Lesson 3: Eyeglasses + Bubbles - Millet Bread = Great Fun!



Today was my first day out in the village!  So far, I have only met people from town, or at the Mbale Church of Christ.  This morning I headed out to a village west of Mbale as a part of the eyeglasses ministry. With five of us in the cab, four more in the bed of the truck, some plastic chairs and two trunks full of eyeglasses, we all left from the church at 10 AM and drove about 45 minutes out to the village.  We were welcomed by our translators and were carefully observed by about 30 curious children.  After unloading our truck, we were given the place of honor at the front of the church, where everyone could see our shining, white faces, and were introduced to the congregation by William, who is in charge of the rural ministry portion of the Mbale Mission Team.  Everyone clapped and cheered for us, and we joined together in singing Luganda praise songs.  Though I couldn’t understand a word, I could appreciate the beautiful singing.  Later, five women who were a part of the church’s chorus sang another song about Jesus’ return and the end times, the melody of which I loved and have been humming to myself all day.  After this, William stood up and delivered an impromptu sermon, and worship was dismissed so that we could begin distributing eyeglasses.

After a quick lesson on eyeglass prescriptions (which I should have known already, seeing as I wear glasses) I was paired up with a translator and my first patient was sent in.  My instruments included two “glasses-on-a-stick,” which I was able to flip over and, with some assistance from my translator, determine which prescription produced the clearest results.  After encouraging the individual to read (or at least focus on) an article about a new BBC series entitled, “London From Above,” we would determine what strength prescription to hand out.  On the other side of the church, Peace, a wonderful Christian woman who works with the team and is our resident nurse, was helping far-sighted individuals receive the appropriate glasses.  Martin, who is in charge of the eyeglasses ministry, took inventory of how many glasses we had given out; today’s total was 140 pairs!

Helping people find the right pair of glasses was incredible.  Flipping through prescriptions and finally finding the pair that allowed them to see smiles that made translating unnecessary.  What we did today was by no means healing the blind, but to be able to provide these children of God with the ability to clearly see the world around them was such a joy!  It made me think of how Jesus healed the man born blind (John 9:6).  There was no mud made from saliva today; we try to keep things as sanitary as we can, but I hope when people share the story of how they got their glasses, many more will come know Christ.

After we helped those in need of reading glasses, I wandered outside to meet the dozens of kids milling around the building.  At first, they were very shy.  Only a few spoke English, and they didn’t really understand who this talkative mzungu (white person) was, or what she doing.  But after pulling out my bottle of bubbles, we got along just fine!  The kids crowded around me, all wanting to pop the bubbles as they floated loftily in the breeze.  I tried to give each kid a chance to try their hand at bubble blowing; even some of the adults gave it a try! 

I snapped a few pictures of the kids, handed the bottle of bubbles over to one of the older girls and went back inside for lunch.  We were served rice, goat, a sort of broth with tomatoes, and millet bread.  The rice, goat and broth were excellent; the millet bread was…interesting.  It’s more of a sticky, gelatinous mound of millet grain mixed with cassava (sort of like a potato) than bread.  I washed it down with a Coke.  After thanking our hosts for our delicious meal, we packed up our truck and drove back through the bush to town.  It was a perfect day, and I can’t wait to go out again next month!

The video is a snippet of worship service at the church in the village, and the pictures below are of the kids I befriended with bubbles, and Vince and his translator assisting a man find the right pair of glasses.



Lesson 2: Weekly Lesson Plans Are for the Weak.

          This Monday was my very first day of teaching!!! Even now, after succeeding in teaching the kids a couple lessons, I’m still pretty incredulous that anyone wants me to stand in front of their kids and teach them things.

            I teach at the Mbale Mission School, and if it had a motto, it would be “Go with the flow.”  It’s a beautifully laid-back blend of classes grouped by grade level and home schooling, which allows people without an education background or teaching license (like me) to hop on a plane and spend a year or so molding the minds of the missionary kids.  Things change a lot, so you’ve got to be flexible when one teacher leaves for two days to take her child to Kampala, another teacher leaves the next two days to drive her sister to the airport, and the new teacher (yours truly) gets sick and needs someone to cover her first class of the day…and all of this during the first week of school.  Following the lead of fellow teacher Emily, I read the chapter I would be teaching and constructed a lesson plan for science that involved writing the word “energy” for Monday’s lesson.  While this level of preparation wouldn’t necessarily fly in the States, it’s an appropriate approach for MMS.  My commute consists of opening the front door, walking about 15 feet to cross our driveway, and then entering the door of the school.  Most days traffic is light, and our guard dogs Kivu and Bandit are always outside to wish me a pleasant good morning.



