Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris

This week students are taking examinations. This means that class-wise, Pablo and I do not have much to do. So I started and finished the novel “Push” by 11:30. I thought that it was going to be a boring and uneventful day (still with a wonderful view). I was so wrong though. Today was very eye-opening for me. After I finished the novel, Shanti came in to do an interview with me about a curriculum that Invisible Children is doing with the school called KOBS (Knowledge of Behavior and Self). We are having a conference this Friday and Saturday discussing the effectiveness of this program in the last few years, so we were to collect data from a few different students. After the questions, she and her friends stuck around to chat. They were disappointed that I was leaving soon and asked if I would be back next year. They said they would stay at Pabo S. S. so that I could find them.

After that conversation, I went and sat outside to enjoy the view. That is when the head boy (Patrick) and three other boys (Patrick, Bosco, and Simon) sat with me to ask me questions about the United States. They asked what sports we follow, what the school systems were like, and if Chuck Norris was still alive (they also said they feared him because he is strong). They also asked me about different slangs that we use in the States, so I taught them swagga, keep it real, and ice. We spent over an hour talking about our different cultures, and during that time they started to share about themselves. One of the first things to come up was their stresses for the next couple of school years. They were all in S-3 (compare that to a high school junior in the States). The head boy said that this was his first year back because last year he did not have enough money and spent it raising crops to pay for school fees this year. They said that crops and money was still hard to come by because Pabo had been so effected as a camp. People had spent many years away from their crops. They also mentioned that after S-3, if you do not have the money and you have to take the year off, you cannot start back up at S-4...you must repeat S-3 until you can pay for 2 years in a row. Otherwise you are stuck.

One of the boys also shared that his father, who was an innocent bystander, was killed by the rebels. During this conversation he did not maintain eye contact but preferred to stare at the ground. Another boy asked me if both of my parents were alive. I told him that they were. He told me his mother died. Is words became more jumbled and the eye contact was no longer there. I thought at one point, he would cry…but he didn’t. He said that he and his six other siblings lived with his grandmother now. They started to explain what happens when the rebels find you. They said that they start by taking your shoes, and cutting your clothes from the knee down. The reason for this is the bush is very rough and will scratch your feet and below the knees. The boys also said that you would be given something heavy to carry. They said if you became tired and wanted to rest, you were dead. The rebels didn’t know mercy. They started to express their fear because they were the proper age to be abducted.

Then Pablo interviewed our friend Charles. Charles is an S-4 student. Pablo found out that Charles and his sister Evelyn who we also met walk 5 kilometers (about 2 hours) to get to school. They value their education that much. He also found out that his family is so poor that Charles only eats once a day. He walks two hours to get to school…two hours to get home…and then gets a single meal at night.

Later on, Kenneth (a twenty-one year old student teacher who we have befriended) invited us over to his house to meet his wife (Evelyn) and his child (Benana). We told him to meet us at our residence at 6:30 because we had to get dinner from Paska. They met us at 6:30 and we still hadn’t eaten, so they decided to come back at 7. We ate our dinner and then Kenneth and Charles met us once again. Kenneth has had the same residence for nine years. It was still in the area where the IDP camp huts were. We entered a one room shack with a tin roof and a cloth for a door. Kenneth explained that he made this sitting room himself because it would not burn and the fires were so terrible. The side was cracked. Then his wife brought in a bowl of water that she had heated so we could wash our hands. They also brought in a covered dish of peas and rice to feed us. In addition to that, they had bought us each a packet of biscuits, juice, and bottled water. I still seem to be learning about those who have nothing but give everything.

The spirit these people have continues to humble me and blow me away. They are definitely some of the wisest teachers I have ever met…and they don’t even know it.

Humbly yours,

Jenni