Visit to Bbira School (Watoto)

Wednesday saw us drive out to Bbira to visit two of the Watoto schools - Hope Secondary and Raymer Primary.

Our day began when we discovered that the car we had borrowed for the day had run out of petrol (about 200 metres from the Jesus House). We needed to organise a jerry can and some fuel - frustrating but funny!

After driving to Bbira, which took a little longer than I expected (due to missing the turn off on the way), we were welcomed by the Secondary Head Teacher, Ivan, who took us on a tour of his immaculate campus - we visited many classrooms including home economics, technology and art. As most of his students were sitting exams, everything was pretty quiet and many of the classrooms were actually empty.

After lunch (fish, rice, maise, matoke and beans) we were met by Edward, the Deputy Head teacher of the primary school. We enjoyed another tour, this time with Hafusa, our Watoto sponsor child who met us along the way. Like Ivan, Edward took us on a tour of his school. Although some students were sitting exams, most were working in their respective classrooms. It was good to meet some of the teachers, including a teacher named Lydia.

Hufusa is finishing Primary 5 while her sister, Lucky is completing Primary 6. Once we'd walked around the primary grounds we walked down to the children's village - and most significantly to Hafusa's home. We were met by Mama Freda. Like Hafusa, Freda remembered me from last year and was very excited to meet 'Mark's family'. As always, little Eli was a real hit. Many Ugandans have never met such a young Muzungu before.

We enjoyed a tour of the home, met some of Hafusa's siblings and were given some home grown paw-paw. After praying with them all we headed back to the Secondary school where we met up with Ivan and his secretary, Lydia.

Our final discussions included an invitation to attend the combined Primary/Secondary Speech Day and Graduation Celebration at Bbira next Friday and the combined Primary/Secondary Speech Day and Graduation Celebration at Gulu the following Monday and Tuesday. I was also invited to conduct a training session with the Bbira staff at a date yet to be confirmed (but in the near future).

We all enjoyed our Watoto experience and look forward to returning next week for the respective Graduation ceremonies.

After driving back to Kampala we decided to meet Sam for dinner and a movie at Garden City.