Its been a very long time since writing on here, apologies
for the delay! Lots has happened since I last wrote so lets see if it
can all be put down on paper succinctly..!
Weddings
The last few months have definitely been the season of
weddings. Weddings and introductions galore! It has been a real joy to be apart
of these special days and to witness many a Ugandan wedding. I have to say Ugandans know how to host a big
party - the weddings are huge and the receptions even bigger! Its almost as if the
whole village comes out to celebrate the special day! In amongst all the food,
dancing and speeches it is absolutely lovely to hear and see the real honouring
of one another taking place. Parents, families and close friends are truly
honoured for bringing up their children in a way that is worthy to receive a
good partner. I’ve come to see more and more how honouring one another;
especially honouring the older in society is so important in the Ugandan
culture.
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| Wedding dancers in traditional wear |
Wellspring School Open Day
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| Getting ready for the march |
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| Class dancing |
The Nursery, Primary and Secondary school had its open day
last Saturday. The day started with a marching band and the whole school
marching from the football stadium to the school. All in all we marched around
3 km, band playing and happy children walking to advertise the schools work in
the area. After the march, we met
parents and other members of families at the Wellspring site for a time of
celebration of the successes the students and teachers have seen throughout the
year. Each class presented a little drama, poem, song or dance. The little ones
in particular were very cute, especially the baby class who had made a whole
outfit out of newspaper!
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| Newspaper outfits |
The secondary school enjoyed learning how to make liquid detergent soap and Vaseline with one of the new science teachers. During the open day the students enjoyed teaching parents and the younger students what they have learnt through practical demonstrations.
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| Teacher Justus and the students making liquid soap |
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| Graduation time |
During the open day the nursery students also enjoyed graduating and are now ready to join the primary school in February.
New Resources
Thanks to Wellspring, parents and students of the secondary
school we have been so pleased to be able to buy some more textbooks. This will
help us to teach the IGCSE subjects more effectively. Over the last two months,
we have also employed 3 new qualified Ugandan teachers to teach the sciences,
Business Studies, Economics and History. This really helps to ensure the
students are receiving a really good education. Some of these teachers have not
taught the International curriculum before and so I am working with them to
ensure that there is a cohesive curriculum taught.
Thank you to all those people who have offered to sponsor a
student through their secondary education. The school year for the Ugandan
curriculum is a little different to the International curriculum we follow in
the secondary school. This means that
students who have just finished their primary education will start with us at
the beginning of February. We are hoping that a few of the students who
completed their primary at Wellspring school will continue with us into the
secondary. Thank you to all those who have offered to help support some
students in doing this. It is such a great help to the families here.
Working at Acacia International
School
Last month I was offered a part time job in another
international school in the city. This
job has been a real blessing to help further support me financially whilst
being here. The school is called Acacia
and I accepted a part time position for a maternity cover for just a day and
half a week.
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| Obligatory picture outside Mandella football Stadium, Namboole |
Wellspring has had many a visitor coming through its doors
to serve and be apart here. It has been a privilege to have a few of them
staying in the house over the past month or so. It has been wonderful to hear
stories and glean from some of the people that have lived here in Uganda and
have been apart of the foundations of Wellspring. It was such fun having Holly
to stay; Holly was the primary head teacher here for 7 years. We enjoyed lots of chatting, lots of laughs
and of course as us teachers do some school talk! At the moment Mike &
Beryl are here, they are are an amazing couple who came here over 20 years ago
and founded Wellspring. It is such a joy to hear the many stories of the
beginnings of what started here along time ago. A man called Keith is also with
us; he is here for 6 weeks whilst working on the building doing plumbing work
and electrical work and general anything that needs doing practically. We have
all definitely been enjoying his cooking, amongst many other things whilst he is
here, the students especially who had a bread making lesson from him today. Over the course of the last two months there have been many more visitors
to speak off, all coming to help and be apart of what is taking place here.
Coming home for
Christmas
I’m so looking forward to coming home for Christmas with a
special someone. We will be arriving home for a cold Christmassy two weeks and
are looking forward to seeing you all soon. 
