Whats in a name?

Wow, it is May already and defiantly time for another blog update! The last month or so have been a lot of fun, exploring the country with lots of different visitors. Over the Easter holidays it was lovely to have my friend Dan and parents visit for a couple of weeks. We defiantly enjoyed seeing more of the countryside and learning about the cultural heritage here in Uganda. It always amazes me to see how green the countryside is, the landscape is so luscious and exploring more helps to see why this beautiful country was coined the ‘bread basket and pearl of Africa.’  In fact they say that the soil here in Uganda is so fertile that you can pretty much grow anything in it.

At the source of the Nile, Jinja

It was amazing to learn that according to the law when a compound was created for people to live on they used to have to plant three trees in the grounds in order to provide for the people living there. Each compound therefore must have a Matooke (variation of plantain; one of the staple dishes) tree, a Mango tree and an Avocado tree.  If you visit the old compounds they all have these trees growing, amazing way to ensure people have food nearby in their communities. This off course has changed a little bit as people have started to live outside of the traditional compounds. Thus some people do not have the food readily available.

Jinja

Students picking their first harvest

That reminds me, we have started to see our first harvest in our little school garden. The students were thrilled to see their hard work paid off, especially after a few disappointments and hurdles jumped through to actually get some fruit.  It was a good lesson for all of us about hard work, commitment and productivity. We now have carrots and a few tomatoes to enjoy. We have also just planted one of the staple foods here; beans.  So we look forward to enjoying these soon.

I am always inspired by the shared community life here and whilst visiting the Tombs of the Buganda Kabakas’ (Kings of the central region) I was inspired to learn how the naming of children takes place. I have always found it difficult to understand and get my head around how each person has a different surname, when a child is born they do not seemingly take on the family surname. Going to the Kusubi Tombs helped me to understand how this takes place and how community is so in built in the minds of people and structures of society here.  When a child is born they are given their own personal surname, not a family surname but a name that identifies them with their wider clan. The name given is much bigger than the immediate family but identifies and connects them to their wider community, their clan. Each clan has certain names that can be used; once the name is heard in any setting, the person can be identified to that clan. There are 6 million people living In Buganda (Central region of Uganda). The Buganda tribe is spilt into 54 clans, this means approximately if the clans are spread evenly across the 6 million people in Buganda, there are around 100,000 people in each clan. Therefore it can be said when a surname is given to the child it is identified with the much wider community of aprox. 100, 000 people!  This has been a great challenge to me especially as in our western society we keep ourselves to ourselves; we go to work, come back home and stay in our houses. We identify with our immediate family and that is it. Unless we work at it, there is no real expression of community. Here community is even inbuilt in the naming of their children, no wonder belonging to a much wider community is so important! I have been challenged to ask myself; what community am I seeing, what community am I given to and how do I add to this? How is community expressed in our daily lives? Us Westerners can learn something of community from people here.

Kasubi Tombs

Kasubi Tombs. The fire is kept alight for as long as the King is alive

At the school we are in the midst of end of year exams. It is crazy to think that the academic year has gone so quickly, one more half term and the year is over! Last week we enjoyed a school trip to watch William Shakespeare’s ‘Twelve Night’ at another international school in the city. The students loved it; it also worked as a great revision tool before the English exams. 

School Trip to see Shakespeares 'Twelve Night'

Students watching the play

As we are coming to the end of the academic year it is that time in the year when we need to push the advertising of the school for next years cohort. In order to advertise, I have produced the school prospectus and leaflets. Thanks to Sophie Greener; an ex-GCSE philosophy student and students at Caludon Castle School who have raised some funds. The money they raised from a school cake sale will help us to print the leaflets and school prospectus and advertise effectively in the surrounding areas. Thank you to all that was involved! Hopefully this will help the school to grow in numbers.

I am also looking forward to receive 4 ex-ALevel students next month. These students have just finished university, (yes, this makes me feel old!) and are coming to volunteer with us for 2 weeks. They will be involved with both the primary and secondary schools and also with the weekly training and community work that takes place. We’re looking forward for them coming and having an experience of Uganda, we will see what happens.. Watch this space!