Vera Effe
We may receive a very special volunteer in Kitgum. Vera will be present in our school for a month and will, among other things, train our teachers on different levels.
What she is going to do exactly, we will hear after her return via our website.
Some information about Vera in advance:
"With 21 years young I flew the first time to Europe, to Tunisia ... since then the travel virus has caught me in. In all continents I have had great experiences but about Africa I dreamed since toddler and wandering there does something extra with me ... great that I can go there in two weeks. "
I am currently preparing for a month in Uganda ... Do you want to go with me a bit?
Then click on the facebook page that I will publish Vera Effe Weg and enjoy!
Effe weg…
…My head has been gone for a while ... now my body is allowed. With a strange feeling of being excited, combined with curiosity and tranquility, I take a seat at the window that this flight will be my companion. A nice moment to let everything go smooth and to get in the pen. When a bird flies and sees the world pass by beneath, traversing cloud layers, is magical every time. The Dutch quilt of surfaces, lines and pieces gradually turns into more organic but still structured forms and then evolves into enormous mountain ranges with snow plains and peaks. Only when approaching Europe's coastline the peaks and the snow melt to meet the ocean ... The beautiful coastlines make way for the drought of Egypt. On my left, the Nile follows this flight, perhaps knowing that both she and herself will end at the end at the source. From sand and desert the earth passes into the red-brown dry infinity of Sudan. Strange large perfectly round dark contours get me out of my dreamy state and turn my brain into thinking and pondering. What are those? Created by man or nature? Then again dry and nothing except a vague glimpse of the broad Nile until clouds slowly begin to gather underneath me and hide the green, dark and twisting shapes under a thick layer of clouds. In the transition from the south of Sudan to my destination Uganda, the cloud cover is cautiously open now and then but there is nothing to see but fog ... too far ... too dark ... Uganda does not want to show itself to me today…
At the airport of Entebbe are Roel (brother-in-law who has been there for a few weeks) and Jacob (nephew and also 1 of the many family members of Nestar where I can get acquainted)
waiting for me for a literally and figuratively warm welcome. We drive to Tinda (district in Kampala) to spend the night with Lennie (Dutch friend who lives here now) and meet her Ugandan friends and living companions. Making contact here is very easy and quick. Everyone is friendly in a sincerely interested way and that is after a first warm night also marking downtown. Many Mzungo (word respectfully used for white) cautious wave, smile and Hello, how are you, I'm fine let me feel safe and welcome here. The busy maze of cars, buses, bodabeds and matatu's on streets with shops, stalls and businesses with marabu's hovering above them, or trees, is relaxing. After pegging Ugandan peelings (about 2 million) arranging a Ugandan telephone number and data plan (which is a challenge for me) and a delicious lunch Lennie, Roel and I take a bodaboda (kind of motorcycle taxi) back to Tinda and get some groceries. We relax and chat, play with Kingston (1.5 years old), go with his mother Rachel and Penny at Puzzles eating at the top of the street and pack the bags for our trip tomorrow to Kitgum in the north.
…Quarter for 6, the alarm goes on. After a breakfast and an African hour patiently at the gate enjoying the budding morning at sunrise follows a long journey in which some pictures on my cell phone and thousands are permanently placed on my retina ... Jerry cans, sticks, straw, cloths on heads, lively stumbling water pumps, beautiful colorful clothing to vale cast-offs, groups of car-crossing cows or goats, round huts of scrambling chickens, round loam huts with straw roofs, rectangular houses and buildings with waving curtains as entrance or with metal gate doors. Under many trees a social gathering and children who play, sit, play football or look around. Green but dry landscape interspersed with a few huts or a real village. Just as regularly as the water pumps, schools also slide by ... primary, secondary, usually in building blocks accompanied by church and football field. A new and familiar image that I quickly get used to and at the same time eagerly sniffing ...
…Hello Viera, welcome Viera, welcome, hello if we arrive in the Ayol district in the early afternoon ... Do I hear that well? Children come running from different directions, smiling and waving! Sooo beautiful, so welcome! When you get out of the car, carefully hand-held hands follow and even more curious snouts come closer. 3 mzungus at the same time! Many have known Lennie from her previous visits. After an extensive introduction to Doreen, Johnson, Milton and many other friends and family members of Nestar we walk to the building that will be my home in the next 3 weeks ... (the left of 2 separate apartments with 2 bedrooms each, a kitchen- in-wording, a bathroom, a living room and covered porch.There is a shower and occasionally also water but a jerrycan with water from the pump, bucket and plate are also fine to clean. so at that time important to charge my cell phone.
