This entry is being made on the off chance that someday I might want to recall the first day of the Busingiro Environmental Education Program – but at present it seems pretty remote.
The practice run was scheduled for yesterday with parents of P-6 students from St Joseph’s Busingiro but on Saturday it was announced that there would be special elections on Tuesday so the parents would come on Wednesday and the kids on Tuesday. Then the elections were postponed – this is Africa, remember – so the parents, a.k.a. guinea pigs, came Tuesday and their kids came today.
Amnon, the grinning idiot of a teacher, didn’t show up until after 9:00am. Seems Sparky (my other name for him) got a late start to Masindi on Monday and ended up spending the night. So Vincent and I got things ready and when Sparky showed up I had a near terminal case of the red ass. They hadn’t seen me angry and I doubt they want to see it again.
We have had all the materials for the program for a month now and I have only gone through it once with them. That’s all they thought they would need! And there was no additional individual practice either! The guys said it would be easy. They were wrong. It was a disaster.
We did a de-brief and some instruction yesterday afternoon and this morning went a lot better but it still needs work. The SONSO girls, Anna, Sarah, and Zarin came by to watch and I missed some of the lessons while escorting them around. After the kids left I took the guys through several lessons and expected they would practice this afternoon while I went to Masindi for propane but they sat around waiting for some birders who never showed. They are not doing well with the transition from NFA guides to JGI teachers. We will see how much initiative they show tomorrow.
