Before you begin to read, I must warn you that this post is totally incomplete. I had travel issues this morning getting to the internet (African time) and so have not had a chance to finish… but I’d thought I’d post it anyway. It is only a few days until I get back home where I promise I will write reams and reams of all the exciting things I’ve done, with plenty of pictures. Here goes…
On Tuesday 29th November the day pupils came with their parents/guardians to pick up their reports, exam results and books. There was a long meeting that happened according to the normal rules of African time – I was told it would start and 9 am, but I think it was 11.30 am when it got going. Apparently there was even a fine of 10,000 shillings (around £2.50) for people that missed it, and if the school manages to collect the fine payments they will have done well as the meeting was not well attended! The meeting was in Luganda of course, and I endured an hour and a half of it and then left. It finished many, many hours later, which to me seems ridiculous – make it short and snappy and attendance will be much better.
Wednesday 30th November was leaving day. Normally a parent would arrive on a boda to collect their child and then strap their belongings (i.e. a metal chest about one metre long and half a metre wide, a rolled up foam mattress, jerry can and bucket) onto the boda. A few turned up in cars and trucks (it was interesting to see who came from better off families), and some didn’t turn up. Some looked really happy to be going home, others didn’t seem emotional at all. A few were worried their parents would forget to come, and some weren’t sure if they were going home. Towards the evening, the numbers dwindled and the children moved from where they’d been waiting around their dormitories to the watching nervously from the front of the school. It was quite a sad site when I came back from watching a village football match with Teacher Alex – they were so silent and unhappy looking. I got out some colour-your-own stickers I’d brought with me, and they went down a treat. They love stickers, and love colouring so what could be better?! They all stuck them on their heads, which seems to be the done thing here. It made me feel a little better about them.
I was a little sad to see children go, but they were all looking forward to going home so much anyway I didn’t feel to sad. The exception was saying goodbye to one girl, Norah, who is one of the few that I really feel I formed a bond with. She was very upset, and I know that we will both miss eachother. I gave her a couple of aerogrammes (special paper that you fold into an envelope and the price includes postage) and a new pencil case & stationery so I hope she will write to me.
I’ve received a number of parcels recently which has been really great. I didn’t think the post office in Kyotera was reliable enough really for even a letter, let alone parcels! The first to arrive was a complete surprise. I walked into Rose and Dominic’s house to get breakfast, and there was a box addressed to me. Gemma, Helen and Iggy had sent me all sorts of things, including medicines (so I felt it was ok to eat some delicious but rather mouldy bread I had), biscuits (a custard cream has never tasted so good!), a damn you autocorrect book (absolutely hilarious mistakes the iPhone makes you make), cuddly toy (Scoot the snail), mini cheddars (yum!) and letters. Naturally I got all emotional, but had tasty things to console myself with. Nicky sent me a copy of the Guardian (it may be out of date, but it is still way ahead of me!), custard powder (we share a passion for custard), chocolate and teabags. The third parcel was from Brownies, and contained materials for Guides. I assume I mentioned it before, but I know nothing about Guides, so these materials have been great, and the girls were really excited to get the parcel. A huge thank you to all.
An item that was included in the package for Guides inspired me to get the girls to make a video about their school. Each girl chose a place they wanted to show other people, introduced themselves and the place and a camera person filmed them doing it. I’ll stick it all together when I’m back to show people, and also send a copy of it to them to see. They really enjoyed doing it and are very proud of their school.
One girl enjoyed presenting so much that when it was her turn to type “When I am older I would like to be a ______” in a computer lesson she decided she wanted to be a presenter! It made a nice change from the majority of answers, which were mainly doctor, scientist, teacher, nurse or nun. After the exams were finished, there were no lessons so the kids were at a loose end. I taught intensive computer/library lessons to the normal classes, two long lessons in the morning and one in the evening. It was pretty tiring but they enjoyed it (when I asked for P5 instead of P4 in the evening so that P4 hadn’t had a chance that day the faces and the protestations I got were quite something!) and it meant all the borders have done the following things:
1. Typed “I am going to learn to use the computer.”.
2. Typed ““Fred, do pens cost 1500 shillings?” asked Mary.” (for punctuation)
3. Typed “This is my first document.” and saved it in their class folder with their name as the file name.
4. Opened their previous document and typed ““When I am older I would like to be a ______” and saved.
Which doesn’t seem like much but when there is between 95 and 70 kids per class, there are only four computers, one of me (a big problem when doing anything like saving), only enough power for one lesson per day and their typing speed is very slow, I think it is a big achievement and I am proud of both me and them for managing it.
The day after leaving day I went on house visits with Kim and Robin. Kim runs a project where malnourished children are put on a feeding program. The ones that are severely malnourished are taken to hospital and treated there, and the ones that aren’t so severe are given food (depending on their age and needs but a selection from millet and soya flour to make porridge, baby porridge, sugar, eggs and money for milk) and visited each week or fortnight or monthly depending on how they are doing. At the visits, the food is handed over, the child weighed and measured, general health inspected, and questions on their general health asked. The boda driver Ronnie who I think I mentioned before acts as an excellent translator and also conducts surprise visits occasionally just to check it is going ok. The children are normally malnourished not because there is not enough food but because either the food does not contain the nutrients they need, they have been ill (often with malaria) so not feeding well or could not be breastfed (either because of the death of the mother or illness). There are two common types of malnutrition – lack of food and lack of protein. The lack of protein one takes a strange form – the body absorbs more water than it should so the children look a bit fat. With the other, the children often don’t look much different from normal babies, until you ask their age which is often quite shocking. I’ve seen 5 month old babies who look almost newborn. At each visit there was always a huge number of other children hanging around, usually wearing very grubby clothes and no shoes.
I have missed out a huge chunk of what I’ve been up to – my visit to Murchison Falls and Kampala
I expect this will be my last post when I’m actually in Uganda
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