How Was the Night?

HOW WAS THE NIGHT?

February 19, 2009

The night here is long and dark. The sun sets below our horizon about 710pm and by 730pm we are ensconced in total darkness. By 6am the darkness slowly begins to recede and although by 7am it is light, the sun remains obscured behind the mountain. First greetings from Ugandans in the morning are usually, how was the night? Initially my thoughts have been I think the night was fine, but I now realize that the question is really how did I sleep, did I survive the darkness and the chill of the night air and am I feeling well today?

The night wonders of nature and its beauty are exaggerated in the crispness of the air and sky here in eastern Uganda. The billions of stars are visible in incredible clarity. The Milky Way is prominent. Some familiar constellations are visible such as Orion and the Big Dipper. Venus has been glowing brightly in the eastern sky in early evening. The Southern Cross and the false Southern Cross are seen later in the evening. Our latitude here is about 2 degrees north.

As a month passes, you can really watch the phases of the moon, not only by looking at them in the sky, but by the brightness of the moonlight on the lawn and road. The banana leaves turn a silvery glow as do the roofs which are made from iron sheets. As you can imagine, the full moon light is stunning. One night we watched the moon rise from behind one of the highest mountains here, Nusu. We watched as the glow brightened behind the mountain top, and then as if pushed from below, a white crescent emerged only to be followed by a spectacular full moon. The noises of buzzing or singing insects is everywhere and I think I have heard some spring peeper like sounds. A beautiful background chorus to hear on my way to a pit stop-literally! So what can you say about the wonders of the night sky when asked, how was the night? Quite amazing…

As for the wonders of human nature, there are many answers to, ‘how was the night?’ The guest house where we are staying is situated just off the main street of the village, so without choice we see and hear a steady stream of pedestrian, animal and vehicular traffic. In addition to people of all ages this line of traffic may at any time of day or night include cows, goats, an occasional bull, bicycle bodas, motorcycle bodas, matatus, a rare private car or the giant of all, a blue construction truck barreling to its next delivery of rocks, stones, and almost anything that will fit in the truck and all its accompanying sounds. Our front veranda makes the ideal vantage point to observe this slice of life and part of day passing. Early morning (and at any time of day) there is a parade of jerry cans swinging lightly on the way to the water hole and then slower, a bit steadier and balanced on the way back. The jerry cans come in all sizes, depending on the carrier, but they start with the very young children carrying even the smallest container.

‘How were the noises of the night’? Saturday night produced a rumbling truck load of loud, singing and shouting party goers. Dogs start barking and somehow send a message in domino effect down the road until all dogs are joining in the alarm or answer- the dog chorus goes on for minutes. Every night there is the metallic echo of bolting or unbolting the door to go outside-perhaps for a short call in the middle of the night. One Friday we were in the unfortunate location to be right next door to an all night church meeting with singing and music ALL through the night. Another all night occasion was the neighbor who was chopping wood and playing a static-y radio through the night. We discovered the next morning that he had built a kiln of bricks to be dried by the heat of the firewood he had been chopping. We sort of wished we had a brick to throw at him! By 4 am the roosters are beginning their own chorus of sounds up, down and across the valley. Our local cock is as annoying as any snooze alarm which just will not quit. The cock-a-doodle-doos usually come at 20 minute intervals, just about when you might be dozing off again. This seeming echo effect goes on through the morning hours. By 5 am someone on either side of us rises to cut wood to burn or chop banana plants for their animals. In case we have slept through the roosters crowing, the first taxi comes down the road honking his horn at 6 am, alerting those who might be interested in taking the first matatu into Mbale that it is time for departing. Voices begin getting louder and louder from homes, radios and the road. There is no volume control here in Uganda, only loud! We know that there will soon be hints of color. The air is crisp and cool with the oranges and pinks of sunrise, quickly followed by the white clouds and blue sky. The sun appears about 710am, having scaled a fairly high mountain before becoming visible. So how was the night? Restful

The best sight and sounds of the morning? Seeing the eager students of Arlington Academy of Hope rushing, walking and running to school in their school uniforms of red and gray. Classes start at 730 am and we are a twenty minute walk (for me) up the hill to school. So now that we are fully awake and preparing for the day, really, how was the night? It was great!

Students, Well Done!

The Hope is Working

To all those of you who support AAH, the past two weeks have been an overwhelming display to me, that the dreams are working. Catherine and I had very busy days with our secondary students, and there is no where in the world that you could find a more enthusiastic and dedicated group of young adults than those we have at Arlington. We have known some of these students for more than 5 years and the changes we have observed are heartwarming. These are students who come from very modest and humble huts, and yet they arrive at school clean, looking smart and showing respect for their teachers, adults and each other. They are fully fluent in English with only some few misunderstandings related to accents. They are delightful to speak with and many have visited us at the guest house to bid their farewells. Returning secondary students travel back to their schools on Feb 1. Primary students begin on Feb.2 and the new class of secondary students will report in the middle of February. Most ask if we know their sponsors and when we do they beam a bit brighter.

We had the opportunity to conference with each one of the S3 students. They glow with pride as they tell us of their school. They inevitably tell us that they promise to work harder in the coming term. Math and Science for most are the subjects which bring down their averages. At the initiation of the secondary parents, they collected ten thousand shillings from each to pay for 3 science and math teachers to come in during their holiday work period to do some extra lessons. Students were seriously there with almost perfect attendance. It was a very good use of their volunteer time.

