Christmas Holidays: Wedding

Were you wondering what a traditional Ugandan wedding might look like? Well, look no further. Or rather, look here, and then feel free to look further. This is only one small experience from one limited perspective. I'm sure there are an infinite number of variations and subtleties to each and every wedding. But this is the one I witnessed.

In December, our music teacher from school had his traditional "introduction." This is part of the getting-married process in Ugandan culture, in tandem with the official church wedding. It's when they negotiate the bride price, the families are introduced, and they seal the deal, so to speak.

This event takes place in the bride's village, with all her family and neighbors. Since Mr. Ngirwa is Tanzanian, he had a small handful of close family that traveled to be with him for his introduction. Luckily for me, his work friends had the privilege of rounding out the numbers for the grooms side. 

We traveled out to the village on Saturday morning for the event. And it was WAY out in the village. Far, far, far, down dusty dirt track roads. My poor little car had quite a dust bath by the time we were done. We stopped only briefly to change into our "smart" dresses in the backroom/bedroom of a tiny hardware store on the side of the road. 

Upon arriving at the miniature fairgrounds that had been temporarily set up on the family farm, we were welcomed by color coordinated aunties who pinned identifying corsages to us. As part of the grooms party, we were welcomed into the grooms tent to sit and enjoy a gourd of millet beer. This is somehow similar to runny cream of wheat that is both sour and bitter. I'm not the biggest fan. But they were really cute, served in their individual hollowed out gourds with ribbon on the straws.  

After a "brief" introduction from the verbose MC, it was lunch time. And what a lunch it was. We feasted on a full Ugandan buffet, with matoke (steamed plantains), potatoes, rice, goat, beef, chicken, chapati, greens, and more. 

The ceremony started after the feasting. Since the agenda of the introduction is to decide on a bride price, the MC serves as the negotiator from the bride's side, along with a "disapproving" auntie, and the grooms side also sends a representative. A gift is given. Maybe crates of soda, maybe bags of rice, maybe the biggest sack of salt I've ever seen in my life. Then the auntie sends out some potential candidates, asking, "Do you see the girl you want? Is she one of these?" After many rounds of this, with gifts changing hands each time, and the poor rejected girls dancing in and out with smiles on their faces, (incidentally, this made me grateful for the role that bridesmaids play in our American wedding ceremony) the bride herself finally shows up. 

And as always, at least from any wedding I've ever been to, the looks on the faces of Mr. and Mrs. are pretty adorable. The grin that goes from ear to ear on the grooms face clearly indicates that she is the one. 

One thing I appreciated was that after the bride was picked out as the sought after girl, she got to go to the grooms tent and choose her intended groom. It's all for show, of course, part of the traditional ceremony, but I appreciated the gesture of giving the girl some say in the matter. 

After many speeches and introductions and gifts exchanging hands, the dancing began in earnest. A group of highly energetic older ladies came out with sticks and shouting, and started to jump like so many caffeinated kangaroos. Some of them had to be three times my age, but they were also jumping three times higher than I ever could. I was thoroughly impressed. 

Interesting side note...one of these ladies, clearly the boss-woman of the troupe, had a humongous, and clearly prosthetic, baby belly. Like she was ten and a half months pregnant with twin hippopotamuses. 

Apparently this was a joke. I didn't get it. 

So much dust was flying. And so much joy was in everyone's faces. It was really just lovely. Such a happy thing, weddings. I'm so glad I had the chance to witness this one first hand, and if the introduction party is any indication, this marriage is going to be quite a happy one. 

On the way back into town, Lee Erin and I had to stop at this lovely restaurant. Rollexes are so good, who wouldn't want a pimped out one? For those of you that don't know, here in Kampala, Rollex generally doesn't refer to luxury watches. It refers to the greasy and delicious street food: an omlette wrapped in a hot chapati. So good. And even better when you get to order Chipotle style and put whatever you want in your pimped out version. 

Sadly, this epitome of cultured cuisine is now gone. I'm glad we went when we had the change. Unfortunately I'm not at a loss as to where to get a pimped out Rollex. 

That was the conclusion of the first leg of my Christmas holidays. The next two soon to come.

