Sunday, September 12, 2004
Sunday morning Sept 12
It is 2:45am and I don't feel like grading any more papers. I went to bed a bit early last night, woke up before midnight very awake and decided that I might as well get up and do something. I rather like working at night. It is mostly quiet, and the night sounds of distant barking or mooing are pleasant to listen to. I can work with only a desk lamp and so stay focused on whatever it is I am doing. So I have graded about 25% of the tests now. There is one kid who scored in the 80s, but most are in the 20-40 range.
My students always want true/false or multiple choice questions, or at least matching. So for this mid-term I gave them a matching section, but made it pretty tough. Twenty terms to match with a mixture of definitions and examples. Then, five calculation problems that should have been pretty easy. It is kind of interesting that by and large the kids who do VERY well on the matching do NOT do well at all on the calculations. It isn't the math, it seems, but rather how they study. The matching-proficient students just have no idea how to set up the problems - knowing what is being asked for. My students love definitions, provided they don't have to understand or use them.
This past week has been entirely devoted to the mid-term tests, so I've had a lot of free time that I used to visit the area organizations that might be working on Youth Economic Empowerment - the euphemism I've picked up for my Small Business Training effort. Of the seven NGOs I visited, Kuleana, Caritas and CARE seem to have effective programs, and CARE is village-oriented rather than working on urban problems. I still have a couple more to go, though - VETA who teach vocational craft skills, SNV who I don't know much about, and the Chamber of Commerce.
The Director of Kuleana was hard to catch up with, but my meeting with him yesterday was the best of the lot. Alfonse is a big guy who has an easy take-charge manner, and somehow just his presence is imposing. A natural leader. You get the impression that although his schedule is very full he is relaxed and is taking as much time as is useful to meet with you - but no time is wasted. He was the only person I've talked to who has done more than describe programs but who also talks about possibilities, and the only person who ended the meeting with "Well, what are our next steps here." And, we agreed that our next steps are to (1) review the program materials and training resources that are available to us, (2) decide what other partners we would want to work with, and (3) plan a meeting with them to establish working relationships, jointly set objectives and define a target group. Sounds like a plan to me!
This coming week is our mid-term break. School is closed. I hope to finish visiting Mwanza organizations in time to catch the Tuesday overnight ferry to Bukoba on the other side of the lake. I want to take my bike along. Kim is teaching at Kanyigo, about 40 km from Bukoba up near the border with Uganda and I thought that sounds like a great bike ride. The country is supposed to be beautiful around there. Bukoba is a little cooler than Mwanza too, and that will also be welcome for the ride. So... Wednesday to ride out there, Thursday to recover, and Friday to ride back to Bukoba and the ferry. The terrain is a bit hilly, and the region is noted for production of bananas. I used to get wheels of good cheese from Bukoba too, but they haven't been available for the past few weeks. I'm told it is because cows are giving less milk now in the dry season.
I've now been in Africa for a year. Arrived last year after dark on 9/11 - excited, wide-eyed, wet behind the ears...
It is 2:45am and I don't feel like grading any more papers. I went to bed a bit early last night, woke up before midnight very awake and decided that I might as well get up and do something. I rather like working at night. It is mostly quiet, and the night sounds of distant barking or mooing are pleasant to listen to. I can work with only a desk lamp and so stay focused on whatever it is I am doing. So I have graded about 25% of the tests now. There is one kid who scored in the 80s, but most are in the 20-40 range.
My students always want true/false or multiple choice questions, or at least matching. So for this mid-term I gave them a matching section, but made it pretty tough. Twenty terms to match with a mixture of definitions and examples. Then, five calculation problems that should have been pretty easy. It is kind of interesting that by and large the kids who do VERY well on the matching do NOT do well at all on the calculations. It isn't the math, it seems, but rather how they study. The matching-proficient students just have no idea how to set up the problems - knowing what is being asked for. My students love definitions, provided they don't have to understand or use them.
This past week has been entirely devoted to the mid-term tests, so I've had a lot of free time that I used to visit the area organizations that might be working on Youth Economic Empowerment - the euphemism I've picked up for my Small Business Training effort. Of the seven NGOs I visited, Kuleana, Caritas and CARE seem to have effective programs, and CARE is village-oriented rather than working on urban problems. I still have a couple more to go, though - VETA who teach vocational craft skills, SNV who I don't know much about, and the Chamber of Commerce.
The Director of Kuleana was hard to catch up with, but my meeting with him yesterday was the best of the lot. Alfonse is a big guy who has an easy take-charge manner, and somehow just his presence is imposing. A natural leader. You get the impression that although his schedule is very full he is relaxed and is taking as much time as is useful to meet with you - but no time is wasted. He was the only person I've talked to who has done more than describe programs but who also talks about possibilities, and the only person who ended the meeting with "Well, what are our next steps here." And, we agreed that our next steps are to (1) review the program materials and training resources that are available to us, (2) decide what other partners we would want to work with, and (3) plan a meeting with them to establish working relationships, jointly set objectives and define a target group. Sounds like a plan to me!
This coming week is our mid-term break. School is closed. I hope to finish visiting Mwanza organizations in time to catch the Tuesday overnight ferry to Bukoba on the other side of the lake. I want to take my bike along. Kim is teaching at Kanyigo, about 40 km from Bukoba up near the border with Uganda and I thought that sounds like a great bike ride. The country is supposed to be beautiful around there. Bukoba is a little cooler than Mwanza too, and that will also be welcome for the ride. So... Wednesday to ride out there, Thursday to recover, and Friday to ride back to Bukoba and the ferry. The terrain is a bit hilly, and the region is noted for production of bananas. I used to get wheels of good cheese from Bukoba too, but they haven't been available for the past few weeks. I'm told it is because cows are giving less milk now in the dry season.
I've now been in Africa for a year. Arrived last year after dark on 9/11 - excited, wide-eyed, wet behind the ears...
