This past week has been one of the best weeks and one of the most tiring weeks I have had in a long time. It marked the start of the school year here in Njeru, which is just outside of Jinja. Not only did it mark the first day of school this year, but it also marked the first day that Greater Love Nursery and Primary School would be open to children learning and praising God. It was awesome to be a part of the first day of the school opening. Everything was so new to everyone, the students, teachers and all other supporting staff. With this though came a couple of challenges. A little background, Sarah and I get a ride on the school bus with all the children from the Hoffman home and also some of the children from within the community…meaning we have around 70 people on a 20 passenger bus. Needless to say, we are packed like sardines. The first challenge was that school was supposed to start at 7:30am but the children and I did not arrive to school until 8:40am on the bus. Needless to say we were just a little late…African time right?? The next problem was that the children were supposed to have break from 10:30-11am, but there morning tea was not done until 11am, so break ended up being from 10:30-11:30…whoops. After that we started teaching and about an hour before lunch it just starts to down pour. Now most of the time this would have no affect on teaching, but you literally cannot teach while it is raining because they have tin roofs. It becomes so loud inside that even yelling and shouting to the person next to you will not work. So we had to just sit and wait for the rain to pass so we could continue to teach. Its crazy to think that rain would have such a massive effect on the children's learning. Good thing though is that it only rains for about 30 minutes normally and not every day during the dry season. We got home that first evening around 6pm, and I was exhausted. By day number three teaching I came home and feel asleep at 7pm…I was tired. The typical school day is supposed to be from 7:30-5pm, but we have never left the school sooner than 5:30pm. Can you say one long school day?! Some interesting reasons why it is so long is because they do not have any printers or worksheets, every "worksheet" or "homework sheet" we want the students to do we have to write the problems on the blackboard and then the students have to copy that into the exercise books. To give homework it will take at least 30 minutes for the students to write the problems down, so when you only have a 40 minute teaching period this can be difficult to get any teaching done. This is one reason why school is long and never gets out on time. Even with the "challenges" I have faced with teaching at a new school, I have throughly enjoyed the first week. I love being able to get to know my students and how the school system runs here in Uganda.
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| Morning Prayer during school assembly |
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| Teaching away on the first day of classes |
1. Getting 48 beautiful and unique hugs every morning and evening.
2. Attending my first African wedding.
3. Hearing that one of the children from Another Hope Children's Ministries officially gets to go home TODAY with her adoptive family. Praise the Lord!
4. Sarah playing the guitar while we worship with the children every evening. (For those of you who might not know I am currently with a good friend from the states and we are teaching at the same school)
5. Making a birthday video with the children for one of my good friends. SO MUCH FUN!
6. Making Chapati for dinner with the mommy's on Sunday after church
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| Chapati making! |
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| All 48 children received a new pair of sandals |
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| New sandals! |
With love from Uganda,
Nicole
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