Week 81 (3 – 9 Feb 2008)

Having had a long hot day yesterday, so on Sunday we gave in and drove to Kuluva for the morning service. Andrea drove most of the way – I just did “the bridge”. She managed well and managed to explore a few of the dips with enthusiasm even though she was trying to avoid them! The rest of the day was fairly quiet, apart from Andrea cooking a birthday cake for our neighbour, John. We had a little celebration around tea time – the first time anyone has remembered to celebrate his birthday. He missed the previous 30!

The school opened on Monday. Well, at around 9.15am one of the kitchen staff opened the staffroom for me then the other teachers started arriving but were beaten by around 10 students. The staff meeting started a little late and covered many of the usual topics. There was a departure from the usual format when we broke into groups to begin discussing the new vision statement and what it would mean for how we operate the school. The staff responded with enthusiasm and ideas but it will take much more effort for them to have any impact on what actually happens. The timetable is not complete even after lengthy “discussions” with a number of individuals. Many of the other usual operational preparations have not been done and we are finding this very frustrating. There seems to be little interest or motivation to do them either, it always seems to be someone else’s job and they’re not around at the crucial times. By the end of the day around 75 of the 120 students expected had arrived. The new S1 students won’t start until Feb 18 as all the school admissions in the area have not been completed yet.

The boy’s House parent (also the Director of Studies and writer of the timetable) was not around on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning as a relative had died. Andrea is one of the Teachers on Duty so we continued our early morning (7am) wake-up calls in each of the dormitories. By 9am there were no other teachers around so none of the early lessons were taught in spite of the Principal encouraging teaching to begin today. A few were taught later in the day by some who took the opportunity rather than following the “timetable”.

On Wednesday morning I wasn’t feeling great – partly because of the heat and dehydration I expect but more likely due to the change in routine and increased activity. I missed the early morning dormitory visit but managed to teach a couple of lessons later in the day. This was followed by a timetable consultation (still not complete), then a meeting with other teachers in preparation for visits by parents. At the end of the last year, the staff met to examine the report cards and discuss which students should be allowed to proceed to the next year. Some were not promoted on academic grounds and recommended to either find a new school or repeat the year. Others were asked to leave on behavioural grounds. The meetings concerned one boy who was recommended to repeat a year and the other to leave on behavioural grounds. I found the teachers reasons hard to deal with but had to accept their conclusions – one is weak and would benefit from an extra year to consolidate his understanding especially as repeating the O-levels would be recorded and be detrimental to his future, as well as being more expensive. The other was a boy who had shown unacceptable behaviour but his Aunt had pleaded his case and asked the school to give him one more term to improve. The background was sad by our standards but the teacher’s attitudes and reasons were just as difficult to accept and none of the behaviours were major and seemed to follow a pattern. There was no discussion of the possible reasons for his behaviour or any talk of what the school had done to help him. I did not have time to explore this but will follow it up later. However, it was a step forward for me to be invited to join the discussions and I am grateful for that. Andrea is Teacher on Duty this week but finding is frustrating as some of the others on the team are not doing their share.

My teaching load is lighter (at my request) so that I have more time for other things. on Thursday morning I finished typing in the S3 end of year exam results (including errors) and began an analysis. A student who came at the bottom of the class, below one recommended to resit the year, was allowed to proceed to S4. They missed that one. The lad hasn’t turned up at school yet though so may have transferred to another school anyway. We had a visit from John and Anne O’Connell and Andrew Moody and had lunch with them. John and Anne were members of our minister Peter’s previous church and Peter visited them in Goli, Uganda during his last sabbatical. This is one of the things that started us on the road to Uganda so John and Anne regard us as being their “children”! We last saw then at the commissioning service for Lyn Cooke back in Brentwood. Andrew is based a Goli, but originally from Ballymena, N Ireland where my Mum is from! We met Andrew on our first visit to Uganda many moons ago! It was great to catch up with them again.

Stephen (Director of Studies) and I “finished” the timetable on Friday morning. There are only a few things which need to be changed! So we’ll see how it works before trying again. The first school assembly of the year took place in the afternoon and my change in role to Deputy Principal, and therefore part of the school administration, was announced to the students.

The ‘O’ level results arrived at school on Saturday morning and Andrea and I spend an hour or so typing in the results from all 38 students. Much faster than doing it for the 250 students that I’m more used to! All of the students passed Maths – this hasn’t happened before! Andrea taught them for S4. We then set off for town to have lunch with Anne Houghton (from Ringili) and our unit leader, Klemens, from Entebbe. After shopping we stopped off at the Cassells and also met the two short term AIM girls from Germany. SO quite a busy day seeing the local AIM folk! In the evening we tried to show a DVD at the request of students for entertainment. They would have liked to have watched sport, the Africa Cup (football) in particular but the best I could do was England v Ireland from the 2007 Six Nations Championship. Unfortunately, when all the equipment was set up the boys starting the generator hit the petrol tap and it snapped off making the generator useless. It should be able to repair it fairly easily – but the rugby will have to wait for another time!

