The Students Return

Sunday, June 28, 2020

And we're back! The students are moving back into their dormitories on this beautiful Sunday afternoon. For most of them, it's their first time seeing our new bell tower in the middle of campus completed and ready to ring!

The dining hall (above) really stands out against today's bright blue sky. Below, once of our form 2 students, Prisca, shows her baby sister Rebecca around campus while having a last-minute chat with a friend before her dad takes the phone home with him. She grew up in the Kisongo congregation, near the Andrew Connolly School of Preaching, so she was chatting with an American friend who lived here for a few years but has now returned to the US.

Some students, with their bags, are waiting to be checked in at the administration building before taking their things to the dormitory.

During the busiest part of the day, the teachers had some tables set up near the school gate to welcome students and check them in (receiving tuition payments from parents, checking their bags for contraband, etc.). But now it's late enough that the main rush is over, and the few that straggle in late can just come up to the administration building.

Our campus is looking good! For probably the first time since the school began, there's no new construction going on this term.

I had a couple of light bulbs that had burned out in the library, so a couple of teachers, Mbesere and Gerald, found some new ones in the store room and helped to change them out.

Athuman and Dismas, two of my form 2 boys, came to say hi and hang out in the library. Dismas is one of student librarians, and Athuman, while not a librarian, often pretends to be and spends a lot of his free time in the library (more to bother me than to read books). He needed an excuse to stay in the library today, so he ended up sweeping the floor, so I gladly let him stay. It's getting dusty around here after nearly two months of no rain, so it needed it!

Some of the form 2 guys back in the library! Athuman, Pascal, Ombeni and Isack.

Many students, like Hans below, came to check out textbooks before they get picked over, so it was a busy evening in the library.

The boys, trying to be cool in the library: Pascal, Isack G, Hans, Ombeni, Isack P, and Omega. Those are chicken legs they're eating. They're enjoying the last bit of food sent from home before it's back to caferia food for the foreseeable future.

The chairs in the auditorium end of the dining hall have been spread out in an attempt at a bit of social distancing. We'll see how long this lasts. The students are settling in for evening devotional after supper.