PICTURES!

Here are some random pictures from the trip...

At the top we are riding in the back of a truck. That is our usual transportation when we travel in a group. If I am by myself I usually take a boda to go to town. A boda is like a motorcycle but a little bit smaller, and I hang on for dear life when I jump on one of those! The roads here are awful!

The next picture is of me dancing with the kids, we had another dance party last night for our director, Amy's birthday. We have had 6 dance party's in the last 7 nights!

We went to a house in Kampala that is called the Bavubuka house and it is an outreach program for kids around Kampala to come and work on different fine art projects, such as signing, rapping, dancing, art, creating and making clothes, etc. It is such a great thing they are doing there! The goal of the house is to get kids off the streets and help them find a purpose in life and teach them how to give back to thier community.

The last picture is of our group and the members of the Bavubuka house. All these people are passionate about helping the children of Uganda find purpose for thier lives! Love it!

St Jude's

On Sunday we all went to this orphanage called St. Jude's where we saw 90 children ranging from new born baby's to 16 years old, most of them wearing rags...none of the baby's or younger children were wearing any type of diapers. All those places you see and hear about on TV...well there it was, so real, staring me in the face. When we arrived we were greeted by many of the children with a hand shake and them bowing to us. We played with the children for hours. After we were there for a while we sat down and the children sang and danced for us. 10 of the children were HIV positive, many of the children were there because their parents had died in the war. My heart just hurt for these children. What struck me at the core was that these kids were 'performing' for us! What had we done to deserve them to perform for us? These children that seemed to have nothing in my eyes, had everything in their own eyes, a safe place to sleep, food, water, and even a soccer ball to play with!

I have been in the classroom observing for 2 days now and it's been great! I've already been up at the board teaching and walking around, checking the students note books for understanding. Denis is a really good teacher and knows his stuff but yet after every class he asks, 'So what do you think? How was it?'. I feel so blessed to have been paired with a teacher who wants my advice and respects me as a woman math teacher. There are not very many women math or science teachers in Uganda and the men sometimes treat the women poorly. We teach each level of Secondary School, S1, s2, s3, and s4. Our class sizes range from 40 to 80. The students are incredibly well behaved! I shall right a whole other blog on that later! When speaking in English, the people here have a British accent, so I have acquired a little bit of the accent, if you do not speak in the accent they can not understand you. It has slowed down my speech, which if you know me I tend to talk very fast, so it is a good thing that I am learning how to speak slower, especially for in the class room.

I want to thank all of you for actually reading this blog, in the beginning I did not think anyone would actually read it! So I will be sure to continue posting frequently! You are all so special to me! I am grateful to have such a supportive group of friends and family!

Casey

A night to Remember!

Tonight was Incredible! One of the best nights of my life for sure! I have just gotten back from an Acholi (the Gulu tribe in Gulu) party where 2,000 people were there at noon and when we showed up at 6 there was still close to a 1,000 people! When we walked in we were a ‘parade of Muzungus’, which means a parade of white people. I was a little hesitant because we are usually told to travel in small groups so we do not attract a lot of attention to ourselves, but as soon as we walked up to the party we were instantly welcomed! The party was outside surrounded by huts and tents. We danced with everyone from the children to the elders! We danced for hours, by the time we were done we were covered in sweat and red dirt from head to toe! It was a surreal experience that I never thought I would have in my life time. When we thought it was over, we were invited into one of the huts for dinner. There were 11 of us and that is a lot to fit in a hut but we did, and we shared in a rice and beans dinner eaten with our fingers! With all of us sitting on the floor in a big circle, Indian style, I was humbled. I had never been so happy to eat rice and beans!