What in the World has Miss Roth been up to? (School Edition)

Photo from Acacia International School

Oh, Acacia. A single blog post can't begin to do it justice. I do love our school. And my, how it's grown. This past fall at the senior school has been a blast. I'm going to attempt to give you a little taste of what has happened over the last few months. Here is goes...


Fifth grade started the year in a unit all about myths from around the world. I got to read some excellent spin-off myths they created about Paul Bunyan taking three steps across the Atlantic to have a ski holiday in Switzerland, Aesop's fables that incorporated velociraptors, and journal entries written from the perspective of Don Quixote's horse, Rocinante. I also got to introduce a new generation to the beauty of Wishbone while we were reading Don Quixote.

Photo from Acacia International School

This picture isn't in my classroom, but it is the fifth grade. I've made it my own personal mission in class to make sure no student leaves my class pecking at a keyboard like a chicken. They have been working hard to improve their typing on our Chromebooks.

 Sixth grade started with a Greek unit, meaning loads of mythology, and then the epic journey of Odysseus. These pictures are from the day that we attempted to recreate a day at the Greek theater. Hence the masks. They got to choose a myth for their group to act out, complete with costumes, chorus, and loads of silliness. Some of them had to improvise a bit. You can see one of the boys playing the maiden of the story in the picture above, and a white-board-drawn extra in the picture below. Quite creative, these students.

In the sixth grade class we also did a short unit on Edgar Allan Poe before Christmas. We wrapped up with "The Raven," in all it's haunting, dreary glory. Instead of attempting to do it justice with my own voice, I thought it'd be best left to the professionals. With the help of that beautiful thing we call YouTube, I found a reading done by Christopher Lee. So I told the class, "Christopher Lee, who you might know as Sarumon, is going to read the poem." Instantly about five of them shout out, "Miss Roth, you know him!" No children, I can't say that I do. But he does have a gorgeous voice for reading Poe, and he was kind enough to put it on the internet. Thank you, kind sir. You gave a bunch of twelve-year-olds living in the heart of Africa a deeper appreciation for some classic poetry.


Again, this photo isn't from inside my classroom, obviously, but it is the 7th and 8th grade class. These guys worked really hard this fall on a autobiography unit, studying voice. They read Anne Frank, Helen Keller, Benjamin Franklin, and speeches from FDR and Churchill. I also had the privilege of reading their own autobiographical writing that they did in class. I'm telling you, these students have interesting lives. Most of them have lived in at least a handful of different countries and have loads of interesting stories, and they're only 13!

Photo from Acacia International School

We read The Giver by Lois Lowry next, which I absolutely love. If you've never read it, consider this my shameless plug, wholeheartedly endorsing it. It was an excellent book to teach, and started some really thought provoking discussion. 

The picture, though, is from the end of the volley ball unit in PE. The 7/8th class challenged the staff to a game. It was quite fun, and we teachers whooped them pretty solidly.

Photo from Acacia International School

Just recently, the last day before holidays, I thought the students were going to have their revenge. They challenged us to a staff versus student soccer game. I was much more worried about that one, especially since it was rumored that I was going to play keeper, and the students were threatening to take all kinds of shots at me. In the end, though, our teaching staff played quite well. I didn't have to play keeper, and really all I accomplished was tripping one of the students so he sprawled out onto the grass, in true footballer theatrics. Good fun.

After school during the last term I helped out with the photography and sewing clubs. These two fourth graders were working on creating interesting portraits one week in photography club. There are loads of other great pictures from the photography club students on Acacia's facebook page. Check it out! Sewing club helped to make all the bright silly costumes for the Christmas play, which I'll get to in a minute.

 During the fall I got to attend a reading conference. Beyond merely being informative, it also increased my pedagogy reading list exponentially.

And, speaking of reading, we've still been molding our library at Acacia. I've been weeding out some of the lesser gems, like these bits of bound rubbish. I usually find them during library time when the sixth grade boys are throwing them at each other, daring someone to check it out. Although the average literary merit of the books in our library is significantly improved when I pull these from the shelf, there's something in me that can't throw away a book. Even a rubbish book. Which means I have a rapidly increasing library of ridiculous books at my own home. 

But, now for the most significant thing from the last term, aside from my normal classroom teaching. THE CHRISTMAS PLAY! So great. So much work, but so great. 

