A Brief History
The Chess Man
aka
Alex Davies
Alex has been playing chess for a very long time, and has been coaching & teaching children how to play the game for a very long time as well.
For more than 25 years, he has been working with and teaching children... his history is based around bettering the lives of children around the world.
Early Childhood Sunday school teacher
In the mid-late 90's, Alex began his life of working with & teaching children. Whether by volunteering in an elementary school, or as a Sunday school teacher, or as a camp counsellor, or as a YMCA KinderGym teacher, and many others.
In the early 2000's, he began teaching ESL. First in China, then in Indonesia, then in Guatemala, and finally in the Galápagos Islands (Ecuador).
5 year olds class
Trinity United Church
In the 2010's (while he was in Canada), he spent a lot of his time coaching and promoting the Summerside Chess Club (2007-2016). In that time period, the club grew and evolved.
One of the boys of the Summerside Chess Club won the Under 13 PEI Provincial Chess Challenge. He went on the compete in Toronto, Ontario. In 2014, he mentored the same boy for confirmation.
Africa
For 6 years (2013-2018), he spent roughly 6-10 months of each year living and working in Uganda, East Africa. He wasn't an ESL teacher, as English is one of the 3 National languages spoken in Uganda (English,, Luganda, Swahili). He lived and worked in an orphanage. This orphanage is a children's home, a school, and a church.
He was a caregiver; caring for all of the orphanage children (boys and girls), but was mainly the Boy's Dorm Supervisor. He was a school teacher; over 6 years, he taught every subject, at every grade level, but was mainly a primary 2 (grade 2) classroom teacher. He developed/wrote, implemented & taught the Reading & Writing Curriculum, for all grade levels, as well as doing the same for the Computers Curriculum, for the Upper School (primary 4, primary 5, primary 6 & primary 7)... even though the orphanage didn't have any computers (so it was taught as computer theory). The orphanage church didn't have a Sunday school, so he wrote a Sunday School curriculum, and became the Sunday school superintendent and the Upper School Sunday school teacher.
He paid for a number of the children who boarded at the orphanage to have swimming lessons.
In 2015, for 2 months, he moved to South-Western Uganda (very near the DRC & Rwanda borders), and filled in for the primary 4 teacher (who was away on maternity leave). He then returned to the orphanage, and simply continued from where he had left off.
In 2016, he had a reaffirmation of his faith. He was baptized as a baby (in the 70's) into the United Church of Canada, but was baptized as adult into the Born Again Church of Uganda.
For the 2017 orphanage ChRiStMaS party, he played Father Christmas (Santa Claus).
He also taught the entire orphanage, plus a few of the teacher's, how to play chess.
In 2018, Alex returned to Canada,.
The Children's Home
the orphanage
My P2 (grade 2) class
the school
Praying for the new church building
the church
Upper School Sunday school
school classroom
Boys Dorm
the orphanage
The Playground
the school
Homeschooling during the Covid lockdown
Covered in KY Cream for chicken pox
Posing on the swing
Posing outside of the chicken coop
Stretching my track pants
Riding bicycles in the compound
Africa
In early January of 2019, Alex returned to Uganda . This time for a more permanent stay. He didn't return to the orphanage that he worked at before, but instead moved to a different orphanage, in a different part of the country. This orphanage is only a children's home. The children attend a local school, and also a local church.
When he first arrived, the orphanage was in bad shape. The children were physically and emotionally abused by the orphanage manager. He treated them like slaves, and was prone to beating them. Alex wrote a letter of complaint, and after a thorough (internal) investigation, the orphanage manager was fired. The orphanage had 3 primary caregivers, & 1 security guard. 1 of the 3 primary caregivers went back to University, 1 primary caregiver left the orphanage to "live her life" (her words). There was now only the cook, the security guard, and 1 primary caregiver... Alex. For around 6 months, this is how it stayed. Then the security guard was fired. Alex took on the added responsibility of the security guard.
In April of 2019, all of the orphans went home to their parents or guardians. Everyone except for one 8 year old boy. Alex was alone with this boy for 8 weeks (he was a single parent). We became very close, very fast. This boy was the first of the children whom he taught how to play chess.
Alex returned to Canada, for 2 weeks, in December of 2019. On December 24, he returned to the orphanage to spend ChRiStMaS with the children.
In January of 2020, he was promoted to orphanage manager. The children returned to school for 1 month (in Uganda , the school year begins in February). On March 21, President Museveni locked down Uganda . All public transportation stopped. All schooling stopped. All socializing stopped. Our only option was to live life locally (he got to know his way around the community very well). The children at the orphanage had 1 week of holiday (with no school), as on March 28, Alex began homeschooling all of them... every child, at every grade level.
In April, he contracted Sars-Cov-2... the original strain of Covid-19 (Covid 1.0). The children never knew, but the cook/mama did. She cooked him special recipes and "ginger juice" (that's what she called it). He also took doctor prescribed medication. Within a week, it was gone. Luckily, none of the children knew or got sick.
In May, we had a chicken pox outbreak. Luckily, Alex had chicken pox when he was a little boy... so he has an immunity. The mama, however, does not. So she could not care for the children (without becoming infected herself). Following the outbreak, he became the unofficial nurse for the orphanage. We had a few malaria outbreaks, a (community-wide) measles outbreak (in 2021), and a few other things that plagued the children.
2021 was roughly the same as 2020. Though the country wasn't as paranoid as it had been (in 2020), with regards to Covid-19, but precautions were still taken. There was still no school... so homeschooling continued. Alex had interwoven chess into the mathematics curriculum (in 2020). Chess was now, very much, a part of every day life. He was surprised that the children still enjoyed playing chess in their leisure time... as well as (learning about and dissecting the game in) school.
On January 10, 2022. President Musevini restarted Uganda's economy... thereby ending the 2-year lockdown.
Alex left Uganda in 2022.
What Now?
Now that he has returned to Canada, he has ressurected the Summerside Chess Club. In 2023, one of the youngest members of the chess club won the Under 8 PEI Provincial Chess Challenge.
The Summerside Chess Club (children-only) has restarted, and is open every Saturday from 3pm-5pm @ the Summerside Rotary Library.
The market chess table (anyone of any age and or skill level) is open every Saturday from 9am-1pm @ the Summerside Farmer's Market.
Summerside Chess Club
Market Chess Table
What's Next?
Ideally, he wants to return to Uganda, open (found/start) a new orphanage, and live there permanently. He always says that "The 3rd world is the right world for me".
Alex is a certified Educational Assistant (REA, NVCI, Autism/ABA/AAC). He works as an EA for the PEI District School Branch, teaching at various elementary schools around PEI (but would like to be hired full-time at an elementary school in Summerside).
He's happy with his position, yet he knows that his skills would be better used (and he would happier) when he returns to Africa. He wasn't designed/destined to live out his days in the 1st world. Therefore... only time will tell how long he intends to stay.