First day of school

June 30^th 9:10pm

 

Today was my first whole day at St. Mary’s, and the morning definitely got off to an interesting start. Last night I fell asleep to one of the movies I downloaded onto my ipod for the trip, the Tin Man. I was expecting it to be pretty bad, especially because the evil witch is Clair from 90210, but I really enjoyed it. Sometime during the night, however, I tried turning my watch light on and I changed the time zone instead. Ashleigh woke me up this morning at 7am when I anted to wake up at 6:15, but at least I didn’t sleep through the start of school. I bolted out of bed and got ready really quick, and Matt and I walked out of the compound to the road to wait for Alice. Just like I thought would happen Alice went to a different entrance than I was at, so I had to make an executive decision to boda over to Saint Mary’s at 8:15 because by that time I was worried about being late. I arrived at Saint Mary’s just as the head mistress/head sister was giving the morning announcement to the school. It was funny because as I pulled up I didn’t see anyone, and I started to worry that something had happened, when I turned around the corner and came face to face with the entire school. I gave a little impromptu speech after Sister asked me to, and kind of smiled when I heard the kids giggling at my accent. It’s pretty weird for me as an elementary teacher, because some of my seniors are as old as 23 because for whatever reason, being a child soldier or what have you, they had to come to school late.

 

It took me about 5 minutes to get comfortable once I was in the classroom, and I realized that showing no fear is the best way to handle high school. I would have fallen asleep if I just sat there and observed so I walked around and checked out the textbooks and what the students were writing. St. Mary’s is fairly small for Gulu, so my biggest class only has about 60 kids, unlike some classes at Gulu SS that have close to 250.  I think the kids were freaked out at first that I was there, and I was a bit of a distraction, but they got used to me. I felt like it was a really long day, even though the periods went by very quickly. On our off time Alice and I marked a lot of papers and planned for Wednesday, and tomorrow on my day off I’m going to go to the internet café to type everything up and get prepared. I don’t have too much to say about the day because I spent most of it watching, but I can say that the Latrine was super scary. Mosquito’s carry malaria here, so when I entered the latrine and saw a whole village of them I was a little scared. It’s a surreal experience to squat down over a hole to pee while swatting violently at bugs, thank god I pee quick! Another cultural difference that I have come across is that teachers don’t go to the bathroom at all during class. At the Craig School, if I had to use the bathroom it was about 20 feet away so a quick trip did no harm. Here, if teachers leave to use the latrine the kids think it is hysterical and laugh at you. Good thing I was informed of that before I tried, or else I would have had a pretty uncomfortable first day.

 

I was very exhausted after school, and a little cranky from being in the heat for so long. When I got back to the compound and heard that Bri and Kyle were heading into town I was all about it. Cold fanta was calling me from the gas station, so Bri and I doubled up on a boda and followed Kyle over to Caltex. We also went to Ma Computers and I was able to send out an e mail or two and update this blog. Tuesdays are my free day, and I’m thinking about making them personal days to unwind and spend some time alone. Tomorrow for example, I’m going to go into town early with Matt, but he has class at 12 so I’ll be able to have some company in the morning and then spend some much-needed time alone.  There are 11 of us staying at Christ the King, with two girls rooms and a guys room and a living area in the middle, so we’re pretty much on top of each other at night. I’m starting to get a little antsy about it, especially because I’m so used to just me and Kristen that some “me” time would be great. It’s hard to go from one roommate to 11, especially when all of us are so different. Don’t get me wrong though, I have met some incredible people that I know I will have lasting friendships with.

 

I had an awesome conversation with Jo yesterday about religion and God, and day-by-day I think I’m learning more about my spirituality. I love helping other people, and trying to see things from the point of view of the person concerned. I think I like to live my life according to some Christian values; I just don’t have any room in my life for the belief in a higher power. I would love to believe in God, but I don’t, and I would love to go to church, but I don’t believe in God, so where does that put me? I feel like since high school, after I realized Catholicism wasn’t for me, I have been looking for my spiritual place in the world, or maybe just a group of people that I could relate to on a level like that. As ironic as it may be, the only outlet I feel like I can relate to in that way is this man I’ve seen on television, Joel Osteen. It’s ironic because he’s an evangelical minister, and I’m pretty much an atheist, but I really respect and take comfort in some of the things he has to say. He obviously believes in God, so it’s not a perfect fit, but I don’t feel like his sermons are God centered, I feel like they are compassion centered. Maybe I can connect to the world spiritually through humanitarian work, and fill the void that way.. but on the other hand that would make my work selfish. I’ve been thinking about that a lot since I’ve been here, humanitarianism at what cost. The Christian organizations that come here do wonderful work, but their primary goal is to be saved, so doesn’t that make them selfish? I’m going through a whole lot of soul searching here as I’m sure you can read, hopefully by the time I’m about to bungee jump into the Nile I’ll have some answers for myself..