A visit to Awere...the Orginial site

Today, Joanna, Abbie (the other teachers with me at my school) and I traveled to Awere's original site with our partner teachers. Like I said before, the school that I teach at right now, Awere S. S. in Gulu, is the displaced site for students that used to go to the secondary school in Awere before the war, and in February they are finally planning on moving back to the original site which has been refurbished, thanks to Invisible Children. This is really exciting for Invisible Children and for Gulu because Awere is the town that Joseph Kony is from, and moving back is kind of a big middle finger saying to him that the people have rebuilt and moved on.

The trip to Awere was kind of a long ride (emphasizing to me just how far these students and their families are away from home...and they have been for years) and I seriously had to pee (btw...I've conquered the latrine! and the outdoors!!!). As usual, our mutatu broke down...well, actually it got stuck in the mud about 800 yards away from the school, but it was all worth it. The new site is wonderful. There are new classrooms, new labs with prep rooms (the pics are a comparison of the labs from the current school to the new school),
great big chalkboards, proper walls and water pumps! It was so great to see the work that IC has accomplished through the Schools 4 Schools program. While I have been teaching at the displaced site, I have been so impressed with the quality of students and the quality of teachers...the major challenge for students inside the classroom (many many more outside the classroom) is the poor learning environment. They have to deal with SO much noise...that was the hardest thing for me to deal with because classrooms really are only separated by a tarp, so it gets really difficult to hear the lesson in your own classroom.
But at the new site, I really don't see that being a problem because the rooms are separated by concrete! I think they are going to be very successful at the new school!

After our tour, the school provided us with sodas and biscuits (a very nice gesture) and we got a chance just to chit chat with all of the teachers. Two really interesting things came out of that time. First, I've said before that there is a lot of litter in Gulu because people really do just drop on the ground whatever they have that they are finished with. For example, biscuit wrappers...as we were sitting there, at this beautiful new school, the Ugandan teachers were just tossing their biscuit wrappers on the ground...littering the place up. Which I don't mean in a negative way because it really is just their culture, it's just hard for the American teachers to see...and we certainly can't bring ourselves to do it to. I know it probably sounds like I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill...I guess it's kind of hard to explain. But anyway, not being able to toss my trash on the ground, I started collecting my trash and my friends' trash...and all of a sudden the Ugandan teachers started picking their trash up too...it was kind of like this mini little victory! The second cool thing was that while we were talking, one of the administrators started telling us his story of being abducted as a young boy and fighting for the LRA. When he was 15, the LRA stormed through his town and took him away from his family at gunpoint (the LRA targets this age group because they are still naive and impressionable). He was with the LRA for a year, and he actually sat with Kony just as close as he was sitting to me outside the school at Awere...it was such a surreal moment. Anyway, he told us that during his year with the LRA, he basically worked his way up the ranks to a position called "controller" where he was responsible for bringing to the battleground Kony's "magical water" that he taps from some mound (which we also saw) and mixes it with other "spiritual" things (i.e. crushed stone, vegetation, drugs, etc). It was so interesting to hear some of the strange goings on of the LRA. For example, soldiers in the LRA are not allowed to take cover, like hide behind trees, because that means that they do not trust God's will for them. Once a shot was fired, these untrained soldiers, young boys really, were expected to run toward the Ugandan army without taking cover. Another just crazy thing is that these young boys were given a list of rules and consequences. For example, if they told someone where the LRA was hiding, they would and did have their lips/mouth cut off. If they pointed to their location, their arms were cut off and it was up to the commanding official if the child soldier would be getting "short sleeves" (cut up to the shoulders) or "long sleeves" (hands cut off). If they tried to run, their legs were cut off...same concept as with the arms..."shorts" or "trousers." Anyway, working his way up to "controller" (a.k.a. sorcerer), this teacher earned a sense of trust and had very little supervision. So, one day, 1 year into his time with the LRA, he laid all of his LRA-owned guns, etc. and just walked away with a friend...he is one of very few that escaped and actually lived (probably due to him leaving the LRA possesions behind...if he had taken them with him...pretty much a guaranteed massacre). Today, he is a successful teacher/administrator and he is married and has a wife and two kids...see...resilience!