Week 80 (27 Jan – 2 Feb 2008)

We’ve been trying to get up a little earlier each day in preparation for the new term. But so far we’ve failed! On Sunday we just managed to leave the house at 9.30am to walk to Kuluva for the 10am service – a pleasant walk and not too hot. There was a little uncertainty whether there would be an English service as major celebrations were happening at the hospital for World Leprosy Day. We also thought that if there was another event starting at 10am the service would be a little shorter than usual. But we’re not African. It was still 2 hours long. After the service we walked over to the celebration area only to find that it hadn’t started – over two hours after the stated time! It seems that not all of the guests had arrived. There was to be a parade of hospital staff and they were standing out in the sun for most of that time. I did suggest that if anyone fainted or took ill, there would be plenty of expert advice on hand. Andrea wasn’t so sure! Although we were invited to sit in one of the visitors marquees, we declined. It would have been interesting to watch the parade and band playing but in the heat, the thought of many long speeches was too much for us. The walk home was hot – up to 29°C – and the house seemed very cool in comparison.

With one week before the term starts, I was hoping that it would be possible for some of the staff to meet and begin preparations. So, on Monday morning, I decided to work on my laptop in the office so that I would be around if anyone came. I managed to catch up with the blog with no interruptions. It’s a little frustrating to say the least. I have a list of about 15 items, all of which require some discussion and preparation but so far there’s no one to talk to! John, the Deputy, was around briefly and I did try to emphasise that having a staff meeting at the end of the first week of term would not be a good idea – some things need to be set in motion from the very start.

Tuesday was another quiet morning so we spent the time on our laptops. Chairs would have been more comfortable. Andrea has produced a booklet of our workshop on managing student behaviour and I’ve found some old notes on Word and PowerPoint which I can use with the S4 class. We’ve had a few messages from friends in Kenya and it doesn’t look good – reinforces the BBC World News which has an African emphasis here. Goods seem to be getting through for now, at least to Arua which is a “hub” for DR Congo and Sudan so a high priority. Prices have risen a little but part of that may be due to the hot season. Yes, it is hot and very dry so we need to keep drinking. But we seem to be managing if we don’t move too much in the afternoon. Mornings are OK though we have felt a little cold at times when the temperature drops to about 23°C! There is a breeze most days – but not of course as I write now in the afternoon and am starting to get sweaty again. I checked the e-mails last night and at 10.30pm our lights went out. We have been using a lot of power recently, partly to see how much we can use. Now we know. I disconnected the laptop and the light returned a few minutes later. I must remember to close the doors and windows next time so that the lights can’t get out!

We had though of going to town to bring the Cassel family out to Ushindi on Wednesday but as we will be going on Thurs and Sat we decided not to – then found it wasn’t convenient for them either. So we carried on working!

Thursday was games day. We played canasta with the Asiki’s followed by lunch then and new game to us called “Quickword”. Andrea enjoyed it but I struggled as you had to think of words in different categories in a given time limit. This was followed by shopping and a cup of tea with the Cassels before returning home. A long and hot day. I’m not sure if I’ve written this before, but Andrea is now driving a little. So far she has got as far as “the bridge” when I take over. This will at least share the driving and help in emergencies.

I worked in the Principals office on Friday morning until he arrived but spent most of the rest of the day doing lesson preparation. Apart from watching a Star Trek episode in the evening. Isn’t life exciting!

The main news from Saturday is that Ireland beat Italy (16-11) in the opening of the Rugby Six Nations Championship. It would probably be unkind to gloat over the other match (Wales 26 v England 19). I heard from Mum that it was a good match. We weren’t able to watch it of course but were at a wedding instead – our first time seeing the whole experience. Milka, a relative of Charles Asiki, married Wilbert. The service was due to start at 11am and we heard later that everyone was ready in plenty of time. Except the drivers of the cars to get them to the church who for some unknown reason were over an hour late! The service was only 2½ hours long and finished after the reception was scheduled to start! Cathy advised us that there would be a gap of about 90minutes between the service and the reception so we went for a drink and plate of chips. We were very grateful as we didn’t eat until after 5pm. We think we also missed the speeches but so did the bride and groom! The reception was noisy, exuberant and had a few quaint rituals e.g. the bride and groom feeding each other. The other most noticeable thing was that as the bride and groom moved anywhere they were accompanied by the 2 flower girls, six bridesmaids and three best men and walked very very slowly in time to the music. I have seen slow marching but it is fast compared with the speed they moved! It was good for taking photos but must have added around 30 minutes to the proceedings! Still, it was a valuable cultural experience and made easier because we knew some of those participating and some of the other guests.

