In the Spring issue of The Temple, we profiled Thomas Hanno, a young alumnus from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who joined the Peace Corps. Thomas has been sending updates from Uganda to share with you, his Phi Kap brothers. Thomas is teaching high school science in the village of Mpigi and enjoying playing soccer with the local residents.  Read his two letters to find out more and write to him in Uganda.

April 25, 2008 – The first two weeks at site have been really good. The first time I flushed my toilet a frog swam out and then got sucked back down, but I'm still happy to have a toilet.

I have taught some review classes and the students are now taking the national exams which they must pass all of in order to graduate. If they fail science, for example, they retake the whole year. It's kind of a bad system and I think a good portion of them fail at least one subject (math, science, English language, culture, social studies, etc.).

I'm just sending a quick note because there's a line at the PC office for the computer, I'll try to send you a bit more later. I hope everything is well.

Thomas

May 26, 2008 -- Things here are about to get busy. After a month of lesson planning, reading, and playing soccer, the students come back for term this week and I begin really teaching. I'm excited and nervous but I know it will be fun. I think I might end up doing more learning (about teaching) than the students this term, but hopefully not.

I haven't been eating much Ugandan food now that I have my own place. And since the supermarkets in Kampala are surprisingly stocked, I can make a lot of the food I used to eat. There are cans of Kraft cheese, maple syrup, Tang, powdered tomato soup -- it's fantastic.

With all the soccer I've played, I've made some good friends in town. People are really, really surprised that I know how to play and can keep up. And once the students come back, I'll have hundreds of kids approximately my age to spend time with, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Okay, take care,
Thomas

PS – Brothers can write to me at:
Thomas Hanno
Kabulasoke Teachers College
P.O. Box 91
Mpigi, Uganda