Back in Kamengo October 2015 - Education # 4

Rain has taken on a whole new meaning as we navigate through our daily life in Kamengo. The days are generally very hot and clear BUT sometimes it can rain with such intensity that it actually changes the daily schedule.  For example, Kate, Bonnie and Alex were teaching on Friday at St. Bruno's when the heavens opened and the rain came down. With a tin roof on the school classroom continuing teaching was not an option so many of the students (teacher included) put head on desk and took advantage of some down time. Alex, Bonnie and Kate were able to do some one on one with some of the students till the noise was too deafening to continue. Time came for the end of class and instead of releasing the students, class continued on - no point in ending class if the rain is so hard you cannot venture outside .... some 40 mins later ... the rain eased and students and teachers escaped out into the steamy sunshine.

Another consequence of the rain is the need for more appropriate footwear for us Muzungu (white folk) who have to down and up the hill to the guest house each day as the track becomes very very muddy and slippery after rain. And so taking a lesson from the boys who live up at the house (Moses, Sharif and Joseph), we invested in rubber boots (which we will leave at the guesthouse for others). The boots are not the most fashionable, but they are certainly saving our shoes - which picked up more mud each step we took so by halfway up or down hill it felt like we had very heavy snowshoes on! Alex and Joseph about to tackle the hill.

Each time we visit Kamengo we try and organize a field trip for some of the kids - unfortunately we cannot take all 155 of them but we manage to take close 35 across 3 minivans. Chris has to decide which if the children and youth have been working hard at school, have been participating in AZBGC programs and have contributed to the cleanliness and maintenance of the centre.  It is not an easy decision as the children, understandably, all want to come. On Saturday we took a field trip to "Freedom City" which is a huge playground inside a shopping mall. It had bouncy castles, swimming pools, trampolines and other great play fixtures and our 35 children and youth had a great time. we were scheduled to leave the AZBGC at 9am but students were here at 7am ready to go! Luckily the Freedom City allowed us to bring in our own food as buying food for the large group would be prohibitive. Jimmy and his helpers got started cooking at 6am and we were able to take a large bin of rice, veges and meat and a smaller bin of rice and veges for those students who do not eat meat.

Saturday evening was a big celebration in Kamengo - two of the students sponsored by the AZBGC were celebrating their graduation from University.  Jimmy Kawooya and Pius Jjemba celebrated with friends and family and welcomed guests (US). It was a great evening where people made speeches and danced and did performances in honour of Jimmy and Pius who were fully robed and sitting in the centre with Jimmy's father and Pius's mother.  It was interesting to be part of a celebration into the night that was fuels totally by soda pop - no alcohol - it was great.





Sunday is cleaning day at the centre and the youth come after church to clean the floors, do the washing and generally make the centre sparkle. Students young and old chip in and it seems that everyone has a job and knows what they are meant to be doing. In the afternoon Linda ran a workshop for the older youth who are exploring ways that they might be able to set up businesses in the future to enable them an income. Alex and Bonnie followed with a workshop on communication and leadership for those students in senior high school who have the responsibility for ensuring the AZBGC programs continue to run throughout the year.

After the Sunday workshops I attended a meeting of the Kamengo Care for Life committee with Chris – all conducted in Luganda but none the less, it was an important sign of respect that I attend the they all were very gracious about the work we are doing.  Care for Life is a group of parents who are working with the Agnes Zabali Boys and Girls Club to ensure the youth and vulnerable people in Kamengo are ensured health, education and safety. They are our partners for the CACHA medical missions and, in due course, for our educational missions.

The highlight of Sunday afternoon was a basketball challenge – university students (home for the weekend to celebrate the graduation of Jimmy & Pius) versus everyone else. Keith gallantly stepped up as our representative and the play was fierce.

Back in Kamengo October 2015 - Education # 3

Life in Kamengo this time round is moving far more slowly than when we were part of the medical mission but never the less - it is just as engaging. I have had some difficulty uploading to the blog but will try and do so every couple of days.

