Zzzzzzzzz……

 

As I sit here in a lack of sleep induced delirium and semi consciousness I am reminded that our bodies were designed, and I believe created, to work in a certain way. If I don't sleep I don't function well, as evidenced by the coma-like state I have to rouse myself out of to type another sentence. I'm tired because last night the music team from church came to the house for a night of worship through singing songs, prayer, eating together and hearing some teaching from the Bible. It was a lot of fun and an impacting night for me personally. Most people left at around 2:30/3ish and when they left a few of us started playing guitar, singing and continuing on while the rest slept on mats in various rooms of the house. The few of us who stayed up ended up pulling an all nighter. Hence the delirium and fog.

 

Half an hour later and I'm back, somehow. Admittedly I was doing an errand but as I was climbing the stairs to the office there was either an earthquake or I experienced the same symptoms that I get when I have jetlag.

I am telling you this for two reasons. The first being simply that some things that seem a good idea at the time, later seem not to be so. I have not decided yet which category this falls into. On one hand I had a great time, got to spend some time getting to know people better, sing with instruments that weren't amplified, worship my amazing God and sing with others who had awesome voices and who were willing to teach me some new guitar chords (very excited to have learnt a version of F that I don't need to bar - I can now play two different keys for most songs!). On the other hand, today I have been less than productive (and I have a feeling that I had a half hour nap at my desk). As I stare blankly into space unable to come up with a coherent thought to finish this point I have a feeling that this time maybe it would have been better to get at least a couple of hours sleep.

My other reason for telling you is that we ended up talking about schools in Uganda, or more correctly the guys regaled me with hilarious stories about their school life that highlighted some of the, shall we say, differences, that our schools systems display. Both of the guys went to boarding school for their secondary education. Here boarding school is not really for the elite rich nor the country kids. Here boarding is seen almost as a necessity to receiving good marks in school as the students are able to focus solely on their studies without having to deal with the issues that living at home brings. Students can be in boarding schools from the age of five.

The stories they were telling me generally involved a teacher handing out corporal punishment after a student had done something they weren't meant to/weren't doing something they were meant to. Or the stories involved them hiding from teachers for the above reasons. One story involved a fellow student hiding in a large garbage bag to try and escape a teacher. In another story several students were late for morning study and hiding in their beds. A student from another room came in and hid underneath the bottom bunk. Trouble was that the bottom bunk had no mattress on it and when the teacher came in a turned on the light he saw this student covering his face so that he couldn't be seen. Even after peeking out one eye and seeing the teacher he didn't register that there was no mattress. So the teacher called his name and the student uncovered his face to find the teacher staring at him through the slats in the bed. Meanwhile all those hiding in their beds are desperately trying not to laugh and eventually the teacher tells the student to just get out. I guess he felt sorry for him.

The guys were telling me that the first call for morning study (morning prep) is at 5am. Students will also study late into the night. They were telling me of a couple of students who for unknown reasons had to share a mattress, they would study and sleep in shifts every night. Even day schools have long hours. Students can be in class from 7:30am till 6pm. That's longer than a normal working day. And for students as young as eight. Students do exams at least once a term (there are three terms here in Uganda). Although depending on the school and age level of the kids there can be a beginning of term, mid-term and end of term exam. Some students have to be at school 7 days a week. And it's all so that kids can be pumped full of information so that they will have covered everything for the all important exams.

There are so many things about the schools over here that I find fascinating. Especially coming from a background working in our schools back home. Life is very different for a student here.

I was talking to another kid yesterday. Well not really a kid. An eighteen year old. Who is in P7 (equivalent of Year 7 back home - last year of Primary education). He was telling me about his life, how his mum died and how no one knows who his father is, how he spent some years on the streets here in Mbarara, was rescued and given some basic accommodation and food by Pastor Willy, decided to try his luck in Kampala (capital city), spent a year and a half on the streets there, came back to Mbarara and Pastor Willy who somehow found money to take him to school and put him in P4 at the age of 15.

Reading some stats for Uganda and found that while the Primary enrolment in schools is up past 70%, the number of students who make it to Secondary education is around 15% (according to the latest UN stats) and for Tertiary education it drops even lower to around 5%. Without looking it up I can almost guarantee that if you broke those figures down into rural and urban populations the figures for the rural sector would be even lower. I guess this is why building schools and providing education is a significant focus of what HOPE does. And why it is so important to go beyond the Primary education that we currently provide and go into Secondary education. We have started with our school in DRC and have plans for one near Kampala.

 

These projects and plans for future Senior Schools (and a university) are big and a task that to me seems quite daunting (luckily the decision making process has nothing to do with me). But then I imagine the difference that just one school could make (or two or three) and think how amazing it is that I am a part of HOPE and what it does. I see the kids who will graduate from our schools and attend our uni and think that there is nowhere in the world I would rather be.

 

So feel free to join us in planning for the future. If you are the praying type, pray for release of finances to HOPE to finish and expand our current schools and for the schools to come. Pray also for our ACFID application process that will allow us to try and access more funds through AUSAid. Feel free to also be part of what we do by donating to what HOPE is doing. Become a volunteer, at the moment we currently need someone to work in the office. Give Bill a ring and see if there is any other way that you can help out. Hold a fundraiser. Raise awareness about what HOPE does. Offer to sell HOPE cards and beads in your business/ place of work/ playgroup/ church etc.

Have a blessed week,

bron