Teaching Frustrations, Interview Revelations--Take 2

After a great day of rafting on the Nile and a night in Jinja by the river's edge, I made by way back to Nabugoye early this morning, ready to begin another week of classes and interviews.  During a phone conversation with Aaron, however, it was revealed that P5, 6 and 7 all have exams at the beginning of this week, so they would be missing class once again.  This means that I have precious little time left with most of my Hadassah students, and I must think hard about how to use it wisely.
Things didn't get much better at the secondary school, where I received the essays of the students who had  volunteered to write on Friday.  I had not really had a gauge on the writing level of students, and the work I received certainly wasn't what I expected from S4 (where students are approximately 18).  Wrongly used idioms abound, because students can get rewarded for their use, and correct grammar is a rarity.  I think that it is possible these skills are only selectively useful in Uganda, but it's hard to think that students cannot properly express themselves in their language of instruction.  Otherwise, my S2 class in reading comprehension was alright, if a little slower than the S4's had been on Friday.  It's still hard getting used to a crowd of kids staring blankly when you say the word "Hitler" or "Holocaust" (or even London, the capital of Uganda's colonizers!) but the initial surprise has begun to wear off.
After class the day was redeemed by a visit to the 95 year old Solomeni Buete, the last living Abayudaya elder who knew Kakungulu.  Before getting to his experiences, it is astounding how able-bodied he is considering his age--he still cooks for himself and digs his own gardens, and he walks, sees and hears impeccably well for a man of so many years.
While some of what Buete said had been written in the Abayudaya book or been heard from J.J. (or both), there were some interesting new facts and even a few cool artifacts! On the fact end, Buete told us that his father had been the original Mohel (performer of Jewish ritual circumcision known as brit milah) for the community under Kakungulu, performing some of the first circumcisions in the community (including his own son's!)  He also described the earliest Jewish prayers, which included blessings in Luganda on food and personal prayer said in synagogue in place of the tefilah that was not accessible for quite some time.
Perhaps most exciting on the artifact side was a picture of Semei Kakungulu himself, something that may not exist anywhere else.  He also showed us a sheet of paper, which his father made him swear he would guard, that contained his father's writings from a walk he took with Kakungulu back in the day, describing his journeys around Africa.  Unfortunately, Kakungulu's books were passed to his children, who mostly converted to Christianity and did not treat the works with proper respect.
Overall, Buete was an amazing man (or musé, the respectful term for "old man' in Luganda), with unparalleled physical and mental capacity for a man his age.  While he is far from Nabugoye (it takes his adopted son 4 hours to get to SK for secondary by foot in the morning), I hope I may visit him again and learn even more!
Tomorrow (in addition to Shiva Assar biTamuz, a Jewish fast day commemorating the penetration of the walls of Jerusalem) is a Yom Debate (Day of Debate) at SK.  The other volunteer here is organizing and I am certainly curious to see how things will go...