Of course we will also explore downtown Kitgum, again with a lot of attention and warm or cautious greetings. The local food is fine so far. In the afternoons and evenings warm with rice, beans, vegetables (matoke), posho (kind of regular maisklei), chapatti (kind of flat sandwich) with stewed goat or chicken or a rolex (kind of omeletjepannenkoek). In the morning sweet sandwiches with butter, jam, honey and / or scrambled eggs or omelette.
Because we have reached Kitgum much earlier than expected, there is time to spend 2 days together to National Park Kidepo against the border of Kenya and Sudan, Jeej! Our driver Smith is great! A very dusty ride takes us in about 3 hours to a beautiful nature with hills, mountains and plains and ... Hours we are staring in silence and hanging out the skylight over the natural beauty, the sun changing light and seeing many animals , very impressive ... I could do this for months, gazing, staring, breeze through my hair and reflex at the ready ... Elephants, impalas, warthogs, buffaloes, jackals, zebras, gazelles, Ugandan kobs, waterbucks and many species of birds are eyes and lens caught. The next morning we do this together with ranger Bernard again and get as a bonus next to a reunion of the species that we have already seen yesterday a meeting with a giraffe and 3 lions, very exceptional here in Uganda ... a great trip, just a pity the enormous bruises and bruises in my flanks and on my stomach and back of the bumpen against the edges of the roof window but totally worth it!
Totally dusty brown of our game drive and return with broken skylight is a shower and change of clothing is very necessary and very welcome. After a very late lunch downtown we muse for hours on the mat on the porch to finally get tired but satisfied in bed.
Morning ... Roel and Lennie go off and I stay. Nice walk I walk towards the center. For a long time I stay in a shelter / school with the founder / teacher Quinten to talk about our passion for education and the differences and similarities between Uganda and the Netherlands. Further direction center I go here and there to have a conversation. A seamstress who got twins last year, young shop owner Paul who, like most others, thinks 20 years, a guy who sells me broken sunglasses (tomorrow smooth back) and not exaggerated dozens of others in stalls / shops where I finally also succeeded in finding 2 shawls, pants and a jeans dress very cheap. The highlight is the moment that a young woman dancing to hard African reagaton takes my hand and of course I am just as happy to finish with a pirouetje of hers, after which I swing through and everyone in the stalls on both sides of the street laugh and cheer bursts. ...
Road to Uganda (part 2)
Yes ... there will be a whole piece of text again! (Nice diary, relax!) Do not feel like reading all that? ... there are still photos!
Sunday morning, time for reflection ... I hinted yesterday to go to the English-service, know about where, so I want to walk like this, but is already picked up by Davidson, teacher from school. No matter what I say or think, it will be arranged here in no time! We are already talking about family, children and education downtown. From all sides people come running and children's singing can be heard from a building next to the church. Upon entering here I receive a warm welcome, a speech and a song sung as thanks for my arrival, what children are still a deliciously pure enthusiastic creature! Taking place in the church room is clear that everyone is beautifully dressed and feminine has created the most complicated hair braids. (Even though I'm sitting here, a truly professing Christian, I have not been there for a long time.) At the moment that, like my brother, I wanted to be a servant, but was not allowed to be female, I was quickly converted, and justice and equality were already of great value to me. And a great interest in many different religions has not brought me the true, but feeling and experiences let me know with certainty that there is more ... and then it is nice to be able to share something like this ...) In addition to the Fixed rituals of prayer and reading Bible fragments are sung a lot, beautiful five-part and alternating, without appointments or sheet music! Newcomers or temporary survivors are allowed to stand up and tell who they are, to me this honor too. There are also moments of discussion or issues that everyone can comment on, beautiful this freedom and interaction despite the sometimes questionable issues. Afterwards there is some talk and hands shaken next to the church, with just behind us the construction of a gigantic new church
Yesterday at 3 am I had already arranged for the Laker Intermational Primary School, the main goal of this trip. A private school set up by Nestar (grew up here and lived in the Netherlands for 8 years) and her husband Ed. The intention is that I will give a teacher training here in their last summer holiday week and then go to work with the children. Banacelli, a simple and kind concierge gives me a tour ... swallow, much to do here ... After an hour of chatting in the shadows, the gate opens and Mister Charles arrives. Some later some others including Dominique, the new director and Agnes and Ignatio who will also give workshops.
