Abukloi means "We Can" in Dinka. We manage a secondary school and vocational training center in Rumbek, South Sudan, that provides essential skills and training for regional Southern Sudanese. This facility will also serve as a community center for the Rumbek community, providing a central place to come together and work at rebuilding their country and their lives. Abukloi is a non-governmental organization based in Virginia, USA. www.Abukloi.org
Friday, October 4, 2013
Abukloi Starts Classes
Today was quite an interesting day at school. The students took charge of organizing a student conference which included the teachers and Philip the director. It was quite informative, as they wanted to elect a headboy/girl. This student would handle student concerns and be a go between from teachers to students. One student took the lead and gave a political/leadership pitch on the qualifications of a leader. His name is Abraham and he was leading and politiking for the position. He allowed each student to introduce themselves by giving their name and the area they live in. It is amazing how far students walk to get to school by 8AM. The election will be next Monday. The students' only request is for the secondary school to have a separate volley ball net from the primary school. Seems like a small request. The students are getting to know one another and 32 students out of 36 came on time to school. The four that were late had to slash the weeds and go to the bore head for water. Maybe 36 students will be on time. They are really abiding by the rules and those who could not have not returned, dropping our numbers from 48 to 36. The 36 seem quite serious about studying to take the exam to enter secondary school in January. To begin the school day there is an assembly time, one student reads scripture and expounds on it and another student prays. This devotion time is followed by announcements. It is surprising how many volunteers we have to read Scripture and pray. They are really quite good, very well spoken. New students came to day, but I said "no more students, I am too old to cope with new students each day that cannot understand me or vica versa. Plus their skills are so low and I must get them up to par before December. So a meeting of director and teachers, decision was no more new students. Things otherwise are going well, as we learn to cope with Scorpions and huge grasshoppers (Biblical proportions) in our washing room and bedroom. We have entertained more bugs in our house than we have ever seen. This weekend will be one of grading tests and trying to figure out every students name. Maybe we can make name tags. The names are very hard to pronounce. Well so long for Friday. Thank goodness it is Friday, I will sleep good tonight. The heat was unbearable today. I am wishing for a hard rain to give us some cool. Bev and Marg
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Shake out your shoes!
ReplyDeleteI shared a bus ride once, with an older gentleman, on my way to ASU in Arizona. He told me that he had been one of the workers on the Salt River Project years before - the project that put several dams along the Salt River providing water and electricity to the then, very small Phoenix. There was no air conditioning, so in order to sleep at night, the men soaked their sheets before sleeping under them. Is it too humid to sleep under wet sheets when the heat is too much? Or is it just daytime heat? And, silly me, is there enough water even? I hope you have a restful weekend.