So... what do you do here?

yes, everyone wants to know what i'm actually doing in uganda. all i ever seem to talk about is bats and cultural adjustments. don't i realize that i'm supposed to be doing actual work here?

so, what have i been up to these days?

well, i'm part of the education program of peace corps uganda. this means that i'll be working for the ugandan ministry of education and sports (abbreviated MOES, one ministry, and no, silly walks is not a sport). i'm assigned to a counterpart, who is a ugandan national. mine - and most of the rest of the education volunteers - is a Coordinating Center Tutor. i assist him in his work at the coordinating center, our catchment area, and i work on my own on secondary projects, which could pretty much be whatever i want.

now, what is a coordinating center? uganda is divided up into districts (not states), which in turn is divided into sub-counties. each sub-county (or group of sub-counties) is given a primary school coordinating center, through which information flows from the MOES to the primary schools. the schools to which the coordinating center is assigned is called a catchment area, and the person in charge of the coordinating center (and the only staff until the trusty PCV arrived!) is the coordinating center tutor. he/she also lives on the compound.

more specifically, the coordinating center tutor holds workshops for current primary school teachers, and also visits the schools in his or her catchment area to provide support and supervision (evaluating the teacher's performance, then meeting with them to discuss strengths and weaknesses).

what i do, or at least what i was doing, was basically that. support/supervision at schools all day every day. this was fun, but a little monotonous. luckily, the CCT and I decided to divide up some of his responsibilities, so i have made it my job - nay, mission - to put PIASCY/life-skills and instructional materials in the schools.

man, every paragraph i write, i explain one thing, and in turn have to explain two others.

PIASCY is a presidential initiative to bring HIV/AIDS education to schools. Life-skills are other social messages and practical skills that are useful for ugandan children. for instance, teaching kids about gender equity, or about farming, or more important things like frisbee golf.

so, i'll be going around to schools giving demonstrative lessons on PIASCY and life skills. then, i'll follow up to see if they are taking my advice. then i'll drop the hammer, and really let em know that they need to be doing this. then they'll do it, and name a road after me. not really, but you gotta dream big.

instructional materials are self-explanatory. i'll just keep guilting people into making them.

thanks for the stuff everyone, but i left the pre-prepared thank you at home, so i'll post that some other time.

-rishi