Pentathlon Students Wander No More

   You know when you can taste fear? When it creeps up slowly from the pit of your stomach, tightening each muscle as it passes until you're sure that it will eventually choke you from the inside out? That was how I felt at the pentathlon awards night. Most of our team was there (including three of our alternates) and we sat in the front row of an intimidating auditorium waiting to be called. We, the teachers, knew that our team had won a team award, but we did not know what place or what award. The students knew nothing about the awards. They have eight categories: Literature, Essay, Math, History, Science, overall individual, Superquiz team, and overall team. They begin by announcing 6th place winners in 7th grade then 8th grade and they move back and forth until they get to 1st place. Students often tie for each place, so there may be 8 or so winners for each place.
     They started with literature and I could feel the panic forming. We got no medals for 6th place...I suddenly panicked that we might not win any medals for literature and the world would know that I failed as a lit teacher! Fifth place was announced and still, no winners. I absently clapped for the other schools as they were called and I felt like I was going to die from nerves. Finally, for 4th place they called a kid from our school. I was relieved for a moment, but one 4th place winner was not good enough for me! I wanted more! The overachiever in me wanted at least four medals. Third place, no one. Second place - three winners!! I was so relieved! That was respectable. I had not failed them.
     The night continued on like this. Our lone eighth grade team was called up several times to the stage, with several students earning 3 or even 4 medals. Other schools had two, three, or even four teams so they were called more often. It was intimidating to hear their names called again and again. Some were from special advanced schools that offer pentathlon as a class during the regular school day. We heard schools' names called over and over again. But each time they called us, we cheered wildly and we teachers filled with pride.
     Some of our kids earned overall medals for doing well in every category. They were so excited and so proud of what they had done. Then came the team awards. For Superquiz (the best part of the competition where the kids compete in a form of group jeopardy! - sort of) we waited for them to call our names: 6th place, nothing, 5th place, nope, 4th place, still not us. We all looked at each other - could we have placed this high? 3rd place - not us, now we were getting really excited. Surely we won second, but 2nd place was not ours. The first place winners were many (I think 7 schools tied for first place) but we were the last school called and we went crazy. We all screamed and cheered and ran to the stage to receive the plaque.
    I love our alternates. They came to the awards ceremony without any expectations of receiving a prize (they did not compete on the competition day although they learned all the material too). They cheered for their classmates eagerly and when the team award was called, they cheered, but stayed in their seats. "Get up there!" I said from behind. "What?" "You are a part of this team and our team just won, get on stage!" They were filled with pride. I was too. What a great example of excellent attitudes these kids had. We had our pictures taken and then sat down as overall team awards were called out.
     It made sense that we would probably get a team award too, but as the places started climbing up, hope rose with it. We started whispering between us, "Could we have made top 3 here?" When we still weren't called at 2nd place, even the kids started giggling and looking toward each other with anticipation. Only 2 teams tied for first - the first one they called was a school in our district, we cheered for them loudly. Then they called us. It was like the ending to some cheesy Disney movie. Our little team from our little school stood, screamed, and ran to the stage. We had won first place overall! We beat out all the private schools, all the magnet schools with special classes, and our kids did it with sportsmanship and the best attitudes I've seen in a long time.
     They even did our cheer: "What team?" "Jaguars!" "What team?" "Jaguars!" "What team?" "Jaguars! Get your brain in the game!" Seriously like living in my own Disney movie.

What is Purple For?

Today is pi day and I really like to celebrate it. I mostly like to do this because I never let my kids have a day off. It's nice for them to get some relief from the normal day and also do something fun. We were talking a little bit about pi in the teacher's lounge and a fellow teacher asked, "Does pi really go on forever without repeating?"

"Yes, it's irrational," several math teachers responded at once.

"Irrational, what's that mean?"

"That it goes on forever without repeating," I responded.

"But how do you know? Are there other numbers that do this?"

             I was a little surprised, but I continued on and with the assistance of other math teachers, we started to explain about square roots of numbers like 7 or 10 and how we can approximate the decimal value of those numbers by multiplying by a series of more precise decimals that narrow down the upper and lower bounds, but that you can never find the exact decimal value of your answer. It makes more sense if I can explain it with a white board and some markers, but he understood.

"But what's it for?"

