escuela

I never liked school growing up. In fact, I kind of hated it. I would kick and thrash in my bed and then stomp around my room in the morning just to show my mom how much I did not want to go to school. I was a little out of control. I like learning, but there is just something about school that doesn't jive with me.

That's why I protested becoming a teacher for so long.

Going into college I was set on majoring in dance education. That didn't work out so well, but it took me a year of anxiety and frustration to accept that dance wasn't the right path for me--I was fighting to keep dance my future because that is what I had always planned. I started exploring my options...political science, international relations, nutrition, english, and finally decided on Geography with a minor in International Development. I was going to learn about the world and how to save it. Elementary Education was always prodding me, but I constantly ignored it, because if I hated school so much growing up, why would I want to make it my career?!

Throughout all of this time of searching, no matter what I decided upon I always felt like something was missing. I thought it was just that I missed dance, so I took more dance classes. I thought it was that I missed singing all the time, so I took voice lessons. I thought it was that I missed being super busy, so I joined a club and started searching for jobs or plays to try out for. None of those things filled the gap though...I couldn't figure out what was missing in my life.

In Uganda we were busy with lots of projects, builidng stoves, trying to set up outreaches with HIV/AIDS positive youth, trying to make home visits work, going to lots of meetings...we always had a lot going on. But Stacey, Liz and I were talking one day and we all felt like we needed to do something with a school or a children's home, we felt like something was missing. We looked in our handbook at last year's contacts to see if there were any schools or orphanages they worked with that we had not contacted yet. We found one--Seya Primary School and a connected children's home under the care of Pastor Josiah. We didn't have a phone number, just the name of the school so we jumped on boda's and hoped that they knew where to take us. When we got to the children's home they knew exactly who we were and told us that they had been trying to contact us for a few weeks but did not have the right phone number. They were so excited and so welcoming, and we started teaching at Seya the next week.

We all fell in love. Definitely my favorite place in Uganda. Such incredible people and amazing kids.

When I got home, I knew what I needed to do. I knew what was missing in my life. Teaching. I had ignored it long enough. I had finally taught and realized how much I loved it and how much I wanted to work with kids. It was so much fun and so rewarding and soo hilarious. And bonus point: education is needed everywhere in the world. In fact, education is the solution to many of the worlds problems. Educate your children and you will have a more productive generation, ending a cycle of poverty.

So I'm going to be a teacher. That something missing feeling is gone! You can call me Miss Aly. or Miss Archer. I'm going to be that teacher that makes kids love going to school. I'm SO excited to finally start my classes next semester, this last semester was rough trying to get myself to do anything. Generals and pre-reqs are not my favorite.

On Saturday I got to watch the 2 boys that I nannied two summers ago. The 6 year old told me that he learned how to play a new song on the piano: "Road to Joy". I asked him if he meant "Ode to Joy" and he insisted for several minutes that no, it was indeed "Road to Joy". He didn't believe me that it wasn't until he saw the name of the song in his piano book. It was hilarious. Kids are so funny and I can't wait to work with them...hopefully teaching will be my Road to Joy