P7 Week
I think I should start this Blog by apologizing for the lack of online communicating for a good week and a half. You can rest assured I have spent the time so busy I literally haven’t had the time to stop and think let alone put those thoughts down in some semblance of order and reason. I write this on a scorching hot Saturday afternoon. Steve and I are being very antisocial and boring, both of us on our computers inside to avoid the unbearable heat. I have had numerous mentions all through this week of how this much and that much snow has fallen here and there, how snow perfect for this and that has graced the earth back home and have more then once dreamt of perhaps one cold day in a break from this apparently unrelenting heat. I am currently typing with one hand as the other hand is in use by my little friend Silas sitting just to my left on the sofa. Silas the 6 month old chap is chewing my thumb whilst squeezing my fingers. Silas usually joins the Browns and I for the weekend and I look forward to his stays all week. I remember when Silas first arrived at New Hope, barely weeks into my own stay. He was just then newly born and newly abandoned by his mother. Like most new babies out here Silas was tiny when he was born. He came to us looking like a little shriveled black version of the big fat white babies that grace the British Isles. He was one of those babies you could easy hold in one hand, he was that small. I remember Aunty Robin, the lady who does an amazing job of running the baby house, saying at the time that she couldn’t decide if he was cute or not. I certainly decided he wasn’t. He was a little wrinkly thing the squirmed and smelt and had little wisps oh hair here and there and besides I'm an 18 year old bloke, what do I care about babies? The little screamers hate me anyway. Well that has slowly changed.
The Baby House staff has done its usual job of taking a skinny, tiny baby and turning it into a miniature black Michelin man in under 3 months. Lo and Behold before long Silas was looking less like an over-large raisin and more like a baby. Now, 5 months into his life at New Hope, Silas has a full head of curly hair, a nice big belly due to regular goat’s milk feeds and he has just started giggling. There is now no denying that Silas is a cute baby. Silas has popped up in my own New Hope life here and there and every time we meet we have got to know each other a little better. Now I am living at the Browns Silas come over every weekend and we get to hang out as much as we like.
I realize I have just spent time on what was meant to be a quick opening comment about my little Pal Silas cooing over this little chap and sounding more like a teenage girl then anything else but hopefully that is some indication of how much this little guys made an impression on me. Any suggestions on smuggling him back into the country are most welcome…
Anyway Steve and I have a good reason for being so antisocial and doing something so unbelievably lazy on such a sunny day, we are both exhausted. Last week was P7 week and to say the week was full on is an understatement. Each morning I woke up at about 7:30, not all that early I know but after a few days of constant physical expenditure 7:30 feels like 3:30. We would then make our way up to the secondary site where a growing mass of children between the ages of 12 and 15 were waiting to begin that days mayhem. The reason behind P7 week is something along the lines of the very first P7 class feeling discouraged and doubting the skills of their teachers and quality of their education. In those early days when New hope was very new in the area and certainly one of the only places to find a white face there was a lot of skepticism (and still is) about these muzungus and exactly what their motives were. Some said the white man had come to eat their children, other said that the American family had arrived to take away the children and make them slaves in the USA, an unfortunate rumor not exactly aided by the fact that New Hope promotes a hard work ethic and part of the education offered includes hours of work in the fields teaching self sufficiency. While these first kids where pleased to receive an education in the first place there was no denying that New Hope was not the same as the other schools in the area. Instead of a vigorous study, study, study regime the teachers and staff taught other things including agriculture, Bible stories and could often be heard singing with the children. So when then first class reached P7, the year of the first big Exam, the PLE, no one, not even the students expected to succeed.
As the Day of the exam drew nearer the students became more and more depressed and lost all hope in ever passing the exam because of this bizarre education they had received from these whites, or so the people in the village would tell them. Something had to be done and the conclusion reached must have made all those who doubted the abilities of the staff at New Hope roll their eyes to the sky and say, “here they go again”. They decided to take a week out from studying and classes to spend time having fun, playing games, praying and reassuring the kids that God has the situation in his hands. The kids had a great time but once the exams arrived and were sent off for marking, hope again failed those who had taken it. They waited for the results and when they finally came Uncle Jonnes read out the results to the P7 class that had gathered around him. None had failed, in fact the whole class had done exceptionally well, P7 week was hailed a success and adopted as an annual tradition for incoming P7s.
