Skeletons and rice

I taught at Bright Future yesterday and I think it was my greatest lesson yet. In a previous blog post I talked about how I'm teaching them basic anatomy. I've so far taught about the heart, the digestive system and the lungs. This weeks I taught the skeletal system! Learning about the human skeleton was my favourite part about learning anatomy. It just made sense. The bones all had names and moved like you expected them to (I'm comparing this to learning and memorizing the muscles of the human body where, to me at least, it's counter intuitive how they move and hard to remember where they start and end). I loved teaching them something that I feel so knowledgeable about. It was way easier for me to change the lesson from class to class based on the age group with a subject that I was so confident in too.

There is a secondary school across the street from Bright Future and they have a science lab that has 3 (handmade) human skeletons! I asked if I could borrow one for my lesson that day and they said yes! The science teacher from Bright Future, Ernest, carried it through the village back to our school. All of the people in the streets and shops were laughing and laughing at this skeleton going down the street! I'm guessing that we were a sight not often seen! When we got to the school the kids had the same reaction. The whole school followed us into the main room to see it! Ernest stood on this small stage they have and held it up for everyone to see. They were all smiling and laughing and having the greatest time looking at this skeleton! Ernest would lunge forward with it to scare them and they would all scream and run backwards. I didn't know a skeleton could bring so much joy! After about 5 minutes of this the other teachers yelled at the children to get back to class. The main room is where the nursery school is held so all the little tikes went across the room to their benches and sat down, all of them, facing the skeleton. The front of their "classroom" was the opposite way but they could not take their eyes off this skeleton! Everyone was so thrilled to see something so weird!

The first class I got to teach was P5 which is the oldest class in the school, they're all around 13 years old. I love this class because I can go so much more in depth with them. I had printed out a copy of a human skeleton with all the names of the major bones. They had great questions like why do you need a patella (kneecap)? and how do your bones stay in place? They are so intuitive and amazing and I have realized I'm really going to miss them. All of the classes really enjoyed the lesson and laughed whenever I moved the skeleton at all! The teachers, especially Ernest, (who is the science teacher as well as my translator) loved the lesson too and all of them asked for a copy of the skeleton picture. A few of them sat in on the lesson while I taught and took notes. This happened with a few of my other lessons too. I love teaching new things to people who are so ready and happy to learn!

Next week is my last teaching day at Bright Future. They pushed their end of term exams back one day so when I come they can have a program for me. I am bringing rice to feed all of them for lunch. When I taught about the digestive system I asked what their favourite foods were and a lot of them said rice. They have posho and beans for lunch everyday at school and so I thought why not switch it up for rice and beans! I asked Sam our cook at home how much rice I would need to feed 200 people. He said 35 kgs! He also said that what I am doing for these kids, bringing them rice, is such a good thing because most of the village kids only get rice at Christmas time. I am so excited to see the joy on their faces during lunch!

On the boda boda ride back to the taxi to get back to Mbale I got misty eyed thinking about how next week will be the last time I will probably see these kids. Last week I was having a hard time seeing any of the good I was doing because there's so much to be done in this country and I didn't feel like I was making a difference at all. I talked to my mom and she said that my lessons could inspire some of the kids to go onto university and become doctors or nurses and come back to their villages and save lives. These kids have amazing potential and I would love to see what they do with their lives! I wish they could have the same opportunities children in America have to further their learning. I am going to miss how excited I can make a whole group of kids just by being at their school. I want to come back and visit Uganda someday but there is still so much to see in the world and so many people to help. I hope that the little things I've done can really help them make a difference in their own lives and the lives of those around them. These people are amazing and I'm just now realizing that. I've just started making lasting relationships and I have to leave them here and hope that they make something out of their lives.