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Life in raw form
Baa baaa. Baa baaa. Two goats run towards each other, a baby goat and his mother goat. Amongst the busy noises of the town center, it was really endearing to zero in on this loving scene. The baby ran over so quickly and barely skidded as he reached his mum. He went under his mother, starting suckling, and the mum turned around to nuzzle him. It was a sweet five minute scene.
Then we walked towards the library and saw two dead chicks on the road, run over by vehicles. Their guts were showing, their fur still bright yellow and young. Correction, freshly run over by vehicles.
We held our second Reading Club event in the CCT (Center for Coordinating Tutors) for Bright Light College and Equatorial College. The CCT is a long classroom designed for teachers to get together and discuss teaching methods. There are posters and signs all around the classroom, and there were many mentions of the Bible and the Koran in reference to teaching.
Logistically, the event went a lot smoother and was a greater success than the first event, but there were considerably less people from each school compared to those who showed up from Mugulu and Premier. Still, those who made speeches had good points, though most of them were at the same average level. There were two guys who had amazing public speaking skills. I created a rubric for Stephanie, Hannali, Ivan, and myself, on which we all made notes and critiques or encouragements to each of the speech presenters. I have got to type those up and print it out for the teachers by next week. The opening song and drama by Bright Light College was (again) focused on the theme of AIDS—the chorus was “Aids is a killer disease….” Drama performances are a big thing here, on various topics but mostly about AIDS or religiosity. As the event closed up, the head teachers had opportunity to give advice and comments. One spoke on the ‘issue of spoon feeding’, which was really encouraging for me because now I know that my project has some impact on the community.
Kids were standing around the classroom, inside and outside, shooting us longing looks as we eat and socialize while we set up the classroom. Children standing outside stare with such intensity, as if designed to invoke charity. It’s one of the most difficult things to deal with in our placement in Busolwe, and is a challenge of development work. When I finished drinking the apple juice box I had, I put it on the floor. When we left after the event was over, I noticed a kid picking it up and sucking up the leftover juice.