This week so so quickly

So I leave for pabo in some few minutes so this update will have to be short and sweet. This week in pabo was the best yet. I feel like that is how it is on this trip. Around this time I feel like your expectations become more realistic and you start to see some small changes from the work you are doing. It is a good place to be.

In class this week I focused on some classroom management things with Geoffry. We talked about how giving problem students a lot of attention was not really working out so we brainstormed ideas for how best to handle them in different ways. The conversation was a little awkward because he felt like I was reprimanding him but it ended up contributing to such great changes that I it was worth it. The other great thing is that he and I can have conversations and disagree and work through things and be ok at the end of it. I got to see changes that he is trying to make in the classroom and the students respond to them in positive ways. we also did a review activity that had the students present on material together. The students did a great job and loved it and I think they did pretty great on the assessment that followed the review.

So Monday after school I broke out the crayons and coloring books. At first I was just sitting there trying to get kids to come over. Finally some adults came over and asked what I had and what I was doing. I showed them and in no time there were 50 kids and 15 adults sitting around talking and coloring. It was awesome. Robert said we were having Sunday school. I plan to do it again this Monday and use the rest of the stuff.

Tuesday we finally got the volleyball net up in town. It was really fun to play. Roberts nephew or cousin played with us and he was a bit too much for trish and I.

Wednesday we stayed pretty late at school so by the time we got home it was just about dinner time. Trish and I were a bit tired so we just stayed in and played cards and hung out.

Thursday I went and played volleyball again. It is odd because when I play I am not only the only munu (white person) I am also the only female over the age of 6 around because all of the women in the village are doing serious work. Trish and I were really struck by that so we decided to try to get a girls game organized. We got Christine, the girl that lives in our same place, to organize a team from the girls she knows from town and the other secondary school and we enlisted dolly (an awesome teacher at pabo) to help us get the word out to some of the girls at our school that might be interested. Dolly made an announcement at the morning assembly on Friday and the girls lit up! They seemed really excited. I hope they make it out!

Friday we got back to pabo in the afternoon and went over to where some of the other teachers are staying to have a book talk. Then some of us went out to bamboo (a restaurant in gulu town) to aci nancy's going away party. Phil from last year, got boise state to scholarship and Ugandan student for 4 years! She will be staying with phil for a while (undefined length). It was fun with a bit of dancing and seeing tons of people.

Sat Catherine and I got up early and went to get a cup of coffee together and discuss life. Then we left for the rhino sanctuary. On the way there we stopped in a little town and got some snacks from the roadside vendors. My favorite (you southerners will appreciate this) were the boiled g-nuts(like small peanuts). Once we got there we had lunch and then it rained really hard so we sat around a bit and then drove out and hiked out to where the rhinos were. It was incredible to see them and be so close to them. We saw 5 out of the 6. We did not see the dominant male. One was pregnant. 4 of the rhinos were from Kenya and 2 from the us (Disney land) so they knew English and Swahili…funny. It was a pretty chill place. We just played cards and hung out and took nice showers.