The Big Five (or Four)

Decorating for the
Restaurant

So it has been a pretty exciting time since my last blog on Thursday! I will start my conversations where I had left off. On Thursday night of last week, we went to a rotary club meeting with our friend Bryan. At the meeting, they address concerns of the town and spread awareness of the community. Although we arrived late, they welcomed us with open arms. We were asked to introduce ourselves and one the of things we had to say was our relationship status… I did not ask why, but I found it quite strange that this was asked of us due to it being a personal question. I will want to ask Bryan the next time I see him to get more information on that, because even here I have been told they do not tell their parents that they are dating until the engagement to be wed! Knowing that I was quite unsure if it was appropriate to say I was dating or if I was suppose to say I was single. We also meant a few other Bzungu who were at the meeting. It was nice to know that the community is making efforts and suggestions from within the community to better individuals’ lives.

Customers

Our Waiters

On Friday was the most exciting day for my teaching! During the English class and lunch period, my students had two tasks…Pick a book to use for the dictionary unit and set up the classroom as a restaurant. The end of last week marked the finishing of my first English unit. With that said, part of my educational philosophy is to do hands-on activities, so I had promised the students we would put their knowledge of restaurants into practice. Our classroom was transformed into a variety of sitting areas, a counter, waiters, a hostess, chefs, and customers. Each student had a role to do some of the tasks. We had students making the menu, inviting the P6 teachers, gathering the food from the cooks, decorating table mats, picking flowers for the tables, and arranging the room. After all their hard work, the restaurant was a success. Many of the students used the vocabulary words we learned and even corrected the teachers’ table manners! I was very proud of each of my students!

Our Chefs

Counter and Hostess

On Saturday we rose at about 5:30 am for a game drive and boat cruise in Queen Elizabeth State Park! It was soooooo cool to see the animals in the wild! It was almost like my families continual visits to the Animal Kingdom in Disney World but about 20 million times better! My title of the blog refers to the top 5 animals you can see in Uganda.

1.      Leopard

2.     Lion

3. Buffalo

4.      Rhino
5.      Elephant

We saw all of them but the Rhino, because the Rhino does not live in this part of Uganda! I was so excited to see the leopard because our tour guide who has been doing this over 10 years has only see the Leopard maybe 15 times! Here are some additional photos.

Cob

National Bird... the Crested Crane

Warthog

Baby Hippo

When I returned to school on Monday I shared some of my photos with the students. It was disappointing to see that many of them had never heard of or seen a picture of many of the animals. I have heard from many people that most Ugandans have not traveled or know much about the environment of Uganda, so I was not too surprised that my students had never seen them… I was more disappointed that the schools have never taught the students at least to recognize the animals who live no more than 30 minutes from at least our school. There is so much to learn about National Parks, especially since it is one of the major tourist attractions in Uganda that provides revenue.

The Fish Eagle

We also stopped at a craft market in the park and I realized it was definitely set up for foreign tourist. I know this because I wanted to buy a bag there and I knew the bags were only suppose to be 15,000 shillings because they are the same I have seen in all the craft markets… but the lady of the store told me it was 20,000 shillings. I told her it was too much and I could not buy it, immediately she said that she would give me a discount for 15,000 shillings… It was my first attempt at bargaining, but I guess it wasn't too hard to lower to 15,000 shillings because that is already a Mzungu price. I was glad not to have to pay for the extra 5,000 shillings! I am so grateful that at home at most locations prices are fixed and that the prices do not alter based on your origin or skin color.

On Sunday, we took a hike around the Kasese area! After hiking up a step, almost non-existent trail we say all of Kasese at were the future home of the King will be built for the region. We also went with Enoch’s friend Loice. She was one of the first women to be represented in the national council and continental council! She had also taken us for tea! I have learned that I really like African Tea! I bought some tea bags the other day to bring home, hoping I can make it when I return! Here is a recipe if you to try it out!

African Tea

- 1 cup water

-1. 5 t Tea Leaves (we used black tea) 

- 1 cup milk

- sugar

Make hot water and tea, add the milk. Sugar to taste. :)

Monday was also another great day for teaching! Last week Thursday I had taught about a transversal line in math and its special angles. Although, I think it was not explained well and many of the students homework should that they did not fully understand. So I decided to re-teach it. I did this because of the assessment I took on their homework as well as the fact many students had missed that day due to it being right after the school break. It took each special angle step by step and used color coding for the students to do in their notebooks. The students rarely get to use markers or colors for their learning and I thought this would be a great way to engage the visual learners in the classroom. It worked great. I have also begun to slow my pace of teaching, which had helped because the students were on task with my lesson and the notes on the board. The homework also was excellent and showed much more understanding! On Monday we also found out that today, Tuesday, there would be no school. On Saturday it had been announced that today would be a public holiday for a Muslim holiday. The government has been trying to allow for public holidays that are not just Christian to meet the needs of the Muslim populations as well (here is a Huffington Post article about the holiday: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/14/eid-al-adha-2013-feast-of-sacrifice_n_4096669.html ). I think this is a great thing for the government to do and show its inclusiveness. Although, it is interesting that it was decided only 4 days before that it would be  a public holiday and it was only announced over the radio. In America, most of us get our information from the internet. Most of the students were excited to have the day off, but I am quite sad because there are only now 11 days of being with these students. I will forever miss them all…

Have a magical day.