(ACTION Gulu's Jesus is the Truth Nursery School lined up for morning exercises.)We've been sending Ana on the Home of Love van to school - now that she's used to it, she enjoys time with her friends outside of school, the children certainly enjoy Ana's presence (what other children get to ride to school with a 4-year-old mzungu?!), and it saves us some scheduling headaches. But, Uncle Joseph forgot to pick her up this morning for school. This, the day that Josh walked to the bus park at 6 something in the morning to catch a bus to Kampala. This, the first day of my single-motherhood for a few days.
So, I debated... do I pack the kids into the car and drive her myself or do I wait for Joseph to come back from the school to get her? Either way she'll be late for school. Late for school = mortal sin (in the back of my mind, apparently)!
For the sake of relationships (letting Joseph serve us even though it meant that she would be even later to school than if I took her), I waited at home for Joseph. And off she went, perhaps a good half hour late for school, after a good long greeting and short conversation with our friend Joseph.
Late to school is NOT a mortal sin here.
The Acholi culture has a long history of placing a very high value on education. They have made unique decisions as a tribe throughout their tumultuous history in order to ensure education for their children and themselves. They have long recognized education as key to advancement in this world.
But, there are different priorities. For instance, our teenagers didn't go back to school on Monday as scheduled with the beginning of second term... why? Because their odi (peanut and sesame paste) hadn't been ground yet and they needed to take it with them for boarding school (now, they go to school relatively locally - my question: why didn't they go to school on Monday and check in on the odi after school?).
They didn't go to school on Tuesday. Why? Because there had been no electricity on Monday at the mill, so their odi was still not ground.
In my mind, why would you miss TWO whole days of school, the beginning of the new term, for something that, with a little creative thinking, did not have to supercede school attendance?
Our young friend, Monica, showed up during dinner last night, asking for school fees. Two days into the term. She just had school holiday for three weeks, why didn't she work on that situation during holiday? She has known for the last three months that she would need to find money for school by May. I warned her two months ago that we could not pay for her schooling this next term and that she needed seek sponsorship elsewhere. Needless to say, I've been waiting for her to show up asking for school fees, because thinking ahead is not part of the cultural mindset. You deal with the problem WHEN it arises and not beforehand. Why concern yourself with a problem that has not appeared to bother you yet?
Us mzungus like to ask "why?" because the obvious answer doesn't seem to make sense in our schedule-driven life. Why didn't you buy supplies before you ran out? Why didn't you leave the house until the meeting was already supposed to be starting? Why did you show up three days late for school?
Well, there's almost always an answer... but don't expect the answer to make sense to a Westerner either! ;-P
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