ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS FROM MICHA-KGASI HIGH SCHOOL
First response as on 26-04-98
Hello there,
Welcome back from the weekend. We hope you had a nice weekend. Here are some of the answers for the first part of the questions. We shall send the rest during the course of the week.
Those whose questions are not yet answered can in the meantime read the attached interesting stories our students- i.e on how they interact with the girls when they get a social (dance). Attached also is the history of our school and stories from students. These will answer queries about teasing and students life, written by students themselves in their own words. These stories were written in the school magazine for the school's anniversary of 95 years of existence. This is in response to those who asked how our boys manage without girls. This is part of the stories in the selected artilcles from the School Magazine Online.
We shall write again soon. Yours, Human team from Namilyango College
******************************************************************************* Your questions answered:
1. How many kinds of houses are there?
Kinds of houses we have in our area are : There are some that are built of bricks with iron roof. There also others made of mud and are grass thatched.
2. How much does one person pay to own a land?
The cost is about Uganda shillings 2million. This will depend on where you have bouht it. It is more expenve near towns. £1=Uganda shillins 1,000 approx.
3. Don't you feel insecured without having a fence around your houses?
The thieves are not so many here.
4. Do you get Bananas throughout the year?
Bananas are grown and eaten all year round. In that case the bananas are bought from the markets.
5. Don't you have any fruits beside Bananas?
Yes, there mango trees, jackfruits, ovacado, etc in most of the bushes around the schools and the villages.
6. Why don't you admit students from foreign villages?
The entry marks for senior one is very high. So when it time for selection only the first 120 students with very high grades are admitted. It so happens that kids from boarding primary schools perform much better thatn in day schools and those from boarding schoools are usually from rich families. You realise that most of the people around our school are poor and cannot afford expensive schools. Namilyango College is one of the most expensive and competitive schools in Uganda.
7. How are the houses built near the railway line?
There are around twenty homesteads in that particular area, Kisenyi
8. People who live or have houses near the railway,Isn't it dangerous or noisy. How do they cope?
Well, it very noisy and very risky to stay here. At one time the train run across someone who had drunk and slept on the rails at night. He had drunk too much alcohol and on reaching the rails he sat and finally slept. You can imagine the sight when in the morning he was in bits having been crushed!
9. What is Cassava?
Cassava is a plant whose roots are edible. We will try to expand on this later.
10. Is your area more populated or less populated?
This region is not densely populated. These people who built in this rail reserve land did so because it was free but at one time they will chased away from here. Elsewhere around the school the land is owned by the church which does not accept them to build permanent structures on its land.
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Second Response as on 01-05-98
Dear "human" friends,
We salute you all our friends in Micha-kgasi High school. We apologise for not having answered your questions earlier on. This is because we have a problem of power cuts(load shedding). It’s our pleasure to answer your questions.
First and foremost, life at Namilyango college is very fine without girls. It seems hard to cope up with but mails keep couples in touch so one can behave in any way he wants provided he does not break the school regulations. Discipline is maintained by prefects who keep order in school. We don’t have multiracial educators, they are all blacks and Ugandans though from different districts. The last Briton left our school in 1994. He was our chaplain. We have facilities like laboratory equipment though they are limited. We are about 1200 students in this school. We have 22 computers in our school and they are still quite expensive here in Uganda. 4 of these computers are in bursars, headmasters, and deputies offices. We actually use one for internet to communicate because there is only one modem.
Otherwise we have a library, a number of laboratories; 2 for physics, 2 for chemistry, and 2 for biology. We also have 2 tennis courts 2 basketball courts 2 football pitches and one Rugby ground. In our school Rugby is the most loved game and its watched by everyone. There is a Boxing pyramid for boxing. Students no longer box due to lack of equipment. We have one school bus, one lorry, two pickups ( one double cabin) and a tractor. We have also two school water pumps. The schools owns a grinding mill for grinding maize for students.
Around the school there is one immediate church but many are scattered allover the country with cathedrals for each religion.Namilyango College has its own church within the school compound. Tradition is so minimal in our country though some areas are purely traditional. Their life is very interesting and almost impossible to cope up with.
Transport in our areas is of many types; we have buses, commuters which carry upto 14 passengers though they are usually overloaded. They are commonly called taxis though small cars (Japanese make) are mainly available at a more expensive fare. Imagine a distance of 2Km may require Ush 100 in the commuter but for the small taxis it needs Ush 2000!!! so the majority opt for the commuters which practically do not wait for passengers. We also have motorbikes(boda boda) which commute to local areas and they are also usually overloaded.
We use Uganda shillings(Ush) as our currency and Ush 1000 =1$ approx. So 1Rand=200 Ushs approx . It’s our first time to participate in collaborative projects like this and we find it rather interesting. Communication is not so simple simply because we lack computers, all we have is a few. This is still our problem and their price is a threat here in Uganda.
Bananas are eaten almost everyday for they are the staple food for most tribes and they are perennial crops so they can thrive throughout the year. Many people have them at home grown in small plantations and many are found in markets and various small scale traders.
It is true no one is allowed to build in some areas.These people are staying here illegally. They are not supposed to build here. It’s very dangerous to build near railway lines and so people are cautious.
Though not so many, some discos and cinemas exist.We are all Christians(Catholics and Anglicans).We’ll tell you more about ourselves. There are also moslem students in our school.
Here in our nation, violence is very minimal and buglary is noticed but rarely. It’s why people do not consider building fences as a major issue except the rich.
Education here is as follows: Nursery level(3yrs), then Primary one upto primary seven(P1 toP7)which takes seven years. Then after a short vacation one proceeds to secondary level(colleges) for 6yrs i.e 4 years in ordinary level and 2 years in Advanced level. Then to the University.
How are Universities that side? Jackson and I(Matheus) are trying to read hard to join University and graduate as doctors. Our course is of 4 subjects i.e physics, Biology, Chemistry and mathematics. Send us a few questions and we’ll see how to go about them. Are doctors well paid in your country? Here they are not!
Abel and Paul may become lawyers if all goes well. We want to know more about yourselves especially Aaron, Lot, Lebogang, Sheila, Maria, Caroline, Tuis, Thine and others.
Hey, "springwater is never bad once boiled it has alot of minerals" that’s what our rural friends say. It has no effect on people here and many prefer it to purified water. Our country is not overpopulated but there is rural-urban migration. We are sorry we’ll stop here but do not forget to tell us about yourselves and your social lives. Our country is full of many intersting things, we can’t exhaust them. It’s time for a lesson, so good-bye.
Yours
Matheus, Abel, Paul, and Jackson
