Midterms and Blessings

I wake up with the scratchiest throat. Maybe I slept to close to the mosquito net. I think I might be allergic the chemicals in the nets. I think I’m allergic to everything.

I am saying goodbye to the nurses and Fran gives me some extra strength cold medicine, some garlic pills, and throat lozenges. I’m so lucky they have come to Africa at the same time as me. I know that my grandparents would feel so better to know that Fran and Marilyn are here.

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I give my S2 class their math exam. The class is huge and it’s difficult to make sure no one is cheating. So many of them share things like rulers and calculators. I tell them that they have to clear the calculator before passing it to a friend. I make them show me their calculators before they pass them.

After the test is over, I tell them to fold the corners of their papers so they stay together. Then they tell me that there is thread for that. One of them goes to the office and comes back with a bag of small pieces of thread. The kids poke holes in the corner of their papers with their pins and feed the thread through, tying it in a double knot.

One kid ties his on the right side of the paper and I ask if he’s left-handed. He looks scared. “Which hand do you use to write?” He picks up his right hand. I start to ask him if he takes art class, and realize that I’m just confusing the poor boy, so I let him go.

The S1 class is much harder to monitor. There are 81 kids taking the test today. There are two columns of desks that are singles, but most students are sitting three to a desk. My test is late getting started because Moses was giving them an exam when he caught them all cheating. He erased the board and created an entirely new exam.

My class was about to go to lunch, but I called them back into the room and told them I had and
appointment in Mukono, and I was not going to miss it because they decided to cheat.

I tell them they must cover their papers with their other sheet. I can’t write the entire test on the chalkboard at once, so I split the test into three sections. I catch two boys cheating and dismiss them from the room and give them zeros. I tell the class as the boys leave, how unfortunate it is that there are only two tests to determine the grade for an entire term’s worth of work, and some people are willing to jeopardize that grade by cheating.

I go around and for every wandering eye I mark “-1” in red pen on their papers. That seems to do the trick.

I can tell that many of them are having a hard time with the test and decide that I’m going to grade on a curve.

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I leave school and hop on a matatu to Kisoga. Joe is meeting with the missionaries today and I’m going with him. I get to town and go to his house just as he’s leaving. I say hi to his wife and realize that she is very pregnant. It was very dark last time I saw her and I didn’t notice. His baby girl is in Kampala with the grandmother.

I am so sleepy on the way to the church and fall asleep on the matatu. I can feel the effect of whatever it is I am coming down with. But I realize that it’s probably the medicine that is making me feel so spacey.

We are a little late meeting the missionaries, but they are out front waiting for us. It is incredibly
hot today. Elder Peterson is wearing sunglasses.

They teach Joseph about the Restoration. They talk about the Sacred Grove and I think about how lucky I am that I had a chance to visit the place this summer. The missionaries ask me to give my testimony of how I know these things are true. I talk about the experience I had this summer with my friend Rachel, to go and visit the places where such miraculous things happened.

They ask Joe who he would like to close the meeting with a prayer and he says himself. In his prayer he asks to be converted to the gospel.

Before the missionaries leave, I ask them if they would please give me a blessing. I tell that I haven’t been feeling well, and on top of that there is a Typhoid outbreak where I am living. It’s such a comfort when I’m sick or in trouble, to be able to rely on and have faith in the Priesthood - to be able to have confidence that because of their authority to act in the name of God, I will get better.

I am given blessings of health, strength and protection against the illnesses that are here. I am promised blessings because of my faith. I’m so lucky the Priesthood is here. I’m glad that Joe could see it in action.

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The rest of my time in Mukono is wasted trying to use the internet. I go to two different places, and they are both very slow today.

I go home and start grading the papers. I am disappointed with the low scores.

As I’m grading a get a text message from Jeff:

We are camping at 16,000 feet. Crap it’s cold. This is a large mountain.

We summit in the morning. 19,000ft. We got caught in a snow storm… in Africa.

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So crazy.