In Torit

On Monday I went to school to begin classes, however, the students have not yet come. A few faithful students trickled in throughout the week to register and pay their school fees—most of them girls. So, we decided to declare this week opening and registration week and next will we will resume teaching. For the term, we will only have 7 actual weeks of teaching (out of 11) because of this delay, along with midterms, and finals, and closing (which takes a whole week). Job, the Kenyan headmaster, has asked all of the teachers to make a scheme of teaching for the term. I am hoping that this makes the teachers feel a sense of importance to teach at their scheduled time. For me, I typed out my scheme for English, which makes me feel more prepared to teach this term. I am still waiting to plan out the history lesson because we are in the process of phasing out the Ugandan curriculum and moving on to the one of South Sudan.

Currently, I am in Torit because someone from the school had to pick up the South Sudan curriculum from the Ministry of Education (don’t worry about me and the traveling. I volunteered to be the one to go. In Torit, I’m able to buy fresh fruit and vegetables to bring back to Ikotos, and hang out with friends. To get here, I just jump on board-- for free-- with a NGO vehicle that is already going this way). The South Sudan school calendar officially starts today as a new school year, but for some reason they made it impossible to retrieve the curriculum until the first day. All of you teachers out there, I’m sure would feel unprepared and anxious if you were unable to know what you had to teach until the first day of school. It is a bit annoying here, but at the same time, in this African context, I’ve learned to go with the flow. The main thing that bothers me is that the students are the ones who suffer when the teachers don’t know what they are doing themselves.

Today, I went into the ministry of education to talk to the head guy for the curriculum and he handed me what looked more like a book of rules than a curriculum (I know that some of you public school teachers are laughing right now b/c you feel the same way sometimes). Seriously though, neither mentions what we are supposed to actually teach nor a list of the textbooks. I asked the guy if I can obtain a list of the textbooks from somewhere, but he said that the list is in Juba and that I would have to wait until NEXT month to receive the list and possibly some textbooks. Hmmm….my thought is that if the list of textbooks is not there, then maybe, just maybe, we should hold off on requiring the new curriculum.

So, because the textbooks will not be ready until next month, we will continue with the Ugandan curriculum at least until next month, but hopefully we will not start it until next term for the student’s sake. However, knowing how things work around here, teachers may decide that it’s best to switch even as late as midterms. In late March I will come back to Torit to get the list of textbooks, and hopefully the actual textbooks so that we can sort through them and try to decipher what the curriculum for a South Sudan school year will look like.

My plan for now is that I will be leaving Torit (possibly) tomorrow with a NGO vehicle going back to Ikotos from Juba, and will begin instruction on Monday. Tomorrow is Andrea’s birthday, so I hope to celebrate that with her there. In Ikotos right now we have, and are expecting, a lot of guests for the next 3 months. There is a South African TIMO missionary staying with us for 1 month, along with a veteran AIM couple from Canada and their whole team of college students here for 3 months, and an individual American short-termer staying with us for 3 months (beginning late Feb). My understanding is that when I return from Torit, the Canadian team will be there beginning their home-stays and language lessons. The South African is spending her time observing the Scotland’s mission, the Canadian team will be learning the culture out at Lobwaya (in the village), and the American will be living with me and working with me at the secondary school. The school term ends 20 April, just in time for the South Sudan Team retreat in Torit. Then, in June, which will be the beginning of 2nd term, possibly a team out of Liberty College will be coming to assist with the various programs in Ikotos for 5 or 6 weeks.

That is the scoop and the outline for Ikotos as of late. I will try to keep everyone informed with the goings on of our little super centre. **note: the pictures are of my trip to Lobwaya last fall. Make sure to take note of the use of the USA cooking oil cans on the door of the tuukel (written on the cans, “A gift from the people of the USA. Not for resale” Do you know what the can of oil that I buy in the market says?).