WEEK 10 (24-30 September 2006)
On Sunday we arrived at 8.30am for the church service at the school only to find it was already in progress. Although we had been told it started at 8.30am we discovered that it really started at 8am! It was based on an Anglican format modified for Ugandan schools. An S1 student ‘preached’ and we found this a bit difficult. In the afternoon we set out to go to the Scripture Union meeting by got waylaid by a Science Department meeting we didn’t know about! We met the Head of Science yesterday for the first time – only two weeks into the term. He has been away studying and will be away from much of November taking exams. His A-level exams. Ho hum. We agreed my timetable and the rearrangement of other lessons as one of the teachers is leaving at the end of the week.
The Scripture Union meeting involved much loud singing and had not ended by 4.30pm when we left. This was followed by devotions in the evening for the students.
The 7.30am start to lessons is not easy on a Monday morning (or any other morning) but at least I only do that one day a week while Andrea has three early starts. It gives me a chance to waken up and do the chores at a more leisurely pace. The solar power is not so effective at present – could be the battery but we’ll investigate. It limits our use of the laptop and even the light.
I taught my first lesson today (Tuesday) – the class had not learnt any Chemistry for weeks so it was mainly revision. It will take a while for us to get used to each other, especially the different accents! The students speak very quickly and quietly so that I can hardly hear, especially if there is any noise from outside the room. This could be from other students who don’t have a teacher (or the teacher has not arrived yet) or from the various animals which wander around the site. We have found it easier and more reliable to prepare our lesson notes in longhand rather than the laptop, especially as we can’t get the printer to work yet. As the students don’t have science textbooks their notes need to be fairly comprehensive making the lessons less interactive.
Heavy rain on Wednesday morning so too dull to read! We seem to have a considerable amount of free time and it’s difficult to know how best to use it. It’s difficult to settle to anything not knowing if it is the best thing to do and mulling over the practical issues of how to get furniture and managing with what we have so far. Bible studies for the students have been mentioned several times during the last week but it’s difficult to know how to get anything to happen. We feel as though we don’t know all the facts or how things work yet and this can be a bit frustrating. The first of the weekly staff devotions was held this afternoon with a small group but should help us to get to know the other staff better in time. Only one more week without our own transport!
Lessons started late on Thursday due to the assembly overrunning. Tried to do rusting. In the Chemistry lesson and theoretically only. Haven’t seen much rust in Uganda even on the very old cars. It’s probably too dry as the ground dries out quickly even after heavy rain. It’s difficult to get the students to respond in the lessons and they seem to prefer just to copy i.e. are passive learners. It could be that they’re just getting used to us. Cathy Aski took us to town again to try to see if anything can be done about the battery for the solar power. They shop replaced the acid but I’m not sure if that will do anything. We went to the Catholic Centre for chicken and chips at a very reasonable price – about £1 per person. It was good to eat chips again but the chicken was like shoe leather! Not that I’ve eaten shoes. Yet! Also visited the Post Office with Cathy and checked out the boxes and how that works. She also helped us to retrieve our post from the last three months which had gone to the Primary School because they share the PO Box with the Secondary School.
On Friday we got the battery connected to the school solar system to see if it will gain more charge. Looked in the science equipment / library store room to see what’s available but need more time to sort it out and make a list of what’s there. Tried to light the kerosene fridge again. It stays alight for about 10 min on a quiet well behaved blue flame then for no apparent reason flares up to 4-6 inches (10-15cm). When I turn it down it looks at me in disgust and goes out. Our carpenter returned to finish the work on the window screens which was then thoroughly checked by the Principal and Deputy Principal – and found wanting! But at least they are looking after our interests and health. We had to leave the school assembly as we had visitors – from Scotland! Well, Molly and Isobel work at Kuluva hospital about 2km away and we can see some of their buildings from our back door. They were concerned that they hadn’t heard from us but it seems that text messages go up the hill but not back down again. Another mystery to solve! It was good to see them for a bleather.