For Sunday afternoon I offered to help to arrange a room for the training. By attaching straw brooms to long poles, it is quite possible to free the ceilings from the web and to get the walls and beaded edges dust-free. Hmmm ... working and brushing goes at a very different pace here but as usual I'm going to go against it! In the end we can call it presentable, for Ugandan concepts than ...
Monday morning ... start of the training. Initially there are 7 people present. Fortunately, time here is a broad concept and we end up with about 20 people. While the schoolyard is working on improving the floors of classrooms, the training is officially opened with the national anthem and extensive speeches from management and a teacher, after which prayers are jointly offered for fruitful training. All traditions that I quickly get used to ... Ugandan English is spicy for me and their beef is clearly significantly better trained. Meanwhile, over an hour later I can start ... Well prepared with movies and PowerPoint presentation on (old) laptop connected to existing beamer and wall mounted on the wall, I stand in front of the group. Of course the power does not work, in which naivety did I bet on that? Curious eyes look at me and I think to myself ... Where did I start? Fortunately, I also have laminated sheets, so I start with the History of Education. I deliberately opted for this so that we can compare the developments in different parts of the world and discuss and use the strong aspects of current education here to add any future-oriented innovations. The teachers seem to find it interesting, but it is very difficult to follow. By asking concrete questions about their own practice and experiences we find out that I have to speak much slower, that they like to read aloud and watch the sheets and that it is very, fortunately interesting what comes to them ... The 21th Century skills skills such as critical thinking, initiative, self-regulation, cooperation, resilience and empathy that children need nowadays in the changing world are already much better understood and recognized. The modern teacher may make mistakes, learn from others, go outside the comfort zone, think outside the box, think critically and be creative.
After breakfast at 10:30 am Ignatio (in English) and Mama Agnes (in Luo, local language, from the Acholi) in 3 days the group about 2.5 hours with Competence of Literacy in which the structure of sounds, word building and sentence structure explained extensively and especially practiced is becoming. The difference between parts, complements, segments, sound and words and the awareness of the sequence phonepic awareness, alphabet principle, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Knowing the structure of your own language (Luo) is of decisive importance in learning a new language (English) as is also known in the Netherlands. Morphology (words formation) symantic (meaning meaning) syntax (sentence construction) lexis (understanding and learning) are largely new concepts for them but they suck it up with sharp focus and active learning attitude. For me these hours are very intense every day because it is in Luo and only parts in English, in their own way and this also in a hot and dusty room. There is a lot of folding, jokes, word groups repeated and practiced with (board) writing. Learning to read => reading to learn. There are given turns and teachers enthusiastically ask themselves to practice for the class. Each bet is rewarded with for example special hits, flowers (fluttering with hands up) a song, thunderstrikes or a mosquito. Appriciation is very important here, beautiful!
My second part is about the brain starting with the difference between the left and right hemispheres followed by the areas. If you know how to activate different parts of a brain and thereby make more connections (elephant paths) and thus increase the learning ability and learning pace, this can benefit education. Neurological background I link to the theory of Multiple Intelligence (existential, musical, kinaestetic / bodily, interpersonal, linguistic / verbal, logical / mathematical, naturalistic, visual / spatial and intrapersonal) and together we look for how we are intelligent in the different intelligence areas. Now that one understands oneself, the brain and therefore also children better, lessons can be prepared taking into account the differences between children ... The teachers absorb the new information, carefully ask questions and, when asked, consult each other. Confidence between us is as expected and hoped little by little, taking initiative still has to be encouraged so next days mainly practical to get started!
A few days a day the dusty route to school or center runs between all the activity in and between huts has created a bond with local residents so my day always starts with happy morning greetings and calling and arriving-running children. When you arrive at school, the day begins with prayer and gratitude. For all we can learn, for the fact that most have come back, that some are even on time, that we as teachers have the privilege to give children a good foundation ...
