5. Uganda - Tuesday 6th October

I was very excited today because we were going to help out in classes in the primary school. I can't believe that I have been given this chance to visit and assist in a school in Africa.

The boarding school pupils, whose dormitories are right beside ours, got ready very early and I was talking to a girl who was ironing a shirt on a towel in a step, using an iron that had coal embers inside it. She was ironing it for her teacher! The pupils have a very small space to themselves; just a bunk bed in a crowded dormitory with a padlocked box on it, and they wear the key on a string around their neck. Nevertheless they take very good care of their hygiene and appearance, and stood outside their dormitories polishing their shoes and combing their hair. 

First of all we joined in "morning exercise" down in the field, where the pupils played games before their first classes. We were all ready at 7 a.m. as we had been told but time is a bit more relaxed around here and the exercise didn't get started until a good half hour later. The pupils absolutely love having their pictures taken, but what they like even more is looking at the photos on the screen afterwards, which sends them into fits of laughter! 

Then it was off to the classrooms! I have been looking forward to this for so long! The pupils were allocated to classes "two by two" from nursery to primary 4, and my job was to go around the classes to make sure that all was well. I tried to slip unobtrusively into the classrooms but invariably got a big welcome anyway! Our pupils had all been issued with red pens and were doing a grand job of helping pupils and marking jotters. It was great but so hot in the classrooms. In the afternoon I ended up in a Primary 2 class who were writing down their Maths homework. I thought that it was quite advanced for Primary 2 - they were doing fractions - but I've no idea how that compares with Scottish pupils of the same age. The pupils were lovely and I was invited to go back tomorrow to mark the homework.

Next job - moving bricks! We stood in two lines passing bricks one to the other to clear a space for the workmen to work on the new Church that is being built. It was dark by the time we finished - the sun sets really quickly here near the Equator, it just seems to drop down the sky.