Hunter and the Boston Marathon – Go Hunter Go

One of our teachers, Hunter Kelly has qualified for the Boston Marathon which is being run tomorrow (Monday 17^th) so she had to leave Kamengo on Friday 14th. Before coming to Kamengo Hunter was generously sponsored by Nuun who provide electrolyte drinks for athletes. The electrolyte powders have been well received by all of us here as we consume huge amounts of water in the heat and Hunter especially has to ensure that she maintains her physical fitness in spite of the heat, for the upcoming Marathon. ON the right we see Hunter with young Herman, himself an awesome young runner even in plastic sandals. Below he is running with Hunter and Kate Spellan a Canadian nurse who is a real friend of Kamengo and returns each year.

Hunter has had no end of young ones who want to accompany her on her runs to and from St. Anne’s Primary School. On Thursday, the teachers finished their work with grades 4 and 6 at 1pm – this is when the infant classes (kindergarten) finish for the day so on her run back to the centre she had a group of very keen little runners encouraging her on.

After a run Hunter and Kate and Herman try to stretch but are often over-run by kids wanting to copy them.

Hunter heads off for a run each morning from the guesthouse, nothing like the training she had been doing leading up to this time but still she is able to continue with her preparation. Given that she is running in muggy heat (even at 7.30am) and at altitude (1500m) compared with Ottawa Hunter is confident that these relatively short runs should keep her on track for Monday. On her last morning she opted for some limbering up exercises on the grass outside the guesthouse at the top of the hill. Perfect morning for stretching.

The day before Hunter had to leave she and I visited Harriett and her collective of women who weave baskets and mats for us to bring back to Canada for fundraising activities for school fees. Hunter managed to finish off her own small hot plate mat under the careful tuition of Brenda.

Unfortunately, Hunter had to go through a 16-hour flight from Addis Ababa to Toronto on Friday when she left so hopefully she managed some sleep.  Before leaving she managed a refreshing swim for an hour in an Entebbe Hotel pool which was super necessary after a hot and sticky drive.

We have had an email to let us know she arrived safely in Boston so now we are sending all the best wishes from afar for a great day on Monday in The Boston!  Go Hunter Go!.

GO HUNTER GO

Teaching at St. Anne’s Ggoli Primary School

The teachers (Erin, Merey, Alicia and Hunter) are working just with two classes in the school (Grades 4 and 5). They are co-teaching which is working well as the Grade 5 class has 89 children in it and the Grade 4 around 60.  My hope is that next year more teacher candidates will want to join the project and we can cover more classes in the school over our 3-week practicum. Rather than a lot of text - today I am hoping the photos tell our story

Merey getting to know some of the more senior students at St. Anne's.

Sister Betty the principal and her teachers are very welcoming of the teachers and are most appreciative of whatever resources we can provide. Out of our project funds we managed to purchase one copy of the Uganda textbooks for Science, Math, Social Studies and English for each year level (Primary 1 – 7; 28 books) plus some children’s atlases and dictionaries. These cost UGX578,000 which is approximately $120CAD.  Schools typically have just one or two copies of the set texts that are protectively guarded by the teacher of that year level. This is the same for high school where students do not have access to textbooks but rather spend time copying notes that the teacher has made on the board from the one textbook. The AZBGC has a small library where we have tried to ensure there are copies of all high school text books so the older children have a resource to study from in evenings.

We also had the opportunity last week to visit our students at Muto Primary School. We have five students there this year and we always love to visit and take along the Mum of two of our boys - Jimmy and Everist.  We can always count on an extra special smile from Jimmy when we take his Mum to visit.

After School Activities

It never ceases to amaze me the different activities the four teachers have planned. All the planning and resources were developed when the girls were still in Ottawa yet they clearly have a very good sense of what might engage young children in learning. All activities are hands-on and the children revel in creating and learning.

 

Hunter, Alicia and Merey developed a lesson on shapes for the younger children. This entailed cutting head and arm-holes in black garbage bags and then drawing and cutting out shapes that were stuck on the children’s new “black plastic gowns”. This was a riot of activity and for some unknown reason, the children then swarmed outside into the village to show off their new outfits. They were all hooting and laughing uncontrollably so I am still not sure what triggered such energy but they were very proud of their new custom-made outfits.

Erin worked with the slightly older children on geography. She had constructed small booklets with tasks about the world, hemispheres, compass points etc. The children were totally into ensuring their booklets were perfectly completed and coloured in. We have hung world maps, brought small globes and also have a giant world puzzle that the children love completing, breaking up and completing again numerous times in an hour.

We have hung the children’s colouring in on the walls of the center and I wonder, in watching the children’s reactions, if this is the first time they have seen their work displayed.  The schools have very few resources so a primary school like St. Annes’ where the girls are teaching does not appear to have any spare paper or chart paper for children to be creative. Most children have a small notebook and a pencil but some appear to have nothing. The teachers took additional supplies to every teacher in the school this week which will go a small way to helping the teachers and children and is very much appreciated.