So yes, I'm afraid this has been a long time coming but it has become real work for us these last two weeks! not that we resent it, but the internet cafe suddenly seems a long way away. and I've recently found out that it's not the done thing for women to move around at night at all, and considering it gets dark at almost exactly 6.30 pm every evening, and the school day runs from 7am till 4pm everyday, that's not very practical! so here's a whirlwind tour of the last two weeks...
The school started back on Mon 15th, and I spent mon-weds of last weeks flitting around watching different teachers teach different lessons at Bweyogerere Primary School. The school has 2 nursery classes and the Primary 1 - 7, which is vaguely all kids up to the equivalent to year 8. But the trouble is a lot of kids dont every start baby class until they are maybe 7 so the ages of the kids in each class is very varied. And of course you have the classic issue of very different abilities in each class, and with no assistant even in the youngest classes that's not very easy! The school is on the same site as Emmanuel's church and there are also dormitories for about 50 kids who board.
Each classroom has a blackboard and desks like those old victorian wooden benches with the chairs attached, and kids are required to bring their own pens, pencils, exercise books and every loo roll and soap to school. That concludes the resources of the school! There are about one textbooks for each of the main subjects for each class, and there are some simple reading books but they are locked away in the office and the teachers have to sign for them. So its interesting...
Another thing I noticed during that week was how their teaching methods are very different. I think mostly because of the lack of things like paints and colouring pens they basically teach by writing on the board, getting the kids to spell and repeat words and then getting them to copy them down. It's all in English (apart from the nursery) and you run the risk of a caning from Teacher Esther if you're caught speaking l'ugandan at all on school grounds!
Then on Thursday 18th Me, Mari and Pastor Emmanuel got on a minibus taxi into Kampala and then boarded a stagecoach type bus to go to the West of Uganda for a few days. The bus was a hilarious if looong and hot experience. For starters although we were scheduled to leave at 9am the drive wouldn't go until his bus was very nearly full. So it was gone 11 by the time we set off! and during that time all the hawkers and sellers of any random thing you can possible think of came on the bus and walked up and down the very narrow aisle trying to sell socks, sodas, sweets, radios, hankies, bread, hairbrushes, chicken kebabs, bags, batteries and well anything you could carry onto a bus to sell! The actual journey took about 8 hours and they didn't stop at all (apart from for very persistant men who went for a short call by the side of the road). The road through Masaka and up to Mbarara was pretty good. It became more and more potholed towards Ibanda and then from Ibanda to Ishongororo we bumped along a dirt road that had been ruined by very recent rain. By this time we were desperate for the loo, fed up with the chav in the seat behind us who had a radio to his ear the whole time, and had numb behind from the not so padded metal seats. But all in all for about 6 pounds single ticket i think we had quite a good deal! And look at that photo of the scenery I took from the bus - it was really lovely.
We staying in a little motel type place in Ishongororo call the Go Down Boys lodge. The accomodation was very basic but comfortable enough and we were met by Boss and a number of people who seemed very pleased to see us! Boss took us to his little restaurant for dinner where his wife Alina (who I think could be the most talented cook in the whole of Uganda) treated us to dinner and tea and lots of good company. They are a lovely family and Alina and Boss absolutely adore eachother, their 4 kids are really hardworking a lot of fun, and they have started their business with hardly anything but a lot of dedication and graft!
The next day we attended the 15 year anniversary celebration of Ishongororo Pentecostal Church of God's Caring Ministries(which was the main reason we went!). The church was started by an old lady who must now be about 80+ in her house, and now the church is a big brick building with a few classrooms outside and is led by Pastor Azariah. He has 6 kids and his wife died about 4 years ago giving birth to the last one. He has now married a lady called Robinah and between them they really love and serve that church. The day went from about 11am till 6pm and there was lots of worship and singing and preaching. Mari and me both shared some things from the Bible, and there were absolutely loads of people there – it was terrifying! They had invited people from each of the 11 churches that had been planted out of Ishongororo, and part of the service was given to pray for all of the leaders of those churches, as well as listing the different things that the churches are involved in, as well as all their various needs and shortages. One thing about the Ugandan people is that whatever little they have they make it work somehow, and even though these guys didn’t have a lot, they have done so much including starting schools and supporting widows. I take my hat off to them!
The only thing about this place – I had a really good time – but the kids were fascinated with us whiteys, and kept surrounding us and prodding us, pulling our hair and just generally staring at us – it was a bit scary! But I did meet up with a girl called Rita who I met last year and had a great long encouraging conversation with her. She has been accepted to do a nursing degree but is about to start a diploma instead because she doesn’t have the fees, but the way she talked wasn’t asking for money but just really grateful for God’s provision for her so far and amazed at so many things like grace and forgiveness. So encouraging, so please remember her in your prayers!
