Week 57 (19 – 25 Aug 2007)

Picture: This is our plot of land at the back of our house. It had been dug over twice (but not by us). Mary and Joyce helped Andrea to pland soys seeds and Andrea has planted carrots. Mary and Joyce will come to tend the patch while we're away. The groud is very fertile so we expect a good crop.

As term has ended, we visited the local church, Kuluva Hospital Chapel on Sunday. It seems that most people were away at the local Scripture Union conference.

We celebrated hearing of the exam successes at home by investigating a new eating establishment. I avoided the “T-Born” steak but had grilled steak instead. Andrea had chicken of some sort, not boiled as is usual here. Very good. Admittedly it was much more expensive than our usual meals out. The bill, including a soft drink and fruit dessert came to about £8. That’s for both of us, not individually! We usually pay around half that! Not all of the buildings are completed yet but the overnight accommodation is a world away from Ushindi. They have showers with “warm” water! And we intend to go swimming there when the pool is completed.

On Monday Andrea continued with her marking while I did some reading and preparation. I also went to enter my marks on the student report cards only to find that the way I though we had agreed to calculate and report them was not what was being done by other staff. And on closer inspection, there were difference in what had already been entered. One of the other science teachers also complained that it had not been made clear. I did two classes and then hid with the laptop and tried to send some e-mails before the signal went elsewhere. I suspect, being in working hours, the system is unable to manage the demand. I’ll have to think again about when to try to log on.

On Tuesday our 10am Science and Maths meeting was early (9am) and the result is that I will now be teaching Biology to S1 instead of Physics and will try to help with the S4 Chemistry revision for the 4 weeks before their exams. This is to cover for the Head of Science who has left for further studies and while we find out if there is a replacement. A did a quick trip to town (quick being a relative term) before going to the Asiki’s for lunch. The girls taught us how to play canasta again, but I was on the loosing team. The other team had two maths teachers who seem to be able to calculate the merits of which cards to play. I just look at the pictures. Andrea and I played a singles game in the evening before we forgot the rules again. I lost again – but not by much and it does depend on the cards you draw. I don’t like games of chance. I need to know that when I loose it’s entirely my fault! Or more likely, but less “missionary-like”, that when I win it’s due to my skill. I tend to loose so that’s not an issue for me!

Mary and Joyce were a bit later that usual on Wednesday. They were bringing our lunch with them and it ran away! They buy a chicken for us and it was so fresh today that it escaped from the bag and they had to chase after it in the undergrowth. Fortunately, they say the funny side of it too but were a bit hot and bothered when they arrived. Mary was carrying Jonathan on her back too. Anyway, it was delicious when cooked and eaten with fresh vegetables (boiled) and actual mashed potato. Andrea finished her marking today and I spent most of the afternoon on the laptop. I mean using it. It’s not that strong. I got a good connection and downloaded some VirusScan updates etc. in between some other work.

Thursday was something of a remarkable day. We visited town again for a few things but also managed to get one of the tyres repaired. It has had a slow puncture for several months but we’ve never go around to doing anything other that filling it with air. One of the filling stations also does tyre repairs so, with great trepidation I tried. They said it would take about 30 minutes. It did. I watched how he took off and replaced the tyre – all competent and as one would expect (except in Uganda). He found a nail and repaired it – and after 24 hours the tyre is still inflated! The whole job was a bit expensive at Ugs5000 – that’s less than £2! Then we visited Diguna and collected our new solar panel, solar battery and a box of laboratory glassware that was given to the school by friends in Entebbe. We bought the battery and panel on May 9th so it’s only taken about 4 months to get them here – and then we’re going away so can’t even wire them up yet! Still, what’s another two weeks? We spent the afternoon with Anne Houghton at Ringili before she sets off for her home assignment in the UK. She leaves on Monday. In the evening we played canasta again. I lost again – but by an impressive margin. I still don’t like games of luck.

