This is why I am here!

Wow!  I have been holding off blogging about our time with the teachers becasue I have really not had all of the words to say.  Over the course of the week, the teachers would arrive each day dressed in their Sunday best with the notebooks and pens ready to learn.  Each time something new was said that struck a cord with them, you would see their eyes light up and their smiles grow wider.  We spent lots of time working on kinesthetic learning as the auditory and visual are already part of their class environments.  They loved the activities and seemed very ready to be able to use them in their classrooms.  We had each teacher make cards for their classes (alphabet cards for the younger kids, definition cards for science and social studies, and math facts for the math teachers.)  We taught the teachers how to play matching games, memory (their favorite), and other games using their cards.  We also taught them about having the kids who finish their work early being able to have access to the cards to work on while their peers finish.  Another objective of ours is to get books into the classroom.  As a mostly oral culture, reading is not something that is seen as necessary.  We taught read alouds, comprehension with reading, and incorporating reading into a lesson.  One day we read a fiction and non fiction book about rockets.  Then we got to go participate in a lesson about rockets.  Finally we taught the writing process on how to write your own paragraph on what was learned.  WOW!  We also discussed the importance of movement and brain breaks in a lesson as well as learning how to play the game BINGO and the many uses for it.  I feel as though I am learning patience, humility, gratitude, professionalism, commitment, and respect through my new friends at Musana.  One day the headmaster was not able to be in on the trainings.  He sent this message to his staff through the head teacher Muza, "I apologize that I will not be in attendance today.  Please though represent me and this school as well as you can during your time with our visitors today."  Those teachers represent their school so well (and I later learned that most of them are under 25!)

Enjoying some time together after class!

We were learning about having book buckets in your classroom for books that the children can read.  When it rained, we used the book buckets to protect our hair!

Musana's head teacher, Muza!

 

 

 

 

   

Writing a non fiction paragraph about rockets.

Word wall and a graphic organizer for writing!

Introducing the concept of kinesthetic learning!

BRAIN BREAK!!

The many things you can do with note cards!

Alphabet BINGO!

Having fun with the paper that we punched the BINGO tokens out of!

Reviewing our day and setting the stage for the next day!

Musana Women's Projects

 

The Musana craft room is on the Musana property and women work there to make bags, aprons, etc. to sell to people coming to Musana.

The project employs 30 women to make necklaces.  Each woman makes 20 beads an hour.  Once the have a sufficient amont of beads they begin to make the necklaces.  I made 3 beads in an hour all of which they threw away laughing that they were no good!

Juistine wrote a business plan to create a shop for her village.  People can go to her to a variety of different food items or spices.

Alice wrote a business plan for a solar panel.  She uses it to operate power strips.  People in her village pay her to be able to charge their cell phones and other devices.

Florence wrote a business plan to have a brick business.  She now meks bricks that she sells for 100 shillings a piece.  She also loves to pose for pictures!

Not only does Musana help orphaned and neglected children; provide eggs, chicken seed, sweet cakes, and milk to their local area, educate over 400 local kids, and employ only Ugandans to run their operations...they also help women who want to be empowered to provide for their families.  Through the Musana women's projects, women learn a skill and are provided with the resources to be able to write a business plan to purchase the necessary items to profit from their skill.  Once approved, they recieve a micro loan and once that is paid off (with the money going to other local women), they are able to provide for themselves and their families as well as bettering their villages.  These women are amazing and such an imspiration!

I kissed a frog

We found a frog today.  Irene had so much fun chasing and catching it so that when she asked me to kiss it, I did!!

Bodas

Monique, one of our group members, is a yoga instructor.  She taught the Boda drivers yoga at one of the villages!

Food

Everything we have been eating in Uganda is very good!  The local bread is called chipatti and it is a flatbread like Naan.  The local cuisine is mostly vegetarian with lots of rice, potatoes, and curry dishes.  The chidren eat posho and beans everyday for lunch and dinner.Posho is a corn flour cooked with water to make a porridge type dish.  It has the consistency of mashed potatoes and it very similar to grits (Audrey- this is the same as the Mielei Pap we ate in South Africa!)  The locals eat their food with their hands (I tried it and it is harder than it looks!) There is also an abundance of fruit available for eating! A favorite meal for most was something called a Rolex.  It is an omelet (made from Musana eggs) rolled up in Chipatti like a burrito!

Rain

Uganda has 2 seasons....rainy and dry. We are here during the dry season though it seems as though we have brought some rain with us! When school is in session during the rainy season they often have to postpone or cancel class as it is impossible to hear anything as the rain pounds on the metal roof.  We got to experience it during one of our professional development days.  It rained so hard that we had to stop....and play!  The Musana teachers were so confused as to why we wanted to run and play in the rain.  "Why is it that you go outdoors when it is raining.  Do you not believe that rain is a blessing?"  Our reply was that of course it is a blessing and it is also ok to sometimes stop and have a little fun!  Since it rained 3 times while we were there (during the dry season) the teachers said that we were the blessing!  We were even able to get them to run out into the rain with us!!

Farming at Musana

Musana has over 800 chickens that come in 3 types: Ugandan, Kenyan, and Belgian.  We were able to eat eggs from their chickens every morning and they would sell the rest in town.

Paul is the head farmer and does an amazing job.  He is helping Musana on their way to becoming self sustainable by 2015.  NOTHING goes to waste under Paul's watch!

Paul has created his own blend of chicken feed that they use for the chickens at Musana as well as selling it to local villages.

Musana has bought more property to expand the farms.  The cows are now kept off campus.  They also have fields of banana trees, sugar cane, and elephant grass!

We were able to try an herb that was growing at the Musana farm.  In the villages it is used for a "runny tummy"!

Wow.  Musana is well on the way to becoming self sustainable by 2015.  Touring the farm was amazing as you can see how nothing is wasted and the circle of life really does continue on and on in Africa (I should have sang the Lion King while there!!)