So, I’ve already reached that point: I’m really sick of painting. Problem is that there’s still so much more I want to accomplish at the school in the next three days or so. We’re making progress, but it really is so time consuming. Yesterday we painted the boys’ room in the orphanage, and today we started—and almost finished—the living room/kitchen (if you can call it that) and began to decorate the boys’ wall. By 6:30pm the three of us volunteers were exhausted, sweaty, and sick of each others’ “company,” but tomorrow morning we’ll be back at it again, this time with the outside walls at the Learning Center where we hope to put the Meeting Point and school emblems and have all the kids put colorful handprints on a dark blue painted background (the cause of my third trip for a paint donation this morning!).
In addition, we drafted the English end of term exam for the vocational students
(which was basically an exact regurgitation of our last class) and we thought to be very fair. The Italian volunteer who doesn’t speak much English agreed it to be fair for these 15-17 year olds. But apparently that was not the case. While a couple students pulled through with just a few missed points out of 20, the majority scored in the 0-7.5%--seriously. And seriously depressing for a “teacher”! It even prompted my fellow volunteer to initially take her frustrations out on one of the grading papers before I encouraged a bit of restraint! But we are going to talk with them about the tests when we hand them back. It’s certainly weird to be on this side of the grading papers thing. I remember how nervous I was when I was younger and how I’d be devastated with anything less than an A—ah those were the days! ;) But really, I just want these kids to care and realize how an knowledge of English will most likely give them great advantages and really try to help their own futures. Reminder to give extra respect to all of my teacher friends I guess!
(which was basically an exact regurgitation of our last class) and we thought to be very fair. The Italian volunteer who doesn’t speak much English agreed it to be fair for these 15-17 year olds. But apparently that was not the case. While a couple students pulled through with just a few missed points out of 20, the majority scored in the 0-7.5%--seriously. And seriously depressing for a “teacher”! It even prompted my fellow volunteer to initially take her frustrations out on one of the grading papers before I encouraged a bit of restraint! But we are going to talk with them about the tests when we hand them back. It’s certainly weird to be on this side of the grading papers thing. I remember how nervous I was when I was younger and how I’d be devastated with anything less than an A—ah those were the days! ;) But really, I just want these kids to care and realize how an knowledge of English will most likely give them great advantages and really try to help their own futures. Reminder to give extra respect to all of my teacher friends I guess!Painting/teaching fatigue comes on top of general fatigue. I’m still trying to kick this lingering cough from last weekend, while “preparing” for my Kampala MTN Half-Marathon this upcoming Sunday! Yesterday I went for an hour and a half training run up a huge hill of the Mbuya section of the city. It nearly killed me and we got lost in a farm of sorts, but it was definitely good for me to get at least one substantial training run in. The rest of the week I’m going to take it pretty easy and just try to stay healthy, knock on wood. Also have some last minute plans for my parent’s upcoming visit--they arrive in less than a week—yippee! So all good things, just busy busy, and nearing the homestretch now, of this leg of my travels abroad anyway!
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