We are adapting to the climate and the pace - we have visited most of the schools that the 155 students whose school fees are supported by the Agnes Boys and Girls Ottawa Committee. It is great to see the students in their own learning environment but also an abrupt wake-up call to see the amazingly difficult contexts within which theses students study each day. It is truly humbling to be invited into such an experience and to witness students so hungry to learn, even in the most uncomfortable physical situations. Mud floors, very cramped classrooms and no resources - yet the smiles and motivation to learn shine through.

We have begun to develop relationships with a few teachers at St. Bruno's High School - Kate and Bonnie are working with the Math teacher (Peter Mutebi - a graduate of the AZBG) with the senior classes, Alex is working with an english teacher (Alice) and I am working with the Geography teacher (Stephen). We are starting slowing and building positive relationships. St. Bruno's is a Catholic private school - classes in some cases are huge (72, 68) all sitting 5 - 6 to a desk in a room the same size as our classrooms in Canada, and, resources are scarce. Those of us working with students at school need to adjust to having no power and no technology!  This is something we have to think through and plan for when we begin bringing teacher candidates over on regular practicum.

At St. Mark's High School (public school so better resourced from government) there is a classroom full of brand new computers but no teacher. The Ugandan Government has recently mandated that all students should graduate with ICT competency and there is a curriculum BUT they are only just introducing ICT as a subject in teachers' college so there are no trained teachers.  We are going along there later today after our teaching in St. Anne's Primary School to speak with the principal about us doing workshops for students while we are here. All of us could cover basic computing skills and offer a few sessions for senior students.

Last weekend Kate, Alex and Bonnie ran a leadership workshop with the students at the centre and amongst the activities were challenges to start in a big circle with hands linked and tangle and untangle yourself without braking hands - a great hit with the students who seemed very good at tangling themselves into a pretty tight knot and then using creative ways to untangle themselves, including what you see in the photo with Paskali being lifted above the knot - with hands no longer linked though!

What is by far the most popular Agnes Zabali Boys & Girls Club activity is also Jimmy's favourite - basketball.  Coach Miiro does not go easy on the youth as he puts them through their drills before any practice games.  The students are super motivated as four of the older students (1 boy and 3 girls) have been awarded Basketball Scholarships to high schools in Kampala so sport is more than just fun for these youth - it is a potential way of receiving a good education.

Back in Kamengo October 2015 - Education Mission #2

After school the local children come to the Agnes Zabali Boys & Girls Club to play basketball, work in our computer room and/or just generally play with different sports equipment available.  The children seem able to ‘have a go’ at whatever activities we can think of and generally exceed our expectations in agility and skill. They love basketball and Uncle Miiro spends hours running them through technical skills practice before playing games.  Skipping is another favourite and if the skip rope is long enough and you have two strong people turning it, you can have up to seven girls and boys running in to jump in unison and then erupt into a fit of giggles when one of them mis-steps.

Friday evening we were treated to an evening of song and dance. I was very touched when the evening began with a prayer of remembrance for those who have died - Agnes Zabali and for my Mum who passed away just three weeks ago. It is a real credit to the youth of Kamengo that on a Friday night, in midst of the fun of having visitors and putting on a show, they have the care and respect to remember others.  Of course as with any dancing – the visitors were called up on stage and some (Alex in particular) clearly caught onto the local moves.

But none of us could come even close to the dancing of Dianna, Somaila and Deo.

 

Reflections on my time in Kamengo - Agnes Zabali Boys & Girls Club

I embarked on this journey with the best of intentions to upload postings to my blog every couple of days but it did not quite work out as planned. Long days working on the medical mission, evenings spent 'dissecting' the day and completing necessary statistics, and intermittent internet access meant that the blog (as some of you who looked for it have already worked out) never happened.

I am back in Gatineau, Canada now and trying to sift through my photos and experiences to convey some of my experiences while in Uganda. First - apologies - it was near impossible to get my head into a space where I could contribute to this blog while I was away in Uganda. 

