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!