Hakuna Matata and the Apocalypse…all in one day

So right now I’m sitting in the teachers’ lounge…again….listening to the cheesy 80s music playing…again :) “I’m all out of love. I’m so lost without you...” and this woman named Ester, who claims to be my Ugandan mother is asking me when I will move to Uganda to get married. How do you say “never” in a nice way? :) Anyway, that’s besides the intent of this post.

So, this past weekend, I had the best and the worst experiences of my time here. We’ll start with the best part. Saturday, our teacher group went on Safari in a park called Murchison Falls…so cool. Sitting on the roof of a mutatu, I got to experience an early morning, 5 hour game drive where we saw FAMILIES (so cute!) of elephants, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, hartbeasts,




and…dah dah DDDAAAAHHHHH….lions, which is very rare to see on safari, but I guess we were lucky because we saw SIX lionesses. My favorite thing we saw though were the families of warthogs…mommy, daddy and 3 babies with these little butts you just want to pinch and these cute little tails that stick straight up when the walk. They are the ugliest animals…so ugly they’re cute (kind of like those Chinese Chiuauas). Anyway, throughout the entire safari I had “Hakuna Matata” stuck in my head…I felt like I was living Lion King…the scenery was incredible. Pictures wouldn’t even do it justice…good thing because of course my camera died…again…so I’ll have to get pics from other people after the game drive, we had a river tour up the Victoria Nile to the Merchison Falls (so beautiful!)…if you have ever been to Disney World, the river tour is almost exactly like the Jungle Tour ride…it was so neat. Anyway, when we left the park, we were faced with a 3 hour mutatu ride…which became a 5 hour mutatu ride Around 8pm, we were driving down this “short cut” road, and…BOOM! Our tire blew out! So we stopped, the driver replaced the tire with the spare (which had a nail stuck in it), and we continued on our way. About 30 minutes later…BOOM! The SPARE blew! So there we were, in the pitch black, in the middle of the bush, having to pee, monsoon pouring down…frogs croaking…random bugs biting at people in the mutatu…no tire and no what? No RECEPTION!!! Those who did have reception had no minutes…so we decided to drive for an hour on 3 wheels and a rim….I’ve said before that mutates are a bumpy ride…no comparison to a mutatu with 3 wheels and a rim…did I mention I also had a migraine…and a fever…and what I can only assume is Ebola (maybe a slight exaggeration). You just had to laugh at the situation. The experience was, however, such a metaphor of the African people for me…in the face of adversity, you just keep on going with whatever it is you have!

Anyway, we finally were able to call for help and eventually got home…to about 30 extra people living in our home (students who won a trip to Uganda for earning money for the Schools 4 Schools program through IC). So I will admit, yes…I was a bit on edge…tired, headache, fever, had to pee and no quiet space to talk on the phone…but I calmed down and went to bed. You might thing this was the part that was my worse experience here…but no…our Apocalyptic adventure was about to get worse. The next morning, still having a fever and the Ebola, I went to school, but I had to dash home so as not to reveal all of my insides to the entire Awere SS student population. After a very nice 2 hour nap, I woke up feeling refreshed…and then the news broke…a few of the girls in the house had lice. Yes LICE! Bugs…in the hair…sucking blood and laying babies. My head immediately started itching (it’s even itching now just thinking about it. Even though I was pretty confident the itching was just my imagination, I completely broke down…wept…literally wept. Any one of the things that had occurred in the last weekend I probably could have handled individually…even the lice, but everything together, and not having the resources or the comforts of home to deal with them, I just couldn’t take anymore. All of my “strength” had been depleted.