On Friday morning we completed our report card writing duties. Due to staff changes, we (i.e. Andrea) volunteered to write the class teacher comment for one class so I felt obliged to do the another class. It only means reading the report and writing a two sentence comment. In the course of doing this we read previous comments. They would make excellent training materials for any school. Unfortunately, they included all the mistakes, errors and comments that should be avoided with almost nothing on how the student might improve other than work harder, be more serious and aim higher. These are the better comments! The teachers are writing in their second language too, so it’s hardly surprising that some of the sentences are incomprehensible too. Still, at least we know how to help and advise. Although I might need some help with the English. The rest of the day was spent packing and preparing to leave the house.

We were up earlier than usual on Saturday - not difficult, in that we don’t get up too early on Saturdays normally but very difficult because, well, we don’t get up too early on Saturdays normally! Eventually we woke up on our way to the airport to catch the plane to Entebbe and then a taxi to Lubowa, near Kampala, where we changed to another taxi for Jinja. We met an accident on the way. A huge container lorry had come off the road and ended up “head-first” on its side in a ditch at least 30 feet deep. Our detour gave us a good view of the lorry and the chance to find out what had happened. No one was injured as the driver jumped out when he realised what was happening and it occurred a WEEK before but they hadn’t been able to get any cranes big enough to get it out! The one we saw working didn’t seem to be having much success either. We arrived at our hotel (Nile Resort) where we stayed three years ago. And it’s just as picturesque as it was then. We rested and ate a little while our stomachs arrived in a later taxi.

Week 56 (12 – 18 Aug 2007)

Picture left: Car park on Open Day (full?)

Picture above: Andrea helping to pack the food parcels on Open Day

Andrea was still on duty on Sunday and fairly busy. I rested and read in preparation for my tour of duty! The service was much as usual and the car had it’s last bathe before the students leave.

Why is 7am so early! True the view is great but I would prefer to be awake as I try to lead the Monday assembly. The students were having the same problem which is not surprising as the written exams don’t start until 9am. One of them was mine so it did start promptly. But at 9am there were no other teachers around and I couldn’t help much. Eventually they appeared, except and invigilator for the S4 mock exams. It seems they were forgotten and no one had arranged to cover for the teacher who has not left the school and is in Kampala or somewhere equivalently far away. Two of the student took it upon themselves to find a reliable teacher so it was of no surprise to me when I saw Andrea organising the exam! She knew enough Physics to find most of the mistakes in the paper – of which there were many. We had some UK visitors from YWAM and their two children. They were considering coming to Arua in the near future to work. In the evening I volunteered to check the mock Chemistry papers as I don’t teach S4. The papers are set by the Arua Area Education Office so that all schools can do the same ones and have a fairer comparison. I only found 40 or more errors in Paper 1 which contains 50 multiple choice questions. Some had no correct answer and others had more than one possibility. Many errors were basic typographical errors – a nightmare to a chemist but at leas the questions were understandable to the students.


The exams started on time on Tuesday after the fuss we made yesterday and due to the extra efforts of the kitchen staff to get the breakfast ready early. The Chemistry papers seemed to go OK but it took a while to read the corrections. Paper 2 had fewer errors – but still too many.

The exams started very late on Wednesday. This was partly because at 9.15am the Biology teacher was still stapling the papers together with no sense of urgency. I wondered why they had not been stapled together the day before. I offered to help but by that time she already had help and they were almost finished, but managed to delay for another 15 minutes or so. One of the other papers was even later. The secretary was still typing it at 8.30am and then had to run off about 8 pages on a Roneo stencil machine. The Principal was around so I left him supervising. I continued with my marking the rest of the day. By the time I am writing this I can’t remember exactly what happened on each day nor what I’ve written and even though I’ve tried to check it’s easy to miss something, especially when it’s your own writing. Anyway, at some time in the last few weeks Andrea and I were actually around when a game of Scrabble was started. Andrea insisted that no three letter words were used (as they usually play). I don’t like Scrabble much but played to be sociable. I got reasonable letters and won, probably for the first time ever. Andrea was surprised as she tends to use words more than I do. She was second. The English teacher came last – but he complained about the rule change! There was a slight wind and by the end Andrea and I were actually cold. The others had coats of course!