The workshops that I give further include Educational Needs, which challenged kids we can encounter in education, such as the 2 children who currently attend this school (1 mentally limited and 1 multiple) and how to deal with this. This topic raises many questions about how brain-damage can be identified, how it can arise and how to prevent it. Home situations, dangers, trauma, genetic disorders and neglect are discussed. They also take into account the ecology of each child in Uganda and realize that we as teachers are an important part of this.
I use the De Bono and Mindmapping hats to relax, get into a more free-spirited conversation and at the same time get something concrete about Uganda and the teachers individually on paper.
With the help of all kinds of games we practice teaching from different learning styles, notes are made that help to remember all these games and there is a lot of fun.
From the Iceberg model we go into the depth. What is visible and what is invisible? In other words, what does the behavior that you perceive in a child and what is your own deeper layer, your norms, values, motives and ambitions ...
Every day everything is kept up to date, such as the presence and content of the workshops to be able to start from next day's reflection. (We are no longer the same as yesterday ...) I have to be honest, these days a lot of mixed feelings go through me. The teachers are very focused on learning and still have so much to learn! I am very proud of what is being done here, but it could be so much more. I did expect to be a little useful, maybe a drop that sets something in motion but I've been mistaken ... it's full of cranes, and then to think that they hardly even have it here ... So practically get started, essential to stimulate the creative brain to think as much as possible in opportunities and possibilities ...
For each group I have reserved 50,000 Ugandan shillings (about € 1250) and 100,000 for outdoor play material. The 2 teachers who were the only ones on time this morning I give 10,000 extra, I wanted to make a clear statement 1 x. Strict? Perhaps! Necessary? Yes! Effect? No idea! The discussion they have to meet beforehand and to make compromises that they have to agree on what will be purchased is special. It seems that everyone is ultimately satisfied with the decision-making process. Traveling together is a real outing. There is a lot of laughter and personal matters shared. After 2 hours of searching, sniffing, collecting, negotiating, making choices and distributing money on the local markets, we go with piles of boxes, bins, baskets, trays, balls, skipping ropes, some toys and cuddly toys on our heads back to school where there is eagerly being played with the new acquisitions.
High-quality visits from Director Sam, Maurice of Principle Education Office and Atiem Ariette, Senior Teacher Local Council give sincere appreciation and tips to the teachers. Change attitude in what works, perform duty, use improved skills, be-centered, close contact, play, be innovative, be creative, discover, compair, be present, discuss chalenges, an active participator, be proud, have confedence, do not loose hope, let us do our work, results come after hard work, we are professionals! Sam emphasizes once again putting the learned into practice and learning with and from each other. The start of this school was simple a few years ago but it is going very well now and we have to radiate that outwards. Through the training we will teach differently, more positively and ensure that children can read and write.
Exactly what I talked about and worked with them so a perfect confirmation for all ...
During the last meeting under the tree, before the classes are finally prepared for Monday, we divide courses and tasks for this school year. Everyone is also free to express what is still important to him / her. Feel free, feel at home. We are a family, there we can and must at all times fall back on and be discreet. The issues that are mentioned are very serious. The problem that the salary comes to a bank account but not everyone can open an account. They would like to see more rewards for their dedication, perseverance and professionalism in a salary increase. The fact that the toilets are very unhygienic is discussed and the danger of the broken carousel on the square and the difficult to open gate. There should also be a chair for every child, there may be new, beautiful murals and an extra floor would be an idea in the future. An ID card for the teachers is suggested, it would give them more prestige.
Eating may / should I always be the first, sometimes praying, washing hands only when I have been, everything from respect and tradition. It feels a bit strange but I take this role with love seriously and behave me, this belongs to this culture, who am I to judge? That is so special here, so many similarities and so many differences and then also constant ambivalent feelings; nice mindful that African quiet and ignore clock but then lack effectiveness and action (understatement if you know me a little), appreciate the small and at the same time the gigantic pursuit, bottom up preferring but top down want to enter, the being together so beautiful find but also the individualistic in me and want to withdraw ...
Whether or not this trip to Uganda is really more than a nice personal experience, I doubt ... eventually I might be that little drop I think ... maybe not even a fraction of that…
During dinner at the hut or in my temporary home I sometimes eat alone and sometimes with Doreen who always cooks deliciously for me or 1 of her children or go into conversation with Johnson. Before or after it is wonderful to stay on the mat on the porch. Reading, writing or hitting a bit on the guitar, usually accompanied by surrounding children who, of course, find the singing, books and photos or videos on my cell phone very interesting ...
