Today we went to the Njeru parent school, it has absolutely nothing to do with parents, but that is what the name is. We had lesson plans prepared, the full works included; BLP, differentiation, lesson objectives, Marc Hulbert would be seriously impressed with the plan. The delivery was not quite as smooth, as the large classes and the lack of English made it rather difficult, but the students use of initiative on the spot was impressive, as they quickly adapted the plans to fit the profile of the class.
At break time the students all gathered around us in the playground, a very industrial site looking playground. The only way we could describe the feeling was like a movie premier, where the stars have over a hundred hands trying to shake their hands. After the handshakes, spirits were high, children began to sing and the most unexpected of things happened. Ben Kelby, suddenly ran through the crowd and went absolutely mad on the make shift dance floor, 10 minutes of extreme joy for all watching and some serious cardio training for Ben.
The children shared some very nice local songs, with diva like voices, all we could exchange with them was ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’ and ‘old Mcdonald had a farm’, it was their hospitality and kindness that kept them from questioning how silly our songs were in comparison to theirs. The song we all learnt was called ‘young stars’ and goes something like this; ‘we are the young stars, we sing all over the mountains, we sing, we sing, we sing all over, we sing all over UGANDA’.
We had presentations prepared, with facts and figures about LSFC, new college project and Luton in general. They were excited by our new college project, it was at that moment when the head teacher told us that the school we were in was recently constructed, and I do believe he expected us to compliment the building but an awkward silence echoed in the room. The school newly constructed and the best in the local vicinity, would actually not qualify as suitable for animals by RSPCA standard. In our circle time, it was perhaps something we all spent considerable time discussing, how fortunate we are to have the NCP and how we take what we have for granted.
We were invited to deliver a sports day event at a different school, after a very long day in school and having met all 400 children and sang head shoulders knees and toes with every single one of them. On arrival to the sports ground we were in extreme shock, I was perhaps the most frightened, as they had a large field, perhaps the same size as 4 large football pitches, divided into a soft ball corner, baseball, football and volley ball. The football guys were training as we arrived, it was like watching a video of SAS army training, very regimental and fast paced, with tops off, they were perhaps the most muscular students we have ever seen, they did not look like boys, and they were grown men. Sufian was asked to play with them, after watching them train, he looked extremely frightened and opted to play soft ball with a team of 8 year old girl’s team, and he struggled with that as well. Louise, Nikima, Shaunie and Vicky did Luton SFC proud with their football skills.
This in general was a bad day for Sufian, he had to make a speech on behalf of Luton SFC, at St. Francis and both Schools, we as a team could not really give him much support because he repeated the same one for all three.
Our walk home, our sporting egos battered, we had the best surprise so far, which lifted our spirits. As we walked on the dirt track on the side of the road, an entourage oh army vehicles and blacked out 4x4’s headed towards us, crowds were running after the vehicles, waving and shouting hysterically. The vehicles came to a stop and the President of Uganda popped up from the sunroof, addressed the crowd with a short motivational message, which we did not understand. It was as he was about to drive off, he noticed us and called us towards him, we took a few nudges from his guards, who I think will be in serious trouble tonight after the President reacted with quite some anger, he offered us handshakes, Sufian and a handful of students greeted him and he asked us about where we came from, we did tell him that we are from Luton. As Sufian backed away, Sally approached the President to greet him; she obviously was a risk to national security and was stopped immediately by a very big and aggressive man.
It was quite some day, we have now all retired for the night, and we have 2 days off, with a camping trip planned for tomorrow night at the source of the Nile.
Oh gosh!!! Retirement was short lived, our rooms are swamped by flies, they are called lake flies, harmless but irritating to sleep with, if they flew off it would be OK, but they seem to fly around for 3 seconds and die, their bodies landing in all the places you would not want them to, on your tooth brush, stuck in your soap bars, your hair and even beards for some.
No comments:
Post a Comment