This experience has totally switched my impression of Africa. You look at Africa and you see it’s poverty, and with poverty you think weakness, but I have come to find that the people here are among the strongest people to be able to live, survive and rebuild under these conditions, especially after experiencing an incredibly brutal war. Side note, just the other day I was walking home from school and I saw a woman who had a very large chin and 2 scars that ran from the corners of each side of her mouth down past her chin. It was explained to me later that her chin was actually reconstructed after her entire jaw was cut off by LRA rebels. We also have 2 students at Awere who are missing a leg that was cut off by the rebels. And yet all of these people are fully functional, and here I am breaking down over a few bugs in the hair…which I don’t even have…yet. I guess that put things in perspective for me. But I will say…this trip has definitely challenged me mentally, emotionally and physically and has taken me to my limit…yet at the same time I have never felt more blessed, nor have I ever been more inspired or impressed by a group of people in my life. Today, I’m doing much better after allowing myself to have the little meltdown. My focus now is on the good parts of being here instead of the challenges…because the incredible things I am learning and living here in Uganda really do far outweigh the challenges!
I miss you all and I look forward to seeing you in 2 weeks!!!!! Hope you had a fabulous 30th Mel Bel!!!!!

Hip Hop Club

One of the things that I enjoy most about my time at Awere SS is the Hip Hop Club we started (to be fair…Abbie and Joanna really started it, I just help mostly because I know nothing about hip hop…I am the antithesis of hip hop). I already told you about the first day and how only us munus were dancing…like fools…until my dance off with a student named Ochaya Kenneth. To refresh your memory, he won…by far. Anyway, that day we were a little nervous that the students were just going to goof off or weren’t really going to participate in the club as we had hoped. Our original intent was to start this club as a venue for student expression because they really don’t get that otherwise. But…to our surprise, Hip Hop Club has TAKEN OFF! At the students’ request, Hip Hop Club meets almost every day at 4:15pm, and they have come up with some really amazing things. Our first exercise was to take an American hip hop song…which was difficult to find one that was suitable for a school setting, but ultimately we came up with “Where is the love.” We wrote the chorus on the board:

“People killing. People dying. Children hurting, even crying. Do you practice what you preach? Would you turn the other cheek? Father, Father, Father help us. Send your guidance from above. People got me got me questioning where is the love?”

The exercise was for them to break up into groups and write lyrics to the verses based on their own lives. It was a rocky start, but once they figured out what was going on, they wrote some of the most incredible things. Here are some of the examples:

* "I have never seen peace in Northern Uganda
The children are being captured by LRA rebels
Some are tortured and killed in the bush
Some are dying of hunger"

* "Searching for help
Children were hurt
If I lose my mum
Then we suffer
No one to help us at home
Even at school
You feel very sad
When you are alone
People were ever thinking about your loneliness"

* "Am trying to make people understand
That staying without love is nothing in this world
I move to church to make my life be good
So that God can forgive me for all what I’ve done
In this world, life without love is unpredictable
So I just keep my head up looking for life
And even sometimes I rolling on the street
Looking for what to eat
But God cannot just leave me alone"

Then we gathered together and sang our new song together...each group was to read their verse and as a group we sang the chorus. so, group by group we went through the verses...some read them...some broke out into a rapping version...and then when we all sang the chorus, they broke out into HARMONY...it was totally unexpected and it was awesome! the reason I like this club so much is because it really gives me a chance to interact with the students that i really don't get by just standing up in front of a classroom and hip hop club gives me that opportunity.
The next thing we were worried about was that we started the club with only 3 weeks left here, and we were hoping it would continue after we have left. This weekend, it became clear that we had nothing to worry about at all. This weekend, we three teachers (or orient hare...haha)...anyway...we were out of town on safari (a separate post), but the students wanted to meet again over the weekend. We told them that they could meet but we wouldn't be there to facilitate it, so that would be their responsibility. As it turns out...not only did they meet, like 45 of them met...on a Saturday, and they set up a government system for the club and they already started on their own new hip hop song. the set up the chorus and today they finished the verses...it's a rap about their school. Another thing they did...on their own...was to set up rules for their club, which they call Hip Hoppas. the rules include no use of the "N" word, the "F" word or mother "f---er" (we had to explain what these words were....they just thought they were common slang that we use in America and not that they were bad words...that was kind of a funny conversation). I am so hopeful that they will continue with this club which is so important because they really need a chance to express the challenges and struggles in their lives.
After hip hop club is Acholi dancing practice. I think they are practicing for some event...the boys play this amazing music with local instruments (gourds, drums sticks, etc.) while the girls dance traditional dances...OH MY GOSH the dances are so hard. The move their bodies in completely different ways...I try but really all I end up doing is shaking my bootie and they all laugh at me :) Guess the important this is that I try! :)

