SHSS / Fourth of July Party

Today was our school visitiation day for Sacred Heart. All four of the American teachers working there got on boda bodas in long dresses so we have to sit side saddle and went on a 20 minute ride to get to our school (car taxis do not really exist here, so you get a boda boda which is a motorbike). Once we got there we met Peter the director of studies and got a tour of the school. The campus is beautiful, there are many construction projects underway. Unfortunately our teachers were not in school! My teacher was protoring a mock exam. I thought it was at our school but it was not. It was a school in the center of town. Therefore we only got a tour and then left for the day.

While a bittersweet start to the day, it was our 4th of July party!! Once we got home we had a meeting to join together group 1 (teachers who had been in Gulu since June 14th) and my group 2 (we arrived in Gulu on June 28th). We had a discussion on Pedogogy for Liberation by Friere. Then we prepared for the party. Awere Secondary School, a school which is in a village some distance from town, came to perform for us traditional Acoli dances. It was marvelous. One of the students I taught from Layibi was part of the dance troupe. He told me about his hardships with being able to pay school fees and then having to drop out of Layibi, a top secondary school in this region. IC has instructed us that we cannot indivisually support students. I would love to say I would pay for his school fees but when would it end? Who could I say no to afterwards? How would I be able to follow up and make sure he was doing well? I will trust in how Invisible Children works in Gulu. I recommended he apply for the sponsorship program. I will let people in the office know his name and pray that he applies and is chosen.

Afterwards we had our adult 4th of July party (on Saturday July 3rd) and it was wonderful! It was a great mix of Acoli and mzungus (foreigners). We had rented a DJ and gotten snacks and drinks from town. Each teacher donated $6 US to cover all the expenses. Many people from the neighborhood looked on and danced from the other side of the wire linked fence (don't really know how I feel about that yet...)

I danced so much that the dress I was wearing had sweat from the top to the bottom and my arms got chaffed from rubbing up against it! I got complimented many times by different Acolis on my dancing abilities :)

I passed out from exhaustion at the end of the night.