Week 34 (11 – 17 Mar 2007)
The early start on Sunday was a little painful. But as Andrea was preaching at the school service I felt I couldn’t miss it. I like Sunday lunches. She did well, especially as we don’t do this sort of thing very often. There were some visiting ‘pastors in training’ who wore there clerical gear and took the rest of the service. They will join us again for a few weeks soon. Andrea started a Bible study with some of our female neighbours and the first meeting seemed to go well with all contributing freely. I went back to town for a meeting with the clergy of St Phillips, a Church of Uganda we have visited several times in Arua. There were several of the mission partners present and the main discussion was about how to involve people more within the church, especially as there are three services every Sunday morning with around 500 people at each one.
Monday was – well, Monday. It’s taking a while to settle into the routines and some things have still not been sorted and/or communicated. But we’re working on these one or two at a time. At the briefing on Tuesday there were several new initiatives mentioned but so quickly that Andrea missed one completely. As there was little discussion it was difficult to tell whether these were items for discussion, consultation, information or implementation.
On Wednesday morning we discovered that at least one item was being implemented. As we had both woken early, we heard the school bell decided to get up anyway. It took us a while to realise that the bell had been rung an hour earlier than usual i.e. 5am! As we were awake by then we decided to so some work but the students were running around outside and making a fair amount of noise. The aim was to get them up early, do some exercise to waken them and then ‘encourage’ them to study in their classrooms for until the lesson started at 7.30am. Bear in mind that breakfast is at 8.50am, nearly three hours after they get up. It was thought that as some teachers are teaching additional lessons during the evening prep, the Senior 3 and 4 classes weren’t getting enough time for private study. So instead of dropping something less important during the day, they just get up earlier. We found this a bit difficult to cope with – and were ratty and tired all day anyway. The students seemed to enjoy it but time will tell if it is truly effective, how long it will last if unsupervised and how many fall asleep during lessons.
Thursday is a busy day for me as I have three consecutive double lessons (80 min each) starting at 7.30am. So I sleep in the afternoon, especially as it’s hot. Then try to do a little in the evening – but not always successfully!
There was another thunderstorm during the night and the rain was beating down on our back door. While the door is intact, we had to do some paddling to get to the ‘bathroom’ for a wash. It would have been easier to just open the ‘bathroom’ window and had a proper, but cold shower with fresh rainwater. But the wind kept blowing out the candles. The kitchen floor was bit wetter than it usually is after the (rare) times I manage to do the washing up. But we don’t worry about this as we would in the UK as the floor is concrete and soon dries.
Normally the temperatures return to normal a few hours after the rain but Friday was BLISS! Although it did reach a heady 27°C briefly, it was mainly a refreshing 22°C or less all day! Our colleagues were frozen, even when wearing their heavy coats. Andrea even resorted to a cardigan in the evening and I forgot to take my trousers off. I’d better rephrase that. When teaching I put on long trousers and as soon as I get back to the house I exchange them for shorts. I often remove my shirt and for the last few days have even delayed putting on the shorts. This is OK unless someone calls and I have to get dressed quickly. But not today. Long trousers all day and at last able to think straight during the afternoon. (“Think straight” is used in a relative sense here.) After devotions we both went over the end of last term exam paper with a class each, but swapped classes from last week.
On Saturday we went to a party. Another 2 year old (Joshua Asiki). It was very informal and I think Joshua appreciated having another male presence to really appreciate the finer details of playing cars, how they must be parked, driving on the correct side of the road with appropriate sound effects. This three sisters and their friends played less sensible games with the other mums. His Dad was away on a business trip. It was a bit hotter again today. Pity.
Monday was – well, Monday. It’s taking a while to settle into the routines and some things have still not been sorted and/or communicated. But we’re working on these one or two at a time. At the briefing on Tuesday there were several new initiatives mentioned but so quickly that Andrea missed one completely. As there was little discussion it was difficult to tell whether these were items for discussion, consultation, information or implementation.
On Wednesday morning we discovered that at least one item was being implemented. As we had both woken early, we heard the school bell decided to get up anyway. It took us a while to realise that the bell had been rung an hour earlier than usual i.e. 5am! As we were awake by then we decided to so some work but the students were running around outside and making a fair amount of noise. The aim was to get them up early, do some exercise to waken them and then ‘encourage’ them to study in their classrooms for until the lesson started at 7.30am. Bear in mind that breakfast is at 8.50am, nearly three hours after they get up. It was thought that as some teachers are teaching additional lessons during the evening prep, the Senior 3 and 4 classes weren’t getting enough time for private study. So instead of dropping something less important during the day, they just get up earlier. We found this a bit difficult to cope with – and were ratty and tired all day anyway. The students seemed to enjoy it but time will tell if it is truly effective, how long it will last if unsupervised and how many fall asleep during lessons.
Thursday is a busy day for me as I have three consecutive double lessons (80 min each) starting at 7.30am. So I sleep in the afternoon, especially as it’s hot. Then try to do a little in the evening – but not always successfully!
There was another thunderstorm during the night and the rain was beating down on our back door. While the door is intact, we had to do some paddling to get to the ‘bathroom’ for a wash. It would have been easier to just open the ‘bathroom’ window and had a proper, but cold shower with fresh rainwater. But the wind kept blowing out the candles. The kitchen floor was bit wetter than it usually is after the (rare) times I manage to do the washing up. But we don’t worry about this as we would in the UK as the floor is concrete and soon dries.
Normally the temperatures return to normal a few hours after the rain but Friday was BLISS! Although it did reach a heady 27°C briefly, it was mainly a refreshing 22°C or less all day! Our colleagues were frozen, even when wearing their heavy coats. Andrea even resorted to a cardigan in the evening and I forgot to take my trousers off. I’d better rephrase that. When teaching I put on long trousers and as soon as I get back to the house I exchange them for shorts. I often remove my shirt and for the last few days have even delayed putting on the shorts. This is OK unless someone calls and I have to get dressed quickly. But not today. Long trousers all day and at last able to think straight during the afternoon. (“Think straight” is used in a relative sense here.) After devotions we both went over the end of last term exam paper with a class each, but swapped classes from last week.
On Saturday we went to a party. Another 2 year old (Joshua Asiki). It was very informal and I think Joshua appreciated having another male presence to really appreciate the finer details of playing cars, how they must be parked, driving on the correct side of the road with appropriate sound effects. This three sisters and their friends played less sensible games with the other mums. His Dad was away on a business trip. It was a bit hotter again today. Pity.
posted by J & A McAdam at 9:00 PM
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