Sadness at St Thomas More
I visited St. Thomas More School today but it was much shorter than my visits normally last. Headmaster, Todo Alex, called WV to let them know that a teacher had died early this morning and he was heading to Kampala for the funeral. It is also final examinations, so the seniors are sitting for exams and weren’t around. I only spent about 35-40 minutes there.
Father Philip who is the chair of the governing body told me that the teacher complained of headaches last night and this morning died. He didn't know the exact cause of death. This happens so frequently here--I don't know his age but I am sure he wasn't any older than 40. The average life-span in Uganda is a little over 50 years old, but it is slightly shorter in the northern part. So I received a tour from the teacher that he had take the WV staff and me around. The duplex which serves as teacher housing has just been completed this week. They still have some finishing touches to put on it, but it is really nice. I can't tell you how different the school looks now. Where there was once three broken down buildings and an ancient kitchen, there now are two duplex teachers houses (one was built by the government), one new two-room classroom building the government paid for, another two room classroom that World Vision is paying for, a new kitchen with two new ovens that we (and a generous doner from the church) paid for, and a new examination building. They called the three grades that weren't sitting for their examinations to the Examination building and we (WV staff and I) talked briefly and I prayed for the students and the school. It was so exciting to actually be meeting with the students in the Examination building. I also found out that there are 56 girls in the girls dorm (max number is 60), 11 girls are living at home for a total of 67 girls. Before we built the girls dorm there were 22 girls enrolled in the school. The total enrollment is now 178 which is about 2 times the enrollment of a few years ago. I really praise God for the great things He is doing there!
