Basic Info About Musana Vocational High School (MVHS)

Besides seeing MEC in the afternoon of 10/26 (see earlier post), I went to the high school in the morning. This was after I had breakfast with Dorcus, made my bed, and did a bodyweight workout. Making my bed is a chore that I almost never ever do 😂. I know it sounds like something that everyone should do automatically when they wake up, but it is just not something that I have made a habit of doing. Even in college, I probably made my bed less than 10 times a year 😅. My roomies can attest. However, after making my bed for almost a week straight here, I stopped because I realized that Rachel would come into my room to sweep and make my bed up in a different folded design almost every single day. When I had breakfast with Dorcus, she wouldn't even let me take my own plate to the sink 😂. I decided that I was just going to enjoy being taken care of and soak up the relaxation because once I go to chiropractic school I am going to be busy 24/7. Also, I realized that they take great pride in their work and caring for their guests, and so I didn't want to take that away from them. During breakfast, I also met Harun, who is Raeesa and Papa's dad. He said that he walked over to greet me and wants me to feel at home. So sweet. 

I walked over to the high school, MVHS, and met with Susan, who directed me to Simon, the head teacher. He had TONS of information to share about the high school, and I wrote down what I could. The high school has a vocational school as well as the formal curriculum. The vocational skills section is only for s1 and s2, and they pick one skill to learn, alongside their ongoing core courses. The skills they can choose from are building, tailoring, plumbing, and electrical. They attend only on the weekends, and then they receive a certificate upon completion. 

Simon told me that the secondary school has 1,173 students. 400 of those students are s1 alone. About 300 are s2. I am unsure of the sizes of the other four classes. Because of the large number of students, some classes have multiple streams. For example, s1 blue stream has like 70 kids. The school is comprised of about 60% girls and 40% boys. About 85% are boarding students, and 15% are day scholars. 

And that is just for this campus!! Musana has four different campuses currently and will continue to replicate in the coming years I am sure! Besides this main campus in Iganga, primary schools have been created in Kaliro, Kamuli, and Bukona, and the second high school (Kaliro campus) is opening its doors in January! 

I asked Simon about the dropout rate, and he said that some don't even make it through p7. "Some are not interested, some cannot afford, some get pregnant, get married off by parents, some do trade skills. After schools were closed for the corona virus, some never returned and some got jobs."

I also asked him what a normal day would look like for the students. This is the Monday-Saturday schedule that he gave me:

• 4:30 - Wake up
• 5:00 - Everyone is in class for preps (like study hall)
• 6:10 - Breakfast (porridge)
• 6:50 - Chapel
• 7:20 - Lessons
• 10:00 - Break
• 10:20 - Lessons
• 1:00 - Lunch (posho and beans)
• 2:00 - Lessons
• 4:40 - Personal administration or games
• 6:00 - Supper (posho and beans, maybe meat and rice once a week)
• 7:00 - Lessons or preps
• 9:30 - Free time
• 10:30 - Lights out

Only six hours of sleep for these growing kids! I sound like my mom 😂. But, Simon said that the tight schedule leaves little room for idleness. Sundays look a little different. They get to "sleep in" until 5:30am. That's not exactly my idea of sleeping in 😂. They must be in the chapel by 8:00am, and worship runs until about 10:00/10:30ish. At 11:00, they have preps, and then, their afternoon is free. 

Simon asked when I wanted to teach some biology lessons, and I told him that my education consists of a degree in biology, not an education degree haha. But, what was I going to say? No? 😂 I told him that I wouldn't mind helping in the labs with dissections or anything anatomy related. We talked about some of the animals that they dissect, including albino rats, toads, and cockroaches. At WLC, we dissected cats in A&P, and we worked on them for several weeks. Simon said that because they do not have the means to store or preserve these animals for multiple days, the dissections are started and completed in about two hours. I decided to just pray that God wouldn't give me anything that I couldn't handle. 

Before leaving the high school for the day, I got to see the kitchen (above) where they make meals for all of the students and staff. Two gigantic wood-fired cauldrons are used to cook the posho and beans. 

I walked back to the guesthouse compound for lunch and ate with Susan. I told her about my conversations with Simon, including the ones about cat and rat dissections. Andrea and Haril have a cat here named Max, and as we were leaving the kitchen, Max walked by Susan. Susan mumbled under her breath, "We're going to dissect you, Max," and I just about lost it 😂. I knew she was obviously kidding, but it was still so unexpected and funny. 

After lunch, I was at MEC with the Flatirons Church team, and then, I had dinner with them that night. We had a pretty funny conversation about how when you go to the airport, no matter what you're bringing back, don't declare anything 😂. When they ask if you've been to a place with livestock, say no, even though there are just as many cows, chickens, and goats as there are people here 😂.  

Following dinner, I walked over to the house, where Raeesa and Dezi were preparing to do my hair. They were so excited to have me at their "saloon", as they called it 😂. They were brushing, braiding, adding water, spraying hair products...or so I thought. It wasn't until about 30 minutes later that the smell of my hair had really started to concern me. I looked for the bottle of "oil" that they had been spraying and drenching my head in, and to my surprise, the label read: Long Lasting Insect Repellent. Wonderful. Knowing this quickly led to my second shower of the day. 

I showered and then started talking with Andrea about how they move back and forth between Uganda and the US, but COVID has made getting Haril's green card really difficult. Joziah said something super cute when we were video chatting with my parents. I had asked him where his home was, expecting him to say Colorado, but he said, "My home is here. US is just for road trips." (but replace all the r sounds with w sounds 😂)

It was a busy day but a good day!