The responsibility of organizing and running P7 week fell to Steve Brown and I was soon brought in to lend a hand. All in all Steve and I make a good team. We spent days before the event plotting and planning evil schemes and horribly impossible games and challenges no human being would ever be able to accomplish no matter how hard he tried, but it would still be great fun to watch him have a go. Most nights we would sit with cups of tea to stay awake planning the changes and games for the next day, discussing teams and team members, who we thought would win and what nasty little surprises we could plan for the next day, until finally our eye lids got the better of us and we were forced to stop planning and leave the rest to chance.
Origination has never been my, and neither has it been Steve’s, strongest suit. I often joke with Katharine Brown that I'm incapable of leaving a house with everything I need for a certain trip the first time and frequently arrive mere seconds after I have left only to say, “Only me, yes I know I forgot something again…” (This may happen three or four times…how I with that was a joke) Steve is no better. We would often walk up to the senior site where the week was being held when a look of confusion would cross Steve’s face. “What?” I would ask. “Siren challenge” he would say in return (the siren challenge was my idea, and a particularly evil one that was great fun. We have a Megaphone that has a Siren setting on it. When the siren sounds the teams must all do a silly and humiliating stunt specified at the beginning of the day before the other teams) “Ok” I would say, “did you bring the Megaphone?”, “no did you?”, “no did you?”, “no, ah well…could you go and get that then?”, “Sure”. So off I would ride almost every day about three times each morning to retrieve whatever it was we had forgotten for the next game.
Some of the games we played where old favorites like egg and spoon races, others were New Hope tradition like a game called Keys to the Kingdom. I have to admit when the concept was explained to me I had to hold myself back from laughing at it. Although the sentiment behind it is good, it did sound a bit cheesy. The idea is the “saints” (the players) must get from A to B, A being base where they have a list of Bible verses and a Bible, B being the place where one runs to obtain a Key. To get a key you must look up the verses in the Bible, decide what category of verse it fits under then run to the Key place and tell it to the Key keepers and if you get three right you get a key to return to your base. First team to get five keys wins, Gee-Whiz. There is however a twist. Between point A and point B, a Point I will call C for confusions sake, there are Demons. I know what your thinking, this sounds interesting, it only gets better. The demons are there to lie to the saints as they run and try to tag them and send them to jail for two minutes. If a Demon approaches a saint the saint must get down on their knees and pray for deliverance, in which case the demon in powerless to send them to jail but can guard and taunt the saints all he wants. (As a side thought it was rather amusing as on the day we were short on demons so I went around New Hope asking people if they would mind being a demon for half an hour. I reassured one muzungu couple that gave me a very strange look that I thought of them first when told to go get some demons, surprisingly they were up for the idea though they have never looked at me the same way again for some reason…) Anyway at the beginning of the game Jennie Dangers Explained the rules to everyone and said that they need to listen as the demons can make up new rules to tell the saints in order to get them in jail, she said they don’t have to listen to the demons and can just stay put. However the amount of people I sent to jail because I managed to convince them they were breaking the rules by, for example, not looking me in the eyes when I spoke to them, not being no your knees enough, not being allowed to hold a key and be on their knees, the fact that I did in fact tag them before they hit the ground, the fact that another team just won so were all getting together over there…you get the picture, I was mean but I make no apologies, they should have listened better! Overall it was a pretty cool game but hearing it the first time and hearing about saints and demons and praying for deliverance down on your knees and keys that unlock the knowledge that bring about a good Christian life…you get the idea.
Apart from these games we also invented some games. I invented an egg relay whereas everyone starts with an egg in hand and must run to a certain point and back with egg before depositing it to the next person in line who now repeats the run with two eggs giving both to the next person who runs with three and so on. We invented numerous water games, each as bizarre and impossible as the last and the siren challenge seemed to grow in weirdness by the day. There is an old Myth that Red team always wins and they would have done this year if it hadn’t been for the late rule. We doled out points by the thousand, fifty thousand points for this 5 thousand for that and for every minute that a team member was late they would loose the team one thousand points. So on the last day when Red team was ahead by a fraction from the Yellows they weren’t pleased when three members showed up twelve minute late, loosing them a grand total of thirty six thousand points. And meaning yellows eventually won by two thousand points with a score of one million, two hundred and twenty eight thousand points.