Well, the training week is over! With (female) colleague Kevin we walk through Kitgum. We go up the mountain, for a nice view over the town, go to visit her mother and daughter Djessie, past sister who is a hairdresser, the sister who works in the market I already knew. The neighbor has a child with water head, was already once at school and now asks for advice and financial support and this is of course not the first time that I hear this request from someone ... and must reject ...
We make the evening a bit longer, go pool in Club Savanah and stay there for performances and some dancing. Late and tired we dive 2 lanes further into the bed with the music a bit further afranging ... Very nice but I would now very much like dark home color, then I could still hours danced through ...
The next morning (or 4 hours later) we compare prices of food on the market for school shopping, children and teachers get breakfast and lunch at school. In the afternoon I take a Matatu to Gulu to roam around and find toys for school. I take a Bodaboda regularly in Uganda, I have been sitting on the back of a truck and I want to go back by bus, then I have had every possible means of transport, everything is possible and allowed, has something. I also realize that a lot of travel experience, an optimistic attitude to life with a touch of innate naivety is an excellent combination ...
…Upon returning from Gulu with African dolls for school, Lennie is surrounded by children on the porch with Gwen, Floor, Anne and Joline (who are doing international social internship here). (See Sintermeertencollege.nl and UgandaKitgumEducationFoudation.com website for their personal backgrounds and stories).
I take it easy for the rest of the weekend. Church service on Sunday mornings, this time with the four girls there, and then some strolling through Kitgum, writing, reading and playing games ...
Monday morning, the schools open again in the country, ready for a new school year. At 7:00 the lessons start and there is a handful of children present that is carefully supplemented during the first hours. The first week seems to go like this in the whole of Uganda, just to get into the rhythm again ... or uniform, sugar, roll of toilet paper and arrange some things to hand in at school plus a certain amount of money per trimester as registration. The school uniforms seem to be especially pricey. There are children here with a new and visibly older school outfit. There is a version red / white fine striped dress or blouse with dark blue tie and pants and a more sportier version with shirt and shorts in blue or burgundy. The outfit is an important reason that quite a few children can not go to school, parents just do not have the money for it ...
The K-classes officially have 2 teachers (another vacancy in K1) and the P-classes have a basic group-teacher who also provides 1 or more specific different subjects such as English, Mathematics, Social Studies, Integrated Science, Literacy, Writing (net as with us in the VO)
Gradually, the classrooms fill more and more while the teachers prepare, chat, arrange books or chairs and occasionally teach. 1 teacher only comes hours later. I will be present mainly at K1, K2, K3 (toddlers / preschoolers of 3, 4 and 5 years respectively) and P1 our group 3) and the girls have divided P2 to P5 between them. It takes some getting used to that very often no teacher in the group is present, sometimes for hours. I try to give some lessons, learn activities or play a game but that is not easy. Especially the little ones do not speak English yet and in the other groups it is clear that our English is really different and difficult to understand. Very clever that the girls take the initiative and dare to take over the group!
If lessons are taught, it is clear that the teachers are skilled in a very different way than in the Netherlands. Many hits, singing, repeating and jumping are used to stay fit and focused. This is stimulating and also necessary as the classrooms are quite dark, dusty and warm and regularly some children (or teachers) fall asleep. It is also clear that some teachers are starting to use the collectively purchased items and the collected free material. Especially in K1 creative use is made of Loose Parts and natural material (half-cut bottles, caps, crown caps, toilet rolls, stones, sand, leaves, sticks). It is clear in this group that the children get used to playing in a kind of corners with different material / toys within 3 days and also the arranged cleaning up of them. This kind of creativity has been extensively discussed at the workshops because here is virtually nothing and it is not only for teachers but also for children an important skill to be inventive.
The team consists of Davidson, Patrick, Gloria, Kevin, Carol, Patrick, Dan, Benson, Charles, Angelo, Dennis, Josephine & Pamilla (cooks), Banye-Charles (watchmen) and Headteacher Dominic. After almost 3 weeks of intense collaboration, they go into my heart ...
