Falling In Love With Mkono

I have been in Mkono a week and I absolutely love it here! Mkono is a super rural village that is about an hour outside of Kampala (the capital of Uganda). I live in a simple home with our two coordinators (Sara and Emmet), our security guard (Michael) and his two sons (Moses and Steven). We then have three people who commute to the house (Sara, Ben, and Silvia). The house that Princesse and I live at is actually a Food for the Hungry office (Food for the Hungry in a International NGO working throughout the world trying to end hunger). So it is not unusual to have many visitors coming in and out of the house. I have become especially close to Sara our cook and the two young boys, Moses and Steven. Moses and Steven call me Auntie Dan (short for my middle name Danielle) and constantly want to play.

A typical day for me here in Mkono consists of waking up at 7 am for my personal devotions. I always sit on the backside of the house where I can watch the morning begin and hear the village waking up. When I finish devotions I always have several cups of tea and eggs for breakfast. At 8:30 we have house devotions and worship and then we head to school. I teach math for P6 and P7 (which in American education would be middle school age). I work with the older students because they can understand my English. During our free time (break/recess) we play games like football, tag, etc. The students here also love to sing and dance. So we are constantly getting the drums and dancing all over the school grounds. After break I work with the P1 students and they are absolutely precious. They know little English so class usually consists of me saying a word in English and them saying it in Luganda (the local language). This way I am learning and so are they.

Learning yet another African language has been very difficult but I am slowly picking it up (the language barrier is not as bad though as it is in Rwanda). Another frustrating issue I have seen at the school is the lack of materials. The students have class in mud wall classrooms, where they have a blackboard and a desk. I have found it very hard at times teaching only with a blackboard. In American classrooms there is an ample supply of crafts, tiles, markers, paper, teaching material, blocks, etc. And here there is only a blackboard and chalk. Another frustrating issue is that the students are taught to be silent and just write whatever is on the blackboard. This is not how I teach. I like interaction from the students so I can figure out where they need help. If I say, “class do you understand” they will reply, “yes, Madame”… Even when they truly do not understand. I have been working all of this week in trying to have the students open up and ask questions and to communicate how they are doing in their mathematics. It has been extremely frustrating process… I finally had success Friday though! I had one boy (James) say he would like another example of probability because he did not understand how to do it AND I had a girl (Ashida) ask me to repeat the question because she didn’t understand my English. Minor things I know, but it was such a big step for my students! It was such an amazing feeling to know that they are slowly understanding that education is more than just writing down the right answer. Another issue I have had to deal with is cheating. The schools are understaffed and often not even having qualified teachers. Often the teachers ignore the students cheating and it has caused a very bad habit in the classroom. Students once they have their homework graded will pass it around the class to fellow students who have not completed the work. Or when I call on a student his/her classmates will whisper the answer in Luganda. I would literally catch a student cheating every 5 minutes. I tried explaining that cheating was wrong and that if they wanted to continue to Secondary school cheating will not get them there.  Still the cheating continued. Then I tried embarrassing them (which Africans hate) and would publicly call them out for cheating and having them come to the front of the classroom and help assist me. Again the cheating continues. What worked best was time though. Friday I saw the most improvement! Students were no longer passing their answer books around and when I called on a student the classroom was silent. This was exactly what I was asking of my students—to think for themselves!

Working with these students during the past week has been the most amazing experience possible. Though it has been trying and I come home everyday at 5 pm and I am so exhausted I think I am going to collapse… I wouldn’t change it for anything. It has been so wonderful to see the student’s progression and how they are improving. I work with the head math teacher, Joshua, and he is letting me teach the class 100%. It has been wonderful working with him because he is one of the few teachers who are open to new teaching styles and he loves his students. I think the biggest challenge for schools will be having teachers who are willing to change their teaching patterns, yet Joshua is open to change and that is why the students are doing so well. I feel such pride and love for these students. I know about 95% of them by name and they have finally stopped calling me muzungo (Luganda for white person) and also started calling me by name. I am in love with this place. I love teaching the students and I love playing with them. I have never had so much fun in my life dancing with a bunch of children or singing worship songs. Being able to go to the schools has been the most amazing experience and I am learning so much from these students. I am learning the simplicity of life. I am learning new teaching techniques and I am falling in love with the people here.

Around 5 pm I head back to the FH house (Food for the Hungry) and I usually sit and just re-energize with a cup of tea. Moses, Steven, Princesse and I then go for a run. Running here is so much harder than running in America. First of all there is a ton of dust and we are also a lot higher in elevation. We run down beaten paths and there is always a group of Africans always staring at us (running in Africa is very unusual). Moses and Steven are very protective of us (though they are only 12 and 14). They always have one boy in front and one boy in back while running. When we get back to the house they are always reminding us to drink water and eat dinner so we do not get sick. They are two of the sweetest boys I have ever met and I have become very close with them.

After running we take our bucket showers and then eat dinner. Dinner is very bland here but I am getting used to it. We usually eat rice, matoke (fried banana), cabbage, and goat (which I LOVE). We then have the rest of the night to play with Moses and Steven, do homework with them and then read from the Bible.

Life here is very busy but I love it! I cannot believe that it has already been a week (we have 3.5 weeks here) and I am already dreading having to leave. God has been teaching and showing me so much while I have been here and Mkono has been a true blessing to me. Internet and electricity is always on and off here so I will try to post a blog within the next two weeks. I will post pictures once I return to Rwanda… Overall Mkono has been the best thing that Africa could of shown me and I am definitely in love with the people here!