Kudos to sewing club for that great Christmas tie, middle of the top row.
Photo from Acacia International School

We did a Seussified version of the classic Dickens Christmas Carol, which was loads a fun, with terrible rhymes, stupid jokes, and more bright colored hair than I ever thought we'd have in one place. So much wig hair has been shed in my classroom, I don't know if I'll ever be rid of it all. But that's beside the point. 

Anxiously waiting to go on stage.

Although our school is small, we have an outstanding amount of theatrical talent represented in our student body. Elianna Tuggy played the Scrooge, and did a fantastic job hamming it up. The three ghosts were three of my fifth grade girls, and they also did a wonderful job. The ghost of Christmas present is in one of the photos, dressed like a gift. Get it? I know, groan. The play of full of puns like that. 

Photo from Acacia International School

All of the actors did a fantastic job and worked really hard, and I had some excellent stage hands that took care of all the prop moving. Although it required more work than any other single event I've ever done at Acacia, and despite the fact that two days before the performance our rehearsal was so bad it basically gave me an ulcer, in the end it all came together. The audience seemed to love it, and the students were proud of their work. I would call it a success. 

Photo from Acacia International School

Ghost of Christmas PresentPhoto from Acacia International School

Jason made all our great 2D cartoon props in beautiful Seussy style.
Photo from Acacia International School

Instead of chains, "Jackie" Marley had a "yucktastic" outfit.
Photo from Acacia International School

The final show stopper was a school-wide song that they had practiced like crazy. It sounded great, not to mention they looked fantastic in all the bright colors. The end of a successful performance like that was such an incredible feeling. 

I hope that gives you at least a little taste of what my job is like here in Uganda. Wonderful school, fantastic staff, lovely students. 

And some days my desk may look like every imaginable school supply has been breading all over it.


Some days the power may go out in the middle of a meticulously planned power-point based lesson.


Some days, after a long hard week and while grading late into the evening on a Friday, I might find half a mustache left over from last year's play and decide that the only thing to do is try it on and send a selfie to my sisters.


And although all those things may happen, I very much love what I get to do here at Acacia. I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

What in the world has Anne been up to?

It's Christmas vacation time! That means I can finally blog again. So, let me briefly catch you up on what I've been up to. This is the non-school edition. School post to come soon.

Way back in September I entered my second quarter...second quarter century, that is. To say it bluntly, I turned 25. This was celebrated with a pedicure with friends and I chose purple. You know, "when I'm old I will wear purple," and all of that. It was a lovely day.

Also, towards the end of September we added the lovely Miss Karen. Richard, our math teacher at the senior school, and Karen got married on September 29, and we had a reception at school to celebrate. These two are an absolutely lovely couple, and we are so blessed to have them in our school community.

This is utterly random, and a little gross, but at some point this fall I discovered this little friend. It was hanging out in my garage. But it didn't look like this when I first met it. It was entirely encrusted with little bug nuggets. I'm not sure if they were pieces of dead bugs, or half developed offspring, but it was disgusting. It looked like a walking wad of bug bits. Upon further investigation I discovered this rather interesting insect. Still don't know what the heck it is. Ideas?

Over our October break, my housemate and I went out to the mountains in eastern Uganda to a place called Sipi Falls. It was a beautiful spot with cool mountain air and beautiful falls. 

I drove, and my poor little almost-twenty-year-old Rav4 took quite a beating when we took a wrong turn and decided to connect back to the main road via a "short-cut." The above picture is actually a section of road that felt like a paved four lane highway in comparison to some of the more treacherous stretches. During those stretches we were too busy hanging on with white knuckles of fear. Some parts of the "road" were worse than any dirt biking bmx track I've ever seen. Nonetheless, we arrives at our destination eventually, shaken but not broken.

 This was the view from our cabin's front porch. Stunning scenery. Although it was chilly at night, we had beautiful sunny weather during the day.

While there we went on a fantastic morning hike through the mountainside. It was quite muddy from all the recent rain, but that meant the four falls were impressively powerful. Our guide was excellent, the setting beautiful, and we only fell in the mud a time or two. 

Photo credit to Becky Nilsen 

Photo credit to Becky Nilsen

After a full morning scampering around on mud tracks, boulders, and ladders, we  were pretty beat. A chill afternoon coffee tour was in order. Our guide from the mornings adventure took us to his little family plot were he showed us the process of coffee making, from cherry to cup. His sweet family also let us hang out with them when it started raining, and we ending up just chatting with them for most of the afternoon, while drinking excellent coffee, of course. 