What is hard to see but (still) usual, is striking with a twig on heads, squeezing the cheek and tapping the fingers with a ruler when children do not work, listen, participate or watch. Running away can then go into conversation, too, so I do that with 3 teachers at a quiet time after the incident. Because parents also correct in this way and children among themselves are regularly pretty rough, such a change is a lengthy process. Discussions are currently being held within the government and with Dominic, the head of school, I also discuss this. We are also talking about possibilities for improvement of the building, such as at least 1 in a very dark room, a window, a curtain / corrugated sheet near the kitchen so that smoke and mosquitoes do not immediately enter the 2 classrooms and the wind up dust at another room. Agreements from the workshops on organizing educational material may become more visible in more than the now 2 groups.
An average school day starts at 7 am with lessons, followed by a day opening around 8 by some teachers for the substructure or all groups after which the lessons are resumed. At 10, the K groups and half an hour later get the P groups porridge for breakfast. The cooks are busy with more than 200 children plus the team members. After another lesson there is a break and lunch around 1 o'clock. Children then get rice or pocho with brown beans and sometimes some meat, goat or chicken and eat this in the classrooms while the teachers under the tree in the square get this lunch supplemented with sometimes chapata, dodo (green, spinach-like), scrambled eggs with tomato, potatoes and / or cabbage. Around 2, sometimes only around 3, the lessons are resumed until half past five for the K1 and K2 classes of which the children are picked up by parents or family members or walk home and half 6 for the rest. Often sweeping, polishing and polishing the children smoothly the premises, football is played on the square and everyone slowly drips home. Sometimes there is a meeting of the team under the tree from 3 o'clock while the children stay in the classes, possibly with some homework and occasionally something is discussed after school ... very long days for students and teachers ...
... ..Because we and all parents are invited on Saturday, Dominic discusses a few things with a team so that it becomes visible that this school is undergoing development and has a future perspective. My extensive final report is also shared with the board and parents' section. This indicates how open Dominic wants to be a new headteacher with team, parents and community for the well-being of the children for professional development opportunities and opportunities in the future.
That Saturday there are 5 parents present at the start of extensive speeches of management, and board members, parents and myself. During the first half hour the room happily fills up with dozens more to be full after about one and a half hour with around 100 (I guess), nicely that parental involvement, this does not seem to be everywhere ...
After nice school days in which people are still learning, playing and singing, and the finer, more professional approach to children is more clearly visible, the last day of school starts with some lessons, changing classes and furniture and the joint opening. In the late morning all children, teachers and we gather in a room for a joint farewell. After a few short speeches and again one of me in which I can also offer the markers, markers and pens (given by Ed and Nestar) on behalf of us Mzungus, we go outside for activities prepared by the girls. Rolling ball through car tire, jump rope and mer water-filled balloons on a writing board via car tire to bring to the other side without dropping. The children are enjoying themselves! To let the balloons end in a fun way, we call all reactors and l eat them at 1 side with car tires full of balloons and we 6s (girls, Lennie and I) are opposed. What follows is a fierce and hilarious water fight that apparently nobody saw coming here ... great!
That evening there is a party to celebrate our beautiful time together. After again speeches of 6 or 7 people (including parents, Kubo Christine, James Ongwen and Sam, Milton, Johnson, Dominic) team and cooks and ourselves and a joint food of exactly what we all enjoy, the tables are pushed away and into the danced late hours and laughed at nice African music with occasional western in between. We also try to master local traditional Acholi dances and movements. What a wonderful people, what a suppleness, loose hips and what a pleasure. What are we with each other, I will definitely miss this ...
In order to get a good, objective picture of education in Uganda, I regularly visit schools, many of which are boarding schools, so the children live there. Usually there is someone who wants to give a tour and tell something and sometimes there are also some children who would like to answer some questions. Agreements are quite clear. Dark smelly toilet blocks, scanty dusty classrooms, with a bit of luck some books, notebooks and pencils. Homemade drawings with words on the walls and some simple furniture in the form of wooden tables with plastic chairs or those old-fashioned school benches at the table. (beautiful antiques ... but then, with 6 and sitting on it instead of 2 is less pleasant). There are schools with clearly better newer construction and the school outfit looks much better and cleaner at some schools. On Wednesday morning, Davidson teaches religion to the Anglican children at a school in the village. This time it is about Kain and Abel related to self-regulation and the comparison with a traffic light is made (which Kitgum does not have and would like to have). At that time the Catholic children receive lessons from a priest and the Muslims of an Imaam. Here it looks well arranged and that the director likes to hear, she is proud of her school and her teachers.
