426 Students in one classroom!

Can you even believe it! Yes, there were 426 S2 (Sophmore) students in one massive classroom taking thier math midterm. I always heard about big classes in Africa, but at the school I am at, St. Mary's, my largest class is 70 students. Many of the other teachers on the trip are teaching at schools in town, and they have class sizes of a 120 students! Denis teaches part time at Gulu Senior in order to make more money to support his family since the teachers here get paid next to nothing. So today, I caught a boda into town at 7:15 and started teaching with Denis at 7:50. We team taught 2 classes and it was amazing! We had the students creating thier own problems, working in groups, even had group competitions! The students learned 4 rules of exponents today, which usually takes 3 or 4 days in the States! So then we (Denis and I on his bike) took the back roads out to St. Mary's which was a beautiful ride through all sorts of villages. We worked and graded at school for a few hours then we returned to Gulu SS to give a midterm. I had no idea what I was about to see. I noticed there were a lot of tests in Denis' hand as we walked toward this big building. As we walked into the building it was just one massive room, with hundreds of students preparing to take their midterm. I was absolutely speechless! There were 4 teachers monitoring. They handed our the tests and the students began testing. After today, I promised myself I will never complain about class sizes ever again!