We have an amazing bunch of VU volunteers. 23 in total, 5 researchers looking into water quality in schools and 18 teachers ready to go into schools next week. They are all lovely and working so hard. We have also welcomed two new staff – Jennifer as kitchen assistant and Jeffery as a driver. So it’s all go but we are both really positive about the next 5 weeks with this team.
As those of you know who follow the blog, one of our main jobs has to ensure that the SEED building opens at the end of August for our first intake of undergraduates to become science teachers. So there is two parts to this update. The first is that the building is really taking shape now. We can see the final vision of what it will be like and it’s amazing. We have offices fitted, the painting is finished, the landscaping is happening. Still work to do but the end is in sight. What do you think?
The second part is a delay in the plans. We are still opening in August but it is looking really likely that the first intake of students won’t be until March. This is because the regulations here have changed in terms of the number of hoops you need to jump through to get university status and we are not likely to get the licence to operate as a university now until October. In some ways sad news but in others it could be very exciting. The plan is to have High School A level students from all over the region come over and do science lessons in our building. Each week we will invite a High School or two to come over and get the SEED experience. This means I will get to teach lots! By the end of the day hopefully many of the students will be convinced they want to be science teachers with us and be ready to sign on the dotted. Then when they get their A level results in February they will be ready to start with us straight away. Delays are part of life here after all This is Africa but a completed building with a substantial interactive marketing strategy teaching science to A level scientists will be fun – and a challenge! Watch this space…..
The ability to cultivate compassion for others is, in my opinion, what makes us human. We can do this wherever we are in the world. Sparing 10 minutes to chat to an elderly neighbour, sacrificing a night in front of the TV to come to the aid of a friend who is suffering, watching that documentary on the plight of refugees and empathising rather than seeing it as someone else’s problem, volunteering to run a stall for the local children’s hospital…. We can all cultivate compassion if we take step out of our own lives for a while and interact with others in a way that isn’t just about our own fulfilment and satisfaction.
Being here in Uganda the opportunities for cultivating compassion are all around. Today we are in Kampala, in many ways just another capital city – heaving with people, full of traffic jams, awash with shopping malls, people getting on with their business, tree lined streets of embassies – a vibrant buzz or a hellish chaos, depending on your stance. And Kampala compares with many developing world cities – it is growing at a rate that infrastructure cannot support as rural poverty draws people to the bright lights in search of money and a more hopeful future. It’s easy to observe but not really see the poverty in the city; to become mesmerised by the tall buildings, the land rovers, the stacked supermarket shelves, the coffee shops. So today Pete and I spent half a day with Plan Uganda.
Plan are an international development organisation working in 51 developing countries across Africa, Asia and the Americas to promote child rights and lift millions of children out of poverty. In Uganda they work in four rural areas in the north of the country and have an urban programme in Kampala itself. Plan Uganda are involved in projects from Early Childhood Care and Development and Education to Sexual Health and water / sanitation, from participation and governance to economic security and child protection.
We went to see a pre-school provision in a slum area of Kampala. To get to the centre involves heading away from the western malls and off the tarmac roads into a maze of cheap, small brick dwellings built on an area of marsh land that frequently floods. Poor people have little choice over where they live so many settle on this piece of unsuitable land with communal toilets and a dirty river running through it. The local community worked with Plan to find a building for the Early Childhood Care and Development centre so the children are to be found in a church made of corrugated tin, with classroom partitions made of cardboard. But looks can be deceiving for the atmosphere and attitude in the makeshift classrooms was amazing – productive, happy, secure, thriving. The walls were covered with posters for learning and the children had resources made by the local community or funded by Plan. The teachers are all local and have been trained by Plan.
In one corner of the room the younger children were putting together pictures of animals with words underneath. One boy had a picture of a yellow cat. So Pete got out a video of Windsor and showed them a real cat in action. They all huddled round whilst the teacher asked them questions. What is it (pointing to the jigsaw)? Cat. What is it (pointing to the video)? Cat. In another corner two young girls were playing with a doll made of sacking and talking to it in English. In yet another part of the room a boy aged around 5 sat on the floor with a blackboard and was writing the numbers down and saying them out loud….1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Later they all got together in a circle and the lead child for the day took them through the numbers 1 to 20 which was followed by phonics and songs to aid learning. Not much different to a day in the life of a pre-school in the UK. Local Primary Schools here are always pleased to receive children from the centre because they are motivated, enjoy learning and know lots already. And the truly amazing part to this pre-school provision, it is so successful that it now runs without Plan support – it is run for the community, by the community. In a poverty stricken slum. In Kampala. In Africa. How wonderful is that?
Circle time
Working together
Cardboard Classroom Partitions
Quiet learning time
Pete teaching about fruit!
Daily Schedule
Blackboard information!
So I urge you to think of one way in which you can cultivate compassion. Today.
Those of you who know me well will understand where my focus on compassion comes from and a wise man once said that compassion is not just for others but also must be cultivated for ourselves. So today, as a wedding anniversary present (13 years!) Pete and I are staying in a nice hotel in Kampala with a pool. As a treat. Because tomorrow we head back to Kanungu to our jobs. Can’t wait!
13th Wedding Anniversary in Kampala
Sam and Pete in Uganda 