       What's it for? That threw me. Does it have to be for something? It's like teaching someone colors and they point to a swatch of color and ask,  'what's that?' and you say, 'purple' and they say, 'what's it for?' Purple's not for anything. I guess we use the word to describe things that are that color, but it's not like we'd be in an emergency situation asking if anyone nearby has some purple.

      I finally figured out that he was asking how it was used in math or life and I explained that you would use irrational numbers to describe the length of the hypotenuse of certain right triangles. Kind of like asking, "What things are purple?" which is a much more valid question.

     It made me realize that people think that math is like art or poetry or movies. And in one sense, it certainly is like those things in that it is beautiful, allows people to be creative, stimulates the mind and fills up a lot of our time. But it is different in that it is not made up. I mean there are parts of it that people just make up and we all agree on it, but in principal, math is not created, it is discovered. He thought that someone made up the idea of irrational numbers and then tried to use it, when really irrational numbers exist and someone finally found them and named them.

    Let's take pi, for instance. Pi was named pi by a Welsh dude in 1706 (William Jones). Why? Because he made up the name. With good reason and all that, but he made it up. That was his creative choice and a bunch of people agreed and now math cannon causes us all to follow this choice (or not, if you feel a little rebellious). But the essence of pi, it's existence and the refinement of our knowledge about pi is not created by the whim of a smart nerd. It is discovered. A bunch of people from ancient times on noticed that the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter is always equal to the same number, no matter what circle. When you get a constant like that, it seems like it might be interesting to study. So people did: Greeks, Egyptians, Babylonians, Israelites (Pi is mentioned in the Bible!!), and Chinese among others.

       Archimedes (on my top ten list for cool dead guys) refined our knowledge about pi and even gave it some upper and lower bounds. Not because he arbitrarily and creatively sat down to make up some number, but because he studied this number and found out some true things about it.

    So to summarize: Edison did not create electricity, neither did Ben Franklin, math and science are discovered. No group or body of people said, " What do you think we should make 2 + 5  equal?" 2 + 5 = 7 because we labeled (the creativity part) ** + ***** = ******* with certain symbols. This creativity part doesn't change the number of cows I have if I had 2 and you gave me 5. Who decided it was 7? It just is! The label may change, but the amount of cows I have does not.

   So there is my rant about how people think math is some made up set of arbitrary rules that people memorize so they can be super nerdy and prove that they have better memories than you. Math is about logical analysis of the world around us and it is described using a specific language. Ok, I feel a little better, thanks.

  I'm going to end this with my Pi-Ku for today. It's like a Haiku only with a 3-1-4 pattern
Oh, pi day,
joy
you bring to all

What is Love: A Junior High Perspective

I always ask my kids a non-math related question at the end of each test. The latest one was, "What is love? Give an example." and I got quite a few great answers and I thought I'd share some of them with you all.

Love is like a fat kid and food.

A four letter word

Love is finding happiness. It is unexplainable, but still it exists. Although it is not perfect, it can be healing or painful. The joy of a loved one around you is also different from the pain of losing a loved one. It can be found in the hardest places, but still it is there. It can be love for friends or family, each love has a different meaning. People say it is hard to find, but it is everywhere. The pain of losing your beloved dog is so terrifyingly hard to forget, while cuddling on a couch during the cold winter is very warm. It is different in every situation and person. It is undefined.

What is love? Baby, don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more.

Love is where people are willing to care for one another. To love someone that is not blood related to you is the most difficult and magnificent of all. If two people are willing to set aside their differences and are willing to protect one another. The couple must feel comfortable around each other and not let anything stop them from loving each other. This is love, the way it should be.

...sorry, I got nothing...

Backward it would spell Evol (Evil) Coincidence?

1. I believe there is a song with that title.
2. Scientifically, it is the urge in animals to reproduce. That's all.

God is love; He sent His only son to die for us.


    And that, my friends, is why I teach.

Loving Literature and Teaching Literature are Not the Same Thing

I love books. I love to read them and share them and talk about them. I love to analyze them and hear what other people think of them. When I was given the opportunity to teach a before school literature class once a week for an academic competition coming up, I jumped at the chance. I think I am a pretty good teacher and I really love teaching these academic team classes because there's no homework and everyone wants to be there. It's just learning for the sake of learning and it's fun.

  I read the book we were assigned to read, The Wanderer, and I really enjoyed it. Like all good literature, it was boring until it wasn't. There was a great twist eight chapters in and the ending made me cry. That's always a great sign. It has tons of symbolism that's really easy to see and the themes and tone are also easy to identify.  I even asked an English teacher friend of mine for advice on how to teach the novel. In addition to the novel, we were given three poems to discuss. I really liked the poems and couldn't wait to share them with my kids.

