We traveled to Mbale on Wednesday, October 16 to conduct workshops with UCU-Mbale staff as well as secondary teachers. We stayed in Mbale for four days, two of those days being travel days. Our location was the American Corner which is attached to the public library. We decided to use the American Corner so that teachers would learn more about the center and become familiar with all of the available services. Based on the information from the brochure from the embassy, "The American Corner Mbale is a partnership between the Public Diplomacy Section of the U.S. Mission in Uganda and the Mbale Public Library." The American Corner offers free internet services, English language materials, and many books about American life and culture. It is an awesome, awesome facility. It is run by a sweet, educated woman named Hellen. I wish I would have taken a picture of Hellen the first day, but I forgot. Then, her daughter fell ill and she had to take her to the clinic the second day, so I didn't get a chance to take her picture. I know the map looks short, but it took us a little over three hours to reach Mbale because of the condition of the roads.
Students are preparing for their exams, so it is common to see the library full of students. We lost electricity the first day and only had it back for a few hours while we were there, so we had to rent a generator and pay for fuel to run our projector and computers. This is the first time I have had to deal with power issues since I have been here in Africa. We have a generator on campus, so unless there is a major problem, we usually have power. They do seem to turn the generator off at night, but I am usually sleeping, so that is not a problem for me.
The American Corner is really quite amazing. There are only two of these centers in Uganda and I heard about them in training, so it was exciting to see them in action.
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| local library |
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| Preparing for registration |
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| Dr. Richard Watuulo, Head of Department (Languages and Literature) |
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| Peter Mugume, Lecturer UCU |
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| Listening to our colleagues |
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| Me teaching :) |
We had many schools represented including:
UCU-Mukono
Mbale Comprehensive High School
Nabumali High School
Nyondo Secondary School
Mbale Secondary School
Nabboongo Secondary School
Mbale College
Bugisu High School
Nkomass High School
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| Lydia Watuulo, Head Mistress for Nabumali High School |
We had administrators, teachers, and professors working together.
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| Irene creating an email address on my computer |
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| banana, samosa, mendazi |
The teachers have many challenges including:
- lack of supplies
- large classes (some are 200)
- very low pay
- little access to technology
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| coffee made with milk (so delicious!) |
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| Break Tea |
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| Lunch |
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| Break Tea |
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| Break Tea |
We started the workshop at 9 and participants streamed in over the first couple of hours. We had break tea at 10:30, which we offered tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and snacks. We had another session from 11-1 and then lunch from 1-2. Another session from 2-4 followed lunch and then we dismissed.
Lunch was rice, matooke, meat, greens, gnut sauce, and various potatoes.
Everyone was attentive and participated the entire time. Such an exciting opportunity to meet fellow teachers. I will post a part 2 of my time there since there are so many photos.