The next day we ate the most fantastic breakfast of chapattis and omlettes and pineapple from Boss and Alina’s and went for a trek through the beautiful (if very muddy and hilly!) countryside nearby. Now Ugandans don’t just walk for fun, so of course we had a purpose in this escapade and that was to see the cows that our church has bought for the church to be used to provide milk to the local needy people including widows. The guy who looks after them (Asaph) also had some chickens, goats a pig, and farmed all sorts of things including coffee, pineapples, matoke and black peas. It was a great walk, but it started chucking it down with rain so on the way back we had to shelter in some poor families house. This was the most hilarious thing because the 10 kids who lived in these two rooms and obviously never seen white people before, and because it was dark in there we were literally surround by all these little white staring eyes and no talking. I can’t say we didn’t feel a little like an eighteenth century missionary explorer! Even the people working in the fields stopped and stood stock still as we walked past, to the point that Emmanuel thought they were scarecrows!
Azariah took us to his house for lunch and we then got in a car (Emmanuel, Mari, me, Boss, Boss’s two girls and the driver – leaving behind Azariah’s 4 kids who wouldn’t quite get in the car with all their luggage for the new term at Bweyogerere school!) and headed about an hour down the road towards Ibanda to Karutusi. This is a tiny village where a Pastor Ephraim leads a church that is one of those planted from Ishongororo. It feels out in the middle of nowhere because it is in the middle of a matoke forest and the road is little more than a slippery mud track. I really don’t know how that driver managed to stop us crashing into every tree we passed because we were sliding around like an ice skater – but we made it! Ephraim and his wife and kids very kindly gave up their mud hut for the two days we stayed with them and looked after us really well. They fed us enormous meals and it was hard not to offend them by refusing 3rd and 4th helpings of everything! The hut is fairly big and has a corrugated iron roof so we were very comfortable really. But there was some sort of prayer meeting at 2am and local cockerels and goats that didn’t go to sleep at all, and even the people got up before 6am to prepare things and chop wood for that days cooking, so we didn’t actually get much sleep! This experience has showed me actually how much I value sleep. I value it a lot. In fact I’m quite lazy really by Ugandan standards. Once I said to some kid they were very hardworking and they didn’t seem to realize there could be any different way of doing things!
So Sunday Emmanuel was actually quite ill so didn’t come to church for ages, and for a while it looked like Mari and me were gonna be the main preachers again! So we did our best but he came after a bit and also said something. The worship at this church was incredible, their drumming and jumping and shouting and waving really put us to shame. I told them all I wish I could fit them in my suitcase to bring them back to our church! The leaders have been encouraging the people to help each other and although they were really poor (they literally didn’t seem to have anything some of them) but they should learn to give still and club together and bless eachother. We knew a bit about that but were totally blown away when at the end of the service they had another collection specifically for Mari and me! How moving and actually upsetting was that experience, I can’t tell you. From around 200 people we got the equivalent of about 6.00, a box of matches and a hankie. It wasn’t much, but for those guys it must have been a massive sacrifice. Goodness me, it’s very hard to take in. But if nothing else I am learning a LOT!
I was pleased to meet up with a lady called Justine who last year had chased me down the road to give me a watch (which was also just about as moving as the collection experience) and had written to me once since. She sat and introduced me to her 4 children and her husband and they took us to see her little shop on the ‘main’ road.
The rest of Sunday was pretty quiet but we spent a bit of time meeting people and getting to know the leaders there a bit more. We slept much better Sunday night and got up about 6am the next morning to walk down to the road and catch a bus back. Justine met us again and gave us some bottles of water, a pineapple, and even tried to give me a woven grass mat as a wedding present for me and Dan! Unfortunately there was no way we could have transported it home because it was massive, but I was so grateful and she had such a good heart, that alone will certainly leave an impression!
The journey home was horrible really, and we took charge of both of Boss’s girls who were travelling back to go to the school here in Bweyogerere for the term. W got one bus to Mbarara, then a minibus taxi (with too many passengers for its license!) to Kampala, then a mad squish through the taxi park in the rain with people and taxis and shouting drivers everywhere, then another minibus taxi back to Bweyogerere. The girls we sooo incredibly well behaved and we didn’t reach home until about 6pm. Very very tired but had a lovely weekend and will remember those people for a long long time!
I have added the photos to the facebook album so you can see all the happenings at: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40656&l=f4381&id=503957996
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