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!