Today was the first day of summer school, I along with
Erica, Ella, Mel and Caz were given P4b. Our class is supposed
to be around 45 people, but ended up being around 34. All the classes were made up of several
schools, not only Kindergatten. One of the key problems of having all the
schools together was the distinct difference in ability from children from
different schools, especially the ones who went to schools that volunteers
don’t work at.
In my P4b class I had half of my original P4 class from
Kinderkatten including my favourites Maxim who was wearing my Charlton shirt
and Martin. All the children in the school were divided into 4 houses;
Elephants, Gorillas, Hippos (which suck) and Lions. I am in the Elephant house,
in each class the students are all divided into these houses and compete
against each other in the whole school. I rigged the way the houses were
divided in my class and ended up with the best kids in Elephant (Maxim, Martin,
Ronald etc.) and the less good kids I put in the Hippos.
The first lesson was pretty chaotic as it was hard to work
out who was supposed to be in each class, as a lot of kids have very poor
English skills. A lot of kids also look too old for their classes; there are at
least a couple of 15/16 year olds in a class which should be 10 year olds. The
activities were also really good, one of which being the weaving which involved
giving kids machetes to cut very slim bits of wood. Maxim was a pro at doing it
and had clearly done it before but still managed to end up with his hand
covered in blood, he acted as though he couldn’t even feel it and was
practically laughing at me while I’m sprinting around trying to find a plaster.
But all in all everything seemed to work very well and it was very enjoyable.
Once we were back from Summer school I, Dec, Kit, Samir and
Freddie jogged down to the local football pitch to see if anyone was there up
for a football match. On our way to the pitch we saw some kids from the school that
were still walking home despite school having finished 40 minutes ago. As we
walked with them we got surrounded by a dozen or so goats as well as a couple
of dozen cows and bulls with horns as long as my legs. Some kids were just
walking along with huge sticks beating the cows ahead of us and occasionally
trying to leap on them. It was the weirdest walk I have ever been on, 20
minutes of the 5 of us being surrounded by 20 or so Ugandan children, a dozen
goats and masses of huge cows being beaten with sticks.
At the pitch we managed to organise an 11 vs. 11 match, with
the 5 of us volunteers and 6 locals on one side vs. the others. Kit left the
match after 20 minutes or so as he was exhausted but the match was one of the
best football games I have ever been part of. On one side of the pitch there
lots of cows occasionally being hit with sticks so that they didn’t interfere
too much with the match. The match finished 6-6, I scored one and got the
assist of 3 (I was pretty happy), the game was taken very seriously by everyone
involved, it lasted roughly an hour and a half and involved one of the most
controversial tackles I have ever seen. Ramsten (a lad who we have met several
times and had been scouted by the local football teams) had the ball and was
one on one with the goal before the mighty Samir absolutely wiped him out. From
one side the tackle was amazing as the ball was won, but on the other hand it
was absolutely brutal, I have never seen someone’s head hit the floor so hard
and was genuinely worried for Ramsten’s health before he clambered back up.
After the game we went back to the lodge showered and had
dinner before chilling and going to bed.
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