July 2

July 2, 2009

Today was going to be an exciting day. This was going to be our first time to visit a school. We had already talked with Mary, the head supervisor, and had already gotten permission for us to visit one of the schools in the program. I woke up pretty late, as usual, go ready and ate a little before heading out the door. We crammed on a taxi, once again, to head to city square to meet with Andrew. He was going to have to help us get to the school because it was at the far end of town. This is also the first time that we really had to wait for a cab…which was frustrating. We crammed on the cab and took the 45 minutes ride across town to meet Mary. We got off the taxi next to the huge soccer stadium that dwarfs the one room houses that accompany the area. There were many stares as the three of us, dressed business casual, walked through the neighborhood to get to our meeting spot. We waited there for a while and then funniest thing happened. Mary and another researcher, Elizabeth, came riding up on bota-botas for each of us. We hopped on and headed through the neighborhoods to the school. Here was a caravan of botas riding through places full of people that can’t even afford to ride one.
We arrived at what we (U.S peps) would consider to be a run down school house. The kids were all outside playing and were quite excited to see white people. The school consisted of four rectangle buildings with two running east/west and two running north/south. The buildings were cinder block with a concrete/stucco covering. The class rooms were the same with concrete floors, open windows, and no lighting. School was from 7-4 and we were there to observe a 3-4 mentoring session. We went in to meet the head mistress (a.k.a. principal) who was very excited to meet us and have Americans at her school. She made us sign the guest book so she could show people that we were really there. We still had a lot of time to waste so we all sat out under the gigantic mango tree to enjoy the breeze and pass the time.
The school is interesting and shown a lot of insight into the schools here. This school was a day and boarding school so kids that needed to stay were provided dormitories. These consisted of triple bunked beds crowded in a 12x12 room. Only for sleeping! As far as the day part of the school, kids could either be dropped off and picked up or pay the additional fee to ride the bus. Very, very few schools have buses so it is always an additional fee. This school ranges from daycare to primary 7. They run a British education system here so it can get rather confusing. Thus, this school ranges from pre-k to 5th grade, if that makes more sense. We walked around the school to et a better feel for it before the class started. They had a playground with slide, monkey bars, and marry-go-round thing; there was a compost/trash hole, they had an outhouse/loo complex, there was a kitchen, outdoor shower stalls, clothes lines (they collect water in huge rain barrels then you put what you need into a bucket or basin as needed). There were also goats, chickens, and turkeys on premise for food. Very sustainable of them. The thing I have noticed though is that it isn’t sustainability here as much as it is necessity. Anyway, this school is also highly sought after because they have a computer lab with internet access which is pretty unheard of here. Everyone was so friendly in that they would come out to greet and welcome us. People are so friendly here!!!
The class we sat in on was a fourth grade class. In this particular school the mentor is a teacher in the school so he goes to the different classes to teach. I think it is a good idea, but more on that later. The mentor was Peter, the teacher was Moses, and then there was Mary, Andrew, Elizabeth (researcher), Ginger, and I all sat in the back of the room to observe the day’s lesion. There were less than 30 children in this class which is extremely small for class size here. Public school class size can be up to 170 students. Out of CONTROL! Anyway, we walked in and all the students greeted us in a unison, pre-scripted greeting. It was funny but I tried to make my face look appreciative, I think they bought it. We all had to introduce ourselves to the class. The thing is that the naming system here is a bit different. It goes traditional name (derived from the family clan), biblical name, and then last name. People often go by both their first and middle names. So, Mumbango Mary is one name and distinguishes her from all the other Mary’s. Well, since I used “My name is Dustin James” in the first introduction when I got here, they take Dustin as my tribal name and James as my biblical name. Therefore people call me James or mzung James (literally the white James). So, the kids couldn’t pronounce Dustin and defaulted to mzungo James. I guess that’s ok. The kids were militaristic in there responses that it threw me off guard. All in unison, all with the same pronunciation and inflection. It was like a pre-rehearsed response system, which it probably was.
In regards to the program and its implementation I was actually really impressed. The issues around abstinence only education were not so in that it wasn’t as religiously backed and “preached” in the same way it is in the U.S. Here, the material is presented in a much more “sex is for adults,” “have sex once you’re married,” “be patient cause you will get to have sex eventually, no use to rush it.” I was actually extremely surprised. The use of stories in class was obviously beneficial in that children were able to dictate them and the reason for learning them. At the same time, they came up with lessons learned, attitudes for improvement, and possible complications from the stories learned. The kids were very responsive and very willing to answer questions involving sex and possible HIV/AIDS contraction. There were many observations to be had, I promise you that, but the benefits definitely outweigh the downfall in this instance.
I am again excited about the possibilities of this program. There are still a number of things that need to be addressed. I am really excited about going to more schools and being able to better identify where the real needs are. It is becoming very apparent that even what we have potentially learned through interaction with the mentors and going through their reports still isn’t always the case when you get out to observe in the field. One major reason for this is the language barrier. Granted, most people speak English, write reports in English, and teach in English but the ability to articulate a point or explain things thoroughly just isn’t there. This, in turn, is one of the major obstacles that we have to overcome. It is further compounded by the fact that on any given day up to six languages are spoken fluently throughout the city. I’m gonna have to think on this, back to work.