this week...

this has been a busy week. on monday and tuesday, i visited some women and continued taping their stories and rolling beads and stringing necklaces. i look forward to sitting with the women individually and in small groups. getting to know them is sometimes very easy: i ask them if they would like to be videotaped and 40 minutes later i have heard about their home village near kitgum or pader, how they used to plant food and go to the river for water, how they had to leave because of the rebels, continue to struggle in jinja years later, and have hope beyond hope that they will be allowed to return to thier homeland with their family. Sometimes communication is not so straightforward: i will ask if i can sit and roll beads. a plate of beads and string is set in front of me and we may sit in silence for one hour. i will ask a question and get a shy smile or "i am fine." i imagine in those situations that actions speak louder than words and being there is being there and not being anywhere else.

On Wednesday, I went to literacy class #2. Twenty women were sitting in the Suubi building chatting. I arrived in typical dusty, sweaty, child parading fashion. We sat in a large circle and introduced ourselves. Two of the women had a firm grasp of english and translated for me. I handed out spiral notebooks and pens (thanks for all the pens!) We explored the concept of the clicky pen. (for some women it was their first time) and wrote our names in the front of the book. Some women did not know how to write their name, so we dotted out their first name for them to trace. We practiced our alphabet and had our first challenge of going around the circle and doing the whole alphabet together. We then wrote capital letter in the notebook and drew them in the air with our arms. Women kept arriving as the class went on and more and more children were clinging to the outside of the walls. By the end, I think we may have had more than 25. Most of the women were practicing intently, especially on writing letters. When the woman next to me asked if i could check her work, every single other woman held up their paper for me to approve.

We will continue with our alphabet this week and move on to numbers and colors in the following weeks. I am excited that they are invested in learning and practicing and hope the same women continue to attend. I think juice and cookies are good motivators. I know progress will be slow as this is probably the only time they practice speaking and writing english, but we will continue on.

I'm looking forward to going to the market tomorrow and buying paper. Later in the afternoon, I'm going to find Joyce, who sang and place the drums at our super fun african booty shaking dance-fest yesterday. she seems like a pretty cool lady to hang out with.