            Currently, there are six kids at MMS, with four more joining us in February.  Right now, I’m the instructor for a first grade Bible and science class, a third grade math class, and a fifth grade math and science class.  So far, I enjoy my science classes the most, as I can decide to add in fun stuff like comparing the driving ranges of the Chevy Volt and Toyota Prius with my six year olds.  Math class can also be fun, once you trick your students into doing subtraction by asking them how much change they would receive back when purchasing a Star Wars Lego kit.  Of course, the kids themselves are a riot.  Exhibit A, Israel, who was adamant that I get his shoe in the picture.  His six-year old sister, Annalise, is especially adorable.  When I asked her to write something on her paper that she’d like to learn about in science class, she wrote down “God.”  God gets His very own class first thing in the morning, so I encouraged her to pick out something from God’s creation to study during science class.

            There’s never a dull moment around here. Even if you do start to get bored, chances are, the power could go out at any minute and send you scrambling to find candles and matches.  A general rule of thumb is that by the time you get the oven preheated and your leftover chicken spaghetti warmed up, the power will come on and make you wish you had waited a little longer so you could have used the microwave to prepare a less labor-intensive dinner.  Of course, you also share the house with some not-so-cuddly critters.  We use our bug zapper (which looks like an electric tennis racket) to get rid of any pesky mosquitoes.  A few days ago, I woke up to a gecko darting up my wall right by my face, and Emily’s visiting sister was slightly traumatized when she discovered a rat in our kitchen.  Unfortunately, the same rat decided it was a good idea to climb into a bucket of water I had used for a spirometer experiment in science class.  The next morning, the children were all very excited to show me said drowned rat.  (I decided against granting their requests to dissect it.)

            Pictures from this week include Israel showing off his shoe, and the younger children hard at work in language arts.



Lesson 1: Roosters Crow Whenever They Like.



            Well, I’m finally here! After months of preparation and over 24 hours of travel time, I am now settled in at the Teacher House in Mbale, Uganda!  Vince and Joy Vigil (and their seven-month old smiling baby boy Elias) picked me up from the Entebbe airport on Tuesday night.  After a crash course on some cultural stuff, I slept under a mosquito net for the first time in my life.  I am also happy to report a lack of jet lag and a great night’s sleep, besides awaking at 2 am Uganda time to some boisterous roosters.  Apparently, they crow at whatever time seems best to them.

            The next morning we made a couple stops in the capitol city of Kampala and drove four hours back to Mbale.  The drive was eye opening, to say the least.  The roads and traffic are unlike any I’ve ever experienced.  There are people, bicycle taxis, motorcycle taxis, crazy van taxis, goats, cows, and chickens everywhere you look.  I have seen the most astounding items on the backs of bicycles; of a more tame variety, 3 large bunches of bananas, two extra people, and a large collection of papyrus reed mats; the more extreme loads include a bag of coal large enough to hold a small armchair, 8 barrels stacked to a height of about 6 feet, and what looked like a door frame.

            I got a chance to meet the team during their first-of-the-month Wednesday night devo and dinner.  Normally, the team fasts on the first Wednesday of the month…but I didn’t feel too guilty helping myself to Rebekah’s pizza and Mary Beth’s gooey chocolate cake after traveling half-way around the world on a full stomach.  I immediately hit it off with Annalise and Bekah, both six-year-old girls whose favorite colors are green and purple, respectively.  Starting Monday, I will be their teacher for Bible, science, and math.  I can’t wait to be a science teacher; Tuesday’s lesson involves comparing forms of energy used to power a Ford Fiesta, Toyota Prius, and Chevy Volt.

            My roommates, Emily Daw and Jennifer Ashlock, are also teachers at the Mbale Mission School, or MMS.  The Mbale Mission Team, or MMT, is VFA, or Very Fond of Acronyms.  MTI, MTICC, LIU…it’s probably easiest to figure these out if you check out their website at http://www.mbalemissionteam.com/.  Emily and Jennifer have been wonderful in helping me get my bearings upon moving in.  They’ve taken me all around town, including the market, which is like a crazy, cramped, smelly, awesome labyrinth of everything you could possibly need; cups, containers, kitchen utensils, toys, shoes, sandals made of tires, cloth, seeds, meat, fish, eggs, produce, spices…you name it, they probably have something like it. I have yet to try any street food, but I can’t wait to try chapati, which Jennifer adores hot off the streets.

            The pictures are of Mt. Wanali, which is east of our house located in an area known as Senior Quarters.  The second is a glimpse at the outside edge of the market.  That’s all for now, as I need to get my things in order for tomorrow…my first day of school as a teacher!