We went to town on Thursday then for lunch with Cathy. She experimented on a pork curry-like lunch to give us a different taste from what we and her family are used to. It was good to have something different as well as catching up with the news. We returned to school in time for the last school assembly of the term where I gave the report of the week on behalf of the teachers on duty. I also promised that as the students were expecting the exams to start at 7am on Friday, that I had a watch and a white skin the exams would start on time! But I’m an idiot at times. If the exams are to start at 7am then I need to be up long before that! I must be weary to make promises like that. Oh, well. We returned to the classrooms again that evening and I gave back (or divided, as the students say) the exam papers to S3. The marks were as low as expected but not significantly different from last term even though the paper was hard. There were a lot of calculations and some students had difficulty finding the mean (or average) of three numbers. We chatted to some and Baker told me a little more about his village in north-eastern Sudan. Most of the boys in that area don’t get any education as they spend most of their time cattle raiding. He was excluded and sent to school because of a weak leg and severe limp. He wants to do something to help the other boys but doesn’t know where to start! Join the club! It’s the sort of thing that could be a future AIM TIMO Team project where a group of people commit themselves to live in a village, often remote, to learn the language then teach English – and where possible about Christianity. Northern Sudan is Muslim so there are dangers with this, but it could happen. Alternatively, or as well, Baker could set his sights on becoming a teacher! It is very moving talking to a youngster from such a background who clearly wants to help his village and is where the real missionary work is being done. It’s a privilege to be able to get to know some of these folk and makes us want to support them in any way we can.

Well, the exams did start at 7am on Friday. Or at least the S3 Biology did. The others started within a five minutes! I arrived at the staffroom at 6.30am in complete darkness and the lights weren’t working. As expected, the Biology paper of five separate sheets had not been stapled so I set about this – using our own stapler as I knew I wouldn’t have time to find one of the working school ones. So imagine me sitting in a staffroom with no light – it gets very dark here if the moon isn’t shining – with my “miner’s headlamp” torch frantically stapling the paper together. The students were around and some came to watch! But they already know we do very odd things. I finished at 6.45am and as no other teachers appeared I took all three sets of papers to the classrooms and started to get the students into the classroom. It’s the first time I have seen students cheering when they see their exam papers! Or was it because they were on time and they wouldn’t be kept waiting so could go home sooner? The other teachers eventually appeared and I had a quiet 90 minutes invigilating the Senior 1 CRE (Christian Religious Education) exam. Andrea spent part of the morning continuing to help the girls sort out the wool and stuffing they needed to continue knitting over the break. Another of the Sudanese students asked for more copies of the daily Bible Reading booklets to take to his village near Juba. As we spoke he had no money to neither get home nor return. But folk here live “by faith” daily and he didn’t seem unduly worried. We said goodbye to the students before the staff meeting at 11am. The meeting finished at 2.30pm and covered a range of topics. I remember thinking that if I am ever in a UK teachers meeting again I will find it relaxing and constructive in comparison! Much time was spent on less relevant matters and the urgent and important ones were skipped over. I’m still not sure if anything was actually decided or if there was that anything will change. But things work differently here – and slowly. We also discovered that even though it was decided in a previous staff meeting that the S4 students would not be coming back early for extra lessons that now they would. And we found this out from the students rather than the teachers. We were a little upset by this. But little was not the word Andrea would use! We suspect that it has not be costed properly especially as they don’t know how many students or teachers will come or who will supervise them. It will be interesting to see what happens but I suspect Andrea will be under some pressure to teach S4 when she was hoping for a longer break in order to prepare other materials.
It was very quiet on Saturday. No students. No preparation – just marking and reading. It was a break we needed.

