Moving On Up

So, I moved from Karuma to Kampala and hit the ground running! I packed all my stuff up and on February 1st Herbart with a truck came to get me. I am renting an apartment that is close to Herbart’s house and about 15 minutes from where I am working. I loved getting settled into a new home and it was even more fun knowing that this will be the home that Herbart and I start our life together in.

The following Monday I went to Kitettika Primary School to get started on teacher training and classroom improvements. I observed baby class (3 and 4 year olds), I want to follow Ugandan curriculum however it is SO HARD not to just scream! The way they do things are just so foreign and at times pointless to me. Baby class goes from 8am until 12:30pm, they have six subjects, English, Math, Health, Social Development, writing and shading. However, there is very little accomplished in a day. This is for many reasons, one being that there are 35+ kids and one teacher. Second, these kids are not used to being in school so they just cry and run out of the room. So, after observing for a week I met with the headmistress and we went through the curriculum for baby class and were able to better plan their day. I wrote a new year long curriculum plan and new schedule for the class. The class now has English, Math and Social Development. We painted the classroom and put new academic posters around the room. We organized the shelves with baskets and even color coordinated the tables with chairs. It took about a month to get everything in order. We also hired an assistant for the class so that the teacher could plan better activities for learning. After about a month in baby class I have moved on to Middle class where I am starting the whole process over. My plan is to spend about a month with each class until I work through the whole school.

Another area that I worked in was to start a library for the school. This proved to be a challenge because there are no Goodwill or Salvation Army to go to buy books. In a country that only 20% of the population finishes elementary school it is hard to find books. I started asking around on Facebook and was able to find a few people selling books and even one lady who donated about 150 books to our school, our library now has 347 books! It was amazing to see how God provided 300 books in two weeks! Seriously amazing! The next hurdle was how to manage the books, with 267 students it was going to be quite the undertaking. First, I was able to find an online book management app, and it was FREE! We scanned all the books into the program and then inserted all of our students. Now they each have a library number so when they come to the library they choose their book and then check it out under their number. I can know who has what book and who doesn’t return a book. Each child gets one book for the week and all books are returned on Friday and then we do it all again the next week. It has been going really great! The kids are so excited to get books and just getting the library set up and getting 267 kids books each week is an accomplishment. However, it has shown me that we really need to focus on phonics and literacy in the lower grades because as a whole we are far below grade level in our reading. Our 5th graders are reading 1st and 2nd grade books.

Which leads us to the last area in the school that I am working to improve. I am partnering with another organization Read for Life, to bring phonics training to our nursery school (3 classes) and then P1-P3 (1st -3rd grade). Read for Life will come for four days and do training and then I will be here to keep everyone on track after they leave. This will help with lower elementary literacy. For our upper elementary we are going to do reading camps to help improve their literacy. I will be pulling them out of class twice a week to do reading tutoring.

Between settling in, planning the wedding and working at the school I have been quite busy, but I figured why not fit one more thing in… we have started a Sunday school program for Rock Ministries Church! We have about 65 kids who are in nursery school through 3rd grade. We are able to adapt the Gospel Project curriculum that was donated from Immanuel Bible Church to fit our needs and the kids are learning Bible verses as well as Bible truth through stories. The plan is that I will teach for three months with two assistants who volunteer then after the three months people will volunteer to teach and I will be the assistant along with another volunteer. Then after three months of that I will step out of the classroom and there will be three volunteers each week in the classroom. I will still plan the lessons and provide the craft and such but they will be working on Sundays.

While leaving RG and coming to Kampala seemed a little overwhelming it has been the best decision. I know that it was the right decision and that continues to be reaffirmed to me every day when I am working with these kids and teachers. God has been so faithful and I know He will continue to be in the coming months.

Prayer Requests:

That the teachers will be receptive to new ideas and will implement them in their classrooms
That Sunday school will bring the little kids to know Jesus and even share Him with their families who may in turn come to church
Personal prayer request: We are beginning all of the visa paperwork for both Herbart and I, pray that all goes smoothly and that we will have favor with the governments.