I really love Gulu; the area is so pretty and the town is really fun. Me and Kate went to the market and got lots of fruit and vegetables so that was a fun experience. It's like a whole new underground world!
The experience at the orphanage has been a lot different to Masindi orphanage. St Judes is a lot bigger. There are about 200 kids living there and about 400 that go to the school. The school and the orphanage are quite seperate; they're next door to each other though. Our accomodation is in the school compound, not the orphanage compound.
It's been a bit harder to get to know everyone simply because the orphanage is so big.
I am teaching English in years 5, 6 and 7. These kids range from about 11 to 17 years old. There are 56 year 5s!! Definitely thrown in the deep end there which is cool. The first lesson went well though; lots of behaviour management strategies and positive reinforcement. We'll see how the next week and a half goes!
There are two Italians also staying in the same house as us, they're heaps nice. They put on a party for all the children with disabilities that live at the orphanage. They played a cool game with them and had prizes, and then they set up a projector to show the Lion King dvd. It was awesome! We all sat under the shelter watching Lion King while there was lightning in the sky and it was dark. The kids loved it! Here in Uganda children with disabilities are soo often thrown away. Some of these kids were found thrown in bushes and left to die. There is so much stigma attached to disability it's pretty awful. But it's so great the orphanage has taken them in.
I've been playing LOTS of soccer which I love! I have also done lots of embarrassing slipping over in the mud while playing soccer it cracks me up. Today I was demonstrating how to play a game with this thing that you hit up in the air. I hit it up then stepped backwards and hit it up again and took another step backwards and fully fell backwards over this plant thing; it was quite a spectacular fall while everyone was watching. I couldn't stop laughing after that; how embarrassing!
Well at Masindi orphanage I bruised my shin because I tripped over a little tree stump. DORK.
I've been getting to know the older kids here. It's so hard to grasp how traumatised these kids have been by the horriffic LRA army that terrorised them for 20 years. Some kids here have escaped from the army after being abducted. One older woman can no longer walk because the LRA abducted her and beat her so bad it wrecked her back. She's a mum.
When we drive past the mud hut villages on the motorbike I keep thinking man, for kids that are less than 20 years old, they have known nothing but war their whole lives. These are the villages that were raided and burnt down. They've been rebuilt of course but it's so surreal to imagine the awful things that happened here, and are now happening in the Congo and south Sudan.
But their resilience is absolutly incredibly amazing. These kids laugh and have so much fun. They've been doing a lot of Acholi singing and dancing which has been so awesome to watch. Watching them sing and dance and have fun blows me away considering the trauma they have been through.
I got to play the african drum, it was so cool! I love drums so much. It's been good hanging with the older kids, I really relate to youth and have had a lot of fun with them (why does schoolwork for that age have to be so boring though? :P). Wow this is a long blog. I haven't taken pics to put up yet because I want to focus on building relationships first.
The experience at the orphanage has been a lot different to Masindi orphanage. St Judes is a lot bigger. There are about 200 kids living there and about 400 that go to the school. The school and the orphanage are quite seperate; they're next door to each other though. Our accomodation is in the school compound, not the orphanage compound.
It's been a bit harder to get to know everyone simply because the orphanage is so big.
I am teaching English in years 5, 6 and 7. These kids range from about 11 to 17 years old. There are 56 year 5s!! Definitely thrown in the deep end there which is cool. The first lesson went well though; lots of behaviour management strategies and positive reinforcement. We'll see how the next week and a half goes!
There are two Italians also staying in the same house as us, they're heaps nice. They put on a party for all the children with disabilities that live at the orphanage. They played a cool game with them and had prizes, and then they set up a projector to show the Lion King dvd. It was awesome! We all sat under the shelter watching Lion King while there was lightning in the sky and it was dark. The kids loved it! Here in Uganda children with disabilities are soo often thrown away. Some of these kids were found thrown in bushes and left to die. There is so much stigma attached to disability it's pretty awful. But it's so great the orphanage has taken them in.
I've been playing LOTS of soccer which I love! I have also done lots of embarrassing slipping over in the mud while playing soccer it cracks me up. Today I was demonstrating how to play a game with this thing that you hit up in the air. I hit it up then stepped backwards and hit it up again and took another step backwards and fully fell backwards over this plant thing; it was quite a spectacular fall while everyone was watching. I couldn't stop laughing after that; how embarrassing!
Well at Masindi orphanage I bruised my shin because I tripped over a little tree stump. DORK.
I've been getting to know the older kids here. It's so hard to grasp how traumatised these kids have been by the horriffic LRA army that terrorised them for 20 years. Some kids here have escaped from the army after being abducted. One older woman can no longer walk because the LRA abducted her and beat her so bad it wrecked her back. She's a mum.
When we drive past the mud hut villages on the motorbike I keep thinking man, for kids that are less than 20 years old, they have known nothing but war their whole lives. These are the villages that were raided and burnt down. They've been rebuilt of course but it's so surreal to imagine the awful things that happened here, and are now happening in the Congo and south Sudan.
But their resilience is absolutly incredibly amazing. These kids laugh and have so much fun. They've been doing a lot of Acholi singing and dancing which has been so awesome to watch. Watching them sing and dance and have fun blows me away considering the trauma they have been through.
I got to play the african drum, it was so cool! I love drums so much. It's been good hanging with the older kids, I really relate to youth and have had a lot of fun with them (why does schoolwork for that age have to be so boring though? :P). Wow this is a long blog. I haven't taken pics to put up yet because I want to focus on building relationships first.
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