Anaka

Where to start? I’ve been at my school for about two weeks now. Anaka is incredibly beautiful. Words nor pictures will do it any justice. We are located at the top of a beautiful valley just outside of the Murchison Falls National Park. It feels like home since I live/work in the Qu’Appelle Valley back home! It is the wet season now so everything is incredibly lush and green. We have a stunning view of the valley from virtually any classroom window at our school.

There are four of us exchange teachers here at Pope Paul VI Secondary School at Anaka (POPAVISSA for short). Ariel, a math teacher from New York, and I are living with a Peace Corps volunteer from Minneapolis named Jacob. He has been teaching math here for over a year. He has been more than hospitable to us, welcoming us into his home. Through many late night conversations about teaching and living in Uganda, Jacob has helped us understand the local Acholi culture and the workings of our school.

I cannot rave enough about how beautiful it is here! We have a front porch that gives us a panoramic view of the valley and the school grounds. We have a breezeway that opens out to a field behind our teacher housing. We live right on the school grounds so we only have a three minute walk each day to the main school compound.

Let me run you through a typical day here at an Ugandan secondary school. **Disclaimer: this is by no means typical to all schools, but generally how the timetable works.** The school day is supposed to start at 7:00am. T.I.A. [This Is Africa] so the school assembly typically starts at around 7:30 instead. The first day I showed up at 7 sharp and I was the only person on the assembly field! The assembly usually consists of announcements and admonishments for misbehaviour or being “stubborn” students. In Uganda, stubborn means badly behaved or uncontrolled, but sometimes it also means being funny in an undisciplined way. The great irony is that the students that really need the disciplining are the not the ones that bother to come to the assembly. The well disciplined students who actually attend assembly receive the scolding that is not meant for them in the first place.

The assembly quite commonly runs overtime so it not unusual for classes to start 20, 30, or 40 minutes late. Great story, yesterday the assembly finished on time so my partner teacher and I headed to our 8:00 class only to find the students were waiting outside for the students on duty to finish sweeping the classroom. Ten minutes later, we started class. Only half the students were there and the room was filled with dust. I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself. In Uganda, we postpone the lesson in order to sweep.

There is definitely a whole different perception of time here. Classes start when they start and end when they end or when the next teacher shows up for the lesson. I am very accustomed to bells, schedules, punctuality, and time management at school. I can’t even imagine coming late to a class back home. I’ve tried to follow the lead of my partner teachers. It has taken me some time to get used to arriving or staying late in class, but while in Uganda...

There are four 40 minute lessons in the early morning (8:00-10:40am), then break time for twenty minutes. Break time is when we are served tea and Acholi donuts, or deliciously fried balls of dough. I really love tea time. I am going to start expecting it at home soon!

Usually break time runs late and it is very common to wait until you are finished your tea time before you start teaching. Teachers come to the students, so the students hang out and “study” while they wait for another lesson to begin. There are four more 40 minute blocks (11:00am-1:40pm), and then an hour break for lunch. We eat posho, a corn flour solid mush, and beans for lunch each day. Sometimes we get goat or a cabbage dish with posho instead of beans. That is a special day :)

Then there are three more 40 minute blocks from 2:40pm-4:40pm. Some classes even run until 5:20pm. Now, this school day sounds very exhausting, especially to North American teachers. It is an exhausting day for the students; they have little time to rest. What I have failed to mention is that the teachers do not teach all day like back home in Canada. Of the fifty-five blocks of possible classes one might teach in a given week, most teachers only teach 24 or 26 blocks. That means that some teachers have days where they have no lessons at all and other days where they are very busy. Or, if they are lucky, lessons spread out to take up half the day.

Now what to do with all of that prep time? Remember, the classes here are very large. Sixty-five to seventy students is the average class at my school in Anaka. In some schools in Gulu the average class size is 150. I no longer have any sympathy for a teacher (including myself) who complains about having 30 students in a class. Somehow seventy students manage to fit in a classroom here and I have not heard teachers grumble much about the number of students.

Teachers spend much of their prep time marking the many assignments, preparing for the next lesson, helping students, or refining their skills at “cards”. I have yet to win at cards. It’s a lot like UNO except with a few other sweet tricks thrown in using 8s and Js. I may come home referring to “clubs” as “flowers” and “spades” as “shovels”. Love it! Just wait until I teach the Abbott’s this card game.

To clear up any misconceptions, the language of instruction in Uganda is English. That being said, the type of English spoken here is what I lovingly like to refer to as “Ugandlish”. I really cannot describe how it sounds, except that it is incredibly unique and I need to videotape a class here.

The many questions I had about, “How will you communicate with the students?” were not unfounded. I am beginning my third week of teaching at Anaka and I am still struggling to speak in a way that the students understand. Other teachers on the exchange, and even Jacob (American Peace Corps teacher), much to his chagrin, have started using an Ugandlish accent while speaking with Ugandans. I don’t want to sound fake or be offensive, but I’ve naturally picked up some words, phrasing, and certain enunciation since I’ve been here. I’m sure I’ll sound funny when I get home if any of the Ugandlish sticks with me.

I’ve learned a lot so far from teaching with my team teachers. I’m sure most of what I’m learning will not be apparent until I’m at home and have a chance to thoroughly process all that I have experienced. I’ve had some incredibly meaningful conversations with Ugandans, Ugandan teachers, and North American teachers. It really is a lot to take in. So, I’ve been journalling as much as possible, at the expense of my blogging, but honestly, who’s reading this anyway?

All this while I’ve been questioning my purpose for being here. I have not come to any conclusions yet, and I am not sure if I ever will. I hope to learn as much as possible and share as much as possible...