About Cristina Klosterman

So school this past week has been absolutely awesome!  I played tic-tac-toe with my P1 class!  I divided the class into 2 groups (X and O) and I had a list of questions.  If they got the question right, they could put their mark on the # that I put on the blackboard.  The first 2 games they weren’t quite sure about what was going on or how to play it.  By the 3rd game, they got into it, and started blocking the other team and by the 4th and 5th game they were yelling and cheering and trash talking [...]

Oli otya??  How are you??  I am fine! 
(”Kikati” is pronounced chee-ka-tee and its an informal greeting and means hello.)
Things are great here in Uganda!  I am into my second week teaching and have revised some of my lesson planning but I pretty much planned the rest of my time here.  I actually am teaching for only 3 days this week and 3 days next week.  We generally don’t teach on Fridays because we go into Mukono for our Lugandan lessons.  And there is a national holiday this week and next week.  This week we have Martyr’s Day tomorrow.  There [...]

So the school session started yesterday and my fellow volunteer, Kira, and I went up to the school.  We spent the day observing, seeing what the children knew and what we could teach them.  I decided to take the kindergarten class and the P1 class.  The kindergarten class is split into 3 age groups.  Age 3, 4, and 5.  I was very surprised to learn that they start kindergarten at age 3!  The teacher for the kindergarten class I was working with (ages 4 and 5) is Sarah and she is a phenomenal teacher!  She gets the kids energized, she [...]

Well here I am in beautiful Uganda!  I still have trouble believing I am here sometimes…  It’s been almost a week now, and so far so good!  I am not crying for my mom, I am not screaming at every bug I see, and I am eating food that I would normally refuse back home!  I am all together very proud of myself.   
I am working with an organization called Youth Focus Africa Foundation (YOFAFO).  So far I have visited 2 villages.  One of them is (believe it or not) called the Cockroach Village!  The Lugandan name of the [...]

I can’t believe that in 48 hours, I will be boarding a flight to Amsterdam and then heading to Uganda!  I am so excited!
I feel like I still have a million things to do, when all I really need to do is laundry and finish packing… 
I finished training the person taking over my responsibilities at work, and I know she is going to do amazing.  I now have to make sure that things are ready for her when she steps in.  There is still so much to do!
I received word that I upon my arrival in Uganda, I will be staying [...]