  I had visions of my kids sitting at my feet drinking in my literary wisdom and becoming deep thinkers themselves in the process. I could envision the lively conversations with kids shouting back and forth about their opinions, maybe even passionately debating a point or two.

  This was my vision, and it's sorta coming true but not really. They are doing a great job and trying really hard, but I feel like I keep saying, "So what does that mean?" waiting for a few kids to respond and then saying, "Yeah, here's what I think." I realized that loving something and being good at teaching it are two different things. I love math. I am good at teaching it. So it seemed like the natural chain of events. But I came to realize that my love for math is not what makes me good at teaching it. It is the fact that math never came naturally to me that makes me good at teaching it. Math was always a harder subject for me than English or history. So to help myself learn it, I made up weird stories or tricks. Integers aren't integers, they are warriors facing a battle of good vs. evil. And as far as trig goes, Sine is a girl and Cosine is a boy. They are siblings who both depend on their father figure, Tangent (don't make me explain that one to you, it only really makes sense to me.) So I teach math in this unconventional way and that helps my students enjoy it and understand it.

  I have trouble helping my kids see Literature in a more exciting way, because to me it is just by itself lovely and exciting. The beautiful flow of words in Byron's poem, "Solitude" just make me smile, while my kids get lost among the e'en's and 'tis' and 'twixt's. The good news is they are so smart and so willing to learn that as soon as the language is cleared up, they dive right in and analyze the poem for all it's worth. They didn't cry as they read the last few chapters of the book ("Is that Sophie, my Sophie?") but they certainly got a kick out of it when I cried as I read it to them. We knocked out some good vocab words (Kid 1:"What does 'smite the sounding furrows' mean again?" Kid 2: "Remember how God smote Ms. Dempsey's ipod touch because she was addicted to that cake game?" Kid 1:"Oh, yeah!") and they are better at identifying tone and simile.

  I just know that any success they have in literature will have more to do with their skills, than with mine. But even though I am faced with a weekly challenge of how to teach critical literary thinking and I feel totally not prepared for the task, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I certainly have even more respect for all of you English teachers out there and if you have any good teaching tips, I'll take 'em.

It Was All Going So Poorly and Then the Blood Poured Out

This year my sixth period is my most difficult class. They are a sweet group of very immature kids. They have only finished one complete lesson before the bell rang. That means they have stayed late after school every day since September, but one. They just can't seem to stop talking and stay focused. They are like a cauldron of boiling energy just waiting to spill out over the edge. They are by no means bad kids, they are kind and loving and love me, but they have no idea how to be good students. I direct them in this daily, but it doesn't seem to stick.

Today started and I knew that it would be one of those days were I was directing and redirecting a thousand times and I would potentially lose my voice and my patience. I began class with an activity and after explaining for 5-7 minutes in detail, half the class still didn't know what to do. I went to those groups and explained it again and after another 10 minutes or so, was ready to begin the discussion that would explain the purpose of the activity. After another 3 minutes or so we finally started to get to some meaty information (now about 5 minutes behind the other classes I had taught). Kids were generally settling down and focusing and understanding.

One boy was not participating with his partner and after several reminders was slowly frustrating his capable partner, Bob. The class started to get loud and I knew we were at a breaking point. If I didn't get them to quiet down immediately, there was no hope in finishing the lesson. As I was quieting them down, Bob asked to go to the restroom (a common request when real work is at hand). I told him no and passed out the papers for their notes. Suddenly blood spewed (and I mean spewed) from Bob's nose. He stood up (bleeding all over his desk and shirt) and tried to go to the supply closet. I told him he could totally go to the bathroom. I grabbed some napkins to hand him as he was going outside and specifically said, "Don't touch anything on his desk!" I stepped outside to give him the napkins and apologized for not letting him go to the bathroom earlier.

In the 3 seconds it took for me to do this, Bob's partner was touching the bloody paper on the desk! I screamed for him to stop. All I could think of was all the communicable diseases that this kids could potentially get by handling someone's blood. I said sternly, "Are you trained in how to properly handle blood? That is so dangerous!!" I think he was trying to be helpful and was using Bob's note paper to wipe up the desk.