Spent some time marking books on Saturday. Interesting but not necessarily encouraging. The notes are copied well but answering the problems set as homework (or ‘prep’) is a different matter. Got the fridge alight – and it seems to be staying alight. Heavy rain this afternoon so didn’t go out – except to the toilet. Interesting dilemma here – well, interesting to me. The rain has a particular physiological effect and makes you wonder for a while if it is only psychological as going to a pit latrine in the rain is not especially pleasant. Then there comes a time when you just have to get wet. Folk in the UK don’t have such tricky issues to deal with – just think what you’re missing!
The Scripture Union meeting involved much loud singing and had not ended by 4.30pm when we left. This was followed by devotions in the evening for the students.
The 7.30am start to lessons is not easy on a Monday morning (or any other morning) but at least I only do that one day a week while Andrea has three early starts. It gives me a chance to waken up and do the chores at a more leisurely pace. The solar power is not so effective at present – could be the battery but we’ll investigate. It limits our use of the laptop and even the light.
I taught my first lesson today (Tuesday) – the class had not learnt any Chemistry for weeks so it was mainly revision. It will take a while for us to get used to each other, especially the different accents! The students speak very quickly and quietly so that I can hardly hear, especially if there is any noise from outside the room. This could be from other students who don’t have a teacher (or the teacher has not arrived yet) or from the various animals which wander around the site. We have found it easier and more reliable to prepare our lesson notes in longhand rather than the laptop, especially as we can’t get the printer to work yet. As the students don’t have science textbooks their notes need to be fairly comprehensive making the lessons less interactive.
Heavy rain on Wednesday morning so too dull to read! We seem to have a considerable amount of free time and it’s difficult to know how best to use it. It’s difficult to settle to anything not knowing if it is the best thing to do and mulling over the practical issues of how to get furniture and managing with what we have so far. Bible studies for the students have been mentioned several times during the last week but it’s difficult to know how to get anything to happen. We feel as though we don’t know all the facts or how things work yet and this can be a bit frustrating. The first of the weekly staff devotions was held this afternoon with a small group but should help us to get to know the other staff better in time. Only one more week without our own transport!
Lessons started late on Thursday due to the assembly overrunning. Tried to do rusting. In the Chemistry lesson and theoretically only. Haven’t seen much rust in Uganda even on the very old cars. It’s probably too dry as the ground dries out quickly even after heavy rain. It’s difficult to get the students to respond in the lessons and they seem to prefer just to copy i.e. are passive learners. It could be that they’re just getting used to us. Cathy Aski took us to town again to try to see if anything can be done about the battery for the solar power. They shop replaced the acid but I’m not sure if that will do anything. We went to the Catholic Centre for chicken and chips at a very reasonable price – about £1 per person. It was good to eat chips again but the chicken was like shoe leather! Not that I’ve eaten shoes. Yet! Also visited the Post Office with Cathy and checked out the boxes and how that works. She also helped us to retrieve our post from the last three months which had gone to the Primary School because they share the PO Box with the Secondary School.
On Friday we got the battery connected to the school solar system to see if it will gain more charge. Looked in the science equipment / library store room to see what’s available but need more time to sort it out and make a list of what’s there. Tried to light the kerosene fridge again. It stays alight for about 10 min on a quiet well behaved blue flame then for no apparent reason flares up to 4-6 inches (10-15cm). When I turn it down it looks at me in disgust and goes out. Our carpenter returned to finish the work on the window screens which was then thoroughly checked by the Principal and Deputy Principal – and found wanting! But at least they are looking after our interests and health. We had to leave the school assembly as we had visitors – from Scotland! Well, Molly and Isobel work at Kuluva hospital about 2km away and we can see some of their buildings from our back door. They were concerned that they hadn’t heard from us but it seems that text messages go up the hill but not back down again. Another mystery to solve! It was good to see them for a bleather.
Spent some time marking books on Saturday. Interesting but not necessarily encouraging. The notes are copied well but answering the problems set as homework (or ‘prep’) is a different matter. Got the fridge alight – and it seems to be staying alight. Heavy rain this afternoon so didn’t go out – except to the toilet. Interesting dilemma here – well, interesting to me. The rain has a particular physiological effect and makes you wonder for a while if it is only psychological as going to a pit latrine in the rain is not especially pleasant. Then there comes a time when you just have to get wet. Folk in the UK don’t have such tricky issues to deal with – just think what you’re missing!
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