Catherine and I did two sessions on careers, trying to impress upon them that there is a world of choices other than doctor, lawyer and engineers! We explained also that there are steps to every goal, and that a job may begin at an entry level, but that loyal and dependable work ethics and a good work performance may be what gets one to the next step. The world and its opportunity is especially apparent to the S3s. They are entering a most important time of their school career where they will narrow down the number of subjects to include areas of interest and strength.

The last two days were spent working on school cleanup, fetching water as the dry season had left water tanks empty. (Curiously, this past week of the dry season has resulted in torrential rains for 5 out of the 7 days). Local word is that the clouds are gathering for the rainy season but right now they are deceiving us that is time for the rainy season and planting. The spirit day was on Friday when our AAH kids played a village football team. Ours looked better, but perhaps lacked the teamwork as there had been no practices. They held their own until the last 10 minutes when the village team scored, resulting in the final score of 1-0. Our students have incredible natural ability, but have not had the opportunity of coaching and refining some of their talent. Ah well- if academics were the game, we would win hands down.

All S2 and S3 students have returned to school by Feb 3. We are celebrating a graduation party of sorts with the next S1 class on Saturday to send them off to their newly chosen schools. They are ready, excited and well prepared to face the larger world. Well done! (another frequent phrase we hear here.)

We Are Together January 30, 2009

We Are Together January 30, 2009

We are together is a term frequently used here in Uganda meaning, I agree with you, or I support you or I will help you. This past weekend, Catherine and I had a chance to attend a typical daylong Ugandan celebration in Bududa District. It was a national holiday celebrating the 23 years of peaceful government and progress under the current president, Museveni. There were many humorous moments about the whole experience, but at the end of the day, (another oft used expression here), I could definitely say that we are together.

Most people familiar with AAH have heard stories of Ugandan time and the length it takes to get through long agendas. So when the contact who had invited us said he would pick us (no up) at ex-ack-tly eleven sharp, we were ready on time at the slight chance that he would be there at ex-ack-tly eleven. Not to worry, the car and he arrived about 11:30 am with the apologetic, you know we Ugandans are not very good at timekeeping…

We bounced along the road to Bududu and were whisked into the LC V’s office (that’s Local Counsel 5-an elected town representative). People here have an incredible love for stratifying every job position into numerous levels above and below one’s own status. It goes along with their interest in Robert’s Rules of Order for meetings and should the guest of honour be delivering a speech, or an address?, and who is the proper person to invite the guest of honour to begin said address? This was the topic of conversation for a good half hour while awaiting the Guest of Honour who was a Member of Parliament from western Uganda, but because our local MP was also to be at the ceremony who took seniority, etc was also a topic of concern. We did indeed have a good opportunity to speak to many of these officials from Bududa District and all had nothing but praise for Arlington Academy of Hope, the shining light of the district. For those of you familiar with the ins and outs of the PLEs, Bududa District registered 18 Division 1 students, 16 of which came from AAH. We are together!

Finally by 130 the function was underway with a ragtag brass band, and 30 military police in formations and parade marching. Oh by the way, upon our arrival we were labeled as the pioneers of Arlington and seated in the front couches which are hauled outside and under the tent for functions. Through many speeches we sat, all speeches are prefaced by at least 10 minutes of addressing who is there, Guest of Honours, Madame chair, District Chairman, Sub County regional this, Local Counsel 2, Mayor, Veterans of the regime, Military Captain, Regional District- I honestly could not begin to name them all. One interesting comment made by the Mayor of Bududa? not to be confused with the LC V who was hosting the event was that he feels people in his district waste the most precious natural resource and that is time- you can not save it for another occasion; you must make good use of it every day. We are together! Finally the MPs (Minister of Parliament) had their time to speak. The visiting MP read a patent speech from Museveni about their great progress and concerns for the people. Seemed a bit out of touch with reality to us.

By now it is 430 and the wind is swirling around, the rain has begun and before long we had great gales of wind and torrential rains at a 45 degree angle. The tent blew off its steel poles and we were shuttled in a vehicle back to the chairman’s room where we awaited some food—guess what it was??? The food had been planned for outside so it was rather crowded inside; we were again in the room with the MPs but as we got up to be served our food..some other men felt it was important to be in that same room, took our seats and would not budge, so much for wizened pioneers. Our host then took us to another room where we thought we would be dining with others of the group, but no Catherine and I were seated alone in someone’s office at two large desks to consume our matooke and rice with all the fixings with no utensils-hard to pick up rice that way. People would open the door look in and then as if we were quarantined, close the door again. We both got to laughing at the absurdity of the overall picture. At least she and I were together!

Of course, as in most cases, if all had started on time, it would have been over before the storm. Finally the MPs wanted to see Arlington, so we went in a 3 car convoy (One for each minister and entourage, we went in one of those cars and the third car was the military/security squad for the MPs (checked the seats before we could get in…) Dear friens, never did I feel unsafe. Anyway, we now drove up to AAH and very proudly showed off the Library, school and clinic. The local MP Mr. Wakikona was boasting of this record setting school in his territory. Both MPs said that if they had children of school age, they would surely send them to AAH (we told them jokingly that we had no vacancies at any level. In walking around the school compound we gained a crowd of at least 100 villlagers-because they knew with the vehicles and military escort, that it must be someone important. Others had stopped to look along the roadside and all bargaining and action halted in the trading center of Kikholo. We are together!

The MP, David Wakikona bid us farewell at the Guest House about 6 and yes, we were together for the progress and development of Uganda for that day.