T.I.A. (This Is Africa)

            There are moments when Caitlin and I just look at each other and say “T.I.A.—this is Africa,” for example when a matatu narrowly misses a monkey running across the road, or when we see a tractor trailer filled to the brim with bicycles, matooke and people, or live chickens squawking and strapped to the back of a car. I’ve been at my site for over a month now, and school has been in session for three weeks. Three weeks of what would be considered utter chaos in the States but here, it goes with the territory. In the third week we are still waiting for the Ministry to send one last teacher, there’s (still) no official timetable and the final numbers are still rising as more students arrive. I’m also realizing just how prevalent caning still is in the schools. It’s a tough pill to swallow when you see a teacher hitting a pupil across the behind with a stick. Yesterday it was because the P7 students didn’t perform well on their first practice exam, today it was because some pupils didn’t wash their shirts (Wednesday is washing day) and were punished for looking unkempt. What will it be tomorrow? God only knows. Speaking of God, my supervisor believes I don’t have one, since I don’t go to church. He thinks I’m a godless Northerner, I keep telling him that God is in my heart and I prefer to pray at home. If there are two things I hate being shoved down my throat, it’s matooke and religion.

How do you change behavior, in students, in teachers? Where do you start to change behavior, methods and beliefs? Even the headmaster thinks caning is effective, despite the fact that officially it’s banned here in Uganda. I asked him yesterday why every P7 pupil was receiving blows to the behind, and he responded that they performed poorly on their first practice Primary Leaving Examinations (an exam at the end of the year to graduate primary school) and this would teach them to perform better. Mind you, this was the first exam of the year and it was practice.  Outrage doesn’t begin to cover it.

The trouble with being an American is that my first instinct in a new job is to hit the ground running, jump right in and start projects, bring in new ideas. That’s exactly what I did at least my job in Sydney—I was working an hour after landing at Sydney Airport! The hardest part of my job right now is to slow down and adapt to the pace at which life here moves. So there’s no class timetable yet? TIA. So the students are caned for poor academic performance and tardiness? TIA. So there’s a goat in the classroom? T.I. to the A. But where’s the point where you think something is morally wrong and you want to change it, rather than accept that it’s how things are done? As we say in the local language Rukiga, mpola mpola – slowly, slowly. I’m here for two years, so of course the first couple weeks will be slow. And frustration is normal, although I find myself exhausted by lunchtime and already ready for a fresh new day. There are some projects I’m excited about getting off the ground: reading to my students my Malaria Prevention Big Book I created, doing a reproductive health class, girls club at the school, and possibly starting a theatre troupe to perform plays on social issues. There’s also a Girls’ Softball League in the North I would love to re-create here. But again, all at the right pace, which is mpola mpola.