Term is already into its fourth week and still the Ugandan teachers have not arrived. But the mobile network, which you can find by walking three kilometres, finally started working again. And last Sunday afternoon the Head Teacher and I and two others walked the three kilometres to be connected. No need now to take off our shoes to cross the…

So term ended early again, and once again because of food. This time I don’t think it’s incompetence, though it is true that neither the Head, nor the Deputy Head nor the Director of Studies have any management training and don’t do things like attendance registers. I don’t think they even recorded the exam marks of the pupils since we put them…

The Parish Compound consists of our four-bedroomed guest-house surrounded by the huts of others living in the Compound: three orphans, three staff and occasional guests. This Saturday we woke to find the compound full of goods brought from Torit by the indefatigable Father B.. He arrived at one o’clock last night. The haul include 15 crates of…

The Superior Priest has left to pursue an MA at Kampala in Public Administration. He didn’t try too hard to administer things at Isoke. His casualness was one thing I liked about him, but we suffered because the Isoke Superior Priest is a key figure in the area. Isoke was founded by the Comboni Fathers in this beautiful fertile valley under the…

A new term starts at St Augustine’s School in Isoke. So far the teaching staff comprises only the Head Teacher and myself. Pupils trickle in—about 25 have registered by the end of the first week—but many from around Isoke do not bother. At the school there is a general feeling that nothing much is going to happen, with pupils doing little but…