Yes, yes I am a mizungu

So one of the cool things that I get to do here is to work in the primary school classrooms and help the teachers with whatever they need. So far I am teaching math and English with 3rd and 4th grade and I love it.  It feels so good to be teaching and be in a classroom again. it's funny, it's like it's a part of me now and it's as though something is missing when i don't get to stand up in front of a group of kids and boss people around. but they are good kids and don't need much bossing, which is nice. One thing we have trouble with though is communicating. Because their primary language is Luganda and they are still learning english, I find that I have to speak extremely slow for them and at times we both have trouble understanding each other's accents. The other day I was explaining something and said the word city and they could not understand me until i gave a full description of the word and then after a few minutes someone finally shouted out "oh, ci-ty" and then everyone in the class started nodding and repeating "oh, ci-ty" and looking at me like i was re-tar-ded. It was pretty funny.
My schedule at the school is a little crazy as they don't really set up a schedule for me at all but allow me to wander from class to class as I choose or as I finish. I do that until lunch and then after lunch I take over for a teacher who is a family parent for one of the New Hope children family groups. Each day has definitely been an adventure filling that role. I've done everything from art projects to gardening to PE and nothing really ever goes as I expect it, in both a good and a bad way. But definitely the most awesome day so far with that class was today when I was actually in charge of 2 classes at once and so, to keep them all occupied and in one central location I thought we'd do something on the field outside. Mind you, each class has 25 kids, so that is 50 kids that i had to make sure didn't fall into the well, or get bitten by a snake, or, i don't know, die. So the best thing I could think of was to set up a soccer match, which they call football here. We walked out, I set one class vs. another, threw the ball into the air, and let them play, completely unaware of the chaos that would ensue. Unbeknownst to me, girls to not play football here, and so when they were given this opportunity to actually step onto the field and try and play with the boys the girls went crazy! they got into a massive clump and just started screaming and swinging their legs, even when the ball was clear across the field. I've never seen anything like it. After about a minute of this all the boys started running up to me insisting that the girls get off the field so that they could actually play. I couldn't really blame them for this as I watched the craziness from the sideline and as a compromise I gave the girls 10 minutes on the field while the boys sat on the side and then switched it so the boys could play for 10 while the girls sat. At first the boys were mad that they had to leave first, but finally consented knowing they would have the field to themselves in a few minutes. It was funny watching them though as they paced the sidelines and continuously asking me how much time was left till they got to play. As this was going on, it started to rain a few drops here and there and then started to pour, like really pour. I assumed that all the girls were going to start screaming and running for cover under the trees but they kept right on playing as though the rain wasn't even there. And I'm talking serious rain, like when your shirt is soaked in the span of a minute. And do you know, we played football in that rain for an hour? We alternated boys and girls until I had to force them to go home. School had already been dismissed for 15 minutes and we were still playing. Water was dripping from every inch of us, our clothes, our hair, our eyelashes, it was amazing. Probably one of my favorite memories so far being here. I tried to play with each team to make it fair, and i think it only helped the opposite team. When it rains that hard all you are running on is water. The field becomes a slip and slide and with most children going without shoes, you slide everywhere. I fell down numerous times trying to get the ball, everyone was. And then when you get up all the kids rush up to you and say sorry, aunt, as though it is their fault that your pampered white feet with painted toenails are not as strong and sturdy as their tough-skinned black feet. The word for white person is mizungu, and I definitely showed my mizungu colors today.