Through The Door

The First Week of School…

I just completed the first week of school. Here is a typical day…meet my partner teacher in the staff room (a room about 20x30 with school desks around the perimeter for each teacher, a large table in the center of the room and a TV- yes- and it is on all the time)- I sit and watch him copy notes from the text he is using for East African History- literally word for word with possible some additions of his own. We then walk across the courtyard (the big grassy/dirt area) to the classroom where the 76 Senior 1 boys are waiting for us. You see in Uganda, the teachers do not have a classroom that the students come to, the student stay in the classroom and wait for a teacher to come- sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t- but the boys stay just the same. I included some pictures because it is hard to describe- one big room, rows of benches with maybe 8 in. writing surface attached and they sit three to a desk. All have notebooks of varying sizes and styles, and blue pens. My teacher brings a chair for me to sit in and then proceeds to dictate the lesson to the boys, occasionally writing whole paragraphs on the blackboard (and by that I mean the concrete which extends out from the wall by about a ¼ inch and is painted black) with chalk- yes chalk. When I say dictate- I mean saying each sentence or part sentence over and over 4 or 5 times while the boys write furiously in their notebooks. This goes on for either 40 or 80 mins. Then another teacher arrives (or not) and we head back to the staff room to wait for the next class he teaches. My teacher has three sections of Senior 1 (basically 7^th grade, but the boys can be anywhere from 11-16ish) and three sections of Senior 4 (that would be 10^th grade or age 15ish to 18ish). He meets each sections three times during the week for 40 min- sometimes the blocks are back to back, making an 80 min. class.

The reason for the age range is that some boys either missed some years of school because they were abducted, or in some other way affected by the war, or they could not pay the fees to attend, so missed school until they could pay again. There is no free school in Uganda- all the government schools cost, the boarding ones, like St. Joseph College Layibi ( or Layibi College as it is commonly known here) cost more-as the parents have to supplement the food. The government pays about 15cents per student per day for food.

As one of the schools connected to Invisible Children, Layibi has received new roofs on many of the buildings, new labs for science, some books and other refurbishments. There are up to 30 or so boys in each class who are also part of the legacy scholarship program which helps to pay some of their fees- it is available to students who were directly affected by the war- usually those who were either abducted by the LRA or who lost parents etc.

The boys have morning parade at 7:30 every morning (pretty much like a parade- raise the flag, sing the national anthem etc). Then classes start at 8. They sit for four classes and then have break around 10:40- when they are given porridge (picture cream of wheat the consistency of water). Classes resume at 11:05 and they have four more- till 2:00 when they go to lunch- which consists of posho (picture cream of wheat the consistency of jello) and beans. They get meat twice a week on Wed. and Sun. At 2:30 they go back to class for four more classes until around 4-5 and then they change into T-shirts and maybe athletic pants if they have them and hit the fields for recreation time- futbol (soccer), rugby etc. There are also some clubs that meet at that time and there is even a scout troop.