Dear friends, The school is alive again as students are reporting for Term ll at Soroti Municipal Secondary School (aka Beacon of Hope College.) Most of the students reported this week. The recruiting process for incoming sponsored Senior 1's (7th grade) was completed over the school break and 26 of the 40 have reported. The remaining 14 have a few more days to report before those on the waiting list will be called to fill their places. The criterion for accepting sponsorship is based on poverty/need of family, orphan status (single or double orphan) and their scores on the Primary 7 national exams. Primary 7 is the last grade of primary school before entering secondary. Student application forms were collected in specific areas of this Teso region and from these applications students were selected t fill a specific number of positions assigned to each specific area. All students, even those sponsored by the school, are required to bring certain things. Students come with a metal box that locks with a padlock, mattress (foam), basin (for washing clothes and bathing), jerican (jug to carry water), plate and cup and maybe a spoon. When they report, their box is checked by the matron or warden, and all their street clothes are given back to the parents to take home as only school uniforms are allowed at school. Some of these new students come from far in the bush and are overwhelmed with the city. One girl traveled alone with her belongings from quite a distance away. She didn't know Soroti but found another student to help her walk downtown for the necessary school requirements. What a brave girl! I had a father and his daughter come to my office to pay for the uniform. As he saw me, he quickly motioned for his daughter to join him. He asked his daughter to translate our conversation and we struggled to understand each other. I don't know anything about this family but was touched when the father opened a plastic bag and counted out 110 coins (each worth about 25 cents) to pay for his daughter's uniform needs. I imagine how proud he was both to have his daughter qualify for sponsorship and in his ability to pay the additional requirements for admittance. I have been getting to know students as I help them through the registration process. I have been told that for some of these students, I am the first white person they have interacted with so it takes time for them to be comfortable with me and understand my American English. I find a smile is the same in any language!
There have been many happenings at school since my last update. Let me share a few.
The soccer team went to the quarter finals in the Soroti area soccer competi¬tion. It was an eight day competition with our boys playing daily at the soccer fields which are just down the road. Meanwhile, at school, students are dis¬tracted awaiting game time to cheer our team on to victory. It's basically a lost week to academics in all the schools in the area. The school is proud of our team!
Last Sunday held a second Prayer and Fasting Day of this term with the theme "Enemies of the Cross". The teachings were wonderful and worship was full of passion. Can you picture 90 students in one classroom singing with everything within them?? My ears are still ringing!
On the other side...life on the ground...after a wind and rain storm, the pit la¬trine (outhouse) at school collapsed. Not good...quick action opened an old latrine that had been sealed. Relief. (No pun intended...)
For 8 days there was low voltage or no electricity so we depended on the generator for stable electricity for the photocopier and computer.
A fact of life at a private school is school fees. Most of the students are spon¬sored by donors but we do have a few private students. This far into the term, fees of private students should be paid in full. Another fact of life here is all students are required to have uniforms and compound wear. Again, this far into the term, all students should have purchased their uniforms. Last week, many students were not compliant and were sent home to get money for school fees and uniforms. Needless to say, the office became busy with parents paying fees.
Meanwhile, the white rats (purchased for national exam practicals last October) in the lab are reproducing, breakfast, lunch and supper are being pre¬pared, daily, a few students are treated for malaria, daily lunch hour worship continues encouraging students, chalk is being used up as lessons are taught, and teachers are preparing final exams. Life at school continues.
Aaron Ruud farms 30 acres at the Dakabela Farm, close to Soroti, Uganda. He raises crops for Beacon of Hope College, which as you can imagine has a large food budget for 500 people onsite. Watch a video of Aaron
"This has been a frustrating week. It started out poorly, got worse but finished well. Last Saturday, I was on my way back to town with a load of sweet potatoes for the school when I heard a load bang. I first thought it was a flat tire, but after seeing the trail of water I looked under the hood and found that the upper radiator hose had burst. Not just a short crack but actually split from end to end. On closer inspection, I saw the alternator belt broke too. The only thing I can figure out is, when the belt broke, the end came around and struck the hose which was weakened from age. I was fairly close to town so it didn't take too long to get another belt and a hose that wasn't an exact fit but was close enough to work. But then I saw that when the hose broke it also broke the short tube on the radiator the hose connects to. Here is where things start to get worse.