On the PTC Primary Teacher Collage, hundreds of students have dressed neatly in school uniforms when I arrive at the boda at the agreed time to give a training. The deputy director regrets to inform me that she forgot to call, because the appointment can not go ahead because the founder of school died yesterday and all students are now given tasks to arrange the funeral for tomorrow, very understandable. A new appointment is unfortunately no longer possible because my time here is almost over. She indicates that I may still be able to go to the private Jileo Irwa KPTC and that is what I am doing. From director Rofison I may give a lecture an hour later. It is true that for 9 students instead of 200 but still very nice give training, inspires me for the future ...
There is a gym in Kitgum so Lennie takes us to Aerobics. Dancing, sweating, abdominal exercises, sweating, drinking, zumba, sweating, tai bo, sweating ... So much so that we go again the next evening! That night it is much more intense because the ground exercises elbows and tails very heavy and painful load ... tomorrow but do not go smooth ...
From the first day here in Kitgum three weeks ago, I walk smoothly every day after school. Stretching legs, shopping or just walking around and chatting here and there. Everywhere along the road and in the shops are the now known and familiar faces and I now belong slowly to this street scene so may regularly the greeting of hand-thumb-hand-thumb-hand and just chat or a new family member or child to be presented. A man (Njeko Benson Charles) with whom I occasionally talk in Ayul (the area where I stay) breaks his banda because here is a road going. The 3 huge mango trees must also leave. It is his land and the huts he built himself and where he lives with his children for years are removed brick by brick so that everything that is usable can go to the possible new destination. Where is the question and the costs of building what he would get by breaking down himself must still come from the municipality and will not be much. He also gives to his eldest son to miss what he has not heard from for 5 years. Through facebook I find the probably lost son and send a messenger message, who knows ...
Every morning, the horizon is again enjoyed by the rising sun surrounded by the crowing of hundreds of roosters, sounding like an arena full of football supporters, with gliding in between some goats, radio sounds in Luo or a passing boda. Keeping a quiet view of the horizon in front of the house or in the car or bus on the road with the ever-changing cloud cover is wonderfully relaxing. It therefore seems only beautiful and special here in Uganda, but there is a lot that is less; dust everywhere so much coughing, dirty nose, smelly toilets without toilet paper, poignant poverty, people who ask for financial help for hospital treatments or nursing / school children, mice, spiders, cockroaches and other vermin in the room (with mosquito net does not matter anymore but keep noises or wake me up), get up around 6 o'clock, very long workdays and always dusty clothes so often handwash if there is at least water. Every moment that there is a little power is charging a mobile phone, because without sitting it is also necessary to miss a camera. This is indeed the first similar distant journey where I can regularly keep in touch with the home front via app and facebook ... that used to be different, but also had some ...
Because Lennie wants to show the girls some more of Uganda I can also go to NP Kidepo. When we drive into the park from our lodge Buffalo Base in Karenge with Smith again as a driver, 2 lions are lying next to the road after 5 minutes. Sooo close, wow! This amazing start of the day continues with encounters with many zebras, elephants, 2x a giraffe, boar, baboons and other monkeys and lots of birds and gazelle-like. An angry elephant running behind us makes it extra exciting ...
From Buffalo Base we drive in thick 2 hours with rising sun to the foot of the mountains in the northeast. In this region live the Karamojong, a pastoral people of origin Ethiopian territory that hundreds of years ago partly settled here and partly in Kenya and surroundings (Masaai) and now live here of home grown crops. A walk of hours of climbing and toil in sizzling heat with beautiful views and occasional recharging in the shade of a tree brings us to a village with wooden trunks and branches made with bandas in it (Kral with round huts). With extensive greetings, spotted from afar and many "Maranga zu" we are welcomed. It is an arrogant and proud people and the cautious typical hand greetings (as I have grown accustomed to in the meantime) and helping to smash maize with a stone brings us closer together. There are some children and adults with ornamental scars (scarification) in the face and / or body, particularly ...
After a wonderfully windy and thus much better to be able to walk uphill we reach the summit with enormous views ... right Kenya, for us Sudan and the plains of Kidepo and further surrounded by hills and mountains with here and there a Kral or settlement of Karamojong, impressive
