Tuesday, November 11

After a decent night of sleep we woke up and Pastor Philip came to the guest house.  We ate some breakfast and caught up with each other since we don’t get to communicate directly when I am in the USA.  Internet service is not easy out there and he doesn’t have electricity at their home.  Calling the USA from Uganda can also be costly for the people here.  So it is always nice to be able to sit down and chat with Pastor Philip in person.  Often our trips are so busy that we do not have the time to sit alone and just talk.

We headed out to start visiting the schools around the Matany area that we have students at.  We have 10 schools in the immediate area that we have students at and then 2 schools that are far away and we were not able to visit.  A goal for 2015 is to get as many of the students at as few schools as possible.  Having them spread out makes it difficult for Pastor Philip and the mentors to get around to visit the students.  It takes too long to get between each school and that is with us renting a vehicle.  When I am not there they use bicycles to get around.  But these schools are miles and miles apart so it is very difficult to move around.

First stop was Lokarujak Community Primary School.  This was my first time visiting this school.  Abdu met the young man, Robert Kodet, in April and wanted to sponsor him for school.  He is first in his class and is a smart boy.  The school he is at is NOT a good performing school but they are trying.  Robert has asked to go to a better school next year which shows that he wants to do well and wants to learn.  So we are praying that we will be able to help him do that.

It is interesting to talk to the headmaster or deputy headmasters of the schools.  When you ask what the challenges are of the schools you often get the same answer at each school.  They want to educate the children but the parents cannot pay for them to go.  I have found that many of the educators here are similar to the ones in the USA.  They have a passion to teach.  They do not make much money if they even get paid at all.  But they don’t want to turn away the students because if they tell them to go home because of lack of payment then they know the child will never come back.  Being a teacher is obviously a sacrifice and a special calling.

Lokarujak Community School is a school different than all of the others.  This is a community school that essentially gets no assistance from the government.  The teachers at this school actually are assigned and get paid for being a different school but they are not at those schools, they go to Lokarujak because they want to help the children.  The teachers walk on foot or bicycle for many miles each day to get to the school.  When it rains they cannot make it to the school because sometimes the rain is too bad and the flooding will block the ways to get there.

When you look at this it shows the daily attendance of the school.  Tuesday is Market day in Matany.  Many of the parents do not allow their children to go to school on that day because either the children have to go to the market to sell things or because the parents need to go sell and the older children stay home and take care of the younger ones.

Our boy Robert Kodet

Deputy headmaster on the left and a teacher on the right.

This man is the Deputy Headmaster (Vice-Principal) and a teacher.  He has

been teaching for 30 years…he is near retirement.

Almost all schools have one of these hanging from a tree
that they use as a school bell.

On our way leaving the school

Woman carrying firewood on her head.  They have to walk for many miles to gather
firewood. As you can see there are not many trees around.

Next stop was St. Daniel Comboni Senior Secondary School.  We have 5 students at this school.  They are doing well in school and were preparing for the final exams which would start November 18^th.

Then onto Longalom Primary School.  We had one student at this school but she had completed her Primary Leaving Exam the week before me arriving and so she was already sent home.  This school has over 1500 students.  There were kids EVERYWHERE!  It was lunchtime when we got there. The younger classes were released to go home at 1:00pm and then the older students will stay until 4:00pm.

The kids leaving school at 1:00pm

We went back to the guest house for a brief lunch and then headed back out.

Abdu likes to take pictures of me eating for some reason...

Last stop of the day was at Loodoi Primary School.  We have two sisters who are at this school.  We will likely be moving these girls to another school next year also.  They are old enough to be a bit further from home now.  Their father is a widow and is doing the best he can with these girls but being in a boarding school with some of their other friends from church will be good for them.

One of the teachers at this school is also a pastor that I have met before from Pastor Philip’s church.  Julius is a kind and friendly soul.  He happens to be getting married in December and he was just beaming when he was talking about it.  I am so happy for him.  We both wished we could be at each others weddings...

  

This is Julius...

Must sign the Visitors Book at every school...

Interesting about this Loodoi Primary School is that the first lady of Uganda has appointed this school as a demonstration school.  What that means is they are dumping money into the school with the assistance of some international organizations to make improvements to the school in order to make it a better performing school.  They had already begun building new dormitories and teachers’ quarters.  Often at these schools the headmaster and many teachers live on the campus because these are boarding schools.  So they have to monitor the children all day and night.

A small rain cloud coming through but love the view of sunrays coming through the clouds…wonderful way to end the day.

Stay tuned…