I woke up at 7 to make the morning minyan which starts between 7 and 7:30...usually. Of course, this being Uganda time, I and one other muzungu arrived at 7:15--to an empty shul. To be fair, it was raining, which may have discouraged some from making the trek. In the end, there were 7 of us, so alas the morning minyan became merely the "morning 7 randos praying together." After minyan and breakfast, I sat down with Eria, the chairman of the Abayudaya board, which as I ironed out today, is different from the executive committee. The board sits above the executive committee, and it was established upon the rabbi's return from rabbinical school in the U.S. to oversee the committee, which includes all of the project coordinators (such as the heads of the schools, clinic and other community run projects). The board is a smaller group of community members, and it is they who approve the projects the committee is interested. Eria is quite young (b. 1983) but was personally tapped by the rabbi as a candidate for the position, and is the first board head there's ever been. He described to me the challenges of being young person in that position of power (getting people to listen to you can be more difficult) which is sometimes exacerbated by the fact that he lacks the American contacts others have. We discussed many aspects of community issues and struggles, but his most-stressed point was far and away the strongest: this community needs sustainable institutions. He says these have been hard to garner funding for, but that somewhat odd-sounding projects could be the key--such as a milling machine for the primary school, which would help cut down food costs for the schools as well as provide a business opportunity for community members to run and the community to benefit from. Having institutions that give community members jobs, and having students pursue degrees that are applicable to such positions, is also a key area that he and his board are trying to work on. (There was much more--one of the best interviews I've had! Any specific questions I'll try answer them!)
After the interview I went to SK to grade essays arguing why or why not caning should be allowed. The answers were varied (though the acutely poor grammar was not) and included some interestingly creative arguments, such as the notion that caning could hurt the environment (you cane with a branch, after all) and that it might occur due to tribal rivalry of the student and teacher. Others argued that caning could promote unity and a strong work ethic among the students.
After essays were read I had a short interview with Satte, the deputy headmaster I work with. He stressed his appreciation for the school's unique environment but also its struggles, such as those for money, food (which it uniquely provides free to students, via Kulanu) and book.
From SK I walked to Hadassah, where I cracked open the first religious books with the students. In P7, we looked at a Humash, reading the first verses of Genesis (in Hebrew, of course). While the reading wasn't amazingly clean, it was a bit better than I had expected, and the students were very into it, poring over the letters and vowels with a high level of intensity. P4 had a little bit of a hard time with the siddur--we made it through one line of adon olam--but they showed an equal amount of dedication to sounding out the words, letter by letter, vowel by vowel. I encouraged them to look at these books, available in the school library, on their own to continue honing their skills. Today's lessons actually proved the most rewarding of any of mine for both classes.
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