Week 79 (20 – 26 Jan 2008)

We visited Zana Presbyterian Church on Sunday morning. The preacher was from the US and we felt that his message could have been more culturally sensitive and encouraging. It’s sad when such opportunities are missed. I spent the afternoon re-packing our cases, something we seem to have been doing a lot recently. It was a little easier as I packed as much of the heavy stuff into an additional bag. As it was Lyn and Elaine’s birthdays we went next door to watch a video and eat popcorn. About 15 minutes into the film (“Two Weeks Notice”) the power went off! The alternative was to watch a DVD on a laptop. As this was being sorted, the power came on again so all was well in the end. James’ Mum phone later in the evening – it’s always good to get news from home – and compare the weather!

Our 5am start on Monday was as painful as usual, but we managed to arrive at Entebbe airport before 7am. The Eagle Air checkout didn’t open until around 7.30am and the plane was due to leave at 8am. As it’s a small plane, we were only a few minutes late. We stopped at PAKUBA. This brought back memories of our first flight to Arua when Richard noticed that one of our cases was missing and I found it in a Land Rover that was just about to leave the airstrip with an American group! No luggage was taken off this time – although two passengers disembarked. Cathy and family gave us a warm welcome at Arua and after checking that our car started, she and Andrea had a cup of tea (cold water for me). Its much hotter here than in Kampala! After some shopping, we eventually got to Ushindi at 12.30pm and received another warm welcome. Mary had arrived and spent a few hours cleaning the 6 weeks of dust away. As we have ceilings, there wasn’t any more that we would expect after so long.

We continued our unpacking and sorting on Tuesday, reading our post and trying to cool down. It was good not to have to rush and do a little at a time.

On Wednesday we started doing some more serious work and printing from the laptops. But we managed not to do too much and also continued with the sorting. Mary’s cooking has continued to be a problem. It’s so good I eat too much so can’t to anything for an hour or two afterwards!

We have few repairs to do. Or should that be “I”. So on Thursday morning I attempted to replace the lid handles of two saucepans– the round bits that stop you burning your fingers when you take the lid off. The plastic (thermoset rather than thermoplastic) had cracked before we left so I had taken one back to the UK to find replacements. The best I could find were wooden door knobs. So I thought it would be a simple job to screw these onto the remaining projection on the saucepan lid. Nothing is that simple. There was a metal attachment on the old lids which could be put into the wooden replacements THEN they could be screwed on. But first the remaining plastic had to be removed. First one was surprisingly easily done with a hammer and screwdriver. But when I hit the second one, it objected and disappeared. I knew which direction it went but spent about 30 minutes sweeping the grass area outside our back door. I’m sure you can imagine what it’s like trying to find a small round black object in the grass. There are goats and sheep around here too so I had several false alarms! Just as I was about to give up I walked towards our neighbours house and found the offending item outside his back door. It must have travelled 3 meters (about 10 feet) and I didn’t hit it very hard either. I did later though because I was getting very hot and bothered by this stage. The rest of the process was straightforward and so far all our lids are function. Morale – if anything breaks, get someone else to fix it!
After lunch we went to meet the Cassels who are with AIM and arrived in Arua yesterday. They have two children with them – the older two are back in Canada. So we split up and went shopping. Shopping definitely has a gender split. John and I visited the hardware shops while Chrys and Andrea went to the market and supermarket. They have a large house in Arua but has no furniture - yet. They do have taps and water and electricity though. They are staying in a nearby guesthouse for a few nights. Their reactions to so many strange things all at once and wondering how on earth it is possible to sort everything out reminded us of how we felt just 18 months ago.

On Friday, I managed to actually start some lesson preparation. But only just. As I don’t find the syllabus either interesting or relevant and it’s hard to teach with no resources, lesson preparation is something I find easy to avoid. But I also know what happens when term starts and advance preparation will pay off in the end. We visited our friends, the Laceys, at Kuluva in the afternoon to share coffee, cold drinks (they have a fridge that works) and biscuits. They now have a clearer idea of their work here so it was good to catch up – and to hear about Christmas events here. We watched a very long DVD (“Snow Queen”) on the DVD player – it’s fine even though the screen is smaller than the laptop and it does run directly from the 12v battery so we should be able to keep it charged easily.

We stayed in on Saturday reading and preparing again. I even managed to do a little painting in the afternoon. And, yes, we did watch another short DVD in the evening. We find series like Star Trek, Hustle, West Wing and most recently, CSI are good as the episodes a less than an hour and we can do other things in the evening too.

So after our first week back everything seems to be very familiar – almost like a second or third home. We seem to adjust to being wherever we are – at least most of the time. It’s not helpful to wish you were somewhere else, but we do miss the opportunities to see family and friends we’ve known for many years.

