Letters from Africa

March, 2008

Greetings from Chief Wanzagi Infirmary - I mean Secondary School! Seriously, our health problems with our students continue. Maybe, we just need to get used to the fact that the general health of African young people is not as good as those of their European or American counterparts. It may also be that at Res I was not aware of what % of girls would be running a temperature because in a day school they would just not be in school. However, in a boarding school, we need to be on call 24/7 for all their health needs. Some people think that we may be babying them too much, but I am not used to being responsible for students who are running fevers of 103-104 degrees! We sent a total of 30 girls home because of health related problems. All but three are back as of this writing, but three were hospitalized, and the illness included things like chicken pox, malaria, typhoid, worms, amoeba, and eye problems. Then, too, we have one girl who is an orphan and whose mother died from AIDS when the girl was one year old. She was raised by her grandmother and I had the difficult task of telling her that her grandmother died this past weekend.

Our school year goes from mid January to the beginning of June. Then we return to school for the second semester in the beginning of July and go to the beginning of December. In each of the semesters, there is a "likizo fupi" which means a small break. Originally, we were told that we had to take it from April 7-13 and so that was what we announced in our school calendar. Then we realized that other schools were taking it at different times. The Tuesday of Holy Week, there is a Muslim Feast and then Good Friday and Easter Monday are the Christian Feasts celebrated by the entire country. What we decided is that we will have our break from March 15-25. The students are required to return on Easter Tuesday. The three of us are most eagerly awaiting those days of the break. What a blessing it will be to be able to go to the Parish church for all Holy Week services and to have time for adoration, prayer and some much needed rest. It has been difficult living in a place without the Blessed Sacrament since the beginning of September. Even the newly opened Diocesan Health Clinic will take those same days off. Now, every day there are girls asking us if they really have to go home for the break and requesting that they stay with us!!!

We will also need to make some repairs to the buildings during this break. A few beds are broken already. Worst of all, we have been having some electrical problems and bringing in electricians has not solved them. They are talking about possibly having to re-wire the building. Then there is our famous toilet building that gives us constant problems. The other day I really panicked when some girls came running to tell me that there is a "war coming down in the toilet building". I started asking them who was fighting and when they looked at me in a very puzzled manner, I realized that these girls were from the tribes that constantly substitute "r" for "l" and that they were talking about a "wall coming down" Sure enough, the wall was coming down in two different sections of the toilet building. I guess they cheated during construction and did not use enough cement and so the walls are almost like a pile of sand. We already have had to replace sections of the veranda tiles. Things just are not built that well over here.

By the way, that "r/l" problem gets funny at times. Sr. Beata taught them universal time which refers to 3 p.m. as 15:00 for example. On the first big English test I was correcting last night, there was a question about what they do at 14:20 and I was getting that they were eating "runch" instead of "lunch". I keep telling them that one pours milk in glass" not a "grass" and that cows eat "grass" not "glass". They also use "pray" in place of "play" and "interrigent" in place of "intelligent" - no matter how many times I take that topic in class! Teaching is still the joy and highlight of my day and second would be seeing how the girls love the books in the library. The girls are divided into three groups for three different afternoon/early afternoon activities. Their favorite time is having time for sports. That is followed by library time and then quiet study. Once a week, each group spends all three periods working out in the fields, which they really do not like because they consider it as too hard of a work. They have already planted beans and sweet potatoes. Disciplining the girls, dealing with their sicknesses and the bureaucracy of trying to get things done are the absolute worst parts of the days here. Besides their afternoon times in the library, I usually open the library for several hours each evening and have to chase the girls out to get to bed. It is really edifying to see that about 15 minutes before the time that they should be going to the dormitories, they start exchanging their subject books or story books for Bibles and prayer books so as to end the day with prayer. More of them are starting to join us now for 6:10 Mass on the three days we do not have a school Mass. They also want to come for Lauds and Vespers - but that is so hard with so few Office books. I have been using the Internet to get Sunday Vespers and then using the LCD projector to project the words on the wall in our Conference Room.

Several times in the past I have mentioned an Honorable Nimrod Mkono, the man from Parliament, who keeps coming in and out of the picture for us regarding any future buildings to be constructed. I keep begging everyone to do all in their power to get dormitories built for us. Without dormitories, the school cannot be registered. Without registration, the students cannot take national examinations during their second year. If we could only get dormitories, I would be able to free up two of the classrooms presently being used for sleeping to use as rooms where the girls could eat instead of sitting on the bare ground as they do now. There really is no grassy area right around the school that they could use. I would also be able to think of having entrance examinations for students for next year - which I am already being asked about.

We are required to give long monthly tests in each subject. I think it is really difficult for the girls to have 4 tests in a day for three days straight with each test being 85 minutes long! This is especially true as all these tests are in English and many are just beginning to learn the English language. I was up most of the night correcting the first test because they are so anxious to get their results and correcting 104 copies with sentences and paragraphs written is very, very time consuming!

May these last weeks of Lent be truly blessed for you. Know that we are united in prayer, thought and love during the days of Holy Week and the Easter Season.

Please keep the prayers coming.
Sister Stephanie