Even More on St. Thomas Moore

In the previous post I showed a picture of a physics class I attended. After some of the initial introductions and speeches, we broke up and went to four different classes: biology, math, English, and physics. Everyone was impressed with what they experienced. As I mentioned as the caption of the last blog, I was not expecting the quality of the teaching and the focus of the students. The teacher was teaching on molecular forces that I had long forgotten. His English was excellent and his presentation was clear. I complimented him after the lecture was over.

After attending the class, we were given a tour of the campus, walking to each building we had funded in chronological order. Then we were treated to some dancing in which some of the students performed an Acholi dance in costume. It is the one they have always performed for our visits, and I never tire of watching. They have so much fun doing it and the student body loves watching. They performed around the time that the primary school across the street had lunch break, so many primary school students in their purple shirts stood at a distance and enjoyed the performance.

As usual I was the guest speaker to address the students. My message to them was that they should be grateful for their school and the improvements that have been made.  I asked Alex to stand next to me and told them how fortunate they were to have a headmaster like him. When I first came to northern Uganda, I informed them, I visited a number of very needy schools but decided to focus on their school because of their headmaster. I then presented him with a tie I had brought for the occasion. In addition, I told them that they should be grateful for their teachers and the parent organization and their total commitment to improving the school. I mentioned Alphonse and Isaac the two leaders of the parent organization who have always been there since I first visited. Gratitude, I told them, is an important virtue that honors God.

The other second part of my speech was the usual message about how important education is and their need to complete it. I always emphasize how important it is for girls to receive education and I was able to refer to Robina’s testimony as an example of what I meant..

Alex then presented the church with a lovely framed picture out of banana fibers of village life, approximately 12 X 8 inches. After that, the girls chorus did this amazing choreographed dance and slowly gave us gifts. All for of us stood in the center to receive the gifts that slowly they gave to us: four chickens and about eight small bouquets of flowers.

 I think someone else from the team that went took pictures and even a video that I hope to share with you after we return. After we received the gifts, the girls slowly danced and sang their way out of the center and Alex, myself, Charlie, Steffi, and Joan danced our way behind them. The students got a big kick out of it.

It must have been around 2:30 when we broke for lunch. I was struck how different that was from the way it used to be. We went to the administration building and had served ourselves buffet style. Until recently there was no place to do this so we ate outside. There was nothing wrong with this; my point is that even this pointed to some of the progress that the school had made. There was a different feel to lunch.

The last thing we did was play a game of volleyball with some of the students. Charlie, Steffi, Patty, Larry and I were on one team with one of the Koro-Bobi staff. The students laughed and laughed when we made mistakes which was frequent. I am only going to say two things: someone needs to teach Charlie how to serve, and the next group going over is going to practice volleyball :-)!