Back in the Routine

Two Ruth House girls showing us how to carry water.

Last spring, during the first term, everything was new. The newness led to confusion, many questions, and no sense of "normal" or "typical" when it came to describing what happened that day. By the end of April or so, things slowed down. We started getting used to the daily rhythm, and began to know what to expect and understand how things were supposed to work. Since we returned from our two-week visit to the U.S., we feel like old pros. Each day has its own familiar agenda, each week brings its own planned-for theme, and the major events just mark themselves off the calendar like a checklist. Before we knew it, days flew by, weeks passed. Here we are at the end of June. Wow. Where did the time go?

The Ruth House dolls at a recent Friday devotions. 

As we've written before, every weekday morning, except wash-day Wednesday, we have devotions with the Ruth House before the students go off to breakfast and school. Fridays have become application day, the day we try to get the girls thinking about the week's lessons and apply them to "real-life" situations. We gave dolls to each of our rooms, each named after the room (Risen, Unique, True, Holy). Every Friday morning we give them a scenario the doll is facing. For example, during the week where "forgiveness" was the theme: the doll had two close friends who were angry and unwilling to forgive each other; the doll very much wanted to help her friends forgive each other and needed advice on what to do. After receiving the situation, the girls of each room gather together, discuss ideas, and put together a plan on how to help the doll. At the Sunday night house meetings, each room presents their plan.

One of the rooms discussing ideas on how to help  their doll. 

Saturday campus chores and service projects are weekly routines. Every Saturday, the student houses are assigned different chores to be done on campus, while one house is selected to do a service project for an especially needy family in the nearby village. This past Saturday it was Ruth House's turn to do a service project for a Jjaja ("Grandma") who had no family to support her as all of her children had died without any offspring. We did as many things as we could for her that she struggles to do on her own, such as gathering water from the closest well, which is about 2 miles away, washing clothes, cooking food, picking fruit from the trees, cleaning her home, and patching holes in her house.

Washing clothes.

Cooking ebinebwa, a sauce made from ground nuts and silver fish.

Not everything has been routine. Last week, Amazima participated in the National Debate Council's regional competition. Denny was enlisted as a coach of one of Amazima's two teams. Expectations for Amazima's success were realistic. Amazima is a new school, its highest grade level is S1 (the equivalent of Seventh Grade), and the typical debate team consists of S4s, S5s, and S6s (high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors). In Uganda, S1s are simply no competition for the upper classes. In addition, the regional debates bring in some of the best debate teams in the area because the top finishers move on to the nationals in Kampala, which will occur in December. Everyone hoped that Amazima would put on a good showing, but no one expected the school to stand out.

The week leading up to the Saturday debates was very busy. The weekly schedule is packed with school, homework, clubs, sports, preps, and worship nights. The debate teams crammed hours of preparation into whatever unscheduled time they could find from day to day. As it turned out, the students performed stunningly well. The team Denny coached won all three of its debates in the preliminary rounds, eventually lost in the semifinals to an all S6 team, but automatically qualified for nationals. The second Amazima team did almost as well, winning 2 of its 3 preliminary-round debates, and also would have qualified for nationals, but missed out simply because a school may place only one team.

Denny and his debate team.

The debates were attended by the heads of the National Debate Council, local political leaders, and some members of the national Ministry of Education. It was an incredible opportunity to share with these dignitaries what Amazima is about, how God is working on this campus, and the vision Amazima has for transforming Uganda. Most importantly, the dignitaries were able to see what is happening with the students. Amazima is different from other Ugandan secondary schools. The campus is clean. The students are respectful and well-mannered.  They smile at people. They offer warm greetings to visitors. They go out of their way to help and serve. When officials come to the campus, they see the difference. We heard many, many astonished comments from our guests. In the midst of all the routine, it was very reassuring to hear others take notice of what God is doing at Amazima.