Friday 15th April

Today was to be my last day at Kasubi.  I was tired from the previous day’s events, but was looking forward to spending the day in school again.  The morning was relatively calm.  We talked over what had happened the night before and looked at the coverage in the local newspaper.  4 people had been shot dead last night.  Everyone was very kind to me and reassured me that things would be calm now and that the army had taken control of the situation. Many of them were not frightened last night as to them this was insignificant to the many years they lived through the war here.  They explained that many of the children in the school had only ever known war and were not frightened of anything anymore, and that this was part of the problem.  Children should be frightened when they hear gunshots.

We also discussed some of the activities that Patrick could take part in whilst he is staying with us in July.  A lady came to the office and appeared with a carrier bag full of clothes for me (the school had asked her to come in earlier on the week and she measured me).  I had been thoroughly spoiled with 2 dresses, a skirt and a bag to match, that were all made specifically to my size.  What a treat!

Me with the lovely lasy who made this dress for me!

Another lady called Rose appeared and she showed me how their Girl Guide group made necklaces made from paper.  This was extraordinary as the necklaces produced genuinely looked like beads.  I think this is a project we are going to develop, whereby their pupils can teach our pupils how to do this, and we can produce something similar to show them.  Rose is going to send some samples over and will make whatever we want.  Any money raised will go towards buying more equipment, so the Girl Guides group can produce more necklaces and sell at the market. 

In the afternoon, we did presentations of the T-shirts I brought over to the pupils and teachers.  As there were only 55 T-shirts, pupils were chosen on the grounds of their punctuality, participation in class and in the link projects.  Teachers who had been involved in meetings regarding our school link and had developed ideas, also received a T-shirt.  Pupils and staff alike seemed very pleased with the recognition.

We also had an assembly in which more traditional dances and a fantastic role play was shown to me.  The role play told the ancient story of how the two tribes of Acholi and Luo came to be.  They currently live on separate sides of the river Nile and do not mix.  This was largely down to a quarrel between two brothers over a spear and some beads.  It was very entertaining and the lead pupil was particularly funny!  It is safe to say that the assemblies are fairly chaotic.  The teachers bellow at the pupils down a loud speaker but nobody is silent.  Teachers will happily get up and answer their phones, children will walk off home if they have had enough (there is no fence around the school, so they can come and go whenever – something which they would like to change) and people will move around and chat whenever a performance is going on!  It is obviously very different from an assembly at St Phils!  However, there were moments when the children and staff came together, mainly when a traditional dance was going on and staff randomly decided that they wanted to join in, which the children loved.

I was humbled by the enormous amount of gifts I was presented with during the assembly.  I had already received the clothes, yet they presented me with wall hangings, cushion covers, a mat, bags, a drum and wall carvings.  Some of these will look fantastic at school and I think we should put them on display.  The assembly finished around 5pm.  Most of the children had left by this time, and this was good as a rain storm came with quite strong winds and whipped up all the dust, it got everywhere and was particularly bad to try and see.

The teachers came and had a drink with me at my hotel and I said my goodbyes.  I have only known them for a few days but they have made me feel so welcome, I feel as if I have known them for years.  I only hope we can do the same when Patrick comes to England.  I’m looking forward to developing many more projects with them and helping the school as much as we can.

At dinner I met the other teachers that had come over from England and we all sat and told stories from our week, whilst the power continued to come and go. I leave to go to Entebbe tomorrow (a long journey of about 6 hours) and will then fly back early on Sunday morning.  It has been an incredible week and one that I shall never forget.  In some ways I feel like I have been here for ages, as each day has been so busy and I have seen and learnt so much, yet in others I feel as if we are just scraping the surface and there is so much more that could be done. I know that the teachers and staff of Kasubi are keen for this partnership to carry on long into the future and I look forward to seeing the developments that our partnership will bring.