If memory serves me correctly, my last writings were on the adventures of Sully and Dave climbing Mt. Elgon. If this isn't the case, then I'll let Sully post an entry on that when he gets a chance. Regardless, I have fallen way behind. So let me start catching up.
After Sully left at the end of January, I went back to my house to find everything in complete disarray. Termites had made short work of big sections of my fence. Neighbor kids broke my clay posts, goats and cattle destroyed what little greenery I might have had and somebody - according to the little boy next door - had come by during the night and tried to pick my locks. Dang! Can't a guy go a way for two months without everything falling apart? So I spent the next month slowly putting things back together.
I've decided that trying to be all natural on the fence issue isn't going to work. I was using bamboo and thorns, but that isn't holding up. So now I'm going to try soaking the ends of the bamboo in either poison or used motor oil. Then I'll see how that goes. Once the bamboo is woven together it is really strong, hence why they make their houses out of it. However, no one told me that before they coat their bamboo walls with cow shit, they also poor several gallons of poison on the bamboo and in the ground around it. I don't know what health risks there might be in this tactic, but it does seem to work really well. Now I just need a few hundred more pieces of bamboo and some poison. I'll let you all know how it turns out.
Aside from the fence, March and most of April have passed without any developments at home. At school on the other hand things went a bit south. First, the term was supposed to begin in early February. Most of the teachers - except me and the Deputy Principal - didn't arrive until mid February. But then again , only a handful of students arrived as well.
Notwithstanding, by the end of February we were in full swing. Then in the middle of March, oh beware the ides of March, we started having problems. The trouble is definitely two fold. First the S2 and S3 (sophomores and juniors) became "very indisciplined." Basically, they weren't coming to class or if the did they were late, out of dress code, lazy , unresponsive, or just rude. Try to understand that there is only one exam at the end of their senior year that determines their fate. When you're a kid, one or two years before the most important exam of your life seems like plenty of time. So there isn't a whole lot of reason to take classes too seriously. Plus, they aren't S1 (freshmen) any more so they are getting a little big for their britches so to say. Combine all of this with a few bold kids who really don't care at all and of course you are going to have problems. The second fold is that the teachers are pretty dang lazy. Most of the teachers didn't really want to be teachers, but if they didn't do well enough to go to university, then going to a teachers college at least buys you some time, gives you possible job options and is usually free or cheap. So of course the teachers aren't going to show any great concern or passion for the school, students, or teaching in general. They will , however, go to great lengths to tell you how lousy, lazy and indisciplined the students are. So now we have poor teachers (who are paid regardless of their performance), students who are only at school as a way to get out of chores at home and parents who know nothing about it because they only made it to the 3rd grade. KABOOM!
The explosion happened when the administration (principal) finally started coming to school and doing a decent job as opposed to doing something somewhere else. He really turned things around on both students and staff. Now all this time I was doing what I could to be a good example. I took roll call, graded homework, gave weekly quizzes and called students by name. You would think this would be good, in fact the other teachers commented that these are "serous teaching tools." Not that any of them tried to emulate though. But no, the students hated it. I was making them do more work and because of my record keeping and knowing their names, I was able to hold them accountable. Their anonymity was gone and they were really in trouble when I brought it to the attention of the principal.
So parents were called, blame was passed around like a hot potato and in the end we made a step forward but potentially two steps back. My physics students (juniors) said I wasn't giving enough notes (they don't have text books so they really do need notes) and said I wasn't covering enough material. What they really meant was that I wasn't giving them notes verbatim on the board for them to copy for 80 minutes and instead required them to participate. "Teaching" means you give students notes and problems to memorize. Anything outside of this isn't welcomed by teachers or students.
Then the students voiced complaints about other teachers not coming to class, or having the students do yard work when they didn't feel like teaching. The parents raised a fuss that we weren't caning (beating with a slender branch) enough and the administration said the parents need to check and make sure their kids are actually studying at school by looking at the report cards.
So the solution: I am now teaching freshmen physics, one teacher was fired as an example, four or five students were expelled as examples, and a whole slew of the others were caned by their parents right there on the spot. One kid, rumor has it, was even arrested for stealing because he took the money his mom gave him for school fees and went drinking instead. That pretty much wraps up term I and the end of April.