I then did the only thing I could do - I tried to rescue my failing lesson. I kept to my script as I donned gloves and napkins, and Clorox wipes and cleaned and disposed of the blood. Bless their hearts, but the kids were not listening to a word I had to say about cups and pints. "You look like a doctor!" "Don't doctors get paid a lot?" "Doctors get paid more than teachers." "You did a good job cleaning that up, you should be a doctor."

I did the best I could. Bob returned with blood all over his shirt and then proceeded to take all of his notes. I think we can only be expected to handle so much and there was not much more anyone could do. I guess in this class, when it bleeds, it pours.

Things that secretly drive teachers crazy

For me, crazy is not a far drive from where I live. So it is quite easy for me to get there. But my kind of crazy is usually a pleasant kind - not the angry kind. But sometimes, in a rare blue moon, I can break. I am patient and can put up with a lot. I was well trained by my brothers to be patient in adversity. Yet there are some things that every teacher goes through that makes them eventually want to scream. Here is a condensed list:

1) Tapping. Tapping pencils, hands, feet or anything else against a desk. This is a classic trademark of an ADD or ADHD kid and when you have a room of 30 of them, man, it gets annoying.

2) Paper torn out of a spiral notebook. It may seem trivial, but when you are stacking papers and that one with the snowy frayed edge won't mesh with the others, it sticks out at angles and drags papers with it. Bother!

3) Inappropriate questions shouted out at inappropriate times. For example: "Ms. Dempsey, why aren't you married?" or "Where did you get your shoes?" shouted out while I am mid-sentence explaining how to solve one step equations.

4)Lies. Arggh, I say. I hate when a kid lies to me and then lies about lying. I once had a kid cheat on a test and then say he didn't copy from his neighbor. The question was to make up a word problem involving d=rt and the kid copied one from his neighbor...it had the neighbor's name in the problem.

I think I'll stop writing this blog, because it's starting to feel very negative and negativity was going to be number 5. I do love my job and I do love the kids that make me go over the edge sometimes. I just wish you could have seen the kid in one of my classes who literally acted like a monkey after he was done with his test. His hands were shaking above his head and he was swinging his head back and forth and tapping his feet. He was acting this way because I asked him to stop tapping at least 5 times in a row that day and he knew that if his hands were down, he would tap again. I wish I had had a camera to tape it. I just stared at him and had to laugh...at least he wasn't tapping.

Drugs make me sad.

Some strange things have been happening at my school this past week. You may know that this is red ribbon week - a week in which we focus on drug use prevention. I have a discussion with each of my class periods about drug use and I always seem to get some pretty interesting conversations.

I was pretty disturbed, but not surprised, at the large number of students who said, "When my dad gets drunk..." not "one time my dad got drunk..." but "when". For my geometry classes I discussed high school and college temptations. I told them that this was the time in their lives where they could choose who they would be. They should choose now the kind of person they want to be so that when they are in those situations, they have already made their decision. I told them that I decided to never get drunk. That meant that when people invited me to drink in college, I didn't have to think under pressure. I just knew that I would say no.

This was my speech I gave on Monday and apparently I should have given it on Friday. On Friday six students at my school, six beautiful girls, decided to take ecstasy while on campus. One of them was a sweet girl I had last year and the other is a really cool kid I have this year in geometry! I'm so mad! What could they possibly be thinking? I'm just so overwhelmed by the sin in the world. People make such stupid choices and they can have such long term repercussions. I hope that these students learn from this and decide to never do this again.

As an empath, this hurts. I told my kids that if I heard that they were doing any drugs, I would hunt them down and yell at them. Now that I really have this situation in front of me, I don't know how to respond. Drugs suck!

Determining your levels of fatigue

I am tired. This is a common thing for me. I do too much and I don't sleep. Plus, I haven't been exercising, which just exacerbates the problem. Since I always seem to complain of being tired (my Grandpa Dempsey used to ask if I was bitten by a TsiTsi fly when I was in high school) I thought it would be helpful to create a set of sleepiness levels.

Level 1: tired
This is when you've had a long day and you put your feet up after a long day of work and think, "Man, I had a long day." You don't feel so very tired, but just a little after a long day of work

Level 2: nappy
Your eyes won't stay open and you just want to close them. If you need to get up and do something you can, but you might not want to.

