I started school in February. Can you believe that just at the point when mum and dad were wondering how are they going to manage all their work plus look after Jonah and me, a day-care and nursery opened up on our doorstep! I'm not exaggerating either: it's a stone's throw from our front gate! School starts at 8am so daddy gets me breakfast then at 7.55 mummy emerges, somehow fully dressed, she puts my red tartan uniform and sun-cream on me and takes me to school.
When I get to school I always hug my teachers - I'm so happy to see them! I have a teacher called Happiness! At least I thought she was called that. It turns out her name is Agginess (Agnes). Then my friends all start shouting "Sam-well! Sam-well!" and I jump up and down and spin, laughing!
Then the teachers say "go to class!" and we all sit down at small tables and look at the blackboard. We have been learning letters and numbers and we do colouring too. I call it "shedding" because mummy says I have a dodgy Ugandan accent and what I really mean is "shading"!
When we're not in class I like driving the pink car with yellow wheels around the school. The school is really a house so the building is small. We have 32 children and I'm the only white one but that doesn't bother me. There are twin Indian boys too. The only difference between me and my friends is that I use a spoon and a table when I eat. The other children eat with their hands whilst sitting on the floor but because they make such a mess the teachers take their clothes off and they eat in their pants so their uniforms don't get dirty! We usually eat matooke (boiled plantain) and beans but on Fridays we have meat pilau! After lunch, at 1pm, mummy or daddy comes to pick me up. The other children stay until 5pm! What a long day!
Yesterday we had sports day. I ran really fast when the teacher said "you run fast!" and she said I was the winner! But then they made me sit down and rest in the shed (shade!) because they said I was a funny red colour and they were concerned about me! Later, daddy told them that white people change colour when they get hot; they were so surprised!
Last week was Joram's birthday and he had a party at school. I stayed into the afternoon so I could join in the party. The teacher told mummy to pick me up at 2.30pm but when she came with Jonah we were just sitting around in a circle on plastic chairs waiting. The teachers kept telling us to sit and wait, and I knew there was cake because I saw mummy's friends at Jambo! making it! So I sat for a while. But after half an hour or so (on top of the 1 1/2 hours I had waited before mum even arrived!) I got bored. The teachers were putting up balloons and banners and putting lace tablecloths on the 'head table'. I started playing 'tag' with some friends on the opposite side of the circle until suddenly six of us children were wrestling in the middle of the circle! Mummy gave me a 'look' but she said she understood that of course three year olds can't be expected to sit down for three hours (it was now 3.30) with nothing to do so she wasn't too harsh on me. She was also trying to stop Jonah from being overwhelmed by my school friends!
Eventually, one of the teachers stood up and said "welcome to all you children and adults. We are going to celebrate the birthdays of Christian and Joram. Our agenda will begin with a prayer and then we will introduce their friends on the top table, then we will eat the cake and drink sodas, then after a thanksgiving prayer the party will be over and we will go home."
Lunch ended at 1pm for us children. In the end the party began at 3.50 and ended at 4pm. It's a good job, since the children waited almost three hours for a ten minute cake fest, that Jambo's cakes are so delicious!
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