stories – discovery

pop culture

On the bus home from my office, ten young teenage girls came onto the bus. They were all wearing the same brands (TNA, Talula, Wilfred), and were heavily clad with makeup, expensive purses, and smelled of perfume. I guess they were from rich families. They got on, giggling half- drunkenly, and squealed and gossiped like the characters on Gossip Girl. I think if they read this they would think it was a compliment. They were the stereotypical “popular girls” of high school, and seeing them I realize how shallow (worthless, pointless) that label is. But they were nice girls, probably; I shouldn’t judge.

At the mall earlier in the day, I overheard two eight-year-old girls holding poster tubes, begging their daddy, “please, please buy me these Justin Bieber posters,” to which he responded (exasperated), “you girls, driving me crazy with your Fever Bieber fever (SDFDFDSFHGHGHJLKLDRKER, mentally in his head)”. I couldn’t help but laugh, but it wasn’t a happy laugh. or a purely amused laugh. It was a little disconcerting, actually. What’s the deal with celebrity crushes?

I stayed a little later at the Academy tonight, marking my students’ tests. There are two other classes that run at night; one of them was a little boy (5 or 6) who came in for a class every week (newly immigrant parents want to expose their children to English ASAP). My boss asked the little boy, “do you miss your mom, when is she coming back from Taiwan??” to which he said, “I’m okay.” Then, she teases the little boy, “did you miss me???”, which he honestly replied, “not really….”. So she asks, “who do you miss the most right now, at this moment??” “Lady Gaga.”

Another boy (14 or 15) walked by and retorted, “little boy, you’re like 2 years old. Do you think you have a chance at her?”, all the while implying that he did.

Reading Club Event #2 (June 30, 2011)

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.