The weather changed today. As the day went on, I could literally feel the humidity being sucked out of the air. This evening, I've had to use lip balm and moisturizer on my hands, and my little plants in the garden just sucked up all the water I gave them. It's pretty hot (in the mid-30's this afternoon), but I hardly sweated at all.
At dinner this evening, Jackie, R and I took bets on whether or not it's going to rain again this season. We've bet a chicken. Neither Jackie nor R think it's going to rain again this season. I had to say it would rain once more, just so had something to bet on! But I do hope it rains once more, because it would be good for the garden.
We started yet another workshop yesterday. The first day of a workshop is always a bit crazy. And Jackie has asked me to "direct" this one, so I've got a bit more of the responsibility for how things go during this workshop than I often do. So making sure all the right people arrived, and everyone had a place to sleep, and handouts and all the proper teaching and learning tools was a bit exhausting yesterday. Plus, at lunch time, I got a killer headache, which didn't help matters much for the afternoon. I didn't know if my teaching was getting through, and I didn't have much energy to put into it all.
This morning though, everything seemed to all click into place, and I felt like I was a bit on top of things again. I even found myself singing silly songs with May at lunch time, and she told me, "I'm so glad there's someone who is a little bit silly here!" We even heard a "Report from the Field" this afternoon from one of the language teams who is here. They have been using a new Primer that we all developed together for the past 6 months in their school. And kids are learning to read! They're actually learning to read! The team told some great stories about how the parents are involved in the schools and the parents have even requested a literacy class in the church now, because they see that their children are really learning to read their language, and the parents want to be able to keep up with them! How exciting is that?!
I did hear a few good things yesterday, too, though. As we were all introducing ourselves at the opening of the workshop, I asked everyone to tell us one thing that they really enjoyed about being a teacher. One of the chaps said that when he was a young man, an elder in his community told him that if he wanted to make a difference in his community in 10 years, he should plant a fruit tree. But if he wanted to make a difference in his community for generations to come, he should be a teacher.
So it's been great these past few days to work with teachers like that and to help them to improve their skills so they can more effectively teach in their own communities.
We have three days left with these teachers, so hopefully the next few days will be as good as the first few days!
If you're interested, the method that we're using for our new Primers is similar to the one used in N. Uganda by Mango Tree. There's a great video of it posted here.
At dinner this evening, Jackie, R and I took bets on whether or not it's going to rain again this season. We've bet a chicken. Neither Jackie nor R think it's going to rain again this season. I had to say it would rain once more, just so had something to bet on! But I do hope it rains once more, because it would be good for the garden.
We started yet another workshop yesterday. The first day of a workshop is always a bit crazy. And Jackie has asked me to "direct" this one, so I've got a bit more of the responsibility for how things go during this workshop than I often do. So making sure all the right people arrived, and everyone had a place to sleep, and handouts and all the proper teaching and learning tools was a bit exhausting yesterday. Plus, at lunch time, I got a killer headache, which didn't help matters much for the afternoon. I didn't know if my teaching was getting through, and I didn't have much energy to put into it all.
This morning though, everything seemed to all click into place, and I felt like I was a bit on top of things again. I even found myself singing silly songs with May at lunch time, and she told me, "I'm so glad there's someone who is a little bit silly here!" We even heard a "Report from the Field" this afternoon from one of the language teams who is here. They have been using a new Primer that we all developed together for the past 6 months in their school. And kids are learning to read! They're actually learning to read! The team told some great stories about how the parents are involved in the schools and the parents have even requested a literacy class in the church now, because they see that their children are really learning to read their language, and the parents want to be able to keep up with them! How exciting is that?!
I did hear a few good things yesterday, too, though. As we were all introducing ourselves at the opening of the workshop, I asked everyone to tell us one thing that they really enjoyed about being a teacher. One of the chaps said that when he was a young man, an elder in his community told him that if he wanted to make a difference in his community in 10 years, he should plant a fruit tree. But if he wanted to make a difference in his community for generations to come, he should be a teacher.
So it's been great these past few days to work with teachers like that and to help them to improve their skills so they can more effectively teach in their own communities.
We have three days left with these teachers, so hopefully the next few days will be as good as the first few days!
If you're interested, the method that we're using for our new Primers is similar to the one used in N. Uganda by Mango Tree. There's a great video of it posted here.
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