With the help of Julius, the engine room operator at the school, I got the hose on well enough to get the pickup to school. We got some 3-ton epoxy and reattached the tube to the radiator, waited a day for it to harden and drove home. Apparently, the hose exerts more than 3 tons of pressure because by the time I got home the tube was broken again. Now, the only option was a new top for the radiator. This is not easy to find because the pickup, a Mazda, is not a common vehicle in Uganda. There was nothing at all in Soroti. We tried for several days to locate something in Kampala, the capital, but the most common suggestion was, "go to Kenya."
(In the US, with the help of a phone book and the internet, it is easy to find almost anything. Here, there are no phone books and most businesses do not have websites. So, the solution usually is to take the broken part to Kampala and ask around until you run across someone who knows someone who might know where to find what you need.
If you know exactly what you want and know where to go it is also possible to buy it and have them put it on the bus. Usually this takes about 12-24 hours for delivery. There are two problems with this, first, I wouldn't want to ship anything obviously valuable and, second, someone still has to physically go to the store to pay cash for the item.)
Finally, we tracked down someone who would fabricate the part from scratch. In the US, having someone build a part like this would be pretty expensive but here even skilled labor is pretty cheap, so this turned out to be the best option. I questioned him carefully and he assured me he would do the whole job for 50,000USh (about $25) and that it would be done the next day. So, I gave him the radiator.
So far so good, but in typical Ugandan fashion, he called the next day to tell us he wouldn't be able to come until the following morning. When he did come, about 1:00pm, he had the repaired radiator, but, in typical Ugandan fashion, the price had changed. Instead of 50,000, it was now 60,000, plus 20,000 for cleaning the radiator, plus10,000 for 2 small bolts, plus 10,000 for his transportation.
Still, the week ended well. I got the pickup back. It took 6 days to find a part and 2 hours to install it, but I'm happy to be driving again instead of walking. This has been a frustrating week. It started out poorly, got worse but finished well. Last Saturday, I was on my way back to town with a load of sweet potatoes for the school when I heard a load bang. I first thought it was a flat tire, but after seeing the trail of water I looked under the hood and found that the upper radiator hose had burst. Not just a short crack but actually split from end to end. On closer inspection, I saw the alternator belt broke too. The only thing I can figure out is, when the belt broke, the end came around and struck the hose which was weakened from age. I was fairly close to town so it didn't take too long to get another belt and a hose that wasn't an exact fit but was close enough to work. But then I saw that when the hose broke it also broke the short tube on the radiator the hose connects to. Here is where things start to get worse.
With the help of Julius, the engine room operator at the school, I got the hose on well enough to get the pickup to school. We got some 3-ton epoxy and reattached the tube to the radiator, waited a day for it to harden and drove home. Apparently, the hose exerts more than 3 tons of pressure because by the time I got home the tube was broken again. Now, the only option was a new top for the radiator. This is not easy to find because the pickup, a Mazda, is not a common vehicle in Uganda. There was nothing at all in Soroti. We tried for several days to locate something in Kampala, the capital, but the most common suggestion was, "go to Kenya."
(In the US, with the help of a phone book and the internet, it is easy to find almost anything. Here, there are no phone books and most businesses do not have websites. So, the solution usually is to take the broken part to Kampala and ask around until you run across someone who knows someone who might know where to find what you need.
If you know exactly what you want and know where to go it is also possible to buy it and have them put it on the bus. Usually this takes about 12-24 hours for delivery. There are two problems with this, first, I wouldn't want to ship anything obviously valuable and, second, someone still has to physically go to the store to pay cash for the item.)
Finally, we tracked down someone who would fabricate the part from scratch. In the US, having someone build a part like this would be pretty expensive but here even skilled labor is pretty cheap, so this turned out to be the best option. I questioned him carefully and he assured me he would do the whole job for 50,000USh (about $25) and that it would be done the next day. So, I gave him the radiator.
So far so good, but in typical Ugandan fashion, he called the next day to tell us he wouldn't be able to come until the following morning. When he did come, about 1:00pm, he had the repaired radiator, but, in typical Ugandan fashion, the price had changed. Instead of 50,000, it was now 60,000, plus 20,000 for cleaning the radiator, plus10,000 for 2 small bolts, plus 10,000 for his transportation.
Still, the week ended well. I got the pickup back. It took 6 days to find a part and 2 hours to install it, but I'm happy to be driving again instead of walking.
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