On a beautiful Thursday afternoon last month in Nkonya I experienced in one hour some of the best of life here in Uganda, along with a glimpse of some of the worst.
Nkonya is a remote fishing village on a huge lake in Mityana province. In recent years poverty and unemployment here have increased steadily following many too many years of consistently overfishing young fish and evading the government inspectors sent to help prevent this problem. Along with the increased poverty level are significant increases in child neglect and abuse.
The staff at Maranatha Primary School Nkonya has devised a unique way to support the students and help them deal with the many new problems they are facing at home. All of the students, from Baby Class through Primary 7, along with all faculty members, are divided into four “families,” which meet for about an hour at least once a month and more often when needed. Each family has students and adults of all ages.
The school families gather outside under the beautiful shade trees and engage in dialogues meant to encourage the students of all ages to share and talk about concerns and new problems in their lives. The adults take the roles of “aunt” and “uncle” and also share their own recent experiences. The students then begin to respond and frequently talk about things that the school can help with. They also learn that they have a support network of concerned adults and fellow students.
On the day I visited, one of the uncles began by talking about a family burial he had recently attended. Another uncle told a funny story about a problem he had with one of his own children, and some of the older students suggested some things he could try that might help. A few other students talked about things at home: a new baby, family visitors, mom working in the fields. The younger children watched and listened.
And then the aunt asked some of the girls about how things were this week with a problem they had recently with jiggers, a serious and unpleasant parasite found in this part of Africa. The girls said they were fine and took off their shoes for everyone to see. The aunt, Teacher Gladys, was hoping that one of her P2 students would say that he still had a problem and let the group know that he needed help. We had noticed earlier in class that he was showing some unusual physical behaviors, and she thought he needed help but was probably afraid to say anything because his stepmother would beat him if he told the adults at school. He is eight years old, and his father told the school earlier this year that he didn’t need to go to school any more because he was too stupid to learn. In the class I visited for four hours he was one of three students out of about twenty who knew the answers to every question the teacher asked.
The girls and some of the older boys remembered that he also had had jiggers a few weeks ago and gently convinced him to remove his shoes and let them see his feet. He had six or more jiggers on the sole of each foot: small black burrowing fleas, each surrounded by a large white egg case, looking like a large grain of white rice. The surrounding skin had peeling skin and large unhealed areas from previous infestations. I’ve seen a lot of gross parasites in my years as a Mississippi schoolteacher, but jiggers can be bad and can have serious consequences.
A P7 boy produced a surgical tool ... the sharp end of a high-quality drawing compass ... and skillfully removed all the jiggers. The school office was notified and has made arrangements to follow up ... and the school family will continue to watch closely . ..
And we all prayed together.
