Thursday, October 7, 2010

Teaching

I always thought that teaching would be a drag.  But now...who wouldn't love this job?  Just the connection you can make with the students is beyond words.  And every so often I'll see a 'lightbulb' go on in one of my students' heads - that's more rewarding than any paycheck I've ever gotten.   And last week I was teaching my Senior One and Senior Two to diagram sentences because although they are some 15 to 19 years old, they do not know the parts of speech.  It was slow and painful at first and I had to be very patient, but after a few classes of explaining and re-explaining, I wrote a complicated sentence on the board and the entire class followed along, shouting out the parts of speech for each word.  They are learning! 

       On the note of teaching, though - there are so many things to overcome here.  The classes are not inside - they are outside underneath a metal awning, so when it rains the teacher cannot be heard.  And it rains often.  Also when it rains, before long small rivers start to run through the classrooms, growing with the storm.  And since there is so much open sewage, that comes along with the classroom rivers and the smell brings me back to when we used to go camping and we had to use the outhouses. When it's not raining or cloudy then the sun shines beautifully (although VERY brightly...living on the equator is tough on mzungus) but since the classes are under that metal roof...extremely hot.  Since the walls are cement to keep out thieves, no wind can penetrate and so I within a few minutes of teaching in that sunshine, my hair is stuck to the back of my neck and my shirt is plastered to my back with sweat.  And the classes are huge!  My Senior One class has about 70 students in it.  Not only are there language and cultural barriers to overcome, but the Senior One and Senior Two classes are separated by very thin wooden partitions that are not tall, so even when the students are quietly listening to my teaching (and they are not often quiet), then both classes get two lessons at once because those partitions do not provide an efficient sound barrier.  Any time the classes start talking, teaching is impossible. 
       There are no books for the students to all have one, like in America, so everything has to be copied from the board as the teacher writes it, or I have to dictate to the students their notes, stories, etc.  And so many students do not want to pay attention because English is so hard for them.  Sometimes I get so frustrated with it!  But then I stop and look at the students, and I think of all that I have learned about Uganda.  500,000 killed in genocide.  Civil war that lasted decades.  AIDS orphans.  War orphans.  And the stories that some of my darling students have told me.  "I don't know what my tribe is.  I was taken from them when I was very young."  "I live with my uncle.  The rebels killed my parents when they went to the fields to gather harvest."  "A sponser from America pays my school fees.  My parents cannot find work."   And when I think of this, and I look into their beautiful dark eyes, my heart gives itself to them all over again.   Who couldn't love these people?  Who can ever hear their laughter, or watch them play sports, chattering in a half dozen different languages that everyone seems to understand, and not want to spend the rest of their life right here, helping them understand the Love that overcomes war and genocide and disease and hate?  Oh God, help me to show them your Love.

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