You will remember the miracle last year of Edward being allocated a place on the basic health course at International Hospital, Kampala. Well Edward is back home now and working with the Martha mobile clinic as the doctor's assistant for a year, so delaying doing his A levels until next year.
Well we have another series of miracles relative to Malik, one of our three boys from the Nuba mountains. Against all the odds Malik gained grade 1 in his O' levels with an aggregate of 31. He was in the top ten of 997 in the whole of South Sudan. The examination board is UNEB (Uganda) and they announce the results of Ugandan students early February, but the South Sudan results are released later making it very difficult for the students to get places in Ugandan schools to do their A levels.

Some weeks ago Irina emailed UNEB asking for Malik's results and they didn't reply so she sent another. She then got a replay from the SS Education Officer in Juba who said something to the effect that he understood we had been complaining about them. (African thinking!) The man is called Simon and Irina was able to telephone him and with some persuasion he agreed that we could intercept the results in Kampala or Juba rather than wait for them reaching the school. So we waited and waited for the telephone call that didn't arrive. We decided therefore that I should take Malik to Kampala and be ready for the call coming through to intercept the results in Kampala. After talking with friends in Kampala I decided to go door knocking, so we went to UNEB two days running and saw the head who liaises with the SS Education man at the SS Embassy in Kampala. The UNEV man was friendly and said that the SS results would be released on Wednesday. Wednesday morning off we went to see Lual Akol at the embassy; same again Thursday and then on the Friday we got the results. Lual Akol was absolutely thrilled at Malik's performance and congratulated him and he looks forward to seeing us next year for more of our boys.
One week to get the results was one day after school places had been allocated. We again had an uphill battle to find a school with places to take Malik. A little disappointment set in when we then learned that this top ten student in South Sudan was one of many many in Uganda and all the good schools had not only allocated all there places, but they had an aggregate cut-off of 8, a few 12, and Malik had 31.
So Friday afternoon results in our hand we went Uganda Martyrs school first choice and eventually arrived at Setta High School and we queued to see the headmaster, Davis Karfumbe. I introduced myself and Malik and gave him the results and a letter of commendation from St Joseph's school. All places had been allocated and in any case the cut-off for aggregate score was 12. However the head said to Malik that his results were remarkable as he knew the difficulty of studying in South Sudan with the poor facilities and teaching staff. He also said that in all his years as a teacher and headmaster he had never seen a commendation like the one that Malik had received from the Director of Studies at St Joseph's school. He wanted to give him a place , but didn't have one. He said perhaps one of the places allocated may not be taken up, so I should ring him the following Wednesday; this would be just two days before term starts on the Monday at all schools. Malik and I both like the spiritual atmosphere and the school and the few staff we met were very welcoming. The head suggested we went to another school St Mary's where he was certain we would get in on his recommendation. He gave us a list of the passes at his school and those of St Mary's and a brochure os St Mary's and told us both to read them. I asked him if I could telephone him Tuesday morning instead of Wednesday and he agreed.
Malik and I left and we read the results, but not the brochure of St Mary's and Malik said lets not go onto St Mary's, but go back to Kampala to Makerere College. which we arrived at late afternoon. The receptionist was very condescending and said Malik should try a government school as his results were not good enough for the private schools. (All schools have to be paid for). She then drew back a bit and said well we could see if the head said any different on Monday morning. Off we went back to Adonai Guest House after a tiring day indeed a tiring week. Over the weekend we decided we would not go to Makerere on Monday, but we would believe for a place at Seeta. On Tuesday morning we got up for breakfast at 0800 and Malik said ring Seeta, but i said I should wait until 1200. He eventually wore me down and I telephoned at 1100. I asked if a place had become available and he said yes come tomorrow before 1100. Malik said after the call 'ah yes, doesn't mean there is a place it means come and we will see' I said no he said yes to my question. Poor Malik had been on a roller coaster all week.
Off we went Wednesday and arrived about 0900 and sat waiting to see the head; one of the teachers said to me that the head would be back at 1040, so we waited. The head came, saw us and said something to the reception administrator who the apologised to Malik; she was supposed to watch for us arriving. However she gave Malik a list of student and said is your name on there? and so it was he had been allocated a place. He filled in a very short form; other seemed to be filling in reams and ream of papers. The administrator carefully explained everything to us and that we had to be here by noon on Sunday. We got there early and Malik was one of the first boarders to be received and allocated his accommodation and uniforms. At 1400 students and parents had to attend the welcome and the head gave us all the instructions on behaviour of parents and students
About 1600 I left Malik now in the care of the school. Oh one thing that delighted me was the staff referred to the students as 'men' This is really significant because in this culture boys do not become men until they are married. I had been teaching our older boys about being men!