Schools, Valentines and Life in general

Hey Everyone! Thanks for checking in. We have now finished our first full week of teaching at our school and have managed to maintain good and health and humour in the process. Originally, a fortnight ago, we were at 4 schools across Kampala; Kings Seguku, Joy, Alpha and Omega and Children’s Corner. However, it soon became clear that our plea to Fields of Life (our Schools organizers) to give us school in the nearby vicinity of our house had been answered overzealously, with 2 of the school having no need for our help. Joy and Alpha & Omega were well off institutions with good facilities and a strong teaching force which, in the case of Joy, were well travelled and educated. Its was agreed that we would see out the rest if the week before re-assigning our people to where they could be most useful, be it in our current schools or new ones.
So, the final groups are:

Childrens Corner:
Charlotte, Ash, Mikey and Phoebs

Kings Seguku
Jim, Nat and Katie
And the new school:

Treasure Kids:
Jc, Ella and Fitzy

Our leaders have been working with the street kids and have been slowly figuring out there roles in the week days. I will leave them to explain it in due course. N.b. Barney will now hence forth be know as Barndog, Bunny (because that’s how all Ugandans pronounce his name) or Honey Bunny. This is non-negotiable.
In an effort to help you understand the routine we are growing into, here the description of the schools we are at by some who are at them.

Children's Corner:CC is quite a poor school, located just next to a slum. It has no running water or electricity but other than that it is a vibrant and friendly school. There are about 270 pupils from age 3 to 13, and 11 teachers. The team have mostly been spread over the lower years, from Year 4 downwards, teaching RE and English. The children are lovely, tho some of them are a bit wild (they have been caught wrapping up human poo in paper and throwing it at each other in class...). Lessons are typically Ugandan - lots of repeating by rote then copying from the board so it's hard to know how much the children are taking in. There's certainly a very mixed ability range.Every Wednesday there is an hour long chapel service led and translated by Teacher Ritah, but the talks we prepare ourselves. We are currently doing a series on Moses. There is also a fellowship meeting for the staff every Monday which sadly we cannot make as we aren't in on Monday. The Christian side of school life is definitely active tho.Praise points:- Teacher Ritah seems like a really godly woman and does so much for the child evangelism programme at the school. She encourages us daily and hopefully vice versa.- we are getting to know individual children better, settling in well and starting up some friendships.- we have found the staff loo (finally) and it is slightly better than the pupil ones which we had been using before. This is honestly a real blessing as before we had almost stopped drinking so we could avoid them!Prayer points:- please pray that we might become close friends with the teachers at the school. We haven't hung out with them much yet but I think there are some real opportunities for friendship and evangelism among them.- for the health of the four of us at Children's Corner. Ash has been feeling a bit sick most days and not eating much, Phoebs was wiped out after the first day, and Charlotte threw up on the way there on Friday. Mikey's good tho, and loving the school food.- and finally that we would get better at teaching, both in chapel and in lessons. We've slightly been thrown in at the deep end so it would be good to find our feet and teach the children effectively.
Thank you so much!
Charlotte

Treasure Kids
· Found in a quiet area to the North of Kampala called Kosoro
· Its an open school with no school gate and the school kids mix in the playground with others not at school
· Nakato Sarah: She’s the headmistress, calls Ella her sister. She is also a Nakato “2nd twin girl”. Showed us her house on the first day and her 8 month twin girls.
· JC has taught a couple of maths lessons and both he and Fitzy have taught PE. It’s very difficult trying to control 50/60 kids outside however!
· Ella is based in the kindergarten in the mornings but comes back to the upper school in the afternoons. She and Fitzy have taught RE to the highest years, P7 and greatly enjoyed it.
· The evangelism has been moved to Tuesday break times so now we can help. Yay! Possibility f a teacher’s bible study group too.
Praise: Kindly teachers, Friendly Atmosphere.
Please Pray: That we might be able to get more involved in evangelism and that we can teach more lessons.
Thanks!
Ella

Kings:
Kings is found out to the east of the city on top of a hill with a seriously impressive view! Nat stays in the nursery most days while Jim and Katie help in the upper school but Katie will be going to and fro. It is hard because the nursery is on the other side of the valley from the upper school.
The school itself was originally crammed into the nursery but is now in a half finished double story building with boarding facilities. It s a walled compound with a kitchen , a dirt volleyball court and a dirt football field on various plateaus above it on the hill side. The nursery is built around the Headmistress’ old house and most of the class rooms are made from woven straw panels and corrugated iron roves, some of which leak in the rain and all over which will drown out a teachers voice should with and precipitation. The toilets in both areas are drop pits. Pretty simple.
Nat has so far spent her time teaching basic English to the younger kids as well as doing bible talks and playing games. She finds it rewarding but at times, very frustrating. Before she got there, they had literally nothing to work with. The teachers are slowly teaching her Lugandan and they get along very well.
Katie was thrown straight into the upper school this week coming from A&O but coped admirably, teaching English to P3 and P4. She is still getting used to the food but is forming good friendships with the welcoming staff.
Jim is teaching p6 and P7 science as well as running volleyball and football at lunchtimes. The curriculum is basically GCSE/A level but it is going well.
Basically, both upper and lower have good teachers but they don’t have enough and the resources are spread thinly. The kids want to learn but need more help then they are getting

Praise: Thanks for a great school with intelligent well behaved kids who will let us teach. Also praise for great teachers in both upper and lower schools. Thanks that we are slowly being able to teach better and better.
Prayer: That we can help al the kids understand properly, since although they are taught well, there aren’t enough teachers and some aren’t great at English. That we can work hard on the evangelism front, that we can get more accustomed to doing it and that we can be ready to give a talk to the whole school in the weeks to come.

So, its been a good start. But there is still much time to go, much to be done and we havn’t even started our street kid ministry. Watch this space.

Otherwise, we enjoyed a fantastic candle lit valentines day with a secret santa present scheme and flowers! It was decided that we should dress up which lead to a dinner of mini pizzas attended by many handsomely dressed young men and gorgeous young women (and a more that averagely well dressed bunny…) Much fun had by all!

So now, we’re basically chilling at the American Recreation Association, enjoying some well earned volleyball and swimming related rest.

I’m fresh out of stuff to say.

God Bless!

Jim

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