Other random things:

I opened pumpkin hunting season with some pumpkin baked goods. 

A super friendly sunflower bloomed in my front yard.

During our periodic torrential downpours, the corner of our back garden will flood.
Then the sun came out in full force, and this funny bird decided on a bath in our puddle.
Uganda is well known for all it's birds.  

Next up, what I've been up to at school. Here's a teaser...

Classroom Tour

Time for a classroom tour! I am teaching at a new campus this year; it's quite different from the cozy little upstairs classroom at the junior school, but I do love it. This is where I get to teach 5th through 8th grade students everything from Greek mythology to autobiographical writing to how to type a capital letter. Please come on in. Welcome to English class!

Our biggest class here at the Acacia Senior School is the sixth grade, with 18 students. That really is a nice small number, but they fill this room well. I have 12, soon to be 14, students in my fifth grade class, and I am their homeroom teacher. Our seventh and eighth grade classes are combined, with 10 students total. 

Unfortunately we don't yet have enough lockers to accommodate our poor, deprived fifth graders, so I have this cubby-type space for them in my room. In reality it's not much more than a sweater shelf, but I'm slowly taking it over with my books. For me books behave similarly to cat hair. They spread out everywhere, turn up where you least expect, and you can never quite get rid of them once they've established themselves somewhere. The key difference is that I like books.

In decorating my classroom, I discovered that I must be a van Gogh fan. I've also introduced a "Did you know?" poster for interesting trivia, which shouldn't surprise you if you know me at all. We've had some good ones from students so far. Da Vinci writing backwards, hurricanes weighing the same as 160 million rhinos, a strange lizard creature in New Zealand having a third eye. Good stuff. 

This is my little corner. I've got a great desk, roughly the size of a barge; however, by the end of the day it still manages to be completely buried. This desk also has the best view of any desk I've had in my life. 

The back corner of the classroom has the door to our veranda, and the all important encouragement from good old Rosie the Riveter. I quite intentionally hung her poster right were I could see it when I am elbow deep in spelling tests on Friday evening. 

Here's the view. There's a veranda off my classroom that looks out on the hills of Kampala. 

These pictures are taken on a grey and stormy day, even, so you can imagine how distracting the view can be at times. 

This is our dual action display board, explaining both the important characters from Anne Frank's autobiography and a simplified (kid appropriate) version of the Greek god family tree. I've never done so much laminating in my life. 

Well, there you have it. That's my space this year. Thanks for coming by to visit my classroom!

My Summer Vacation in Seven Photographs

The time has finally come. Por fin. I will break my four months of internet silence and rejoin the land of the blogging. After such a long time, I was completely out of the groove and at a loss for what to write about. Yes, a lot has happened, but nothing nearly as significant as bungee jumping or anything. But then I realized pictures are the best part of blogs anyway, so why don't I start there. So here you go...

I got to be a part of this lovely wedding with these wonderful people.
(Photo credit to Amy Anderson, thanks!)

Claire had a great big graduation barbecue bash. A grand old time had by all.

Claire and I did some SERIOUS yard work. Yes, that's a
weed eater, but what you probably can't tell from the picture
is that it has a circular saw blade in place of the strings.
That's how we roll.

We did a lot of kayaking. Rivers...lakes...water in general is a beautiful thing. I couldn't get enough.

Claire got this adorable puppy.

Cousin day at the beach. It was a beautiful day at the enchanting Oregon coast.
It had been far too long since the beach and I were reacquainted. 

I also went to many a farmer's market, and had the hardest
time keeping my hands off those gorgeous globs of sunshine
we call sunflowers.

So, there you have it. Snapshots of my summer. Oregon is a beautiful place to be in the summer months; I could have easily given you seven photographs of spectacular sunsets, but the camera doesn't quite do them justice. Of course, many other things happened over the summer. Fireworks, Korean food, ice cream outings, hikes, sushi, parties, and the list goes on. I had a wonderful time resting and adventuring with wonderful friends and my lovely family.

Bonus Photo!
Representative of the
general silliness that
went down this summer.