Wednesday 13th April

Another busy day!  Today I gave out the badges to the lower school, they were very excited about this and greeted me with many songs.  I was then taken to the local hospital, something which I initially found very odd, as we would not take visitors to England to look round a hospital!  However, on arriving there, I could see why they wanted to take me.  It is a training hospital and whilst it obviously wasn't of the standards that we are used to, it was without doubt a very impressive hospital, for a developing country.  They were very proud of it. There was a maternity ward, beds for patients, collection points for medicine and counselling for those suffering from AIDS and HIV.  Following this visit I was then taken to another school nearby.  It was a Catholic Girls school, which had 1000 pupils.  Pupils boarded there for the whole term.  It was government funded, but it was clear to see that this school was much better equipped than Kasubi.  They had a proper library, an ICT suite (admittedly the computers were very old and some didn't work, but many pupils were browsing the internet when I visited).  They had a proper canteen, well presented grounds, chemistry and biology labs, the list is endless.  This school is selective and does take pupils from Kasubi, but only the most high achieving pupils.  They are helped heavily by Catholic organisations and charities such as Invisible Children, which assist orphans.  It seemed so unfair and yet so like England.  We are blessed to have a very well presented and well equipped school, yet similarly there are schools in England that aren't so lucky.

We returned for lunch and then had a meeting with staff and the Head Girl and Head Boy. This group of people have been involved with the projects that have already taken place between Kasubi and St Phils.  We met to discuss future projects that could take place and I came away with plenty of food for thought.  There is much we can do to help Kasubi and enable our pupils to learn from them.  They informed me that the money that was sent by us last year had paid for tables, chairs and windows for the classrooms.  Throughout my week I have been taking note of some projects we could follow up with and ways in which we could help and I look forward to discussing these with the Student panel on my return. 

The whole of the district are having formal exams tomorrow for all year groups, so I am very lucky as the Headmaster and some of the staff are taking me to a nearby National Park, to show me some of their wildlife.  An early morning awaits me!