I'll put the safari blog up soon!

1/2 over or 1/2 left?

So, this past Monday was the ½ way point of this trip, and I am having mixed emotions about that. On one hand, I’m sad that my time here is winding down…I have learned so much here from the culture, from the people and just from living the day-to-day life in another country. I will definitely miss the people I have met here—African and American (the ladies…and Phil/"wiki wiki"…that I am living and teaching with are incredible). And I am going to miss the things that are uniquely African that I have already started to take for granted. On the other hand, I am looking forward to coming home because I miss all of you, and I miss my routine, and I miss the conveniences of home (had a slight meltdown on Tuesday from being homesick). I just need to keep my mind focused on Africa while I’m still here because I don’t want these next few weeks to go by without me really being present. I’ll tell you what though, my mind has been turned upside down, like a million times, and it has been a mental and emotional roller coaster for sure. I have learned to expect the unexpected and that you have to just roll with things…kind of hard for a control freak, but a good lesson.

Examples of things you just have to roll with:
• Electricity going out…for 2 full days, taking with it the running water if outlong enough and a long ass email you were just about to send.
• Litter everywhere
• Cleaning contacts with bottled water
• Only using shower water when rinsing…water is off while washing your hair, lathering up, shaving, etc.
• There is always noise in one form or another
• B.O.
• Going to the bathroom in a toilet that about 5 other people already went in (both forms) and hadn’t flushed because the toilet water hadn’t refilled yet…ew.
• Living with 10 women
• Thinking my main mission in coming here was to teach, then realizing they don’t need me at all…the important thing is forging relationships and establishing dialogue.
• SUPER slow internet
• Dirty feet…constantly
• Posho
• African time…i.e. when is lunch? It’s scheduled for 1pm…ish but frequently isn’t till 3pm
• Items listed on the menus at restaurants are only hypothetical.

Amazing things you won’t experience anywhere else:
• Standing 20 feet away from a rhino
• Teaching with James David
• Seeing a chicken running around the teachers' lounge in the morning…then having chicken for lunch…hmm
• The lessons learned and conversations had from living this experience
• Boda boda rides
• The honor, respect and welcome-ness of the Acholi
• The stars….almost every night I see the milky way and the southern cross, amongst a gazillion other stars
• Agness and Doreen
• Shaking hands with passers-by even if you don’t strike up conversation with them.
• The scenery…it’s amazing
• So many live chickens and goats just wondering around town
• Genuine happiness
• The sites: grass-thatched homes, the bore hole, cutting the grass with a "slasher," and my favorite is still the site of women carrying things on their head, something in both hands, and a child on their backs
• The excitement of kids screaming “munu, hi” or “how are you? I am fine” and then running up to you because they just have to hold your hand. I’ll be honest…somedays this is annoying…especially when you are on your way to eat and you just washed your hands…I actually ran away from a little girl the other day…full sprint…I felt so bad, but oh well.
• “the what, the (insert random word here).”
• “sorry”
• Matthew at Ma’s computers
• Resilience!!!!!

