Dan and Jodes… in Gulu, Uganda

There is a boy who lives across the road from us. Lovely boy, ironically his name is Innocent. Last year he wasn’t in school much (family troubles, and he was sent back to the village). He is back across the road this year and attending one of the local government primary schools. He looks like he is about 10 years old. He is in the equivalent of grade 4 but cannot read anything, can count, but has difficulties adding and subtracting. His teachers here probably call him ‘dull’. I have seen his exercise books (he wanted to show me). You could tell he was struggling to copy off the board and clearly didn’t know what he was writing. He’s not dull. He has just missed out on a quality education, like many children in Northern Uganda ( and it doesn’t seem to matter whether they are in or out of school). We are trying to give him a little ad-hoc tutoring, however he is a reminder of why we are here, and not just for a few individual children, we are trying to improve the system (the struggling school education system)… slowly slowly…

My fabulous team of helpers and I have just finished carrying out two and a half weeks of intensive reading tests with almost 900 children in 20 schools in Gulu. These early grade reading tests will help us to have a clear picture of pupils’ current reading abilities and to help give teachers more detailed advice on the best way forward for improved teaching and learning. It was a hard slog – but we got there!

A huge thanks to these helpers: Tara-Lee, Katie, Dave, Tom, Mim, Laura, Charis, Dylan, Nick, Tess, and Dan! I literally wouldn’t have been able to do it without ye all!

In the pic below I am looking a little too happy… that was drawing to the end of a long day of testing on my birthday, I was given a soda and biscuits to celebrate at one of the schools 🙂

Joanne with her 14 one-day-old piglets at The Recreation Project. The long-awaited arrival has come!

I met up with my colleague Teacher Catherine last week. “I have so much to tell you Spencer,” she said. One of the things she had to talk to me about was how she had been invited to do some teacher training on reading and writing at a nursery teacher’s college in South Sudan. She wanted to ask my permission first, however I was stoked that she was approached directly! Catherine is developing a reputation as a specialist reading and writing teacher in Gulu; she is well-respected by local teachers and head teachers and is offered a job at almost every school where we deliver training together.

Catherine called me last night from South Sudan to give me an update.  I am so proud of her and how far she has come!

Teacher Catherine and I (Jody) when we taught together at Layibi Techo Primary School. 

Last weekend a fire swept through part of the Lacor trading centre (very close to our church). Unfortunately the catechist (Dan’s colleague) and a family from church were amongst 18 households who lost their home/shop. Children have been blamed for playing with fire at a small rubbish pit near a video hall (made of bamboo and papyrus). This is the dry season and it was particularly windy that day. As a lot of the buildings are very flammable, it was over in about 30 minutes.

Most people lost everything. There’s no house insurance here.

‘Jody, you maintain your size, I know Daniel wants a portable wife’.

comment from a deputy head teacher

Several hours ago the Electoral Commission announced that Uganda’s incumbent president Museveni has been re-elected for his fifth term – that’s 30 years as president.

Not long after hearing the results I find myself listening to the song ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ by Billy Joel:

‘….We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it…’

The song comprises a series of headline events which Joel believes his generation was not responsible for. Similarly, the results of the current presidential election is possibly not a true reflection of the people of Uganda: an outcome which they are not responsible for. The opposition leader was arrested for trying to reveal what he thought was a house for ‘vote rigging’. A friend of mine just said: since Museveni held 60% of the votes, why is everyone complaining and not celebrating? A shopkeeper said to me today something along the lines of: ‘This business of democracy does not work here. You have voters who are uneducated and ill-informed, it’s easy to manipulate them. We need a positive dictatorship, but that’s not here either. But we shouldn’t be worried about this election. What is more important is getting our children into school and getting food on the table.’

On the positive, we should have peace. When you have one person controlling the military and police, and they are re-elected, then life should be the same (even though corruption is at the forefront).

We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning… some tried to fight it… but that fire is still burning…

Let us continue to pray for Uganda and serve this nation. Despite its leadership and governance, let us serve the people of Uganda, those who are trying to get their children into school and get food on the table.

Ugandan presidential elections are on Thursday. We are now well-stocked with Corn Flakes, pasta and baked beans – hopefully enough to ride out any election storm!

Seriously though, there is tension in the air and we don’t really know what will happen after the elections. Please pray for peace…