So, the impression given off by my last few posts might have
made it seem that all we are doing here is gaming and running away from safari
ants. The reality is that those moments are few and far between. We are
currently in “teacher boot camp.” In the morning, Kris heads to the local
primary teacher’s college and I head to the local primary school to give
lessons, co-teach with Ugandans, and observe both our fellow trainees and
counterparts. In the afternoon, we attend sessions aimed towards improving our
teaching, promoting literacy, implementing positive behavior systems in local
schools, and various health/cultural/safety issues. The evening is mostly
devoted to planning for the next day, although there is generally also a yoga/Catan/Dominion/Frisbee/netball
game happening among this super-active group. Finally, we all crash for the night in our 8-person dorm rooms. It’s exhausting, but keeping in mind what we hope to do here makes it worth it.
A huge part of our jobs here will be reaching that youth by
working with both teachers and students in primary schools and primary teacher’s
colleges. While the above facts make our work here an incredibly daunting task,
it helps to reflect upon the importance of that task. Studies have proven
that a 1% growth in the literacy rate of a country leads to a permanent 1.5%
growth in GDP annually. Being a part of that, however small, would certainly be
amazing.
"It's not what's going to come at you. It's your reaction to those things." - Paul, Assistant Country Director
Wishing you lots of success!
ReplyDeleteGood morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Uganda? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Uganda in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez