Trying to not get frustrated...

The past few days have been full of reminders that I'm back in Africa and how much my thinking has reverted back to western expectations. For example, as we packed the vans to begin the 8+ hour trek back to Soroti from Entebee we received a phone call that there were riots in Kampala so somehow we should avoid the capital. But first was the phone call that the car Beckie and I used to share wasn’t ready yet and she wouldn’t be able to get it until after midday, whatever time that was. (The mechanic has had it for a week and knew when she needed it finished by.) That meant that we had to go into the capital to get our car but after hearing about the riots it wasn’t safe to wait around for whenever the mechanic decided he would get it back to us. And the road that we usually take to Sorori has gotten so bad that we now go about 100 km more via Lira instead (see map). We really need to be off the roads by dark. So the mad scramble to get the supplies we need, to avoid potential bad places in Kampala, to get Beckie’s car and to get on the road with enough time to get home before dark. We nearly made it. Back to Soroti by 9:00pm.

Another reminder today. The kids arrived to welcome us back and tell us that today is the last day of registration for school. I’d been seriously considering getting two of Betty’s siblings to join her at the slightly better school but I knew I was going to have to be the one to get them registered and pay the fees if that was going to happen as their grandmother was not going to take the initiative. So I’m struggling to move out and back in but took a few hours out of the day to take Manuel and Joyce down to the school and have them “tested” to figure out what class they belong in. The testing was a joke as the headmaster (principle) gave them a few questions from last year’s tests but read and explained the questions to them. Manuel should be going into Primary 5 (5^th grade) but I knew he couldn’t have read the test questions himself. And for Joyce, he explained to her what the words meant and I know her English isn’t good enough to have understood the test on her own. But I also know they both have to do these tests independently because their teachers won’t help them and next time they will fail. Anyway, they are registered, both in classes the same as last year.  I really want them to succeed so please join me in praying for them. Manuel really needs to learn to read and Joyce has such potential but has just never had a teacher who will invest in her. And something to look forward to: Next week Monday we go school shopping. My favorite. 

Joyce is the one in pink with Vicky in red and Janet in yellow.
They are posing in their new skirts and shirts I brought back for them.