Has it really only been one day???

We arrived this morning at 7:30 am Kampala time after two nights on airplanes. My flight to Heathrow was on a double decker plane, and then I hung out for 12 hours at the airport (shopping, eating, reading, napping). I have never flown British Airlines before. Their economy class is called “world traveller”. I got quite a kick out of my ticket (see, I even took a photo). Even in economy class we were given a little bag with headphones, eye blinders, toothbrush and toothpaste, and fresh socks! I laughed at the socks, but was happy to have them late in day 2 of travel.

There were ten of us on the 8.5 hour flight from Heathrow to Entebbe (50 min outside Kampala). Only two of us had our luggage upon arrival. Ironically, one of the first times I was actually prepared with three days of clothes in my carry-on and my bag arrived.

It took a while to get out of the airport with all the missing baggage reports and then we dropped our things off at the hostel and grabbed breakfast before heading out to exchange money and go to the grocery store.

Then we went to the US Embassy where a woman who works for US-Aid described their work here in Uganda and the education system in general. They had an acronym for everything: UNITY, PIASTRA, REPLICA, EDP, QUI, SUPER, BEPS etc. Basically their goals include providing funding for professional development for teachers, AIDS prevention in primary school, community integration into school life, and policy. A full 25% on US-Aid funding for education goes to Northern Uganda and includes other initiatives such as peace education, and performing arts as a means to disseminate messages.

Honestly, the woman sounded very frustrated with the situation. She talked about a “dependency-syndrome” – since primary school had been made free, the parents and community were less invested. Also teacher absenteeism is a big problem as many teachers work at more than one school in order to make enough to live on. I had to snicker a little when she said they were having trouble finding women teachers because “women can’t do maths” and Math is compulsory for teachers.

We then went to a secondary school located very close to the hostel. This was so interesting. After a general description of the curriculum, we were paired up with teachers of our subjects. I had a wonderful conversation with one of their Physics teachers. Physics is a compulsory course from grade 8 to 11. The teacher described it as the most loved and the most failed subject. We talked about curriculum, differences in teacher training and styles.

He mentioned a principal in Toronto who is from Gulu and writes a column in the Ugandan paper: Opiyo Oloya.

We then toured the school visiting the library, computer lab, art room, and girl’s residence. There are 3000 students at the school and it is ranked 10^th in Uganda. It was incredible to pass by classrooms with over 70 students at desks. The students were remarkably polite. I am really looking forward to getting to Gulu tomorrow.

Now to try to get some sleep although the music is pumping at this hostel tonight.

More from Northern Uganda!