Annette Nabugo, teacher at St. John's Primary School, Reflects on her Experience
Annette Nabugo is a very special lady. As a young person, she showed so much promise in the classroom that her teacher made a special effort to keep her coming to school even when her family could no longer afford to send her. Since she was young, she longed to teach children. In her early thirties now, you can see that her hunger to learn continues. As a mother of four, Annette felt as though the opportunity for her to teach had passed her by. That is, until we partnered with St. John’s Primary and they gave us the authority to hire on staff for the school. Knowing her gift and desire to teach, Annette was one of the first on our list! Since beginning our relationship with St. John's, we have more than doubled their teaching staff. Below, she shares her gratitude for being able to teach.
To read more about our history at St. John's Primary, click here.
I am very grateful to share my experience as a classroom teacher at St. John’s Primary.
I surely feel that I am serving God, and that my long time dream has come to pass. My dream was to become a teacher, but my academic qualification could not allow me to do so, according to the standards of my country. But when this opportunity came, through G.O.D. Int’l, that I would be trained a teacher, I saw that God was calling me into this ministry and promoting me from being a mere housewife and mother, to becoming now a mother of many children. I relate this call to that of Moses when he was called from being a shepherd of sheep to become a shepherd of God’s people.
I have overcome fear and the inferiority complex which I had at the beginning and I have gained so much confidence. When I began, I knew I would be challenged by what to teach, how to teach, how to handle and have control over my children in class. But Lawrence Ssemakula, who is our teaching instructor, has done his job. He has trained me, and now I am able. Now I can make a schedule of work for the whole term, make lesson notes, make lesson plans and also evaluate my students. I have also succeeded in managing the time required for doing my housework for my family and the time I am at school time because I can’t be late!
We have always had meetings together to discuss as teachers how to work as a team, spotting challenges and problems and discussing how to overcome them. Sometimes we do co-teaching and we have also improved our communication.
The children at school, who I am now considering like my own, have tried to get shoes, but there are still many who go barefoot which makes it easy for them to get wounds on their toes. Not all students can be able to afford a cup of porridge at lunch time. Some students also fall sick regularly and when you ask them whether they sleep under mosquito nets, the response is no. So, there is still a need to sensitize their parents and guardians about the value of getting bed nets, and I am trying to also meet that need.
As I said earlier, I like being a teacher because it was my dream. But due to the biblical education I have received, I also understand that God saw the need and the suffering of this village--for both the parents and their children, and he has come down to meet their needs. I see myself as one of the servants God has chosen to work with in order to fulfill his mission. So even if there are challenges in this job which I face as an individual or as a part of a team, God is there to help us and overcome those challenges in order to accomplish his mission because we are just workers. As he started a good work he has to finish it.
That is what I can say, may God bless you.
Yours, Annette.
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