Earlier today I went to St. Marys Lacor (the school I will be teaching at) with the other 2 teachers who will also be teaching there, Allison from New Jersey and Matt from Fresno. It was a 15 minute boda ride from where we are staying which is kind of far. The rode we travel on to get there is the rode that goes into Sudan. We are only 40 miles from Sudan. We met with our partner teachers at the school. My partner teacher’s name is Munu Denis. The people here have an Acholi name and then a Christian name. He wants me to call him Denis. He is 26 and he is a proud husband and father of 2 little girls. He is eager to learn and passionate about teaching and becoming a better teacher.

Let me give you a little insight on exactly why I am here because now I know. I am here in Gulu to help build a relationship with Denis and share with him different and new methods of teaching that will help him to become a more effective math teacher. I am going to be honest with you, sometimes I do not feel adequate to be teaching another teacher new techniques being that I am so young, but I feel like I have had amazing professors and have been surrounded by wonderful mentor teachers at Cactus that have prepared me for doing this very thing. I hope that I will be able to partner with Denis and share ideas with him so that he can have an effect on his Ugandan students for many years to come, when I am long gone from Gulu. The Invisible Children organization has decided to focus on Secondary Education (High School) in Gulu because primary (elementary) school is funded by the Ugandan Government but Secondary is not so students have to PAY if they want to continue on to Secondary School! Could you imagine if students had to pay to go to high school in the U.S.?! Considering that 85% of the population in Gulu is fed from the World Food Program because they cannot afford to buy their own food, many families do not have enough money to send their children to secondary school. Many families choose one child to put their hope in and raise money to go to school and become successful. IC believes that through higher education, these students will be able to go to college, start small businesses, and create change through building the economy, and acquiring knowledge to think for themselves. I feel like I have learned so much already even though I have not even been in a classroom yet, I will be on Monday!

Greetings from GULU!

I have finally made it to the city Gulu in Northern Uganda! We left from JFK on Saturday and arrived in Kampala on Monday! We had a layover in Dubai so we went to a mall near by and the mall had an indoor ski slope! People were skiing and snowboarding! It was incredible! Dubai reminded me of Las Vegas and New York in one. There was also a TON of construction still going on! They frequently called it the Utopia City. Although it was pleasing to the eye, it seemed empty. The people there had lost their culture and had become money hungry. It looked like they were competing for who could build the tallest building, have the nicest car, own the most beautiful house. Might sound familiar.

We finally landed in Uganda after flying over Lake Victoria which was absolutly beautiful! The drive from the airport was eye opening. Along the road we saw many people walking in the streets, children as young as 4 or 5 working in the small stores. When I say small stores I mean little shacks. The severe poverty was overwhelming. Trash was everywhere, and I was told they sweep it into a gutter and burn it, that is how they through out their trash. Then when I looked out into the hills I saw big, nice houses. The distance between the poor and the wealthy was obvious. We stayed at a hostel for 2 nights and I woke up to monkeys talking in the trees. Don't get to do that everyday.

After a 6 hour bus ride and almost running over a child on a bike, scary moment, we made it to Gulu yesterday! The town is wonderful! Some teachers are staying at the Invisible children volunteer house and there are 10 of us who are staying at a Catholic Schoolcalled Christ the King. When we got to Christ the King, the head Principal/Nun of the school had beautiful flower petals layed out in the shape of a heart to welcome us! We all had a flower on each of our beds! They were so hospitable, it blew me away! The peopel in Gulu seem very welcoming to us. I will be meeting my partner teacher tomorrow, and I really looking forward to that!

I hope this message finds you all well and enjoying summer in the US! The students do not have summers here!

So Blessed...with a whole new meaning!
Casey

Getting ready to go

I have just gotten back from sailing to Catalina with my family and it was a wonderful trip! I now have a day to pack for Africa then I am off to Minnesota for the week visiting A LOT of family! My family and I are driving! Yes, I said driving...to Minnesota! We will be making a stop at the college worldseries...then upto to Fulda, Minnesota...a town with the population of about the number of students at Cactus High School :) I will be able to see all my family before I leave for Uganda...on Saturday...a week from today!