Our thanks to Catherine Hanna for putting together the following blog about the TEX orientation in New York City!
This year’s team of Ugandan partner teachers in the Teacher Exchange Program have arrived! Otim Walter, the Head Teacher of Pabo SS; Lacere Churchill, the Head Teacher of Sir Samuel Baker; Oola Elizabeth, an English teacher at Sir Samuel Baker; Ajio Rosemary, an English teacher at Sacred Heart; and Joseph Luke, a Geography teacher at Laybi, were escorted by Schools for Schools Program Officer Jennifer Lebuke. Their 2-day journey took them from the 90-degree weather of Gulu, Uganda to the frigid “concrete jungle” of New York City.
The Team stepped off the plane with weary smiles, and minutes later we threw them into taxi cabs and into “the nation’s thyroid gland” (as Christopher Morley would say). What other initiation into the United States could be more appropriate than hustling through the neon, holiday-sprinkled, bumper-to-bumper streets of NYC—where so many travelers have arrived throughout history in search of adventure and redefining themselves. Lacere Churchill, a History and Geography teacher said, “I am excited to see the real-life things that I have been teaching about for so long.”
The Ugandan team arrived at the hostel and were welcomed by the American hosts, their old friends from previous summers in Uganda. The next morning’s orientation session was opened with an old saying: “It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story.” This was an invitation to connect with one another, despite the distance of space, culture and history. It has been our belief and practice in the Teacher Exchange Program that some conversations are better had on our feet, so we spent the next four days exploring the purpose of our program through conversation, storytelling, drama and play. And of course we took advantage of NYC. We visited the tree at Rockefeller Center, got lost in the sea of elbow-to-elbow New Year’s tourists in Times Square, caught a Broadway show and wished one another a happy New Year as we watched the ball drop. Elizabeth shared, “This has been my dream, to come to New York City. So I have accomplished that dream.”
And that was just the beginning….Now the teachers have left New York City and gone to their placements all over the country to partner-teach in schools for the next four weeks. During their partnerships they will share in professional and cultural exchanges to develop their practice as educators and broaden their view of the world. Then they will bring these insights back to their students and communities in Uganda.
(Photo credit: Mallorie Tull, Invisible Children)
