Primary 7

All teachers were attending a meeting this afternoon (it was still going when I left school!), and I was given the pick of the school to teach.  I chose to have 2 hours with Primary 7.  Whilst Primary 2 and 3 have been fun, there is no comparison to the time spent with Primary 7 today.  They have mastered English and have enquiring minds, just hungry to soak up anything you tell them.  Discipline is also outstanding.  So I've already explained the way that classes work over here.  Well, in Primary 7 the ages range from 10 to 16.  It made for a very interesting afternoon with them.

I walked in.  They stood up and greeted me.  I greeted them.  They sat down in silence.  Soon enough the atmosphere relaxed a bit.  I split the afternoon into two parts.  The first part was a little introduction about life for me back home in England and questions from them.  Their questions included:
"What would you say is the most visited landmark in England and why?"
"Would you tell us about all the different modes of transport in your Country and which is most commonly used."  (They were astonished to learn about the London Tube and escalators!)
"How does the government in your Country choose to use money collected from tax contributions?"
"How is your Prime Minister elected?"
"Would you tell us about the crops you produce in your Country and what you import.  Is anything exported?"
"Is pollution a problem in your Country?"
"Do you have any valuable minerals in England?"
"Do you have to pay for education and healthcare?"

The second part of the afternoon was their chance to teach me about Uganda, and my goodness how they rose to the challenge!  I split them into 6 groups of 10.  They had 15 minutes to prepare a 5 minute presentation (roleplays encouraged), in which everybody must speak.  Their target audience were foreigners who knew very little about Uganda (i.e. ME!).  These were the topics covered by the groups:
1.  Family life at home:  traditions, roles, routines etc.
2.  School life
3.  Food and farming
4.  Religion and traditional beliefs

5.  Landscape and climate
6.  If I were president:  wishes for Uganda's Future.

The presentations were fantastic!  Some of them very funny, particularly topic 4 which featured a child falling sick and the mother taking the child to the witchdoctor.  This role was played by Moses who had bands of chalk all over his face and he was shaking various pencil tins and making a racket as he 'cast his spells'.

The final group did an astonishing job.  Their wishes were for laws to protect the vote of the individual.  It is felt here that, no matter how the majority vote, the man with the most money and power will always win.  They also asked for a crackdown on poaching and smuggling.  They wanted a better standard of hotels in Uganda so that tourists would be more inclined to come to visit.  And they wanted a law to be introduced which would make it compulsory to run clean vehicles on the roads.  They would certainly get my vote.

This was their first ever presentation task.  And they walked out of the room that little bit taller.  I continue to be enchanted by the people I meet here.