Level 3: slow
It seems that everything goes just a bit slower; waking up, getting ready, starting your day, even speaking. It all is a little slower than normal

Level 4: eyes hurting, light burning, no waking...
The alarm is evil, your eyes won't open and you think that maybe you can get ready in 30 minutes instead of an hour. Suddenly, doing hair and make-up seem insignificant.

Level 5: counting down to sitting down
You prep yourself with, "If I just get through the next hour, I can sit down and rest for five minutes." You go through this for the whole day. The drive home takes too long and you can't wait to not do anything but sit and rest.

Level 6: Emotional and physical breakdown
Words don't form complete sentences and sense making is not what you are doing. This making you sad and worried and emotional and stuff...much difficult when your job is speak and teach. So tired...no words...want sleep...

I really reached level 6 on Wednesday. I even cancelled my two/three normal Wednesday activities after school. I did have to drive to Target to buy cards, cheese, crackers, and soda for a work party the next day. I was really mad that I had to go when I felt so tired. I nearly got into a car accident and I grumbled the whole time. I did buy myself a People magazine (for the first time in 8 years or so) about High School Musical 3. That made me a little happier. I also started doing yoga again and I think that the stretching is helping me sleep better and then maybe I'll only be at a level 2. Here's hoping...

More about Africa

Well, many people are wondering what I really did while in Africa. Not that I'm some international spy with a secret agenda or something, it's just that I haven't been able to share a complete itinerary. So here's a little more about what I've done.

Days 1-3ish:
I traveled over 28 hours to get to Entebbe, drove to Kampala, drove to Mbale, and drove to Karamoja. This took a long time, but was an excellent way to get introduced to Africa. I was able to meet lots of Ugandans and missionaries. I went to a birthday party and helped some kids get ready for a costume party (I altered a dress to make a girl into Jane Austen). The drives were over some paved and mostly muddy roads.

Days 4-19: Life in Karamoja
Karamoja is a remote area of Uganda that even Ugandans don't visit. They are fearing the Karamajong because they were very violent with warring tribes. They have been disarmed over the past 3 years and are very friendly with those who don't have cows or don't want to steal their cows.

I spent each weekday doing math with the five Wright kids (missionary kids who just got back from a year in America) and helping the Wrights set up their math curriculum for the year. The kids were great to work with. Each one was unique in their math thinking and their need of me. They were very sweet to get started on school before summer was over.

I was also able to teach Bible lessons in neighboring villages. We used picture cards and translators (most people spoke Karamajong) to teach the lessons. Before and after the lessons we sang songs to the rhythm of the children clapping. They were great singers. After prayer, each kid got a vitamin. This was a great part of my experience. One time, the kids wanted to dance with me. We jumped in circles (it was actually much like dances here, but cleaner dancing) and while we jumped others clapped and sang.

One week, I was able to teach in the public schools with other people in my group. We had a curriculum on oceans. It started with a Bible lesson related to oceans and then I taught with Martha Wright on oceans. The kids had a very minimal understanding of geography and even less about the oceans. On our last day, we showed them a video on the ocean and that was amazing. Many had never seen a movie before.

Days 20-22: Touring
The missionaries I helped were generous and treated me to a mini-vacation on the Nile. We stayed in an amazing resort on Lake Victoria, took a tour of the Nile, shopped in Jinja, and drove to the mall in Kampala. It was so luxurious and I felt spoiled. The Nile tour was just like the Jungle Cruise. Sadly, no one was from CA so no one understood the reason for my giggles. But let's face it, that happens a lot to me.

I flew home (as I already wrote) and I was happy to see everyone again. I still feel like I could have stayed for two more weeks. I definitely want to go back. Don't panic about me leaving for good. I love CA so much, especially the people here. Leaving for good is just too hard to think about with the beautiful ocean breeze blowing in my face and my church family surrounding me at the beach party. I live a charmed life.

I am home! Alakara for your prayers.

I got home yesterday afternoon. I did the math and figured out that by the time I met up with my parents and brother at LAX, I had travelled for 28 hours and was awake for 40. My trip home was pleasantly uneventful and it did not feel as long as 28 hours should feel. This time around I was able to travel with the group of people who got to Karamoja before I did. This included some of the Bill Wright family (Bill, Jeremiah, and Annie), Isaac, Becky, and Gayle. It was so nice to have people around me who were as concerned about my safety and well being as I was about their's. On the second flight of the day, I had two seats all to myself! It was a total blessing. I even got to sleep with my feet up!
Let me just take a moment to thank you all for reading and praying for me. I'm sorry that I didn't get to blog every day. I really wanted to write every detail down so that you might know each little story that I've accumulated. I wrote an extensive journal that did just that, but I found that I write better on the computer than I do on paper - stylistically speaking.
This blog is by no means the last of the Unganda blogs, but it is a summary blog of things I've learned from this trip.