Week 55 (5 – 11 Aug 2007)

The Sunday service was taken by the school Chaplain. This was followed by a Scripture Union Committee meeting which we attended. We felt the need to straighten out some misunderstandings that had arisen so spoke more than we would have liked. We spent a further hour or so with the Chairman of the SU trying to give him both support and advice. The inexperience of the students shows very clearly when rumours and misunderstandings are not clarified. With so many different local languages used among the students coupled with their limited English it’s not surprising that confusion occurs, and it’s hard for us to understand the problems and actions that have been taken as they cannot explain them easily. It’s exhausting! But at least we made progress. The Bible studies continued again with 27 students attending and leading their own groups. Some of them are excellent group leaders, but many find the English in their versions of the Bible difficult to understand. I managed to find some simpler versions of the Bible in the laptop so was able to print a few passages for the students. They have found that helpful and compare the passages with their own, more difficult version.

Andrea was back on duty on Monday so I had to have an early breakfast or go hungry. That’s not quite true as I can fix myself a bowl of Weetabix and Cornflakes. But they are tasteless compared with the UK versions so porridge is better. We had a reasonable day, although Andrea was very busy but it ended with a relaxing time with the knitting and chess clubs. Until 9.15pm when there was a knock at the door from Ronald. Lillian, his wife has been ill but took a turn for the worse and needed to be driven to the hospital. She was admitted with malaria and we returned by 11.30pm

On Tuesday we went shopping and then to Kuluva again – but this time to visit Paul Dean, the ex-Aston student, and his family. It was great to catch up. His wife, Jan, used to teach knitting to the local women and was going to another knitting session later that afternoon. Andrea and Jan compared notes, experiences and patterns while Paul & I just looked confused! Our next stop was at Ringili for a Ribena with Anne Houghton then back to the hospital at Kuluva to visit Lillian. She was making good progress although very weak. We returned just before dark.

On Wednesday the S2 Maths exam started on time (Andrea) and the others weren’t too late. I don’t remember what else happened.

On Thursday the S2 Chemistry exam started on time (mine) but there was a fair bit of noise from the other classes for about 20 minutes while they waited for their teachers and papers to arrive. I spent the rest of the day marking. Exciting stuff. Hm.

On Friday the S1 Physics exam started on time (mine) and Andrea was rushing around trying to get the others started. She found a student

Andrea spent most of Saturday invigilating her S3 Maths exams. We did notice that the person who timetables the exams on Saturday wasn’t around and made sure his exams weren’t on at the weekend. It left both Andrea and the students with very little free time, or time to recover from the week. On the other hand, I had a very quiet day but spent most of it marking. A bit of a waste really!

Week 54 (29 – 4 Aug 2007)

Picture: "Dressed" beds in the girl's dormitory

The students from Ringili came to the Sunday service for their last week, with an assessor. The Bible Study had 23 students and they managed to start without me as I discovered that the hall was out of action and tables and chairs were being moved. I didn’t know what was happening at first – but then I’m only the teacher on duty this week. The S4 Mock Practical examinations start on Monday and they needed to prepare the laboratory / library / hall in advance.

Monday was a hard day as we spent most of it writing and typing our exam papers.

After teaching on Tuesday I decided to visit Arua on my own – Andrea’s stomach is still unsettled although it’s the effects of being up set that made her decide not to go. I managed to get all the usual bits and pieces apart from the fresh food in the market. I even managed to buy some used car engine oil. Not the sort of thing one normally gets but we’ve been told that a layer of oil in the latrine helps to prevent the mosquitoes from breeding – so far it seems to have improved things but I might need to get another 5 litres. We’ve been meaning to make another visit the Scripture Union offices for several weeks but always seem to run out of time or energy but today I decided at the last minute to make the extra trip. But the office was no more! Due to termites destroying the roof over the Christmas break the diocese had decided to renovate all the office buildings, including that of the SU. I just happened to meet the Bishop as he was taking a group around to check the work in progress. One of the group was another white – from the UK. Within minutes we both realised that we had been at Aston together and had not met since 1977! If any from those days read this, you may also remember Paul Dean who did Civil Engineering and finished the year after me. He spent some time at Ringli (over the hill from Ushindi) during the 1980’s and did the initial surveys for the dam which gives the hospital and now the school some electricity! He is visiting with his family for a few weeks and we hope to meet up again before he leaves. It really is a small world now.