Week 78 (13 – 19 Jan 2008)

Apologies for the delay in updating the blog – I have been writing it faithfully but have not been able to get a good enough connection to upload.

Sunday was the last day of the conference in Kampala and a busy time for the members of the conference committee. Everything seemed to run fairly smoothly although the accommodation did not meet all expectations. It’s hard to find a venue that can accommodate 70+ delegates on full board. They are renovating the site so there is a lot of building work and the new rooms will be too expensive for us to use in the future. We returned to Lyn’s flat in the early afternoon. I spent several hours counting the cash and trying to balance the books.

On Monday morning we set off to face the full might of Ugandan bureaucracy and administration as we had to get our Ugandan driving licences. Lyn had arranged a private hire (taxi) but had to remind him be on time! He is a member of her church and currently studying for his BA to become a pastor. We arrived at the distant venue to get our digital photos taken and expected to be in queues for at least two hours. We were called for out photo after about 2 minutes and although we had to visit a further three desks, the queues were short and the whole process was completed in 50 minutes! I suppose Monday mornings are fairly quiet. We also expected to have to wait a week for the licences to be made but were told we can return on Thursday! Bosco (our driver) waited for us and as we took less time than expected we stopped off at the bank and for some food shopping for Lyn. By the time we returned to the flat, Margaret had washed our clothes and they were nearly ready to be ironed – which she did later. A very productive morning with much less effort and frustration than expected! Maybe CHOGOM did have a lasting effect. Let’s hope it lasts till Thursday.

While with Bosco, we realised the extent of the events in Kenya. We haven’t heard recent news but many the petrol stations are still dry. The prices of fuel rocketed but do seem to be dropping again. All the fuel comes via Kenya.

On Tuesday there was no electricity in the flat. This is common in Kampala and often frustrating – we didn’t use the laptop though it would have been a good time to catch up with some planning etc. We had to read instead! We were still very tired to Andrea slept for several hours in the afternoon – it’s noisy sometimes at night with dogs barking or music playing. I took the opportunity to experiment with a Christmas present. We pooled our Christmas money to get a portable DVD player. This will run directly from a 12 volt battery and will save our laptop battery life. It’s also quicker to set up although the main disadvantage is the smaller (8.5”) screen. It’s fine for one or two people to watch but no more. However, it can connect to an ordinary TV – like the one at Ushindi – so we can show the occasional DVD to the students while being in control of what is shown! I watched Ireland beating Namibia from the Rugby World Cup. It’s taken until now to be able to watch it! But I’m also aware that the 2008 Six Nations tournament begins on 2nd Feb – and I’ll miss it again unless a kind person records it for me! I’d even rather watch England playing rugby than Arsenal playing football but we don’t get the rugby here as far as I know. I’m not sure if the African Cup is televised either.

On Wednesday we “looked forward” to our last Conference Committee meeting so made our way up to Matoke Inn for lunch and fed the laptop on the internet too. They have a wireless broadband connection! After lunch we found seven people in the lounge area in silence, each one on their own laptop. I was the eighth. The reviews from the Conference were positive and the finances are in the black so we made a few final decisions. Only one of the committee is likely to be around for the next conference in January 2009.

Bosco collected us on Thursday morning for another foray into Ugandan bureaucracy to collect our driving permits. It took nearly an hour to get across Kampala and less than 5 minutes to collect the licences! Such efficiency is unusual, apparently but bodes well for the future. We stopped off for some more shopping and returned to the flat. We booked our return flight to Arua for Monday morning. We had though of going on Sunday but realised that we will be out later than usual celebrating Lyn’s birthday on Saturday evening and it would be unfair to get her up at 5.30am on her birthday! We had power in the afternoon so spent most of the time either on the internet (using Lyn’s laptop) or working on our own – then swapping when we got bored waiting for downloads. It’s not broadband but faster than in Arua. We’ve found some useful materials for teacher training with will supplement a book we brought back with us. Andrea has been looking and knitting patterns and recipes too.

We have power again this morning (Friday) so have continued with our internet searches and laptop work. And a few games! It’s been wet so slightly cooler, which helps us to concentrate. By cooler, I mean 24°C (76°F).

We worked all day Saturday – it’s good to have peace and quiet and it’s not too hot either. In the evening we went to Fang Fang’s Chinese restaurant in Kampala with four others to celebrate Lyn and Elaine’s birthdays. It was a bit odd eating Chinese food in Uganda – but probably no different from eating Chinese food in Essex! It was a very “up-market” establishment compared with the usual Ugandan fare and I was a bit concerned about how much it might cost – Chinese in UK is expensive. But we thought £8-50 each, including four of us paying for the birthday girls, was reasonable – and the food was great! We felt that we were having a late night out and as we were preparing to leave realised it was only 8.30pm! The younger generation were just beginning to set out for their evening’s entertainment!