Where to start....
When I had thought of coming to Uganda over a year ago I was excited, hesitant, curious but mostly wanted to experience a different culture and alternative way of life. It has been a shock to see how simply the people live here and yet how joyous and welcoming they are towards us. How they really value everything that they are given, and how we as westerners can be so oblivious the amazing opportunities we have at our fingertips in our country.
I have been working at the Masaka regional hospital's daycare and so far it has been an eye opening experience. I have found it is one thing traveling around a country and seeing sights, but when you are immersed in the culture through direct relationships with the people it is something else. Before arriving at the daycare I had no idea what to expect, I kept my mind open to the best and worse scenarios, noting our humble surroundings. Upon arrival at the daycare I was impressed with the space that was available for use. It is located on the top of a hill and consists of a large open grass space, a swingset, marry-go-round, slide and teeter totter. It has a large green open air tent with a ripped roof that acts as an "indoor" area for the children to get some shade and interact together. The surroundings are beautiful and lush around the area, there is a small fence that runs around the property but nothing that a small child wouldn't be able to climb over or through. The daycare operator and the children warmly greeted Linda and I which reminded me there is nothing like working with children to take all your worries away.
Linda and myself started by assessing the daycares storage room that was to be used for storing daycare materials and equipment. The room was piled high with giveaway items for the hospital; mosquito nets, water purification systems and other items of that nature. Since they were giveaway items we asked a few of the hospital staff to distribute them among the people that needed them. Soon there were 20 - 30 people lined up and the boxes were gone within minutes. After taking a full day to organize the room we started to bring in some of the supplies that we had brought from Canada. One of the real hits with the children was the parachute that we brought. I hope you can all remember these from your childhood; everyone stands around the multi colored parachute and grabs a handle, you can put balls on it, shake it like crazy or fill it up with air and quickly sit underneath it. Neither the children nor the daycare operator had ever used one and so Linda and I demonstrated how. The happiness and pure enjoyment was easily readable on the faces of the operator and the children alike. Not having an Early Childhood Education background, we helped the daycare operator to organize and inventory all of the new resources that we had brought to share with them. Our goal is to not just do these things for her, but to teach her how to do them for herself once we are gone. By the end of the day the storage room was looking like a whole new space. When Linda and I completed the final touches we brought the operator back into the room. She was overcome with joy! I thought she may cry, there were many smiles and feelings of gratitude being shared between the three of us. The gratitude not only came from her but from Linda and myself; for giving us the opportunity and trust to go into her room and demonstrate some simple methods to take care of her own space.
The next day I brought in a few more things to share with the daycare. One item in particular seemed to grab the interest of the children and operator of the daycare. It was something that iwould have never expected to have such a huge interest but the experience of intoducing it to them was quite a processof self realizationfor myself. It was a couple of small wooden puzzles. I brought them out and the children didnt know exactly what to do with them, I was stunned. My own preconcieved notions about children in Uganda had come from my own experiences of working with children in Canada. I sat down with them and explained to them how to use the puzzle; how each piece if placed correctly can create a whole picture, and how the flat edges of the pieces go to the outside and that their are four corner pieces. Can you imagine my suprise as I spent three hours teaching different children how to complete these simple 20 piece wooden puzzles. The more important aspect was seeing the sheer joy of accomplishment on their faces when they had completed one of them. It really showed me that I need to check my assumptions and not take anything for granted as I am here on practicum. It was a great start to this adventure and I hope for many more experiences like this.
I have a few plans in the works for the daycare but one of them is to make a water table for the children to play with. It will be made from a baby bath and constructed out of some old wooden pallets that we found in the storage room. It will be able to be filled with rain water and used once it is full. I will keep the updates coming on the progress of the practicum as well as the projects that I have in mind.
-Cole.
No comments:
Post a Comment