First Week of July

We are now back from our first week of life at the Internally Displaced Camp (IDP) called Pabo. There are just three of us staying at Pabo; Danielle, Matt, and I. We are living at a sort of Hotel (read room that locks with a bed, mosquito net, washpan, and jerry can) called The White House. I think that the people at Pabo love that the American President lives at a place called The White House also. And it is pretty nice, for IDP camp life. But there is no running water/plumbing and electricity throughout all of Pabo.
We left the Volunteer house in Gulu around 10ish on Monday morning, and rode up in an Invisible Children Vehicle out to the camp. When we got there we met some of our friends out in Pabo.
Robert- He is the man who runs the white house. He is probably in his late 20’s, because he is still single and he lives in one of the rooms at The White House. He has probably been the most helpful person so far. The first day he helped us by getting a lot of necessary things such as our nets, fixing our bikes, and making sure our latrine had a lock.
Harriet and Jovanna- Harriet is an Acholi woman who cooks for us. She is younger also, only 23 years old. She was actually a recipient of the Visible Child Scholarship Program at Gulu Central School, and she even went through S5 & S6 which is really unusual for girls. She is really nice, and we’ve had some great conversations. She has a little 9 month old daughter named Jovanna. She is definitely the most beautiful little girl in all of northern Uganda…or at least in Pabo. The only problem is that she is afraid of us because we are white. Maybe in a few weeks she will not fear us. (Ugandans do not use the phrases scared of, don’t like, and instead they use the word fear…it’s actually pretty classic.)
Walter Knox- Walter is the headmaster of Pabo SS, and he lives right across the street from us. He is a really great headmaster who has a good vision for the students and teachers at the school. There are maybe 160 students in Secondary 1, 140 in Secondary 2, and then the numbers of course continue to drop.

Besides just doing the Teacher Exchange this year, I have also opted to take two classes from NYU, to receive 6 college credits. One of my classes is an independent class and I have to create and run some sort of program. After being at Pabo for one or two days I realized that there really were no activities for the small number of girls that are at Pabo SS. After talking to Danielle a little bit and the headmaster, I am going to hold tutoring for the girls after school on Tuesdays and sports for the girls on Thursday. It will only be for three weeks, but I think I will help to lead some volleyball, frisbee and soccer. Teaching soccer/football will be interesting as the girls team at Pabo made it to a sort of national tournament, but did not have the fees in order to go. I’m thinking that I’ll just play with them rather than try to teach them, b/c really they will know how to play better than I will. But I am going to teach them how to play Frisbee, and I think I’m going to leave my Eastern University Frisbee at the school for them to have.
Lastly, I’ve just realized that maybe it would be good to give some background on both Danielle and Matt, whom I’ve been spending most of my time with.
Danielle is a 3rd year math teacher living in South Carolina. This is her second year back to Gulu, so it’s been fun sharing the camp experience with someone who I already know. She teaches 7th grade, and is pretty active at her church, so we have a lot in common which is nice.
Matt is a 4th year English teacher, who has taught in both extremely rural Alaska (think Into the Wild) for one year, and then returned to suburban Chicago. (Yes mom, there are a few teachers from the greater Chicago area…but none from Glenview or close to there.) He teaches freshmen and seniors just like I do.