Those of you who know me well, know that summer is not my favorite time of year - yet I knew, as soon as I landed in Entebbe that I would need to learn to 'embrace the warmth'. Arriving at 11pm at night, Jimmy assured me it was 'cool' yet there I was, flushed, red face and already sticky - and that pretty much continued through the whole time I was there.

The morning after we arrived we made our way out of Kampala in a two-van convoy. Roads lined with small businesses, many operating out of packing containers or very fragile looking sheds. 

This was my first of many experiences of Kampala traffic (horrible) and the lack of seat-belts in vehicles (scary). It was time for me to relax and trust the local driver Miro (who was amazingly patient and steady on every journey). While malaria is indeed responsible for many many deaths in Uganda – road accidents must be up there as the top cause of injury and death.

AGNES ZABALI BOYS & GIRLS CLUB KAMENGO

The community of the Agnes Zabali Boys & Girls club welcomed us to Kamengo with music and dancing and we spent this first weekend getting to know our surroundings and the many many young people who used the Boys & Girls Club as a community center each day. Both boys and girls are talented drummers and dancers and it does not take much to get them into music making and moving.

This first day was spent hanging out at the Agnes Zabali Boys & Girls club and trying to take it all in. I learned a lot from just watching the kids play - I do not think I have seen kids play together  with so much joy and with so few props for a very very long time.

All of us had brought special little things we thought would give some fun to the children. On this very fist day we learned that it did not take much to engage them. Little stickers, stick on tattoos, taking photos and showing them on the iPad. There were countless examples of how the children - big and small - played together. While  there might be little that these young people have to call their own - few have shoes and many over the two weeks wore the same item of clothing each day - they generally play well together and appear to get genuine joy from play - ensuring each gets to have a go and supporting the little ones as they struggle to master skipping, basketball etc. It was watching the children and young men and women play each afternoon that I witnessed the incredible impact of the Agnes Zabali Boys and Girls Club - a safe space where the young can build community through play and learning (there is a homework/computer room). There are always older students present and they play a critical role in supporting the younger ones and being amazing role models.

Dr. Ashleigh's stick-on tattoos were a real hit

One of the mission members brought out a $2 plastic skipping rope which was a real highlight and the kids - big and small - took turns turning the ropes and at times there were up to 10 girls and boys jumping together - below I think I captured 7 at once. By the end of the week the skipping ropes had passed their use-by date and fallen apart but they gave a lot of joy while they lasted (Note to Self: next time bring more sturdy skipping ropes).

The resilience and joy I witnessed on the Agnes Zabali Boys and Girls Club basketball court was a valuable lesson for me. Such talent, energy and community - and all this most likely on one meagre meal a day.

Seven Girls skipping in unison with one of Dr. Kate's skipping ropes

The Agnes Zabali Boys & Girls club is the creation of my friend Jimmy Sebulime's late mother Agnes. Agnes worked tirelessly to bring back to her village some of the benefits Jimmy and his brothers and sister had experienced from growing up in Ottawa. A group of us in Canada support 150 students to attend school and I and the pleasure of meeting most of these students and some of their teachers and parents while I was in Kamengo.

My goal moving forward is to to organize alternative practicum for teacher candidates from Ottawa university to visit Kamengo each year and work with students and teachers in the local elementary and high schools.

While in Kamengo I visited a number of schools and met the principals. We had time to think through together how we could support them from a  distance and through Ugandan-based practicum.

Sister, myself and Geography teacher

 The local high school - St. Brunos has both boarding and day school students. many of the students who are part of the Agnes Zabali Boys & Girls Club attend St. Brunos. Students study long hours and teaching is very much 'chalk and talk' with students copying copious notes that the teacher has written on the blackboard from the one and only text book in the school! They follow the British "O" Level and "A" level system and although Uganda has a national curriculum (and an associated web page) I am yet to get hold of actual curriculum documents.

 My sense is that the students study long hours, rely on rote learning and much of this is ineffective or at the very least inefficient. We would often see students walking home at 9 or 10 pm after studying. I spent sometime with students at the centre trying to make sense of how they were approaching their work and I gained a real appreciation for the need for strategies and resources that would support them across many subjects.  Few if any classrooms, even in the high school, had electric outlets and the principal of St. Brunos key request of me was for a data projector so they could teach more effectively in the computer lab. The lab itself had few working computers and all were rejects from a  large insurance company in Kampala from when the company upgraded.

