All the boys are on discounted school fee rates because they excel in football. I never really appreciated how influential their football talent can be in Uganda. Since they are super talented in football, Head Masters have agreed to have the children pay only half of their normal rate for school fees, since their talent gives the school more status. This has enabled the boys to attend the most lovely schools, which are normally very expensive! I was so amazed at the quality of education the boys were receiving. They are in the same class as children from very wealthy families which is amazing considering 5 years ago they were living on a rubbish heap! I am a very proud mum.
Since the Head Masters can only accept a few discounted fees per school, Redondo has made great contacts with many schools so the boys are all spread out. We therefore visited 4 schools and met 8 of the children today. To visit these schools we had to take 6 matatus and 4 bodaboda (motorbikes) in total!! Redondo has to travel back and forth to each of the schools regularly to visit the boys, attend parent meetings etc, which I really didn't appreciate until today! It costs a bomb and takes so long to travel to the schools! He really is doing such a great job for those kids. Matt and I have decided to buy Redo a motorbike as a 'thank you' present for all his hard work. This will help in the costs and time of the traveling involved in supporting these children.
We first stopped off at the primary school of Emma, Frank and Ayeko. They are in their last year of primary school so we bought them some cards to wish them luck in their exams. They were so happy to see us! I have a particularly close bond with Emma as he has always been my 'baby' in the group but I can no longer call him my baby! He has grown up so much!
Frank has really come out of himself too. He used to be so shy and really quiet, when he first came to the Mydel Boys Home from the streets. Now, he is the joker of the group! He has a really fun character and is very animated when he talks.
As we arrived at this first school, the thunder clapped and the rain poured... and poured.. and poured. We managed to find a place instead one of the reception classrooms to talk to the boys. Randomly, a woman came in and put her baby on the top of the desk to sleep!
Whilst we were waiting for the rain to stop, we noticed the chalk drawing of a house:
It was a really poignant moment when we realised that the house looked so different to our children's drawings of houses. The Ugandan children draw a house with one floor, no windows and a flat tin roof, whereas English children draw a square house with a door, two windows down and two windows up, with a triangular roof.
As we thought about this we decided to play a drawing game with the boys to pass time. We each decided on what to draw, i.e a car, a dog etc, and would take it in turns to draw it. It became a bit of a competition and a great time to bond with the boys.
Finally the rain stopped and we walked out into mud-city! I was sliding everywhere in my little flip-flops! I am so surprised none of us fell over!
I did almost fall over actually... when a Ugandan shouted out 'eh, Wayne Rooney!' to Matt. When we asked them why they likened Matt to Wayne Rooney, their response was 'because you are white, and you are fat.' Matt was horrified! I was in fits of giggles! He later got 'Frank Lampard' shouted out at him, which he found a bit more flattering but even Lampard has the nickname of 'Fat-Frank Lampard'. Hahaha. They don't mean fat as in obese here, they say fat when they mean big and muscly.. obviously.
Anyway.. we then want to to visit more boys:
Each boy received a letter from their sponsor, a bag of sweets and a smart shirt. It was so lovely to see them study their letters and write their own letter back. They each did a video message for their sponsor too which they enjoyed doing. I am so happy with the schools they are in, it has been a great day! xx
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