Tag: life

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a beautiful day

Since I got back from Uganda, my team and I have been working together to fundraise money to send back to Busolwe, Uganda, to continue the kindergarten project that we started there. Today, the school is a registered primary school, and offers five different grades including our original Kindergarten. It is called Mango Grove School. The advantage that our school offers for our students is that it is attached to the community library, which means that teachers have more resources to teach the students, encouraging them to be creative and love reading. We have raised over $3,000 with Cedar Grove Elementary School since last year, and today we did our second presentation at Irwin Park Elementary School.

Our presentation is 30 minutes long and includes pictures and video clips of a few of the things we did in Busolwe for the Kindergarten project. Our presentation script tells the stories of the children who live in Busolwe. We want to share the story of the students in Busolwe with students here, to give them a peek into the lives of children halfway around the world. The purpose of sharing their stories is not just to fundraise money to support the school in Busolwe. We also hope to inspire some students to be thankful for what they have and perhaps one day also go abroad to interact with other cultures.

All the students were so attentive during our presentation– they really enjoyed hearing about daily life and school of the people we knew in Busolwe. We showed them the pictures of the classroom before we painted and renovated it, right before the picture of our completed classroom, and their response was so heartwarming… they started to applaud. We then showed an even more recent picture of the classes set up there now, and it made me so happy to hear them “oooh” and “ahhh” at the progress that Mango Grove School has made. All in all, I think that knowing that they have a story of Africa that is different from the story of poverty and disease that many charities depict is fulfilling enough for me.

Today was a beautiful day. The weather was the perfect backdrop to the many acts of kindness and wonderful interactions I shared with friends and strangers all day long. Vancouver can be such a wonderful place to live in. On my way home, a girl about my age was crying at the bus stop and was afraid to approach my bus driver for directions. She was clearly lost, physically and emotionally. My driver encouraged her to calm down, then promised that he would help her get to where she needed to go, right after giving her a free ticket transfer. I think if it weren’t for this kind driver, she would have been wandering around lost, all night. She was just waiting for someone to reach out their hand to her. Apparently it was her first time taking the bus, ever, so clearly she needed to get away from somewhere quick. I hope that her night turns out okay. At least she knows that a stranger cares enough to listen to her and promise to get her help if she needed it.

It’s been a long week. I haven’t seen my close friends in so long. There are so many overdue coffees and lunches, it’ll be such a relief when I finish my exams. At least then I won’t need to worry about them on top of teaching and trying to accumulate enough work hours.

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global community

One of the 15 5-year-old kids we enrolled in our Busolwe summer Kindergarten trial classes recently died. He was too weak to fight off some kind of virus because he already had severe anemia and was quite malnourished. We found out through a phone call to the village confirming the progress of the community projects, and to catch up with the family. We hope that he got the package of clothes, scrabble pieces, stationary, that we sent to the library school for Christmas. He probably didn’t. 

The UBC Go Global International Service Learning program connects students who are passionate about global issues, and brings together people who truly care about people and love to grow as individuals. I reconnected with a girl I met two years ago through a random classmate, because we were both in Africa at the same time. She recently connected me to a girl she knows, who is preparing to go to Uganda this summer. This girl happened to be doing a research project on how the Go Global ISL Program prepares/challenges/changes the way students think about power and privilege in the world. We had an interview this evening. 

A lot of my stories and recollections came flooding back to me during the interview conversation we shared. I recalled them so vividly; it was like I was watching a video of my experience. She asked a lot of really thought provoking questions, and I had the chance to collect my thoughts. It was actually a huge relief knowing that she really was listening to my stories, that she has done enough preparation and is willing to understand the situations that I described. Many of my friends have not (cannot) understand my experience to the full extent that I wish they could. I don’t blame them. 

One of her questions was, “Who do you think gained the most: you, the community, or UBC?” If I were to personally answer the question, I would say I have, because I will never forget the conversations I shared with people I met in the communities, students I met through the program, the things I’ve written in my reflections.. this whole opportunity has definitely changed me, and I am grateful for it. In the long run, though, I hope that the community has gained most. That through the many students who have lived there with the community, the “backward” story of Africa will not be the only story of Africa. Through our experiences and stories, our family, friends, and future coworkers will know about a community in Africa. They will hear the happy and the sad stories. A lot of people who go to the different placements are students hoping to pursue a career in the field related to the placement theme. Ours was centered around Literacy, so many aspiring educators choose our placement. Some are centered around health, so many future doctors choose those placements. Perhaps one day when we are professionals, we will have enough of an influence to connect our communities with communities like Busolwe, so that there is a cultural exchange and partnership. 

 

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note: development

Browsed through a blog of the UBC students who have replaced us in Busolwe this term, and I realize that she is experiencing a lot of the same things I did. She is faced with the same disappointments and struggles as I was, even though each of us left behind a report outlining all the challenges we faced along with suggestions to overcome them. I think that the inefficiency of development work is similar to the inefficiency of the service projects we try to implement and sustain there, in that specific African town. Even if she has read all the challenges we listed out, there is no way for her to understand exactly what our suggestions mean, until she comes to them herself. It was the same cycle for us, when we were dealing with our culture shock and settling in, etc. It’s like the cohorts of students that are sent over experience their own individual growth, but the community bears witness to a rewind and replay of the same progress each season..

Perhaps UBC should send over masters students for a few years, rather than just a few months, so that they can actually do some work and continue the project until it is truly stable and sustainable enough to stand on its own. So that students have a chance to experience their individual struggles, grow from them, and become well informed enough to be truly community- focused and cater to the community’s needs. Because truth be told, it’s not easy to not be selfish for the first 1.5- 2 months, when students like me had to deal with a culture and environment very different from the ones we are so used to and take for granted here at home. We are too busy making first-off judgments of the community, understanding them through the existing schemas in our mind, to really deliver projects that are not selfish, either. It’s like the projects we develop in the three short months we are there are really to fulfill our sense of service, to accomplish “what we were there to do”, rather than addressing the true needs of the community.

Though for what the ISL program is, at least we raise awareness for the community, share our stories and broaden the understanding of our friends and family. Stef, Hanna, and I have connected an elementary school in Gibsons, B.C. to our newly established school in the library we worked at. We started a fundraiser that will run from Monday to Friday next week, not just to raise money, but to educate students of the reality that is on the other side of the world.

So far, we have raised $425 with generous donations from their Valentine’s Day fundraiser and the local Rotary Club, to kick start the fundraising. This money will go towards constructing a playground for the school, as well as to invest in renovations and materials for students.

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