Girls Just Want to Have Fun!

So my life this past month is pretty much consumed by the 900 girls at the school.  And I love them!  I think they like me too because whenever I walk by they scream NIKKI MINAJ!!!! and when I wave back they all scream.  Yes I have a Lango name but they would rather refer to me as minaj... which is fine by me!  They even write it on their exercise books for my classes.

Aside from teaching them, I frequently go after classes to play sports with the girls.  Me and the gym teacher have struck up a friendship so I go and help him and pretend to still have some athletic ability left in me.  I play soccer, volleyball and they are trying to teach me how to play netball which I still don't understand.  I refuse to join in on rugby haha.  I'm more of a distraction to them than I help sometimes but it's fun.  The girls have their district tournament for soccer this weekend so I'm excited to see how they do!

I held my reproductive health session a few weeks back and it went really well!  Thankyou Stacey ;)  The ridiculous part was I was suppossed to be the adult and even I couldn't help giggling when the girls kept repeating the word vagina... I blame it on the lack of sleep.  So in the future when I hold these myself I will need to gain some maturity.  So the most interesting part was at the end of the session when we had the question and answer part.  We passed around a bag so that they could submit questions anonymously.  Most I expected, a lot about candida, virginity, safe sex, etc. but just as it did when we did the "best response" game awhile back some of the questions were really disheartening.  Mostly because its a shock that they would have such extreme misconceptions.  These girls don't know who to turn to sometimes and  In light of this I have decided that I am doing counseling at the school, hopefully starting next term.  The staff has asked me multiple times and I have put it off because I am so busy, but I can't in good conscience do it anymore.  So I guess I'll be putting that psyc degree to some use as well!   Although I don't know how much help I can be when it comes to anything outside female issues and minor dilemmas.  Some of the girls have approached me with some extremely disturbing information and most of the time all I can do is listen and offer my support.

Moving on to less depressing things, the school recently just held their student elections which were really interesting to see.  Each candidate gave a 2 minute speech and then there was 1 minute for someone in the audience to ask a question.  WELL... if you couldn't get your question or comment in these girls said all they needed to with their signs!  Some of them were kind of mean, for example, "Your Not Fit, Try Fishing or Marriage" and some were funny "You wan't another rap? yes NYABO!" (that one is from museveni's latest presidential campaign.)  If it were me there is  no way I would run for an office unless I was sure I was loved, but in general they had fun and it was good to see the girls involved.  Then I went to help pass out ballots in one of my S2 classes... they were obviously stoked when they found out it was me and so I stuck around and talked with them about the elections for awhile after they were over.

I gave a test this past week to my math classes, and since there was only 10 minutes left in class by the time they completed, I opted for the previously popular game of "ASK ME ANYTHING" that I did back at Kajjansi.  The questions were mostly the same... what's your family like? where in america do you come from? How does school work there?  It made me appreciate being with all ladies because they were WAY MORE appropriate then they were back at my school based training where the school was mixed.  But the most popular question..... "Are you married?"  Everytime I answer NO they are really surprised.  Than I say single and in unison they all correct me "SEARCHING!"  They really don't understand how a woman could just be happily alone... your body will expire though yes madame? Then they follow it up with you marry a ugandan! Lastly when I tell them okay one more question... I hear someone say "madame you sample for us a song" and then the shouting begins again.  I have not submitted to the request although I am asked constantly.  I'm running out of excuses but it will be a miracle if I leave this school after two years without belting out a few notes no matter how horrible.  Hell I already gave into the dancing why do I have to sing!

The last thing on my agenda is to get something done about the caning at my school.  I finally witnessed it... I guess they had been doing it at night, but the other day I guess some girls were forging permission slips so they had a public beating at assembly...  I had to run home I thought I was going to lose it because I knew I couldn't of said anything, it wouldn't have helped.  So now I'm working on setting up a workshop on positive discipline for the faculty.  I pray that it works.

In conclusion, these girls are the reason I'm here... to be their teacher and their friend.  I couldn't of asked for better I learn more from them than I could ever teach.

Two of the senior girls trying to show me how to do this dance.... which I epically failed at

The girls all circled around talking Stacey and I into dancing

Girls making re-usable menstrual pads

Girls holding up signs of support or disapproval during their student elections