"You are welcome our DEAR visitors"

“We are happy to see you here”
“Something…something else something…”
“I don’t remember the rest of the song”

^A song that Ugandans sing all the time to visitors they receive. (so maybe I should remember the lyrics..??)

Anyway, today was DEAR Day.

“WOW! Like, OMG! WHAT DOES THAT MEAN??!?!?” <-your reaction

Reading culture isn’t here and most of my pupils can’t read anyway because of how little it’s emphasized on in school. So, PCVs all over the country organized so that we would all Drop Everything And Read (acronym making sense now?) on this day to encourage reading. My awesome fellow PCV who was in charge of the whole thing organized it so my school would get a visitor from the US Embassy, which was a huge deal! Also, a Peace Corps staff member came to visit. Needless to say, that really pumped up my school for this event and I think we all had a great time.

The assembly

We first held an assembly where our embassy visitor read a short story called “The New Ball” in English to the 900 pupils. Two other teachers translated into the local language and 15 other teachers acted out the story in the background. Lots of laughs were had at watching the teachers trying to get a hold of the ball. Then everyone went back to their rooms and the teachers conducted a reading activity with their own class. They really enjoyed having the visitors and showing off their reading skills. It was nice to see the eagerness and hear kids telling me they wanted books when it was all over. Yay reading for fun!

Some teachers had their pupils write
and read their own stories

Some teachers had their pupils read
together in groups

And some teachers did old fashion
read to the class :)

Today really made me appreciate my teachers, pupils, and school in general even more so. I really am in love with these people and this place and I feel very lucky to be here. Makes me sad to think I only have 9 months left... It's really gonna fly!