Time Flies! {2011}

As I look back on the past 11 months that I've spent in Uganda, I'm amazed at how much I've learned, experienced, grown, and have been able to try.
I'm overwhelmed by the support I've received from back home.
I'm humbled by the many encouraging relationships I've have developed here.
And I want to take a moment to look back and reflect on what the Lord has done in me, in my life, and in Mbarara.

August:
I arrived in Kampala, Uganda on August 5th. I had three days of orientation at the AIM Central Region office and guest house, a week of language learning class, and a whole lot of time to sit around waiting to travel to Mbarara. I was delighted to be back in Uganda and loving it just as much as I remembered.

On August 19th, we arrived in Mbarara, met the team, and began settling into our home and learning to navigate town. One week after moving into our house, Kelsea and I left to go to Kamwenge, a rural village more than 2 hours away from Mbarara, for our home stay with a Ugandan family. The family we stayed with taught us how to cook, clean, wash, and garden. At the end of our time with them, they generously declared us to be "real African women."

September:
I slowly but surely began settling into a daily routine. Three afternoons a week I met with a dear friend, Sophie, for language lessons. Not only was she a naturally-gifted teacher who helped me tremendously in learning Runyankole and the culture, she was constantly making me laugh with her bizarre stories and good nature.

I began observing at Ruharo Infant School each morning trying to learn about the Ugandan school system and preparing to teach there. I was shocked, sickened, and deeply saddened by many things I saw and experienced in the classroom, and I began to put some pieces together about Ugandan culture. I also began homeschooling Dade two mornings a week.

And of course there was the Great Power Outage of 2011 in Nkokonjeru when we went 20 days without electricity. Candles, lanterns, flashlights,and early bedtimes were the norm. This was an unforgettable experience that I hope to never repeat...

October:
I began teaching in middle class and top class three mornings a week at the local school. I focused on literacy and math skills and play-based learning with these little ones. I found planning lessons for such large classes and such young children in such a developmentally inappropriate environment to be difficult. I prayed a lot, came home exhausted, and praised the Lord for the little successes and small victories.

Dade and I continued to get to know one another in second grade. I gained a better feel for the dynamics of homeschooling and transitioned from managing a whole class to just one student. I enjoyed the freedom of being able to do some elaborate and time-consuming projects with him that couldn't normally be done in a regular classroom setting.

And Martha, our new team mate and house mate, joined us! What a wonderful addition to our family!

November:
I noticed some marked improvements in the phonics skills of my students at the local school, and I continued to plan lessons that involved hands-on, kinesthetic learning as much as possible. Sometimes this caused the class to break out into total chaos as the children never had opportunities for this type of learning, but I pressed on. Some days I cried. Other days I just laughed... And every day I asked the Lord to give me wisdom.

We kicked off celebrating the holidays by having not one but two Thanksgiving feasts! One at our house and one at the Skinner's house with over 80 people, ex-pats and locals, representing seven countries. I felt incredibly thankful for God's protection and provision in this new stage of life. He is faithful.

December:
After finishing out the Ugandan school year, I made the difficult but right choice to step out of my teaching role at the local school. Looking back, my time there was so valuable because I learned a lot about the Ugandan education system, views of children in Uganda, and the challenges teachers face here. I am no longer under any disillusions about teaching in Uganda. I'm still deeply passionate about education and teaching, but in the end, I needed to step away from my role there.

We took a month off of homeschooling, so Kelsea, Martha, and I traveled by bus down to Kigali, Rwanda for the first time. There we met a wonderful family who was also serving with AIM, enjoyed sightseeing and some shopping, visited the Genocide Memorial, and drank lots of really good coffee!

When we got back to Mbarara it was time to celebrate Christmas! Most of the singles on our team spent the night at the Skinner's on Christmas Eve, and we spent Christmas day opening gifts, relaxing, skyping with family, and building a huge fort in the living room from which we watched Elf (a favorite movie any time of year!).