Masaka

I found out my placement yesterday. I am going to be living in Masaka District right outside of Masaka town!! I am totally stoked to go there in a week. For those of you who have no clue where that is, let me fill you in. Masaka District borders Lake Victoria and is one district away from the border of Tanzania. Masaka town itself is apparently fairly good-sized but I will live 3K outside of it, so pretty close to say the least. I am not going to be working at a Coordinating Center as I had originally thought, but I am working as a teacher at a Primary Teachers College. I will be teaching there throughout the school year as well as doing outreach programs for the local community. According to research that I have done here at the internet cafe, the region that I will be in was hit the worst by the HIV/AIDS epidimic in all of Uganda. Not only that, but apparently it was rampaged by war during both the dictatorship of Iddi Amin as well as Obote. Because of this fact there were a lot of orphans, but Masaka district is currently in the rebuilding phase and has supposedly come a long way since its hardship. It seems like there is a lot to be done there and that excites me. :)

Well... I dont have much time, but will try to write this weekend when I am in Kampala. Love you all and miss you all!!

On another note, I was talking to some locals about how much a Ugandan teacher gets paid versus an American teacher and was astounded at the facts. Since many of you are teachers yourselves (and many of you have moaned about the salaries of American teachers) I would like to enlightening you about the plight of the Ugandan teacher. Ugandan primary teachers begin their days at 7 AM. They enter a class of anywhere from 100-200 students, usually without any books or materials. Most children bring a notebook and pencil to class with them. After a LONG day of work, teachers usually leave the schools at 5. Thats a 10 hour work day people. The average Ugandan primary teacher makes 200,000 shillings PER MONTH. For those of you who arent up to date on the dollar/shilling exchange rate, that comes out to a little under $100 Us dollars. When I substituted at Prarie Point, I made that much in a single day. Now granted, the cost of living here is lower, but not 30 times lower! Just thought I would make a little point to remind everyone that we as Americans still have it better than 99% of people on this earth and therefore should be thankful!!