There was also some really awesome teaching over the course of the week, teaching on purity and sexual health as well as relying on God and trusting in Him. There was a few interesting opinions we helped to dispel in the group including that if you have sex in water there is no way you can catch AIDS or get pregnant or that if a girl is not circumcised it means she can never have children but if she gets a circumcision she stands a chance on conceiving. That is to just mention two of the things I heard, and to be honest it scared me that there was so much dangerously wrong information out there that is treated like the Bible truth.
I really enjoyed the week but I would have to wait a while before I did anything like it, just to get my energy back. Writing this Entry in itself has taken me three days because my mind still hasn’t woken up and it has been stupidly hot. I think I should leave it there but finally mention that three weeks today I will on a plane heading home. A humbling thought that I only have three weeks left but still have to wait a whole three weeks fore seeing my family again, it’s a complicated emotion! I hope you are all well and I enjoy getting all the emails being sent. I look forward to seeing you soon.
Uncle Dan
The Baby House staff has done its usual job of taking a skinny, tiny baby and turning it into a miniature black Michelin man in under 3 months. Lo and Behold before long Silas was looking less like an over-large raisin and more like a baby. Now, 5 months into his life at New Hope, Silas has a full head of curly hair, a nice big belly due to regular goat’s milk feeds and he has just started giggling. There is now no denying that Silas is a cute baby. Silas has popped up in my own New Hope life here and there and every time we meet we have got to know each other a little better. Now I am living at the Browns Silas come over every weekend and we get to hang out as much as we like.
I realize I have just spent time on what was meant to be a quick opening comment about my little Pal Silas cooing over this little chap and sounding more like a teenage girl then anything else but hopefully that is some indication of how much this little guys made an impression on me. Any suggestions on smuggling him back into the country are most welcome…
Anyway Steve and I have a good reason for being so antisocial and doing something so unbelievably lazy on such a sunny day, we are both exhausted. Last week was P7 week and to say the week was full on is an understatement. Each morning I woke up at about 7:30, not all that early I know but after a few days of constant physical expenditure 7:30 feels like 3:30. We would then make our way up to the secondary site where a growing mass of children between the ages of 12 and 15 were waiting to begin that days mayhem. The reason behind P7 week is something along the lines of the very first P7 class feeling discouraged and doubting the skills of their teachers and quality of their education. In those early days when New hope was very new in the area and certainly one of the only places to find a white face there was a lot of skepticism (and still is) about these muzungus and exactly what their motives were. Some said the white man had come to eat their children, other said that the American family had arrived to take away the children and make them slaves in the USA, an unfortunate rumor not exactly aided by the fact that New Hope promotes a hard work ethic and part of the education offered includes hours of work in the fields teaching self sufficiency. While these first kids where pleased to receive an education in the first place there was no denying that New Hope was not the same as the other schools in the area. Instead of a vigorous study, study, study regime the teachers and staff taught other things including agriculture, Bible stories and could often be heard singing with the children. So when then first class reached P7, the year of the first big Exam, the PLE, no one, not even the students expected to succeed.
As the Day of the exam drew nearer the students became more and more depressed and lost all hope in ever passing the exam because of this bizarre education they had received from these whites, or so the people in the village would tell them. Something had to be done and the conclusion reached must have made all those who doubted the abilities of the staff at New Hope roll their eyes to the sky and say, “here they go again”. They decided to take a week out from studying and classes to spend time having fun, playing games, praying and reassuring the kids that God has the situation in his hands. The kids had a great time but once the exams arrived and were sent off for marking, hope again failed those who had taken it. They waited for the results and when they finally came Uncle Jonnes read out the results to the P7 class that had gathered around him. None had failed, in fact the whole class had done exceptionally well, P7 week was hailed a success and adopted as an annual tradition for incoming P7s.
The responsibility of organizing and running P7 week fell to Steve Brown and I was soon brought in to lend a hand. All in all Steve and I make a good team. We spent days before the event plotting and planning evil schemes and horribly impossible games and challenges no human being would ever be able to accomplish no matter how hard he tried, but it would still be great fun to watch him have a go. Most nights we would sit with cups of tea to stay awake planning the changes and games for the next day, discussing teams and team members, who we thought would win and what nasty little surprises we could plan for the next day, until finally our eye lids got the better of us and we were forced to stop planning and leave the rest to chance.