Apart from teaching, we spent the rest of Wednesday writing and checking our remaining end of term exam papers. Chemistry and maths symbols are a pig to type even on a laptop but by doing them ourselves at least we can check that they are accurate! Some student save bought revision aids for some subjects – typed sheets stapled together rather than the shiny, colour booklets students in the UK have. I looked at one for the geography of East Africa which started with information on volcanoes. I gave up on page two after finding “volcanoe” twice and couldn’t help laughing at the “violet” (violent) eruptions which produce “larvae” (lava). Even the student found the errors amusing when I explained the different meanings! But I also have to remember that I can’t write about chemistry in any other language and have difficulty with English myself!

We celebrated our 27th Wedding Anniversary on Thursday by watching a DVD! Otherwise it was a normal day with me teaching three double periods and spending the afternoon recovering! Andrea found things to do around the house as she had only one lesson to teach.

The S3 Chemistry did their first practical examination on Friday morning. As I’ve only taught them how to do an acid-base titration there were no surprise questions on the paper. We had three groups of 14 for 1 hour session with only a 10 min break between each one. I did warn them that, not being African, the exam would start and end on time and if they arrived late I would not let them in. In fact, I was wrong. They all arrived early to their sessions and were so efficient in sorting themselves out that we started each session early! Only one of them read the burette correctly but they were so consistent in their errors that the results were very good. However, their calculations were hopeless with only one student out of 42 getting the correct answer! I suspected this would happen and will award very few marks for the calculations and will test this again in the written paper in two weeks time.

Andrea spent most of Saturday morning digging trenches outside our house to try to catch the rainwater before it flowed in though our front door. She also went digging in the afternoon. I spent my time looking at the practical exam papers and catching up with other bits & pieces I haven’t been able to do for a couple of weeks.

Week 53 (22 – 28 July 2007)

Picture: Girl students and teachers cooking for Open Day.

John Ondoma, the Chairman of the Board of Governors (BOG!) preached at the service on Sunday morning. His experience as a teacher was evident and he was entertaining, relevant and thought provoking – as usual. A welcome change. The students were tired after the Open Day and only 15 came to the Bible study. An S1 girl from Sudan with limited English led one of the groups – and did a very good job! A future leader in the making. The knitting and chess were very popular again in the late afternoon. We managed to charge our laptops and watched another episode of “Upstairs Downstairs” later – a welcome and gentle end to the weekend.

Monday arrived early and I was nearly late for the 7.10am assembly. The students were on time, thus beginning what I hoped would be a quiet Duty week. Three teachers were away so only one arrived to teach the first lesson. Otherwise it was a quite day ending with me loosing Connect 4 to a student but winning two chess games. And then a student came to tell me that the Head Prefect was coughing up blood. We took him to the hospital, arriving at 7.15pm just as it was getting dark. We made a return trip with two students between 10 and 11pm only to find that the boy’s parents had arrived to look after him. It seems he has ulcers, a fairly common complaint here even amongst the younger people. Four sentences don’t really describe the anxiety, particularly of Newton (the patient) and Andrea (the passenger) let alone me (the driver) over the even rougher short road – the recent heavy rains have done little to improve the “road” surface. The negotiations in poor English with frequent misunderstandings and different perspectives would take much too long to describe as parents were contacted and the feasibility of allowing two students to carry their sleeping, washing and cooking gear to the hospital walking in the dark for about 30 minutes leaving at 10pm and then to sleep overnight on the floor of the ward. Hence our second later trip even though the other teachers said there was no need for us to take them. What would you have done?

