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| Some of the foliage on the Amazima campus |
We are back in Uganda, safe and sound. Today is the first day of classes. The students arrived yesterday. Denny and I could not be happier to see the smiling faces and welcome our Ruth House girls to their Senior 1 year. This year they will have 14 classes. The classes are: Literature, English, French, Math, History, Geography, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Computer, Entrepreneurship, Fine Arts, Agriculture, and Christian Education. This is the list of classes that Ugandan schools require until Senior 4. The students take a National Exam which determines if they continue with the Senior 5 and Senior 6 years. After Senior 6, they take another National Exam, which allows them to go to University. A student also has the option, after passing the Senior 4 exam, to pursue a vocational education.
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| All school assembly on the first day of this new year. |
Needless to say our Ruth House girls are suddenly feeling the weight of the Senior 1 year. They take their studies very seriously, being fully aware of the sacrifices made by their families to enable them to attend Amazima. They feel intimidated by the class load. Denny is learning French to help with this class. As for the rest of the classes, we will encourage, pray (please join us in this), and cry with them as the challenges arise!
In anticipation of this day, we spent the past 3 1/2 weeks preparing. First, we helped the new western mentors start to get adjusted to life in Uganda. There are six new western couples on campus. Four of them will live with Transition Year students like we did last year. The other two couples will join the two boys' houses that were Transition Year last year, but are now Senior 1 this year, like our Ruth House girls. (The original western couples assigned to the two boys' houses left Amazima last August.) We assisted with practical things like getting a Ugandan phone number, buying internet data, and finding the best places to buy food. We also joined in discussion panels and teaching sessions to talk about Ugandan cultural differences, students' everyday lives in the villages, and issues that would likely arise with the students.
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| The view we wake up to each morning. |
We also participated in activities with the teaching staff, which was a ton of fun. On one night, we had a "speed dating" event where the Student Life mentors sat on one side of a very long row of chairs and teachers sat on the other side, directly facing the mentors. Questions were given to us like "what country would you like to visit." We then took turns with the person sitting across from us to answer the question in a very short amount of time. Immediately after answering, we changed positions so new people sat across from us. A new question was given to us and we again had to exchange our answers very quickly. There were approximately 35 pairs of mentor/teachers that we cycled through answering these questions. Many of the questions resulted in light-hearted, fun answers. The whole time was a great way to get to become acquainted with one another.
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| "Speed Dating" with the teachers. |
We spent our last week on home visits. It is so rewarding to visit our students' homes and see siblings, Jjajjas (grandparents), and parents. All families reported that our Ruth House girls provided amazing help over the holiday. Many took care of sick parents or guardians and all helped in the gardens, washing clothes, fetching water, and cooking. When I hold the hands of our girls, I feel the callouses, knowing the work they did daily. Our Ugandan partner, "Auntie" Biti, shared our thoughts when she said to the girls last night, "I wanted to cry when I heard the stories from your parents of how hard you worked all break with humble spirits and great attitudes." We know their families miss them when they come to school. We recognize the sacrifices the families make to get their kids here. We see that our girls do not take for granted the opportunity in front of them. I shed tears just writing these words and being part of all that is here.
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| Village children wanting to see the "muzungus" (white people) at one of our home visits. |
The little girl featured below is one of our student's siblings. I wanted her to come be part of Ruth House!
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