Floors

The dining hall/multi-purpose building is nearly ready for tables and benches to be moved in, but first the very dusty floor needed to be swept and mopped. It is a huge floor, so it took all of our cleaners plus a few of the workers to get the job done.

The method: Spray water all over the concrete floor with a hose and then have other people use brushes to scrub the floor and squeegees to push the excess water out the door. Labour intensive? Yes, but it got the job done.

The floor looked white with dust before this process, now the colour shows.

Students!

February 21st was the date we'd set for students to report. However, the presidential elections were held on the 18th, so people were travelling to their home areas to vote, some were lying low in case there was violence and basically everything slowed down over the weekend. Thankfully, it was very peaceful electoral process and things have returned to normal very quickly. However, all this meant delays for school openings. We were unsure how many students would actually arrive and when they might turn up.

We had 2 girls show up yesterday and 8 more came today. 7 of these are girls who finished their O-Level at our Kibaale project. It was very cool to see them here, as they are the first ones to go through both of our schools. It was also really great to see parents who heard about the school through word of mouth be willing to take a risk and send their daughters to a brand new school.

We're hopeful that more girls will come throughout the rest of the week, but for the time being, it's just great to feel like we're actually starting our programme with actual students!

The students from Kibaale arrive and head off for some lunch

Awhile ago we took some promo shots of Kibaale students in TGC uniforms--this girl was one of our "cover girl" for the brochure and posters we had made.

Boarding school students in Uganda take these metal boxes (filled with their personal effects) to school with them. You see them on the top of taxis and stuffed into car trunks everywhere at this time of year.

getting organized

looking very smart in their new uniforms!

The first 10 Timothy Girls College students!

Registration

This week, the Uganda National Examination Board finally released the Senior 4 exam results that determine whether or not a student can move onto the Advanced Level of secondary school. As the Timothy Girls College is specializing in the A-Level program, we've been waiting very impatiently for these results to be published so we can actively recruit students.

In order to target the demographic most likely to send their daughters/nieces/cousins/sisters to our school, we arranged to set up a table at the entrance to Garden City Mall in Kampala for this week. We've spent 3 long days there and many people have stopped and expressed interest in what we're doing.

Garden City is where the well-to-do Ugandans as well as many expats do their shopping and there is also a cinema and an entertainment centre there as well. It's a very busy place and we've had a variety of interesting things happen in the three days we've spent there. Here is a taste:

• the wife of the national Leader of the Opposition walked by the booth, but I have to admit, I noticed her Prada bag before I noticed her. I assumed it was a knock-off until one of our staff told me who she was. (she didn't stop to chat)
• one of the President's daughters was shopping for a while (again, someone had to tell me who she was, and she didn't stop either)
• I recognized one of my former students from Canada as he entered the mall. We were very surprised to see one another!
• Our school logo has a key depicted on it, and as Uganda anticipates presidential elections next week, people are really noticing our logo. Turns out that one of the major parties uses almost the identical image as the symbol for their party. We are quick to reassure people that it's a coincidence and that we definitely are not making a political statement in our logo!
• We wondered why a couple of British tourists were taking photos beside the banner advertising our school, until we gathered that one of the guys' names was Tim...
• The national Commissioner for Agricultural Planning stopped and talked to us for quite awhile and gave us lots of farming advice. Most helpful!
• A lovely, vivacious woman was so impressed by our project that she took extra brochures to put up at her very large church and said she'd also promote the school on their radio station for free.

We still have about a day and a half to go, and we're hoping for lots of registrations to come in during that time. However, I'm sure that as we continue to sit at the table there will be many more interesting people to meet.

our banner (I apologize for the problemmatic apostrophe!)

A scene from an African mall. Cleaners filling jerrycans from the decorative fountain.

We asked for a power connection in order to plug in the laptop...
this is what was rigged up for us.

some of our staff manning the booth

The hard-working promotions team! 3 of our teachers, our headmistress and an intern who is majoring in Public Relations at university have spent the last few days convincing people to enroll students. Thank you team!