Ghost Stories

When I was little the only thing that scared me really were ghost stories. Well, and horror movies. I wasn't really ever afraid of anything else. However, I have now added three more things to the list.

1) The Bats. I simply cannot deal with them. The other night I found out from Moses that there isn't one bat that comes to visit the latrine at night; in fact, there are four. And they don't just come to visit when they see my light. Oh no. THEY LIVE IN THE HOLE. Like... down there, if you know what I mean.

2) Black Mamba snakes. I've never been afraid of snakes. I was always the first one to raise my hand when the science center guy came around to our elementary class and asked who wanted to touch the boa. But these guys, these black mambas, are apparently a big deal. So Moses was talking about them the other night, and I was like, "oh, but they're not around here, are they?" And he said, "Oh no. They live in the bushes. Except one day John was bitten by one right here where we are sitting." Right. Of course. In the bushes. And then, the next day, what did they find in the sick bay at the school? A black mamba. I tried to make a joke about the black mamba... telling Moses that we have them too, only in my country they are cocktails or rollercoasters. He was excited. "You have them too?? They are black, and about this long...?" He held out his arms to full length. Um, no. We don't have them.

3) Kidnappers and Beheaders. Now, I've never been one to overreact really. So, when I asked my students to do some sentences with the construction "Let's... shall we?" (total B.S., but I don't get to decide what we teach them) , and one kid put "Let's kill the kidnappers, shall we?", my first thought was, "How clever and imaginative! I wonder how he thought of that." But then the next day I was walking to town with a student, and she told me some kidnappers had broken into her house and tried to take her and cut off her head. So then this started to sound fishy. Two inventive kids with the same story?? So I asked Moses. Apparently, there is a Bugandan tradition of kidnapping children and beheading them, and then burying the head under the foundation of a new building for good luck. My jaw dropped to the floor when I heard this. I'm all for preservation of cultural practices-- I really am. But this one was a lot to handle. My poor students!!! Apparently mzungu heads (like mine) are worthless, as is any head of a child whose ears are pierced or who has been circumcised. No wonder there are so many little girls running around with pierced ears with nothing but pieces of hay stuck through their ears. It really is amazing. It's a different world here.

So aside from my three new phobias, all is going well. I really love the teaching and I'm learning a lot. The notion of me sitting in the back of the room working with a few students-- the one I fantasized about before coming-- was total fiction, of course. I basically teach straight through the day with just a break for lunch. And I was really pissed that there were all these lovely, appropriate instructional-level storybooks just locked in a cabinet that the kids never saw, so I started an after school reading program that I do until 5 pm every day. They are just so hungry for books! Imagine sitting crammed onto a bench with four other kids, all sharing the same one stupid workbook as the ONLY reading material you see all day? It's tragic. Especially when there actually are books! I just cannot comprehend why no one wants to teach kids with, um, you know-- books.

I'm also encouraging them to write, and I love reading their stories. They are so clever. I get beautiful stories of people tending crops, and animals with personalities, and sad stories about people dying from AIDS or malaria. These kids have so much to say. I feel overwhelmed by being the only person who is listening and reading their thoughtful, painful work at the school. And then-- I'm leaving in three and a half weeks. Poof! And it's back to normal for them. It's hard to think about. I wonder if I've done more harm than good.

I'm guessing my energy should probably really be focused on helping the teachers nudge their practice along... I mean, they're the ones that are staying. But it is such a Sisyphean task. I don't even know where to begin. I started with sitting down with one teacher and talking about individual students with her-- thinking about how we could target specific students that are lower and how I could read with them before school or during the break. We broke the 80 students into groups that I could work with differently. It was clearly the only time she'd done that... and she seemed really grateful. I guess I just need to keep doing things like that. I mean, the American system is definitely broken... but I've got to say, it sure as hell doesn't look that bad from this vantage point.

Okay. Off to consume my luxury of life-- a pineapple and banana smoothie. I'll sit looking out over the Nile, and contemplate life. And snakes, bats, and beheaders, of course.