Children walked everywhere and most often you would encounter them on way to and from school. There are  quite a few elementary and a couple of high schools in Kamengo and I managed to visit a number of them when I could get away from the clinic. Although education is claimed to be free - it is not - every school has its costs.

Not an easy activity in glaring sunshine

At one elementary school I visited children were carrying rocks and stones to fix a bottom step that had eroded away - there are no maintenance staff or janitors - the children maintain their school as best they are able to.  The school facilities are very, very basic with limited access to running water and if there is electric power - it is sourced from solar panels.

Elementary schools cost the equivalent of CAD$60 per year which in North america seems like a very small amount. However, in Uganda the average annual income is around CAD$1,500 so it represents a significant commitment. Schools have large classrooms and many old bench-like desks where, depending on the age group - three or four students sit together.

In the elementary classrooms I visited the children were often by themselves - teachers, who are very poorly paid and largely untrained do not always arrive at school. In some classrooms colourful hand made charts declare the numbers from 1 to 100, days of the week, months of the year etc.

When the teachers are not there the children take turns at the front of the room with a stick - pointing to numbers on a chart or words on a chart - they call out the number or name and the whole class repeats it. This pattern is repeated around every chart in the room by one child - and then starts agin with another.    The children seem content to do this repeatedly, each of them having a turn.

I was not totally surprised by the state of education - it reminded me of time spent years ago in Papua New Guinea but I was saddened by it. The children are so keen to learn, so thirsty to encounter new ideas and so very very willing to study very long hours.

I had the opportunity to sit down with principals and look at the recommended or required text books across levels and curriculum areas and they reminded me so much of content I was learning as a child some 50 years ago. To me the content in the elementary curriculum was quite challenging and this was made even more so by the lack of resources and the teachers' dependence on teaching off the blackboard. Even science is taught off the blackboard - it is not experienced in labs, or within the world around them. Math manipulatives are unheard of and teaching outside the classroom is not an idea that the teachers are familiar with. One thing I did learn was that textbooks (of which each school had none, 1 or a maximum of 6 copies of texts for any particular subject) are published in Kampala and are relatively cheap (all below $10 and many around just $5) so this is something I am really hoping I might be able to mobilize support for perhaps through partnerships with local Canadian schools.

The schools I visited were welcoming and would love to have more teachers and teacher educators from Canada visit - which of course is my hope in years to come. The students are very receptive to new experiences and learning - they are respectful and a delight to interact with. Outside of school they work hard and they are very much aware that many young people like them in Kamengo do not ever get to attend school - so they cherish the opportunity. 

It is difficult as an outsider, from a country with so many opportunities and so much wealth in terms of educational resources - to know where to begin when wanting to assist with education in Kamengo. My first step was talking with principals, teachers and students so I could understand better what THEY wanted, not what I thought they needed. They taught me that we need to work with what is there and to work locally - as change on a national level to curriculum for example, is slow and unlikely in coming years. There is a national curriculum so the principals advised I begin there - they need text books and the teachers need teaching resources, units of work designed around the curriculum objectives and other resources they can use to make learning more accessible.

I learned that there are three key areas that I am committed to working on over coming years:

• Continue to work with the Agnes Zabali Boys & Girls Club of Kameng Ottawa Committee to sponsor children and youth through elementary school ($60/pa); high school ($200/pa) and university ($1,000/pa).
• Raise money to purchase Ugandan texts for local schools and for the Agnes Zabali Boys & Girls Club study room.
• Return to Kamengo each year on an Education trip with teacher candidates, professors and teachers from the University of Ottawa who, during the year, will have prepared resources for teachers and students across different curriculum areas. The goal would be to develop resources that will stimulate higher order thinking but that can be utilized without reliance on technology.

I would welcome anyone to join me on this journey.