Mr. Shilton's Ugandan adventure: Diary Entry for Monday 18th April 2011

Click here to see the children welcoming me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT4bWCcb0h4

I was picked up early for my first day! I got there on the back of a motorbike (which is called Boda-Boda in Uganda). It was scary as I had never been on a motorbike before! I found out that the school day was from 7:30 until 5:00 – which seemed a very long day! I arrived at the school as the assembly was going on. This was very different to our assemblies in that we were outside and stood up for a good fifteen minutes! The children were silent and you couldn’t hear a peep out of them! They greeted me by clapping. I then went on a tour of the school into each class. They children were so delighted to see me – I felt like a celebrity! I tour each class and found the classrooms to be very bare with desks in rows (like Victorian times). There were a few sheets of paper on the walls which were pictures drawn by the teachers. Each class had a very dirty blackboard with very sparse chalks. The children in the school range from age 4 to 15 and are arranged into 7 classes (P1 to P7). P1 and P2 are the youngest children and, like nursery children in the UK, they return home at lunchtime. The lessons the children do are in some ways similar to ours (e.g. Maths, English and Science) but they also study agriculture and vehicle maintenance. This is because the village where Buseese is very poor and the majority of children will grow up to be either farmers, street sellers or Boda Boda drivers so they need to learn about these things at school. Mary also showed me the curriculum which is, in some ways similar to ours but more like ours was 20 years ago. On their curriculum are very different things such as:

· The post office

· The telephone

· Peace and security

· Keeping poultry and bees

· Immunisation

· Components of soil

· Crop growing

· Keeping goats, sheep and pigs

· HIV/AIDS

· Human rights

A shocking fact I discovered was that half of the children do not bring any food to school and the school does not provide them with it not because the school is cruel but because the school can not afford it. The monthly school budget for the whole school is £50! They school does serve porridge at 11am but only children who have money can buy it which is very few. After break, I was incredibly moved when the children performed a “Welcome to Uganda” song for me together with a special traditional dance. I have video clips to show you when I return. Following this we had lunch, the cook had cooked me Matooke (mashed green bananas) and beef stew but I felt guilty eating it as I knew the children didn’t have any lunch but Mary insisted. After lunch one of the boys in P7, Vincent, had carved me a wooden statue from hand that had taken him a month – I was once again, very moved! This was to be the second of a myriad of gifts I would receive!

After lunch I spent a long time talking to the Mary about the Ugandan and English education system before visiting classes to take photographs for you when I get back. The children are very excited about meeting you from your pictures! After school I watched the children spend an hour sweeping the school from top to bottom before returning home. They did not use dustpans like us they used weeds gathered from the surrounding fields bound together. The teachers did not have to nag the children to do this they did it automatically. I then found out that after this incredibly long day in searing temperatures the children return home to carry out at least two hours of digging before they are allowed to eat. It’s a hard life I thought!

After that I went to Mary’s village and had my dinner which was cooked over an open stove. It was delicious.

Some other interesting things I found out:

1) Some children run away from school at lunchtime as they are so hungry

2) They have monthly exams and then a big exam at the end of term

3) The children kneel to speak to the headteacher directly and address her as madam. There is real respect here – I also found out that younger people address older members of their family by kneeling and the wives do the same for their husbands!! I also found out that men are allowed several wives!

4) The children have no toys/games at home and very few have teddies. The teddies they do own are banana leaves wound together creatively to make a doll. One of the boys in the village, Julius has made me one to bring back.

5) The children have no coca cola and chocolate as it’s too expensive.

6) Teachers are very poorly paid (£500 a year!!)

7) There is no power in the school – no computers! Very few Ugandans have power.

8) They love football and particularly Manchester United!

9) Some classes have 55 in them!

10) 27% of Ugandan children are out of school.

11) A lot of children had never seen a video camera

12) The toilet is just a hole in the ground!

13) Between 1 and 2 children die each year at the school