Sir Samuel Baker

Wednesday, June 24

My main activity for the past few days has been observation at SSB (Sir Samuel Baker School). Monday was quite an adjustment and pretty overwhelming, but each days since I’ve felt more comfortable. Monday was a mix of feeling defeated over the lack of resources at the school and my ability to make a difference and awkwardness over wondering what to do while at school with much non-classroom time.
My schedule is getting more ironed out. I’m beginning to embrace the idea that through its simple, my goal is to implement a few different teaching strategies, for it’s the most efficient and practical thing I can do in this position.
Other things: Starting Monday night, the electricity was out in Gulu. It came back on sometime today. Which seems to be a bit out of the ordinary for in Gulu town. Yet, it hasn’t affected much of what we do, for most places have generators. We just put candles out at night.
It’s the rainy season here, but it has hardly rained. Today, at school it got really dark and thundered, but only rained for 5 minutes. Then this afternoon, it got windy which was nice b/c it didn’t feel nearly as hot. You would think rain wouldn’t be all that fun. But, I totally underestimated the amount of dust here. Rain would be helpful to keep some of that dust down. It has also made me really appreciate my crocs. So before coming I was totally averse to crocs. But I finally gave in and got a pair, but I got a female ballerina style. And they have been quite helpful here for having close toe shoes in the classroom but also being able to handle the dust.