After the assembly on Tuesday I was informed that another student was ill and had stayed in the dormitory. By the time I got to the dormitory it was locked and I couldn’t find the watchman with the key. How ill was he? Did he need to go to hospital? Why was the dormitory locked? We were told it was to stop the students returning during lesson time and thus miss lessons – but why would they want to miss lessons? And what happens if there is a fire? (They use kerosene lamps at night as well as the solar lights.) The Principal was a little disturbed when we shared our concerns after the staff meeting. Especially as his daughter is a student at Ushindi. Some more girls came to the chess club and Andrea’s knitting has it’s usual following. In the evening I worked in the offices as there was power. Watching the second half of the Ireland v France rugby match was exhausting - and gripping even though Ireland lost! It doesn’t make any difference to my enjoyment of it knowing the result or seeing it so long after the event.

On Wednesday I discovered several students saying they had malaria and during the day at least six others with various illness – or suspected illnesses. Most went to the hospital and returned with handfuls of drugs and diagnoses such as peptic ulcers. We can’t help being a little suspicious especially when we are told that the number of students who report ill increases just before examinations. Having said that, one teacher is in hospital with malaria, another two are ill and Andrea’s stomach and connected organs are a little iffy. A further two staff are still away in Kampala and another just didn’t appear for lessons. Therefore it is hardly surprising to find none of the four classes being taught at several times today. The first meeting of the Principal, Deputy Principal, Director of Studies and me happened today – something I’ve been trying to get to happen since January! We talked over some things in general terms with me just asking the questions they don’t want to be asked and then changing their minds after they suggest an answer. It’s a start and I hope will be useful, if difficult, in the weeks ahead. All is quiet in the evening as I type as the level of “reading” i.e. efforts to memorise notes is increased coming towards the end of term examinations.

Thursday morning was a bit duller than usual then it got darker then it started raining. Then it kept on raining and pouring and everything got very very wet. I left our house at 7am, led the assembly and started teaching but could hardly see the students or the blackboard. They could hardly hear me because of the noise of the rain. The only other lesson going on was Mathematics (Andrea). I taught a further two lessons but did not see any other teachers by the time I left the teaching block at 1pm. It had stopped raining and was getting brighter and warmer. The teachers who weren’t ill couldn’t travel because of the rain. But it was a bit lonely – although the students were well behaved and used to looking after themselves. I was glad to see some of the other staff later. In the evening, round supper time, I decided to patrol and inspect the dormitories. The students were very friendly and kept trying to persuade me that their bed was the best “dressed” (or made) bed. I agreed that they were all the best dressed beds! Only a few of the boy’s beds were typical of boys, but then they had just returned from sports and were in the middle of changing and showering.

Friday was another busy day on duty and we also had the end of month staff meeting, although it meant that the assembly was cancelled. It was a more efficient and effective meeting than many and topics such as first aid and the issue of medicines, use of staff mobile phones by students were discussed with some decisions being reached.

Although Saturday was my day off from duty – the other teacher came to teach a lesson so was around too. However, he left the site at 2.30pm and I continued on duty for the rest of the weekend. I’m just too tired to write any more!

Week 52 (15 – 21 July 2007)

