Moureen during a learning session at her placement rural school in Mayuge District.
This is a journey of growth, of learning, and unlearning various aspects of life.
You find yourself in an environment that you have never imagined to be in, with people that are way below those that were in your circle. Peasants, most of which have lost all hope of quality education for their children.
Every morning, they wake up the little ones to go to the garden and do the chores of the day. The children do not know beyond the science of planting and weeding crops. They have heard about education and some of them have even entered the tattered classrooms in their communities to look at the blackboard and hear a few words in English spoken hesitantly by a few teachers who, after a few hours in the garden sacrificed to attend a few hours of school.
We all know that children are curious about new things. This explains the reason why most of them are too eager to go to school with the older children. In rural schools like the one I was placed in for My Fellowship, few of those curiosities are satisfied because, long before Teach For Uganda activities in these rural communities, children literally went to school and were welcomed by a number of teachers speaking and teaching them in their local languages.
When my co-fellow Migisha Liz and I first arrived in this community, the children developed a fresh and new urge to learn. They felt like we had gone with an alternate kind of energy from that of their teachers. Even children who had already been promoted to classes higher than primary two and primary one came rushing to attend our classes.
We were straight from the training institute, well equipped with nursery rhymes, the ones they had never heard before, learning games, inclusive education and so much more. The experience was totally different and the children never stopped admiring how fluently we uttered every word in English.
These attributes drew them closer and the curiosity that seemed to have somehow collapsed shot up! Since then, we began a new journey with the children and it's just the beginning. This story will never end until I say it is over. But when do you think that will be? After the fellowship? We shall see about that.
