P.L.E. I heard that term a lot for the past few weeks. Everybody was talking about P.7, the final grade in primary, taking their P.L.E. exams so they can move on to secondary. We had a mass for the P.7 students where we blessed them and their writing utensils. Uganda took a break from getting ready for CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) for a few days, which is going to be a complete disaster, so they could get all hyped up about these exams.
So I walk to school Monday morning, and when I arrive I don't have class. What a surprise... No one bothered to tell me when the P.L.E.s were going to take place, and that P.6 would not have class. This is the sixth time I was not informed that I would not have class because of exams or holidays. You know how when your are going to work or school some days, and you just hope that for some reason upon arrival no one is there, or you are sent home... and it NEVER happens. Well it happens in Africa, but only after walking miles to get there, and it is also something you could have been informed of a week ago, so you get to turn around and walk home thinking about that.
With my two days off for P.L.E. I read a lot, and also hung out with my boys from Holy Cross Primary next door. They are great kids, and I love playing around with them. Ivan, my eager laundry helper who is in P.5 and looks about 12 years old, has bought me sugar cane the past few days, and all the kids laugh at me as I try to chew almost breaking my teeth. I think I can do without his generosity in the sugarcane department because I am about to lose a tooth, but I am ever grateful for his expertise in washing because my fingers are all scabbed up for the moment, and his questions about vampires and the States are hilarious.
The other day I went into town and got a nice button up shirt with French cuffs for 10,000 shillings less than six dollars. If I didn't have Ekou, a fellow teacher at St. Andrew's, with me I would not have been able to get a shirt for 25,000. He took me to the dirtiest place back in the shabbiest part of town where he bargained in Lusoga for my shirt, and he nonchalantly passed it off to me once he made the purchase. The stall owner was not very happy about that. Then we went further, and we passed a few big puddles of stagnant water that were threatening to eat the foot of anyone that wasn't already aware of their presence from a mile away. They smelled worse than anything I could ever remember in my life, and looked the part. On top of that, the trash, waste, and smoke made it the most unsanitary place I have ever been, and plan to be in my life. After Ekou bought a few kilos of flour, in which the lady clearly screwed him over when weighing it, we got out of there before we caught some nasty disease.
I am coming up rapidly on the end of classes, and trying to desperately to get in all the material before the kids have their final exams, but after talking to a few people it seems that I am not really expected to finish teaching the subject, and whatever they don't learn, we'll test them on it anyway, just like they did last week with some random questions from my unit that we had not even gone over yet. The inefficiencies are ridiculous, but this is Uganda and that is why CHOGM is doomed.
