March 26, 2014

            Happy DEAR Day! Today was Uganda’s first National DEAR Day. PCVs across Uganda at primary schools, secondary schools, and PTCs all took part in DEAR Day activities. In case you don’t know, DEAR stands for Drop Everything And Read. I know schools in America participate in DEAR Day, so in order to promote literacy across schools in Uganda, a DEAR Day was arranged, even supported by the Ugandan Ministry of Education. Activities were to begin at 11 am and for at least a half hour everyone was supposed to do nothing but read. I tried the best I could with my school. None of the teachers, besides my principal, wanted to participate in it. Usually on Wednesdays the kids go to mass in the morning and then clean the compound pretty much until lunchtime and maybe have classes in the afternoon. It took a lot for me to convince my principal to not have the kids clean in the morning so we could do this. The girls had gone back to the girls’ school to clean, so it was just the boys! Thank goodness for Taylor. Since I’m still new to this teaching thing, DEAR Day was scary for me and I didn’t exactly know what to do. There aren’t enough books at my school to give one to every kid, nor could they read them anyway if there were, so we decided to read one book to the whole group. I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Taylor did a comprehension activity and then we played a game! Some people did some really big, great things for DEAR Day and I try not to compare myself to them, but sometimes it’s hard. Regardless, what we did worked for me and my school and the kids really enjoyed themselves! I even gave out a certificate and prize to the best DEAR Dayer. I can’t wait to get enough books that next year each student will have his/her own book to read during DEAR Day. By that time next year I really want the students and teachers to understand why reading is so important. Growing up, every single night before bed I would read. First it started with my parents reading to me and then me on my own. By middle school I was getting in trouble for reading during class. I want these kids to have the opportunity to love reading as much as I do. The teachers at my school really want to implement library (aka reading) times throughout the week, but no one wants to take the initiative to change the timetable or be the teacher for it. We’ll see what happens next term. Anyway, I think DEAR Day was a great start for what’s to come at school!