Origination has never been my, and neither has it been Steve’s, strongest suit. I often joke with Katharine Brown that I'm incapable of leaving a house with everything I need for a certain trip the first time and frequently arrive mere seconds after I have left only to say, “Only me, yes I know I forgot something again…” (This may happen three or four times…how I with that was a joke) Steve is no better. We would often walk up to the senior site where the week was being held when a look of confusion would cross Steve’s face. “What?” I would ask. “Siren challenge” he would say in return (the siren challenge was my idea, and a particularly evil one that was great fun. We have a Megaphone that has a Siren setting on it. When the siren sounds the teams must all do a silly and humiliating stunt specified at the beginning of the day before the other teams) “Ok” I would say, “did you bring the Megaphone?”, “no did you?”, “no did you?”, “no, ah well…could you go and get that then?”, “Sure”. So off I would ride almost every day about three times each morning to retrieve whatever it was we had forgotten for the next game.
Some of the games we played where old favorites like egg and spoon races, others were New Hope tradition like a game called Keys to the Kingdom. I have to admit when the concept was explained to me I had to hold myself back from laughing at it. Although the sentiment behind it is good, it did sound a bit cheesy. The idea is the “saints” (the players) must get from A to B, A being base where they have a list of Bible verses and a Bible, B being the place where one runs to obtain a Key. To get a key you must look up the verses in the Bible, decide what category of verse it fits under then run to the Key place and tell it to the Key keepers and if you get three right you get a key to return to your base. First team to get five keys wins, Gee-Whiz. There is however a twist. Between point A and point B, a Point I will call C for confusions sake, there are Demons. I know what your thinking, this sounds interesting, it only gets better. The demons are there to lie to the saints as they run and try to tag them and send them to jail for two minutes. If a Demon approaches a saint the saint must get down on their knees and pray for deliverance, in which case the demon in powerless to send them to jail but can guard and taunt the saints all he wants. (As a side thought it was rather amusing as on the day we were short on demons so I went around New Hope asking people if they would mind being a demon for half an hour. I reassured one muzungu couple that gave me a very strange look that I thought of them first when told to go get some demons, surprisingly they were up for the idea though they have never looked at me the same way again for some reason…) Anyway at the beginning of the game Jennie Dangers Explained the rules to everyone and said that they need to listen as the demons can make up new rules to tell the saints in order to get them in jail, she said they don’t have to listen to the demons and can just stay put. However the amount of people I sent to jail because I managed to convince them they were breaking the rules by, for example, not looking me in the eyes when I spoke to them, not being no your knees enough, not being allowed to hold a key and be on their knees, the fact that I did in fact tag them before they hit the ground, the fact that another team just won so were all getting together over there…you get the picture, I was mean but I make no apologies, they should have listened better! Overall it was a pretty cool game but hearing it the first time and hearing about saints and demons and praying for deliverance down on your knees and keys that unlock the knowledge that bring about a good Christian life…you get the idea.
Apart from these games we also invented some games. I invented an egg relay whereas everyone starts with an egg in hand and must run to a certain point and back with egg before depositing it to the next person in line who now repeats the run with two eggs giving both to the next person who runs with three and so on. We invented numerous water games, each as bizarre and impossible as the last and the siren challenge seemed to grow in weirdness by the day. There is an old Myth that Red team always wins and they would have done this year if it hadn’t been for the late rule. We doled out points by the thousand, fifty thousand points for this 5 thousand for that and for every minute that a team member was late they would loose the team one thousand points. So on the last day when Red team was ahead by a fraction from the Yellows they weren’t pleased when three members showed up twelve minute late, loosing them a grand total of thirty six thousand points. And meaning yellows eventually won by two thousand points with a score of one million, two hundred and twenty eight thousand points.
There was also some really awesome teaching over the course of the week, teaching on purity and sexual health as well as relying on God and trusting in Him. There was a few interesting opinions we helped to dispel in the group including that if you have sex in water there is no way you can catch AIDS or get pregnant or that if a girl is not circumcised it means she can never have children but if she gets a circumcision she stands a chance on conceiving. That is to just mention two of the things I heard, and to be honest it scared me that there was so much dangerously wrong information out there that is treated like the Bible truth.
I really enjoyed the week but I would have to wait a while before I did anything like it, just to get my energy back. Writing this Entry in itself has taken me three days because my mind still hasn’t woken up and it has been stupidly hot. I think I should leave it there but finally mention that three weeks today I will on a plane heading home. A humbling thought that I only have three weeks left but still have to wait a whole three weeks fore seeing my family again, it’s a complicated emotion! I hope you are all well and I enjoy getting all the emails being sent. I look forward to seeing you soon.
Uncle Dan
posted by Daniel at 6:02 PM
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