7.28.2010

Katale: Wednesday July28





Wednesday….this week is moving very fast. We were at the school today by 9am. Our week is so much about building relationships. It means so much for us to just be with the teachers, the students and the school. We heard today that the kids are going home and telling great stories about the white people who are at their school this week. The kids have not wanted to leave the school. Just our presence alone is making an impact on the community.

Today Carrie and I took time to be in the classroom. We did some teaching today. I just did a simple lesson about my family. Carrie, who is the “real” teacher, created some wonderful posters and told the kids all about American culture. She shared about simple American foods, transport and insects. Several times students commented, “You have that there too?” It has been so cool for the kids to realize that in a far of land, America, that we have some of the same things! Something is happening this week. As I’ve been sitting in the classroom it is helping me to see the kids as students rather than as kids who live in poverty. These kids are just like the kids in the USA! And with opportunity to learn, like they are receiving currently, they could do very well. Also the kids are seeing that we white people are not all that different from them too.

I keep on telling the members of our team, “I can not imagine living here.” I must say that Kampala is one of the dirtiest places I’ve visited. There are very rugged roads. Even the paved roads have huge potholes. Ok, so when I complain about the roads in Nampa, and how they are horrible for cycling, I need to remind myself (or be reminded) of Kampala! It just makes me wonder how a city that seems to have such great resources can be so poorly taken care of!!

While Carrie and I were working in the classrooms the guys, Grant and Trevor, were putting individual students out of classes to assess them. Grant works with kids who have dissabilities in the USA. He is going to help Pastor Wilson and the teachers know how to help those in the school who are a little slower at learning.

Together we are learning something about how the culture here deals with the slow or disabled. We’ve heard stories of kids getting beat because they are not learning fast enough. Some of the kids at the school have been kicked out of other schools because of their learning ability. It is pretty cool that Trevor is here and able to help encourage and educate the teachers on some simple things they can do to help these students. What an encouragement Wilson can be to the parents and community to say that “at this school we will love your kids and make a place for them”. Wilson is already doing that and this will only help him more.

At break time one of the teachers brought a piece of paper from her studies. I think it was from the studies she has done in the past. She had a class on religious education. So she was “testing” me on my knowledge of the Bible. I found myself able to answer many things to her approval but not everything. It was fun for both of us. “Tell me the significance of the prologue of John’s gospel.” “Tell me why the Passover is significant in the New Testament.” “What is discipleship in Mark’s gospel.” Wow. I admit I never expected to be having this kind of conversation in Katale, Uganda. I loved it.

After lunch Carrie and I helped one of the teachers with her grading. It is the same teacher that “quizzed” me about the Bible at break time. We finished pretty quickly and then just had the chance to hear her story. For 8 years she worked as a maid. Actually the way she described her experiences she was a slave. She was able to further her education because of the perseverance she had and the work she did. Carrie and I listened with amazement. How could one treat another human being as “nothing”? Also how could one take it for 8 years? In this conversation I also got a better idea of how much it costs to go to school. Wow, it isn’t that much compared to western standards. But for here I can see that most will never be able to afford it. I felt so encouraged today by the teachers story and how she relied for 8 years on God. She didn’t persevere because she had it in her alone. She gave witness to how God helped her.

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