Classes and goats

     Hello world!  I'm falling into a routine here, now that school is in full swing.  I now see what the reality is when it comes to the teaching time table.  I'm scheduled for five lessons a week, seeing each of the five streams once.  When I slightly panicked and said that I wouldn't be able to cover everything in the time allotted, my counterpart said, "You can take classes of tutors who don't show.  You can even take my classes-it's easier for me to steal hours."  Maybe this doesn't sound super functional or fair, but I've noticed that taking advantage of tutors not showing, or compromising with a tutor so you get two hours instead of one, seems to work.  For now.  I don't believe I've seen anyone outright steal a class, but rather just step in when someone isn't around or negotiate with another tutor to trade or change classes.  Meanwhile, the students are always in the classroom, waiting for anyone to show up, and hopefully ready for any subject.  After giving a little exit slip at the end of the three streams, I asked, "What was one thing you learned?  What would you like to learn in health science class?  What is one suggestion you have for me?"  
     When it came to suggestions, several students wrote, "We love having you teach!  Just please give us some notice..."  Apparently the students have no copy of the time table, so they don't know which subjects to prepare for.  Others wrote, "Come every day!" "Teach us at least once a day!"  I was flattered, but it's unfortunately impossible.  These students have two years to thoroughly understand, to the point of being able to teach, math, physics, chemistry, natural science, agriculture, music, art, English, Local Language, Kiswahili, Religious Education and Professional Studies--as well as practice teaching!  Two years, six terms, bundling together content and practice.  
     Before I mentioned anything about how nearly impossible that is, one of the tutors at my college vented, saying, "These students need AT LEAST three years at a PTC," to which I wholeheartedly agreed.  
     As far as the survey/exit slip, there were some actual suggestions, like, "Improve on handwriting," and "Slow down your speed of speaking."  Ah...it's something I'll be working on constantly.  A fantastic thing that I took away from this assessment was that all students claimed to have learned about other parts of cells.  It seems that they have all learned and studied about only certain structures of plant and animal cells, so this week's lesson added on to their previous knowledge.  I was surprised-- I was really expecting someone to write, "I didn't learn anything."  Not one single student said that!  :)  
      And...the thing students want to learn about the most?  (These are 18-19 year olds...)  The REPRODUCTIVE system!  Including, but not limited to, "STD prevention," "Family planning," and, more plainly put, "Sex."  That'll be a fun class.  It was, across all three streams, the most popular answer.  Too bad the circulatory system isn't as appealing... 
     Apart from science teaching, I've been co-teaching with Immaculate, the computer teacher.  Immaculate went to University for computers, and knows a lot.  The college is lucky to have her!  We've planned that she'll teach mostly theory in the classroom while I pull out small groups to work on practical use of the computers (it seems a little unfair to her, but she likes the set up).  So, on Wednesday and Thursday, with groups of 9-13 on the 9 working computers, we practiced turning on, restarting, and shutting down the computer.  It's unbelievable the kinds of things that I wasn't ready for explaining, like how to move the mouse (some students were falling off the table with the mouse) and that, once the "system unit's" lights are off, it's off (students would be completely done, then turn the computer back on again).  I have faith that these students will do well, because they're all really excited to use the computers.    

Me and one of the baby goats--SO TINY!

      In other, non-school related news...I have little to report.  Just like teaching anywhere, I'm exhausted at the end of the day.  I get home, fetch water, bathe, eat, clean, review notes, maybe read, then pass out.  I'm up before the sun is, I'm actually cold when I bathe in the morning and I'm on my way to school at 7:50.  I did, however, find some time to chat with my neighbor Tagaba, who is the proud owner of three new baby goats (her goat gave birth to four, one died).  I also found time to meet with a family in my village who is going through some tough times.  This family's P7 boy is really bright, and studied at a private school until this year.  The father is a farmer, but it somehow supporting a son through university.  For this reason, the P7 boy couldn't afford to go to the private school anymore, and now studies at the public school near my PTC.  P7 is a critical year, because it culminates with the PLE (primary leaving exam) which is the gateway to move on to Secondary school.  After meeting the family, and having my neighbor Behna investigate as well, I decided that it would be worthwhile to help him out.  He'll now finish his P7 year without worry about school fees.  I never imagined I would do that, considering how not-sustainable it is and how it is in some ways favoritism, but I see a hard-working family, and a really hard working son, and (for right now) a small gap to fill.  I'm hoping that with this time I bought them, they'll be able to save for school fees for Secondary School (which I'm positive he'll be attending next year; he's in the top five of his class). 

BABY GOATS

This one is kind of neglected by it's momma.  I'm going to personally
name it Eeyore.

Me and Eeyore

Obama portrait anyone?

Random shopping day in Jinja--this is Erica, buying
some carrots.