Week 69 (11 - 17 Nov 2007)

Photo: Insects are a delicacy in Uganda. For the Ugandans at least. These are grashoppers which our neighbours very kindly let us try. They were still alive as Lillian was taking the wings off but we ate them later, after being fried. They taste much the same as maggots and white ants.

We had a rest from the school service on Sunday morning as we had been invited to an ordination service in town. Simon, the eldest son (i.e. first born) of Ondoma John, the Chairman of the Ushindi Board, was one of the ordinands, having recently completed his masters degree at Durham University in England. The time on the invitation said that it would start at 9am but ours was changed to 10am and we arrived just behind the Bishop. We were ushered into the church and were told that the service would “start now”. “Now” loses its meaning in translation. The service actually started at 11am – and finished around 4.30pm. I don’t have the stamina to be an Anglican! There was food afterwards for around 800 people an we couldn’t leave anyway because after we parked the car more chairs and a marquee were erected blocking us (and the Bishop) in! The serving of the food was efficient and we had a chance to chat to several people including other members of John Ondoma’s family and the Bishop. We were just about to follow the Bishop’s car out when one of the clergy based at Kuluva asked for a lift back, then another – so eventually we left with a car full of clergy, wives and luggage! So we took the opportunity to visit Molly and Isobel briefly as they had just returned from the UK in the morning.

Having been fairly busy recently, we went to town after lunch on Monday for our usual supplies and collected some AIM post from Diguna. It was a pleasant surprise to meet Hannah who was very kind to us last year when we arrived. She and her husband Kurt are very experienced missionaries and recently returned from Germany. They will be going to Kenya eventually but are filling in temporarily back in their previous post in Arua i.e. travelling to Congo and Sudan etc. We also had a stop off at a children’s party at the Asiki’s home – with fizzy drinks, pop-corn, biscuits and sweets as the food! We only stayed for an hour or so as the thunder was starting to rumble in the background. Cathy and her girls had arranged the party games very efficiently and gave us some ideas that the students at Ushindi might like to try for some light entertainment. Most of the children here have no experience of party games – or parties.

As there was still no power at Kuluva I was beginning to panic about the examination papers that we need to set. The science papers include multiple choice questions which take ages to type – once suitable ones have been found from past papers. Also chemical equations and symbols are not easy to type accurately. We decided last year that it would be easier for us to type them up on the laptops – the school secretary who types the other examinations is extremely grateful as she hates typing the science questions too! But laptops need power. So, on Tuesday, off I went to town to the SIL (Wycliffe) office begging for power. The SIL (Sudan) team has been moved to Sudan (or the members have left for other reasons) and now there is only one person left! Sarah is from the UK and although she works in Lugbara she is actually concentrating on East Congo. Lugbara people are in Sudan also. So Sarah seemed to be happy to have some company for a day. She let me have full use of the SIL office. Actually, her garage! It does have two desks and is as large as one of our rooms! So I was quite comfortable – and the cat also tried to make herself comfortable on my lap! I worked solidly from 9am to 5pm with only short breaks and managed to complete the two S3 papers only! And my head aches. I managed to send a few e-mails too. But that didn’t make my head hurt any less.

On Wednesday morning I taught my S1 Biology lesson early and went back to the SIL office in town. By the end of the day I had completed the first draft of the remaining papers for S1 and S2. A total of 35 pages! No wonder it took so long! I had taken Andrea’s laptop to charge both yesterday and today so she was able to at least start her Maths papers - a total of 8 pages when finished. Thoughts of marking them all does not fill us with joy. But at least it’s a relief to finish setting them.

We were teaching more on Thursday and did the mark schemes for the exam papers i.e. checked for mistakes and to make sure the questions could actually be answered. We also started typing up notes from the Workshops for the teachers.

We normally get up around 6.15am (I manage it by 6.30am) then waken up an hour or so later. But on Friday we both slept in until 8am. What luxury! Andrea was still feeling a little rough so missed the assembly in the afternoon. We do admire the stamina of Ugandans. The Principal mentioned the need for students to have enough sleep, especially in the examination period. The Deputy reflected on the fact that many students were ill at present, some fairly seriously and thus had been sent home to recover. Most of the students were ill with malaria, he said. Afterwards, I asked if there were fewer mosquitoes around in the early hours of the morning (from 5am onwards). And how des the ringing the school bell every morning at 5am help the students to get enough sleep? I suggested that those student who wanted to get up early could set their own alarms and those who needed more sleep could remain undisturbed. I left it with him to discuss with other staff and make a decision. [I’m writing this on Tuesday of the following week – we haven’t heard the 5am bell since Friday!] During the evening devotions the pressure lamp suddenly expired and plunged us into darkness. I don’t mean the semi-darkness in the UK – I mean real black darkness. The students continued to sing, but I couldn’t see any of them – they don’t “glow in the dark” as we do. Fortunately I had my torch so you can imagine me sitting with 130 or so students singing at the tops of their voices with one small torch lighting up the school hall. Then they sat down and it was my turn to speak. Holding notes and a torch isn’t easy and speaking into blackness is a little unnerving too. And I even had a visual aid to hold (a bottle of Coca Cola). Now, it would have made sense to talk about Jesus as the Light of the world – especially as the light returned as I was speaking. But now you have to work out where a bottle of Coca Cola comes in Mark’s gospel! I’m a teacher; I don’t give all the answers!

On Saturday we had a welcome rest although Andrea spent some time writing up notes from the staff training – our intention is to give them each a copy of our notes and their suggestions. Adaku John, our neighbour called in to check our roof leaks. He climbed into the roof space and immediately spotted some holes which he proceeded to patch up then went onto the roof outside to seal from there before making a final check from the inside. I said that if I was his age I would have done it myself! Pity it wasn’t done properly the first two times. But hopefully we’ll have no more leaks. The highlight of the afternoon was watching the S4 students who left recently play against a team from the rest of the school, including a teacher. The rest won narrowly 4-3 but it was an entertaining friendly match.