The 90 minute drive meandered its way through picturesque hill country. The school itself is set between lovely green hills. It was formally a commercial coffee manufacturing plant.
There are over 450 students and 25 teachers in the O and A Level Secondary School.
We were hit by the number of students packed into each classroom. The first room we visited had 66 students in a room a little smaller than the average Australian classroom. An interesting feature of each classroom was the cement blackboards. The cement is plastered onto the wall a little like a very thick but smooth render and painted black. It works remarkably well.
We were also quite impacted by the staff room and library, neither of which resembled their counterpart in Australia.
Having said that, the high standards of dress and behaviour exhibited by the staff and students was inspiring. It's amazing how important the little things are valued by staff and students in Uganda - I guess staff and students are able to control these variables - and good on them!
Another point of impact was the Girls Accommodation. Triple bunks were tightly squeezed into a room a little bigger than an Australin classroom. There would have been about 60 or 70 girls living in dark and crampt living conditions.
The centre of the school was a dirt netball court - which was the pride of the school.
We were thrilled to be able to attend a full school assembly. We were particularly impressed that the school 'band' (consisting exclusively of boys) played the Ugandan National Anthem, the Austrralian National Anthem, the Buganda Anthem and the School Anthem. I was also invited to address the congregation of staff and students - which I did. I reminded the students that God has a plan for their life and to discover this is one of the most important questions to answer. I also said that to establish a personal relationship with Jesus is the most important decision to make in your life. I thanked them for their welcome and encouraged them to aim high in their studies.
To be honest, we were both a little taken back by the lack of computers in the school - they only have 4 computers and they would have been at least 7 years old. Perhaps we need to send some of our surplus computers at Redlands College to Uganda?
The drive home saw us play 'chicken' with a Hoima Coach. They travel along the road at extremely high speeds and use their air horns to ward off unsuspecting drivers. The reason we were playing 'chicken' is that we kept overtaking them as they pulled over to accept new passengers or as passengers alighted... but within a minute or so, they would overtake us again at high speed (and around a blind corner) until again coming to a stop. I enjoyed using the little horn on the Corolla as we respectfully overtook the coach - after the second time, the driver of the coach reciprocated (and some of the passengers waved)!
On our way out to the school we came across an overturned truck. As Fred wanted to 'take a closer look' we found out some of the details. Apparently the driver had taken the corner a little sharply and lost his steering. There were bags of rice and beans everywhere - and LOTS and LOTS of bystanders. Interestingly Fred knew the driver - a past student.
On our arrival back in Kampala we picked up Jemima from St Paul's House and took ourselves to the two craft markets. Our respective families will benefit from these purchases.