The students from Theological College at nearby Ringili came for their fifth visit to the school and took the morning service. It’s hard not to be critical but we couldn’t make out anything the preacher was saying. After our second breakfast, the car got its wash. Later in the afternoon the Bible Studies resumed using a booklet specially prepared for schools by Scripture Union (Kenya). There were 19 boys and 6 girls, eventually, so that was a good start. We got the students to lead the three groups and we just sat “in attendance” and kept them to a time limit. The feedback at the end was very encouraging although many of the students find it difficult to contribute in a group situation. They are much more used to being told what to write down. Later in the afternoon we were having tea with John and Brenda sitting outside at the back of our houses when a “visitor” arrived. It was Vita Patrick who was our neighbour until December. He has moved to a new school in Moyo District which boarders Sudan. We haven’t seen him since the Garners visited in April. He is still struggling with a lack of resources at the school but sees some improvements e.g. many subjects now have text books and the furniture is due to arrive during the next two weeks. There are 13 teachers but only two chairs in the staff room so they have to stand as they prepare their lessons! None of the other teachers are Christians and he is finding this a real challenge as their morals are very different. Vita told us that he could have got a better posting if he had bribed one of the officials – something he was not prepared to do and so ended up at one of the most difficult and remote schools. He just says that it’s where God wants him to be. He has just recovered from another bout of typhoid and is on his way to try to sort out his papers, something he has been trying to do for several years. He keeps being told that they can’t find his file but he is sure that if a bribe was involved it would be found quickly. Again, he refuses to give money to people who are not doing their job properly. He is still a quiet and gentle man and is a real missionary in his own country. If only there were more like him.

Andrea started another week of Teacher on Duty on Monday and spent much of the day in the staff room. Although the breakfast was on time many of the S3 students were late for my lesson – this has happened every Monday since we returned but has usually been because breakfast is late. This time the previous teacher i.e. the lesson before breakfast had given the class a test and many ran on into the meal break so were late leaving. The teacher concerned was the Maths student teacher who had told Andrea that he would not be setting a test. Hm. On a more positive note, the girls enjoyed the knitting club with Andrea fixing their “blunders” as they call them. The boys and a couple of girls enjoyed playing chess again. All the five sets we have are in constant use during the club time and some also enjoyed the Connect-4 travel game we have. It’s good to see them doing something other that studying, football or singing and have a chance for us to meet them outside lessons. Newton said that today was a day to remember – he won his first chess game! That’s Bayo, not Isaac Newton. I had a first later today too. I managed to pick my first lock! It’s amazing what skills one picks up as a “missionary”! I had just locked my phone away in the desk drawer when it rang. I must have tried to unlock it too quickly and was able to accidentally remove the key before it had fully turned and unlocked and then couldn’t get the key back in again. But a bit of wire did the trick!

Tuesday was quiet although Andrea probably doesn’t agree with me as she is on duty. At least it was quiet until heard during the staff meeting that a “group” was coming at 3pm to speak to the students. No one seemed to know anything about it nor what they would be speaking about. They arrived just before 3pm and turned out to be a group of university age students from different parts of the UK who were in Uganda for about 3 weeks with YWAM (Youth With A Mission). Our students were hastily moved from lessons into the hall where the team of 7 spoke about careers and their background then opened it up for questions. We encouraged them to end the formal bit as soon as possible and spend the rest of their visit chatting informally with the school students. We then discovered that they are a very musical group and included one who is studying Drumming and Theology! If we had known we would have asked them to use that skill as it is a good way of making contact with our youngsters. We have asked to be kept informed of future visits and we can be “go-betweens” and organise events that would be different from the usual Ugandan format. We also discovered that not arrangements for refreshments had been made so we invited them to our home for a soda (or tea for the really English ones) and had a good chat with them. It was interesting to meet other white people and be able to talk more quickly with a wider vocabulary. I think the Ugandan’s who accompanied them and some of our staff were a little bemused and found it difficult to follow the conversations. We will remind them of this when they revert to Lugbara in our presence!

Not a lot happened on Wednesday apart from the teaching of one class each. The rest of our time was spent finishing of some lesson preparation, exam materials and other administration. I continued in the evening as the power was on again and discovered some boys practicing a dance to a “rap” style DVD to perform at the Open Day.

