A typical day in Pabo

July 19th

Waking up on a Ugandan foam mattress, it takes me a second to realize that I am not in America, as my vivid dream leads me to believe. As I remember I am under a mosquito net, I hear the sound of a goat bleeting just behind my room. Actually I then recall hearing the sound of the disco (dance club) playing music all night. Luckily I have always been a deep sleeper, so even though it made me toss and turn at certain times, I slept through most of the night.
I begin to think that I should get out of bed, and start to get ready for school. I hear Danielle and Matt outside their rooms going to and from the latrine. Gotta love the call of nature. I finally make myself craw (literally) out of my bed net, trying to keep it tucked in as much as possible so I don’t have to fix it later.
Outside I greet Matt and Danielle, go about my morning business. First, I always set up our kerosene stove so we can make oatmeal for breakfast. I then start my routine of brushing my teeth, visiting the latrine, putting on my not-so-clean-but-not-so-dirty skirt and shirt, and eating oatmeal (of course accompanied by my malaria meds).
Making sure to take my school bag with bug spray, bottled water, and toilet paper inside, I then head out on my bike towards school. Danielle, Matt, and I typically ride together the 20ish minute ride to school each day. It’s really great to be out and riding a bike everymorning, only we become something of a Munu Parade, or so we call it. As we ride south, it seems like every kid who lives near the road hears other kids who live farther north calling out, “Munu! How are you?” or the alternative, “Munu byeeeeeee.”
Eventually the Munu Parade reaches school, and I no longer feel like such an outsider. Here the students are use to us, and even show us the same respect they would to any other teacher. I pass the morning assembly, where students gather and hear announcements, raise the flag, and gather for the start of each school day.
I then meet my teacher Odongo Vasco Bath, in the teacher room. Some days I beat him to school, but on this particular day, he has come earlier to class and is even marking papers before our first 8:30 class. We have three 80 minute (that’s not a typo) classes in a row today, which is the most I ever teach in one day. I actually kinda like Thursdays for that reason because they go quickly and then I am done by lunchtime.
Lunch includes some posho and beans. Its always hard for me to explain exactly what posho is like. It’s a type of cornmeal made into a thick mush, except its thicker than grits, but that’s that best analogy I’ve been able to come up with. The worst part about lunch is the food, and I often find solace in a Cliff bar (crunchy peanut butter is my fav.) but the best part of lunch is the country music hour. While sitting in the teacher room, Dolly (one of my favorite Pabo SS teachers) changes the station and we listen to MEGA FM and their daily country lunch hour. There’s just something reassuring about hearing Tim McGraw and Faith Hill sing a familiar love song while you eat posho and beans in the middle of Africa.
Although I am here to teach, and help the Ugandan teachers to think more deeply about their own teaching practices, I don’t know if most of you want to hear the details of an 80 minute physics class, so I am going to spare you the details. This year we’ve been focusing on using different teaching methods, and I am sure that there are many new things that I can use in my classroom at Upper Merion as well. One interesting thing about school is that the teachers love to play scrabble. They play scrabble at times when they are not teaching a class. It is even amazing that the Headmaster can walk into the room and the teachers just keep playing scrabble.
So after a few hours of sitting around, playing scrabble, and planning for the next day, the school day comes to an end. Typically the Munu Parade takes back off for the White House. Really the White House is the only building in Pabo which is made of white tiles; thus White House. When back at home we are greeted by Robert. He is in charge of the White House and probably one of our closest friends. We just found out the other day that Robert lives in Kampala, and really only came and stayed in Pabo because we are staying at his father’s hotel. I am amazed that he would come all the way to Pabo for over a month just because we are staying there. Even though I can’t believe that he’s living in Pabo, I am really glad that he’s there. Robert has become a good friend.
Once inside the place, there’s a little inner courtyard where we hang out, eat dinner, play cards, and wash our hair (only on Wednesdays though). No matter how good the day has been the best part is coming home and seeing Jovanna’s beautiful face. Jovanna is the 9month old of Harriet, our cook. They are both inspiring people. Plus, Jovanna is so cute. She has been scared of us (since we’re white) for the first two weeks, but today she allows me to hold her and dance around.
After we ate an amazing meal, we ended up playing a couple different cards games. We didn’t even realize the time, and after about 6 games, 10pm snuck up on us. With the full moon making the night so bright, we didn’t even realize what time it was.
So I brush my teeth, lock my room, climb into bed and tuck in my mosquito net. The day ends about the same way it began with a random goat bleeting somewhere behind my room. Slowly, I fade off to sleep.