I spend Easter in the village just north of my house. It was nice and quiet. People celebrated, sang, danced, and had a good time. The next week I finally got time to go and climb the little mountain near me. Spectacular view of an incredibly flat and vast landscape. Plains full of grass, bush and trees. Green and Gorgeous! That brings me to to my next topic.
Gardening. April had a few showers, just enough to begin swing the hoe and busting sod. I let my hands get pretty raw before I put on the gloves Penny sent me (Thanks again Penny!). I had to make sure I had calluses and blisters to show everyone. Then in May, I just put in my corn and beans Mom and dad sent with Sully (thanks again Mom, Dad and Sully). Now I'm working on my herb garden. I've got lemon grass, ginger and basil. I planted mint, rosemary, and chives, but it seems they didn't come up. I'll have to try one more time. I also gave mustard, collards, swiss chard, carrots, lettuce and beets a shot. But I put them right before 3 days of hellacious rain. So I think they got washed away. Dang. My pumpkins are looking good though. I'll be making bies by August I hope.
Then May 10th rolled around and I had to go for PC training again. It was only two days long, but it ate up a whole week because travel it is 2 days there and 2 days back. Plus, I stayed an extra day to get my mid-service medical exam done so I wouldn't have to make the 4 day travel again. However, as much as I hate going to the capital for training, I do like seeing all of my PC friends. Its like a reunion every time we meet up. On top of that, a bunch of them wanted to come up to the North for a visit. Awesome! So I said we should have a little south of the border party at my place. See, its a joke cause I'm right south of the Sudan border. he he :)
So I hurried home to prepare while everyone else went gallivanting here and there as they made their way north. After a lot of hustle, hassle and harrassle, I finally got 20lbs of fruit, a 40 lbs goat (hanging weight), 35lbs of charcoal, and one case of beer. Thanks to Papa's butcher knives (razor sharp!) I made short work of the goat. My neighbors couldn't believe how fast was going, then I demonstrated how sharp the knife was by shaving the hair off my arm. Then I have the innards and head to a friend in exchange for helping me salt and stretch the hide. The heart, liver, lungs, and kidneys I kept though and ground them up with salt, onion, garlic and chili peppers, made them into patties then breaded and deep fried them. Oh, I made a deep frier and filled it with sunflower seed oil, most useful innovation I've made so far. Damn were they good!
Mean while, I had a pit, a rim off a 2 ton flat bed and a load of charcoal. I put it all together with the charcoal in the rim, and the rim in the ground. Burn baby burn! By the time I had the goat skinned and all the pinaable and mangoes sliced up, the fire was ready. So I stuffed the goat carcass with fruit until he was bursting, wired him closed, wrapped him in palm leaves and threw him in the pit. Then I covered it with more palm leaves and piled on the dirt. That was about noon.
I spent the next six hours making guacamole, fruit salad, tortillas, beans and potatoes and straining my homemade mango wine. A little vinigery, but good enough. Then mop the house and by the time everyone arrived (they had to hire a flatbed truck to take them all to my place and back, some PCV and some ex-pat from Kitgum) the goat was ready to rise again! We went to lift him out by the leg bones, but instead the leg bones just slipped right out. So I grabbed some gloves and pulled the wires. Again, the meat fell away and the wires pulled right out. So we had to get the palm leaves underneath and lift. Surprisingly, the leaves weren't burned. We put him on the table and I ripped off a piece. Glorious! I couldn't believe it turned out so well. Once the moment of truth had passed, the next two hourse was a flash of meat and beer. Not even the bones were left on the table as people sad around gnawing on them. Then someone brought out the guitar as the sun finally disappeared and we all proceeded to relax and have a helluva good time. It would have lasted well into the night, but lightning was on the horizon and a lot of folks had to get the early bus the next day so we loaded them up on and said goodbye. Three of the guests stayed behind for the night so we could go adventuring around the next morning, but that is another story.
Tune in next time for more adventures as I continue to examine life :)
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