1st mass in Gulu

Since leaving St. Louis, I hadn’t had a chance to attend mass and I was really missing it. Luckily, John McGee knew of a good place to go to mass, so I met up with him and a few other group 2 teachers at 7:45 am to head to mass at Gulu high. Side note…as we were walking the road to Gulu high, the funniest thing happened! From out of nowhere, John goes “we can finally get the answer to the question!” Thoroughly confused, I asked him what he was talking about, and he just pointed up the road to a bunch of chickens crossing the road. I died laughing….it was so funny. Then, when we came closer to the chickens, he asked the chickens why they were crossing the road. Of course they didn’t answer so he said “what are you, chicken?” Oh my gosh...so funny. Anyway, so we get to the church, which is actually the school library, and mass was already half way through. Apparently mass started at 7:30am and not at 8:30am like we were told. So here we are, 5 munus who definitely stand out in a crowd...late...and I guess it’s considered an honor for white people to come to mass because right in the middle of the mass, 5 people walk out of the service, get chairs for us and set them RIGHT UP FRONT, next to the alter. Such a walk of shame to our seats. Once I got past that though, the mass was INCREDIBLE. First of all, one of the things I love about the Catholic mass is that it is the same everywhere you go….even a gazillion miles away from home, on a completely different continent, I could celebrate the mass just as if I was at home…and for some reason, that was such a comfort. Secondly, this mass was a youth mass and so the energy was incredible…I wish you could have heard the singing led by the teens during the mass. It was almost overwhelming. A friend of mine and I were talking about what incredible faith the people here have. With the amount of suffering these people have seen I would not have been surprised if the Acholi people would have turned their backs on a God who could have been perceived to have turned His back on them. But instead, they cling to Him...it just puts things in perspective for me and my own faith when I throw temper tantrums on God for reasons microscopically smaller than the experiences of the people here. I don’t know…it’s really inspiring. Anyway, when the mass was over, they asked us to stand up and introduce ourselves to everyone…kind of embarrassing…but they were so welcoming and happy to have us there…it was so humbling. Then, during announcements, the priest, who had to rush to even be able to celebrate the mass there (sometimes they can’t get priests to make it out there) informed everyone that 6 men were going to be ordained deacons within the next month, and he was asking the congregations of all the masses he celebrated in the next few weeks if anyone knew of any reason that these men should not be ordained because we shouldn’t have any secrets in the Catholic Church. My jaw dropped, but I actually thought that was a neat practice because it only enhances the respect and credibility of those men who do become ordained which I think helps the church in a global sense. Definitely looking forward to my next mass here!

A trip to Fort Patiko

This past Saturday, we had a day trip with our partner teachers to Fort Patiko, a historical site of slave trade, and a memorial to Sir Samuel Baker who helped free some 300 slaves. It was such a strange place to visit because it was this surreal historical site for both Americans and Africans, but I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the beauty of the place (I swear I stood on pride rock...see picture). The scenery and the rock formations were SO incredible that you could get lost in it, but then you turn the corner and see these caves/holes where prisoners were stored and the axe marks left behind in the stone where the weak, sick or not-sellable men and women were beheaded. It was so odd, and yet such an incredibly beautiful place. After the tour, we had a picnic....food was awesome, conversation was awesome, bugs sucked. :)

The BEST day!!!

The Best Day

When I woke up on Friday, I was really tired. We don’t really sleep much around here due to the ROOSTERS cocka-doodle-freaking-doing, or sheep baa-ing, or a church choir singing…or a symphony of D: all of the above. So I really wasn’t ready to face the day—especially since I had to run around getting ready in the morning and basically shove food down my mouth on the way out the door. I also knew that today was going to be kind of long being as though I had 2 80 min and 1 40 min classes essentially back to back….and I still wasn’t terribly comfortable/confident with teaching here…little did I know that it was going to be my favorite day here so far….nothing spectacular happened, just some ordinary, everyday things that all together added up to an awesome day!

