For many of us going to Kasiisi School feels like we are going to our home school. We know so many of the staff and children at this school that we feel very comfortable there. Elizabeth (Lydia) Kasenene, the Head Mistress of Kasiisi Primary School was at a meeting here at the Field Station in the morning. Still we knew the Assistant Head Mistress, Joyce, Moses, Beatrice and some of the other teachers. The walls of the HM’s (the student’s pronounce this (haitch em) are covered with pictures, posters and news stories celebrating the Weston-Kasiisi connection.
There are several pictures of Courtney Massotti both from her visit here and during her fundraising in Weston. When Courtney was a first grader at Country School, she was struck by the fact that Ugandan children do not all go to Secondary School. So she asked me if she could collect change in order to raise some money to sponsor a Kasiisi student to go to secondary school. She put a big change jar outside of her classroom and got a few donations. Then Courtney wanted to make a presentation at a whole school meeting, and she showed me a notebook that she had created with pictures and text that outlined what she wanted to say. Again I said yes, but I sent Courtney to Lucille Beeth our technology/library teacher for technical assistance (she was only seven). Together they converted the notebook into a slide show, which Courtney presented at a school meeting. The change jar got a lot more contributions, and adults, teachers and parents started to put in money as well. Courtney then asked if she could make her presentation at Woodland School and I arranged for that to happen. Then she made her presentation at her father’s place of business and then some community organizations. The end result was that Courtney eventually raised over $3600, enough to send two Kasiisi students to 4 years of secondary school each. It’s a remarkable story and one that is not lost on the Ugandans. Courtney is quite well known at Kasiisi School.
Kasiisi School has every year the most students who receive a grade one pass in their PLE’s. Thus they get the most scholars of any of the five primary schools in the project. So we wondered if we would see a significant difference in the children from the other schools we had visited. Janis and I taught lessons in the two P4 classrooms with 80 and 89 students in each class. The classrooms were small and the students were crowded 5 to a bench. We had a difficult time physically getting to every student to see his or her work. The quality of the work that we saw was not different from any other P4 classroom. There were a few individuals who stood out with better English than their peers, but the overall work and neediness of the students was similar to other schools.
Chris and Christie report that in the classrooms they were in some of the benches were moved so that they face each other. This allowed the teacher to move around the classroom more freely and get to every student. At the same time it encourages students to talk to each other. So much of the teaching that goes on her is for rote knowledge or skill, not for understanding concepts. You can often hear students repeating facts in unison outside of a classroom. We have tried with very limited success to get students to talk to each other, but that is going to take some time. Just the moving of the benches is a big step forward.
Kasiisi School is one of the two project schools that serves lunch to their students. They make a maize porridge, which we tried. It’s quite good. It also smells grainy and nutritious. Students sit outside on the grass with green and blue mugs of warm porridge and drink while they socialize. Teachers have the porridge for lunch also. It’s quite remarkable to see. The last time we were here most of these students went the whole day without anything to eat. That is still true at Kiko, Kigarama, and Rweterra.
Chris and Christie visited the library after their lessons and had some maize porridge. There they encountered a group of P6 students who were preparing for a literature circle that afternoon. The book they were reading was Sadako and the Paper Crane. The students were doing some research about Japan in preparation for the discussions and they were surprised that the teachers knew this book. Chris explained to them that students all over the world read this book. The teachers left very impressed with these girls and their initiative in their work. All of this leaves us to wonder why girls represent so few of the scholars that come out of Kasiisi or any of the primary schools.
It was also great that Chris was finally able to see the preschool today. She came away very impressed with the structure, and hopefully the interiors will be finished soon so that three and four year old students can begin learning. Once again Kasiisi School will be the only public school in this part of the country with a preschool as part of its program. All the other preschools in the area are private.
Janis, Chris, Christie and I also visited both P7 classrooms at Kasiisi to talk to the students about the United States. They have very limited knowledge about us, but we did get one question about the petrol spill (they thought it was in a lake) in the Gulf of Mexico. But most of their questions were about climate, vegetation and the animals that are the same and different in both countries. One of the key skills for these students as they leave primary school is their English. Even if they don’t receive a scholarship for secondary school, speaking English well is a key to their economic future. With good English they could get jobs in the hotel or tourist industry, they could be employed at any number of businesses in Fort Portal. But with limited English they will be relegated to being a subsistence farmer like their ancestors. This was part of the message we tried to impart to these P7 students.
Earlier in the day Scott and Koojo Mathew spoke with the P7 boys separately. This discussion was also about their futures. The students wrote letters to their future selves and talked about the options open to them after they leave primary school. Many of these students will not receive scholarships to be able to go to secondary school.
During our visit to Kasiisi we heard of the double bombing in Kampala of people watching the football match last night. Fortunately, no one we know was among the victims of that bombing. Uganda is a political supporter of the United States and they are among the nations that have sent troops to Somalia to help with the chaotic situation there. That is likely why these targets were chosen. We spent the afternoon contacting family to assure them we are all fine.
Teaching in these classrooms is very draining of our energy. It may be because we are dealing with so many students and trying to get to every one of them. Or it may simply be that we have been away from home for too long (it’s been 17 days since we left) and the stress of travel is getting to us. After contacting family we relaxed at the Oasis before an excellent dinner and an early bedtime.
Leaving the Oasis I got bit on the ankle by something. I killed it and showed it to a local woman who said it was a Tse Tse fly. I’ve read that sleeping sickness has been eradicated in Africa. Let’s hope it’s true.
We say goodbye to the Krimsky/Kee family today as they head back to Entebbe today before leaving for the U.S. We’ll be visiting our last primary school today, Kanyawara, about which we hear good reports. Thanks to all of you who are reading and following and for the great comments. Keep em coming!
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