Things I've learned:

1) God love's me in the details. I've known that God loves me. I've known it as much as I've known anything. But as I learn more about my own sin, it becomes harder for me to feel that God likes me. I know that He has plans for me and I trust that, but does He sit from heaven and look at me and ever smile or desire to pat me on the head (metaphorically speaking) like my own father might? Well, this trip has helped me see that He does. I call them my love notes from God and there were lots of them. Strangers that spoke to me while traveling, speaking just the right things to make me feel safe or hopeful or cheered up. Beautiful scenes of nature that only I saw. Love from the local kids that filled me with that joy that I get when I teach. Little bits of home that would bring me peace at just the right time. Every prayer I prayed in fear, every petition I made in urgency - God answered with a resounding "YES!" God protected me and made me comfortable during my whole stay - even with malaria.

2) Kids are kids everywhere. While working in the schools I met lots of kids who have difficult lives. They work hard doing physical labor, many are undernourished, they live with the fear of sickness and death, and they are at a level of poverty that I don't think I've ever seen before anywhere. Yet when I got out my camera to take pictures, the boys would show me their strong man poses and make silly faces. The girls would smile and giggle and stand with their friends. The kids played and sang songs and danced (I learned that I dance much better in Africa than I do in America), they got frustrated with their teachers, whispered during class, doodled, some were eager to answer questions and some wanted to blend into the shadows. Man, do I love kids.

3) I love warm water. I don't think there needs to be any explanation except that I nearly cried with joy at my warm shower I took back home.

4) Africa is a beautiful and diverse place. It is not as scary as it may seem and there are so many friendly people. The natural beauty is much greener than I expected and the animal life I saw was much more normal than I expected. In the bigger cities there are many people from all over Africa, India, and the middle East.

5) I love laws and regulations. Rousseau wrote, "Man is born free and is everywhere in chains." I say, "Yes, and I'm so glad." In Unganda and particularly Karamoja, there are laws and some of them are enforced. Yet there are lots of freedoms. I rode on the back of a truck up a winding dirt road - and had a blast. You can build any building out of any materials for whatever purpose. Anyone can come into the schools and teach. You can show up to school or not - even if you're the teacher. Sonogram techs can start IV's in the hospital or even do medical treatment. You can buy drugs at the pharmacy without a prescription.
Some of these freedoms are fine if the people you're with are trustworthy, but it is easy to see what happens to the society because of these freedoms. I really appreciate how safe and clean America is.

6) I am rich beyond belief. I've always felt that I am wealthy. I'm not just talking in the fluffy-It's-a-wonderful-life-I-am-rich-with-friends kind of way. I've always been so thankful that I have a paycheck and a nice house, and I can buy pretty much whatever I want whenever I want or fly on trips each year. I am amazed at my own wealth even though it may not compare to many in America. When I went into my giant bathroom this morning and I looked at my tile and my toothbrush and all my stuff, I wondered what the Karamajong would think of my house and I realized that to them I live in ultimate luxery. And I do.

7) I know how to teach. Even with a translator, teaching and connecting with people in that way was the most fun I had the whole trip. I was born to be a teacher.

8) I have great family and friends. I knew this before I left, but having a forced disconnect from them really made me feel the need I have for them and them specifically, not just friends in general. There were lots of nice people there whom I bonded with and who are now a part of my circle of friends, but they did not fill those holes in my heart for my friends and family here.

9) Malaria's not that bad if you treat it. I had one bad night and that was it. I feel totally fine and when people kept asking how I felt I kept wondering why. I forgot that I had malaria. I think that it's gone now, but I'm going to still take my medication for a couple more days. The time I had the flu this year and went to the doctors was so much worse than malaria that I would rather have malaria than the flu. Really.

10) Kids grow fast. When I saw Natalie yesterday, I cried. She turned into a toddler while I was away. Michael is now a tall boy, and Karis - well, I knew she'd be different, but she was sooo much bigger. That made me feel like I'd been gone a long time. Their hugs and love and periodic kisses during our evening together made me feel like I was truly back home.