I taught two lessons on Thursday morning and the student was taking the third one for the last time today so I’ll have to get up early next Thursday! I seemed to be the only one teaching for both of the lessons. Three of the teachers have gone into town to buy the food and other items for the Open Day on Saturday and I think the others have just gone! I passed my observations on to the Deputy Principal indicating that it seems that Open Day and food are more important than lessons. I’m sure there are other ways to get the food even if it is more difficult than in the UK. I borrowed a “panga” to try slashing (cutting) the grass around our compound. I’ve used a number of methods for cutting grass but this seems to be the least effective! I’ll get the scissors out next time. The students usually do about an hour of slashing at a time and the workmen can be doing it all day. My wrist was painful after 5 minutes and took a further hour before I gained total control over my hand. I’m sure there’s a knack to it but don’t think I’m willing to learn it. In the (now hotter) afternoon I did some printing of our own as well as some for the Open Day.

On Friday we visited town to get both our supplies and some fresh vegetables for the Open Day meal. We also have a basin full of tomatoes and another of onions in our house delivered at 8am! Although we had lunch in town we still managed to return by 1.30pm thus giving us some time to recover and prepare for the school assembly at 4pm. The teachers on duty, of which Andrea is one, have some part in this. Because the Open Day preparations were in full swing with almost all the students involved in cleaning and moving furniture it was planned to be a short, 15 min assembly. It ended an hour and 15 min later mainly because when a Ugandan starts talking we are told that they seem to loose all sense of time! Teachers have this problem too so put the two together and you get a long assembly. Some time could be saved if we weren’t constantly reminded that the speaker was going to say little. It was a frustrating assembly, and in many ways sad, for other reasons also. Two staff commented on the misdemeanours of at least seven students, naming each one. We were in the position to see the reactions of most of the named students because the assembly was held outside and therefore brighter and more spread out. Perhaps we also know the students better and can read their body language more easily than before and we saw negative reactions. At the end, the Principal gave the opportunity for students to make comments or ask questions, as he often does. One boy, who we know to be quiet, trustworthy and reliable, tried to explain what had happened and that he was being wrongly accused. Another of the named students showed true character and maturity. He stood up to publicly thank Andrea for producing Mathematics revision question booklets for his class. We spoke to the Principal afterwards about whole incident and he listened to our concerns which not every Principal would do.

I woke up tired on Saturday morning. Andrea set off for the salad preparation at 9am and remained preparing food until around 5pm with a short break for lunch. All the other women staff including the secretary were also involved all day and took no other part in “Ushindi Day”. I toured the school mid-morning to see what was happening and to take photos. I got some interesting pictures of the food preparation which probably break every health and hygiene regulation in existence! I was trying to see if there was any why I could help in the preparations everything seemed to be covered so I returned to base. At 1.30pm I took up my duties in the ‘car park’ having been led to believe that there were likely to be around 60 cars and there would be a rush between 2 and 2.30pm. There was a ‘rush’ a bit later than that, but mainly because the two cars that came together were driving more quickly than most. I gave up at 3.30pm after the three students and I had successfully parked all 12 cars and one coach! People were still arriving at 5pm but the students managed well on their own. The programme started at 2pm with tours and the formal part at 2.30pm. The Guest of Honour arrived at 3.10pm and the proceedings then began with two welcome songs, hymns and prayers then the commissioning of the new prefects. This was accompanied by a 30 minute sermon and by the end of this section I realised that the commissioning of the one year of prefect duties was given more time and ceremony than our service in preparation for leaving our home for 2 or more years! The proceedings i.e. speeches, speeches and long speeches continued until 6pm. The food had been sitting getting cold from about 4pm. The Ushindi Primary students had been practicing all week to perform four songs/dances but there was only time to perform two of them – which were very good. And that was after sitting quietly for four hours. The secondary students had also prepared poetry, sketches and songs but after the food came a few students were able to perform their pieces but most of the guests left so some performed to empty chairs and others didn’t even get that opportunity. Even so, many of the students assisted to clear away the 600 chairs and other things so that by the next morning most of the school had been returned to normal. We have found the last few days more than a little tiring and difficult although we so have to remember this is a school and we don’t have to deal with issues that are met in hospitals or other more serious areas on a daily basis.