Day 2:

Teaching has been great fun so far. I teach science for one hour in the morning and math for one hour in the afternoon. The rest of the time I spend preparing lesson plans, grading, and chatting with the other teachers in the teachers lounge. Sounds like a normal teaching day back home, and in many respects it is, but there are many more differences. For example, there is tentative class schedule for each grade level but I can negotiate my teaching times with another teacher if I so choose. My number of students in P5 jumped from 44 the first day to 71 today; when all 104 students are finally able to attend, the class will be split into two streams. There are about 18-20 books available per subject, and the pockmarked blackboards eat at least a stick of chalk per lesson. I have yet to complete an entire word without breaking a new piece of chalk; luckily blackboards are seldom used these days back home.
Every time I walk into the classroom the kids stand up and shout in unison, “Good morning teacher, thank you for coming to teach us,” and then will not sit until I ask them. When I finish a lesson they shout, “Thank you for teaching us and may god bless you and your family.” Not that I’m craving a blessing, but it’s a far cry from back home where the kids tend to walk into class dejectedly asking, “What are we doing today,” and after the lesson, “Can we go yet?” Being able to attend school in Africa is quite a luxury for most kids and they do not take it for granted. For the most part, they are proud and honored to be part of the education system.
Uganda has a year-round school system with Aug., Jan. and April as their vacation months. They go to school from 830am until 5pm M-Sat., and have much the same curriculum as us. The government schools, however, lack most of the electives that we are used to, such as music, art, woodshop, etc…due to lack of funds. These electives are often replaced with Christian religion classes, as Uganda is a fervent and sometimes quite radical Christian nation (87% Christian, 12% Muslim, 1% traditional); in my opinion, a very unfortunate consequence of missionary arrogance and zeal backed by British guns.
As I have mentioned, the students are incredibly polite, always greeting me with “good morning teacher,” or “good afternoon teacher.” The other teachers are very friendly and appear to be quite dedicated to their jobs. They spend 8-10 hours per day six days a week at the school and make about US $100 per month for their services. Of course this sounds like a pittance, but it more or less matches the current GDP per capita in Uganda making them quite well paid, although, they would hardly agree with that assessment.