Well, I'm off to condense my 12 gigs of photos into something digestable for the rest of the world. My mom is willing to help me in this and I'm sure it will take us a couple days. Keep reading updates as I tell more stories. Thanks for reading and supporting me in this. It was a great experience and there wasn't one moment that I regretted.

FAQ from Uganda

It's been a while since I've been able to get on the internet, so here are some FAQ's that have come up.
1) How can you have an FAQ page when you've spoken to no one in America in a week?
A: Well, I have a great imagination and can pretend what people would ask. Plus, I've spoken to my parents three times on the phone.

2) Q: How have you communicated with your parents?
A: Someone loaned us an international cell phone and we are able to receive calls on it. My parents have the number, if you want to call.

3) Q: How are the bugs?
A: There are very few bugs here. I've seen bees, flies, ants, wasps, mosquitos, centepedes, ticks, and a preying mantus. They don't cover our feet or hide in our shoes. It's actually pretty nice.

4) Q: What's the weather like?
A: It's a little more humid than Southern CA, but the heat is similar to home. We do have a rain storm almost every day, in fact there's one happening right now. It comes, pours, and leaves. I love the rain here.

5) Q: Do you have indoor plumbing?
A: Yes! We have an indoor shower, toilet, and sink. The water comes from a well and is purified, so it's drinkable. The accomodations are actually very comfortable.

6) Q: What do you eat?
A: For breakfast I've been eating cereal and sometimes homemade bread. For lunch we have beans, rice and cabbage - every day! For dinner we are sometimes asked over to some missionaries homes, sometimes we (the other visitors and I) make dinner together. There is a kitchen with a gas stove that runs on propane. I've learned to make bread and variations of other recipies. There are many good cooks here.

7) Q: Where are you staying and who else is there?
A: The compound is composed of 4 or so buildings. There are currently 3 missionary families on the compound and each has their own house on the compound. All are an easy walk from each other. The other people here who are visiting are a family called the Wrights (not the missionary family, but an unrelated group of Wrights), a kid named Isaac, a girl named Eden (who will be teaching this school year), a student named Becky (who is researching the effect of the clinic on the Karamajong), and a Dr. named Gayle (who is also my roommate). Five others just left today. I will miss them, especially my dear Goodheart girls from CA. I'll see them soon though.

8) Q: How's teaching going?
A: Very well. It was hard at first to convince the missionary kids (MK) that they had to end their math summer early and work with me. They were very patient and now we are in the swing. I give each kid an assignment every day, grade it, and then review the next day with them individually. There are five kids I'm working with in 4 subjects. I'm really enjoying them. I feel like I'm actually being usful.

9) Q: Is it scary where you are?
A: NO! The people were disarmed a few years ago and the government has been very effective. The people are so friendly. My camera has been an amazing tool of friendship. They love to look at the pictures I take of them and their friends. That has been a joy.

10) Q: Do you have malaria?
A: Not yet, but I think I probably will get it at some point. It seems that this is a bad malaria year and especially for people taking the anti-malaria meds I'm taking. The good news is that most people have not had it very bad, just like a mild case of the flu. I'm trying to be careful, but there's not much you can do about it.

11) Q: Have you been able to go to the local schools?
A: I've visited two villages and one school. The children are pretty great. I was able to tell one story with a translator and that was fun. Once we were invited to dance with the kids. I jumped and they laughed at my Mzungu (white girl) ways. Next week I will be able to teach in the local school about the ocean, something these kids have never seen. That is absolutely amazing to me. I know that I am blessed, but to have the richness of fullness of my life contrasted with the poverty and smallness of their lives is still shocking.

12) Q: What language do they speak there?
A: The national language of Uganda is English, but it is spoken with a great accent that makes it hard for us to understand each other. Everyone speaks so precisely and clearly - no contractions at all. I will find myself talking like this much after I am gone from this very place (that was an example of the syntax that people use too). In the region I am in, they speak Karamajong. It is a difficult language in someways, but I am slowly learning. People are able to understand my hello and thank you much more now.

13) Q:Are you homesick?
A: I was very homesick on Sunday. I missed my family and was unable to talk to anyone in any way. Not having consistant internet is hard. I miss talking to my family with ease and telling Julie about the day to day nothings of life. And yet, I am blessed to not be miserable. This place is very comfortable and the people are so kind.

I will try to keep posting as much as I can so keep reading. Thanks for your prayers, God has been so gracious and protecting. This is a wonderful experience.