

It’s different here, that’s for sure. But I really like it. The weather reminds me of California and the kids make my heart oh so happy. I want to remember the little things about my time here. Like the laughter, joy, gentle hands in my own, the chocolate colored skin, and smiles on faces. Each of these kids have been left without parents, but they have more joy than I’ve ever seen someone have. They never argue chores and in fact are never asked to do them. They just do it. When they are called by a Mama, they immediately drop what they are doing and go to them. Their obedience and love for God I astounding. They get along extremely will with one another and each have such big hearts.

I am beyond excited to get to know each of them better.

For now, I am tired and we must wake up at 6:30 because tomorrow we start teaching the P-3 class in the New Creation Centre.

“So, with him on my side I’m fearless, afraid of no one and nothing.”

Psalm 24:1

And so the journey begins

Saying goodbye to all you’ve ever known is not the easiest thing to do. Fortunately God has blessed Taylor and I with each other which has already been extremely beneficial in this entire thing.

I have so much to tell, because just in a few short days, so much has already happened.  I shall start with a funny story and then move on to some other things that have happened.

Let’s being with the time Taylor and I heard screaming on the plane. And not just any screaming, screaming of complete fear. Of course no one else on the plane was doing anything. So mine and Taylor’s teacher instincts kicked in and Taylor got up to figure out what was going on. Well, a little girl was stuck in the bathroom. I think what we found so funny is that the mom had just left her daughter in the bathroom alone and also the fact that no one else was doing anything. We were a good eight rows away from the bathroom too. We laughed about that for a while.

Taylor and I found ourselves a bit nervous on our last flight, but luckily neither of us had anyone sitting next to us, so we slept majority of the ten hour flight. We didn’t know who would be picking us up from the airport, or what we were even supposed to do upon arrival, which also made us nervous. By the grace of God, there was another missionary on the plane who had lived in Uganda for six years who helped us to the max. We are hoping to visit her someone during our stay here.

We had about an hour and a half drive from the airport to the family home and when we arrived we chatted for a bit and then fall asleep laughing about the journey, and falling asleep with tears in our eyes when everything started to sink in.

We were soon awoken by a rooster, dogs barking, and a singing man. So we decided it was time to get up, get dressed and head out to meet everyone. The kids were getting ready for school, but they all greeted us with warm hugs and, “hello aunties.” They kids call us Auntie Kelsey and Auntie Taylor. It’s quite sweet to be honest. I’m enjoying being an auntie. We observed what everyone was doing and made our way to the garage I think it is. The garage door was open and a little boy, two years old came running towards us. I thought he was going to run right passed me, but he ran straight to me and clung onto my legs for a good three minutes. That’s the moment I knew this is where I was supposed to be.

We were given some of the best tea we have ever tasted and then one of the girls showed us around outside. After, we talked to Mama Sara about what the plan was. We decided to take a boda-boda ride to the school to learn about the curriculum. After talking to the head-mistress, we went to the P-3 class and taught a math/art project which posed to be much more difficult than we thought it would be. Drawing ten petals on a flower was quite a chore apparently. The classrooms are less structured than those in America and they also move at a much slower pace. I can’t tell you how many times our students ran out of the classroom and would come back a bit later.

Once our boda-boda was back, at least eight students came running in to tell us our ride was there for us. We rode back to the family home, played hide-and-seek, and then found our way to our room where we took a good long, four hour nap. Much needed! We woke up to the kids singing in the living room and made our way out there. They were doing a bible study type thing. After we sat down for dinner which was rice, beans, pumpkin, and avocado. It was surprisingly good! A lot better than the porridge we tasted at the school earlier in the day. After dinner we helped some of the girls draw pictures for their sponsors while they secretly wrote us letters.

Here’s what one says: “Dear Auntie Kelsey, I love you. I hope you have good days here. I hope you like the colours on top. God loves and cares for you. You are so beautiful. How are you? My best colours are dandelion, scarlet, ruby and violet. My best animal is an elephant because it’s the biggest animal.”

Taylor and I were then given an “internet stick” if you will and we made our way back into the social media world for a short while and are trying to keep an eye on the lizard on our wall. I thought spiders were bad…I am absolutely terrified I am going to wake up with this lizard on me. The kids told us the white lizards are good lizards because they eat the mosquitoes. I still prefer it not to be in our room.

I have been challenged to a guitar battle on Saturday, and Taylor and I both have been challenge to a “football” match. We will see how that goes.

Anyhow, I am missing everyone back home…my family, friends, WOLFPACK, the RA staff, and all my residents. Although, I am definitely enjoying myself and am looking forward to the rest of the journey.

Speak to you soon!

You're Gonna Miss This

Today was a bittersweet day and instead of boring you with every detail, I will cut to the chase.

I came back to my room at midnight from being at a friends house, to find my countdown until Uganda changed to 194 days. It is actually only 19 days. Seeing this made me a bit sad if I'm completely honest.

Tonight I held my last floor meeting as an RA. These people have absolutely changed my life. I've found purpose here. I've found what I'm supposed to do in life. Seeing the number 194 written on my whiteboard made me wish for that to be the actual number.

And don't get me wrong, I am absolutely thrilled about Uganda. I literally cannot stop thinking about it I am so excited. I am excited that it's only 19 days away.

But seeing 194 and recalling  a few things that were said in my floor meeting made some song lyrics pop into my head.

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this 

And it's these lyrics that made me regret every time I wanted to give up and quit the RA position. Because I already want every day back. I want to go back to the beginning, start over and live it again. I seriously wish the days had not gone by so fast. It seems as if I was just standing in the lobby welcoming the residents into their new home. And here I was tonight, having to start my goodbye process.

It makes me regret every time I spent playing my guitar instead of walking across the hall to say hello. Every time I wanted to sit on my computer alone, instead of opening my door to let people stop by.

But it's not about regretting things. God has blessed me greatly here and I am thankful for every bit I've encountered. I have dealt with some of the toughest things I've ever had to deal with, but I'm thankful for that. I've loved this, even through the difficult times.

A few months ago I was on a panel for people applying for the RA position and someone asked the question, "What do you wish you would have known before becoming an RA?" My answer was that I wouldn't have wanted to know anything more than I knew. Because if someone were to have told me that while I was an RA I would deal with: One of my residents dying, salsa being thrown on doors, my bulletin board being vandalized, posters being stolen, residents hiding, empty beer cans all over the place, some real rude people, and loss of a social life and any privacy, I never would have taken the position. I definitely would not have. No chance. But now that it's all said and done, I am where I desire to be in life, and I am thankful for everything I have had to deal with.

And I know I am going to miss this and want this back, but I am going to embrace these last few weeks of being an RA and college student. I am going to leave my door open, walk across the hall, and embrace every moment.

And I will probably cry like a baby when I have to say goodbye, but I am going to cry because it was good. I'm gonna take a good look around and take that key and open the door to the next room of my life. I am going to step on a plane and make a little journey to a new place. I am going to meet new people who I will fall in love with and will miss just as much when I am forced to say goodbye to them.

But it will be okay, because fortunately I serve a God who loves me more than I could ever imagine love to be. And this God of mine is going to take me by the hand through it all and everything is going to be okay.

So here is to these last 19 days in America, and to my new journey soon to begin.

Praying for full support in the next 22 days.
Still about $600 off.