# 35 July 13th- Monday

-Team Teaching
We walked out of the room to discover a swarm of thousands of flying white ants beating their wings on the threshold of our door. People love to eat these bugs. They grind them into a paste with some sesame seeds and deep fry them. I guess everything tastes good deep fried. Today was the first day for rugby practice as Gulu SS so I arrived early for the morning assembly. Barak Obama came to Ghana over the weekend so his speech was the center of conversation. People here feel a kinship to Obama because his father was from East Africa and spoke a dialect of Luo. In fact, I bought a belt with an Obama hologram on the buckle. Obama spoke about the need for the youth to envision a new future for Africa and to get beyond “big man” politics. The main issue at Gulu SS at the moment is trying to convince students not to sag their pants and to tuck in their shirts.
At 9:00 we had our first rugby practice. It was a group of teachers and a few students who came to learn the skills. The most exciting part about this, is the interest the teachers have in making it happen. This means that it has a chance of being sustainable. Nyeko and Simon will be the coaches and there are a few teachers who have some experience playing. The questions they asked were very good. They want to get this right. I’m so glad I brought the ball with me. We went out to the field. We encountered all the same problems that always come up when teaching the game. Lateral passing is always awkward at the start because it is difficult to judge your running speed when receiving the pass. Two girls joined us. Everyone seemed to have a really good time.
I went to Café Larem to check emails and such. I get a few more AP results every day. It’s been encouraging so far.
At the school David came in a bit late, so I worked on AP World curriculum for a while. When he came it was time for lunch. It was more Posho and Beans, yum…. Our classes are not going as well as I’d like because we haven’t been meeting to plan them as we should. The students are still waiting to write down his notes for this unit. In some ways, the teaching aspect of this trip has been a disappointment for me, but I’m finding other ways to make the experience meaningful. Tomorrow I’m going to bring letters from my Advanced Geography students to school so that I can find some pen pals. The letters are addressed to Anaka students, but there is no way I’m going to get all the way out to Anaka from here. Oh well, TIA (this is Africa).
We didn’t have class until 5:20, so we hung out under the mango tree from 2:30 until then. While we were there another teacher shared the story of how the LRA tried to kill his father and how his father escaped. He showed me where he stayed on the Gulu SS campus when the LRA came to kill him. He said there were many bones under our feet on the campus. His sister was killed in an incident there when he was 12 years old. Even though so many horrible things have happened to him, he has an infectious smile and an unforgettable laugh. There is joy in the midst of so much pain here.
On the way home Geoffrey came up to greet me. I was so glad to see him. If I could bring this kid back to the States with me, I would do it in a minute. As we walked he handed me 3 questions that he had written out for me. They are:
1. How does multiplication bring glory to God? (maybe another riddle)
2. How can we develop the same compassion that motivated Jesus?
3. Why is it so important for us to know more about God?
As we were walking we came to a book store so I went in and bought him a Bible and wrote a small note to him in it. He gave me a small hug and said, “God bless you Jon.” It was the best $10,000 US I’ve ever spent! That’s about 5 bucks. We had a nice walk and we ran into Abraham Patrick from the Watoto Bible study. I’m hoping to bring Geoffrey with me on Wednesday.
At the hotel it was a pretty relaxed evening. I’m in 1 Samuel in my Bible read through. I’ve got a long way to go, but I’m enjoying the journey.