Good thing #1: During our first class today, James David (JD) was responsible for lecturing while I observed…80 minutes later, I thought that our class was over, but it turned out that the teacher who was supposed to teach next—math class I think—had a death in the family and wasn’t going to make it to class. So, JD figured that this would be a good time to catch up on some dictation. Just to remind you what dictation is, it’s basically reading or writing the notes from the text book (cause the kids don’t have them)…word for word…including punctuation. When you read the notes, it’s kinda weird cause you say things like: “The anther comma which holds the pollen grains comma is held up by the filament full stop” It takes a little getting used to…anyway…JD had to go check on his sick kids, so I said that I would do the dictation during that free 80 minute class period. So, JD leaves, and I’m writing on the board…kids are copying the notes about the anatomy and reproduction of the flowering plant, bored out of their minds because they’ve been sitting for the past 2 hours. Sooooooooooo, I took some initiative….I decided to spice this dictation business up….Lauren style! So, I explained to them that the purpose of petals in the reproduction of the flowering plant is to attract honey bees….kinda like dating…which I illustrated to them by prancing around the room trying to woo any honeybee that might be interested in a little poll-i-na-tiON! Then came time for definitions. For this, I wrote the definition of a part of a flower leaving space for the word…I then walked to the back of the room, pulled my chair to the front of the room, stood on the chair…..and shouted the word while shaking my fist! You have never seen wider eyes in your life. These students are used to a very particular, didactic style of learning…which does NOT include having a teacher standing on a chair shouting “STAMEN!” at the top of their lungs. And it certainly doesn’t include them doing the same (these students are so quiet and shy) but that day, they did! So definition after definition, student after student stood up on his/her bench (this has never been done there before), shouted anatomical parts of the flowering plant (certainly never done there before). It was awesome! Then, just to keep it interesting, after every couple of definitions, we took a break…they stood up and we had a little “shake your bootAY” time…they totally loved that…so much so that other teachers had to come and ask us to keep it down! :) But, they had fun learning and that’s all that matters in my book. When I did have to do some actual dictation, I did it Victor Borge style (looke up phonetic punctuation on you tube)…which also got some giggles. CanNOT wait to get back in the classroom!

Good thing #2: After class, I had myself a little trip to town followed by a nice little nap. Around 4 pm, Joanna, Abbie and I headed back to Awere for our first ever hip hop club (which we are going to incorporate poetry, drama, etc…anything to give these students a mode for self expression). So, in walk 3 VERY white girls from America thinking we are going to show a bunch of Ugandans some hip hop (oh yes…there was some fresh prince and whatever else was on our iPods). So we start white-girl dancing….they just stood there….and laughed at us. They are SO shy and no one wanted to get out and dance except the 3 of us…and John McGee, another (VERY tall) teacher from St. Louis. Finally, one of the students got in the middle of the circle and showed us his moves. He was an AMAZING dancer…I felt this was the perfect time for a dance off….so….I challenged him. Basically the way this went down was super-good-dancing-guy would do a series of moves which I would attempt to copy, but basically just ended up flailing my limbs, looking like a complete idiot in front of about 100 secondary students! But, they loved it. The dance off would have continued, but super-good-dancer-guy did this head stand combination that I couldn’t repeat in my skirt. I had to concede!

Good thing #3: So, after the hip hop club, Joanna, Abbie and I headed off to Solina’s house. Solina is Abbie’s teaching partner. As we walked up, this little boy, Solina’s son, started running up to us saying “munu, munu” once he saw Abbie, who he had fallen in love with during her visit the day before. After a while, more kids rushed over and all of a sudden we were teaching them “red light/green light,” “follow the leader,” and “heads, shoulders, knees and toes”….except they don’t speak English, so Solina had to translate everything for us. :) Then they showed us their childhood game “frog frog,” they introduced us to their new 5-day old baby goat, and Solina showed us how to grind millet.

It was a wonderfully ordinary, spectacular day!