Never thought I’d be eating posho and beans and making sanitary napkins for the Fourth of July

The view of sunrise as I run around the path of our crib in the morning... I am so unbelievably lucky

View from the top of our double decker hut

First off, Happy Fourth of July… I didn’t really think about it at all until dinner time when a colleague came back with an American flag bandana on. I hope you’ve all been doing up Summerfest right for me! It’s been a super eventful day, so I’m going to attempt to bullet point this in an effort to minimize the ramblin’ man in me. Attempt. 

Events/Thoughts/Excitements of the Day:

- Waited 20 minutes for a high school student to shower. There are 19 of them staying with us this week, and another 18 coming in a week. They’ve won the trip because of the amazing work they’d done on the previous Frontline Fundraising tour. I love their passion, activism, and drive…  kinda loathe sharing a living space with so many of ‘em! They’re sweet though. Oh, and I’ve got my shower time from room to b-room and back down to four minutes. Be impressed. Be very impressed.

- sat in on and observed another Mathematics lesson; different grade level, same topic (vectors… ugh), a bit different delivery, but basically the same lesson for each grade, every year.  I am NOT a Math person.

- observed Geography lesson for S5; although it was an 80 minute period, Alice definitely had me engaged the entire time. Topic was population distribution (age and sex) and population migration. Did some free writes and a hot seat activity that was interesting. Also, since it was S5 (meaning the 5^th year of  Senior School, and thus not mandatory for students), the class size was MUCH smaller, about 15 students.

- planned and taught a KOBS (Knowledge of Behavior and Self) lesson. This was a curriculum developed by the community and Invisible Children to help students work together, especially to reduce the stigma of children involved in or affected by the war. The lessons are very specific, but you are free to deviate from them as well. Alice and I created a plan for the time we had (40 minutes). This was for an S1 class, meaning there are around 100 students enrolled, and it is not something that they will be tested on, AND it is the last class before lunch, so there were several factors working against us. However, after the period, I felt pretty good about the lesson and was reassured by Alice and Jane (who observed and gave written feedback) that our objectives were (generally) met.

- Third day of posho and beans for lunch.

- Joined in on an activity the Peace Corps volunteer at our school, Amanda (she’s an American that’s been at this school for about 7 months) has been planning with a co-teacher for months: making ‘hand-made’ sanitary napkins with/for female students. GO AHEAD AND SKIP AHEAD IF YOU JUST VOMITED IN YOUR MOUTH; if not, read on because it’s actually super interesting. Why sanitary pads? When girls/women have their periods, because they cannot afford throw away pads or tampons, they often double up underwear (if possible), use toilet paper, an old towel, or cotton balls. As you can imagine, with the slightest movement, the toilet paper, towel, or cotton balls shift and fall out, which is very unsanitary and increases the spread of diseases. So, I guess this was an activity Amanda and another St. Mary’s teacher had been planning for months. They told students that they would actually be constructing it a few weeks ago and reminded them a few times this past week. With some money from Amanda and the school, they got the cost of materials down to 1000 shillings, which is about 50 cents. Nobody had the money. However, there were over 150 girls that came to the meeting and over 50 that signed up for the materials and could begin making it while Amanda was demonstrating. Meanwhile, some of the teachers and I feverishly cut and stitched to get all the materials for the girls wanting to make the pads. The ‘kit’ consisted of some fabric which they would sew into what was essentially a pouch and then sew some wings onto the pouch with a button to attach the wings (two each). They would also get the materials for three Inside layers, which was a cut towel and plastic lining. Kind of genius. 

- I got the chance to talk with a few students one and one through this and made a connection with a Senior 2 and Senior 3 girl. One of them, Janet, decided to give me an Acholi name after we were talking about names and I excitedly said I wanted one. She decided my name would be Atim, which means ‘born in another land’. She gave the example of a mother that was from Gulu town, but traveled to Congo for whatever reason and had her child there. That child would be name Atim if it’s a girl, Otim if it’s a boy. Interesting, no? Anyway, I think the next step is to get it 'approved' by my teachers and staff.

- Made an answer key for S1 exams with Alice and got a stack of one class (that’s 100 tests). Sweet Lord. If I was staying at school in G-town till 6 or 7 regularly before to plan and grade, I can only imagine what teachers at St. Mary’s are doing!

- It hasn’t rained in a few days here and the result is some ridiculously dusty roads.

Me and my oompa loompaed face and windblown hair (I've learned to wear sun glasses whether it's sunny or not and a rain coat whether it's raining or not)... impossible to get off of most clothes and scalp. Good times.

- Grace and Grace are our fabulous housekeepers and make some absolutely stellar meals. I couldn’t have been happier to come home to stewed beans and veggies, rice, sweet potatoes, boo, a cilantro, tomato and cucumber salad, and fresh mango. Mmmm, mmmm, good. Even at 5:00 pm… still making that adjustment.

- Post dinner, we were hanging out, I was creating lesson materials, eating seconds, thirds, fourths,  and all of a sudden turned the corner to see JEDIDIAH JENKINS!!! He was one of the MC’s along with Jason Russell at the Fourth Estate (an Invisible Children “conference” last summer in San Diego I attended). To put it concisely, I LOVE HIM!!! He told me a little bit about IC’s newest documentary coming out in the Fall. Me = SUPER PUMPED!

Me, Jed, Rachel, choreographer whom I've forgotten the name of, already, Jane, and Lauren