Lessons in humanity
Ugandan educators travel 7,000 miles to meet Weston supporters
What first struck Ugandan professor John Kasenene when he toured Weston schools wasn't the abundant computers, or the spacious, well-lighted rooms. It was the demeanor of the children.
They were "bright," he said.
By that he meant not how smart they seemed, but how energetic and enthusiastic.
He saw a look on their faces that he wishes he could see more often on the children back home in Uganda at the Kasiisi Primary School, where his wife is the headmistress.
But when Kasenene described the Ugandan children as "sluggish," he was not being critical. After all, many of them rise before dawn to do household chores, walk several miles to get water from a community well, and then walk 8 to 10 miles to school.
Many don't eat lunch because they don't have enough food at home to bring any with them.
And yet school for these children is a bright spot in their lives, and getting brighter thanks to the creativity and determination of its teachers, and the support of a decade-old partnership with Weston schools and churches.
Kasenene was among a half-dozen educators from Uganda who recently completed a three-week visit to Weston.
His wife, Elizabeth Lydia Kasenene, told children at Weston's Field School that they were living up to the title of their school song, "Making a Difference" -- even with small donations for books, pens, and pencils.
"You can't imagine someone failing because they did not have a pen or a pencil, yet you want him to read, you want him to write," Kasenene said at the welcoming ceremony for the Ugandans.
"Our children can now write. Our children have a future," she continued.
"Maybe tomorrow or another day we shall have doctors, nurses, teachers. Little children, boys and girls, you have a warm heart, a loving heart, right from childhood. By the time you reach my age, your hearts will be as big as this room, and it will only get bigger and bigger."
The partnership began with Elizabeth Ross and her husband, Richard Wrangham , Weston residents who have regularly visited western Uganda since the late 1980s. Wrangham, a noted anthropologist and Harvard University professor, founded the Kibale Chimpanzee Research Station at Kibale National Park.
Ross formed the Kasiisi Project in 1997 to help nearby schools, where many of her friends either taught or had students. Since then, she has volunteered full time as the project's executive director.
The year 1997 was when Uganda introduced free primary education.
Back then, Kasiisi Primary School was crumbling, literally. Roofs in several buildings had collapsed; chunks of plaster were falling from the walls. Teachers often went without pay. Several miles away, Kanyawara Primary School had no buildings at all; classes were held under a tree.
In the past decade, the Kasiisi Project has mobilized Weston residents -- Field School students and members of First Parish and St. Peter's churches, for example -- to reach out to these schools 7,000 miles away. Kasiisi and Kanyawara now have five new buildings each. Teachers are paid on time, and they can obtain scholarships for further training. Students are receiving aid to attend secondary school, even college. The project has expanded to include a total of six schools, and is mentoring other organizations with similar goals.
Simple things can make a big difference for students in this remote, rolling region of lush tea plantations, flanked by the Ruwenzori Mountains and Lake Albert. Many came from large families of subsistence farmers who earn at most a few hundred dollars a year.
Until recently, girls entering puberty would routinely miss several days of school each month because they lacked feminine hygiene products and latrines that were separate from the boys. Missing school put them behind in their studies and increased the chances that they would eventually drop out or fail exams needed to advance.
Thanks to donations from Weston, the schools now supply girls with sanitary pads and have separate facilities for them. Attendance has improved dramatically.
"I never thought that kind of issue could have a lifelong effect on a girl," said Barbara Stevens, a fourth-grade teacher at the Field School who visited the Kasiisi Project schools during a month long visit to East Africa on an educational grant. Stevens was so inspired by the teachers there that she began laying plans upon her return for the Ugandans to visit Weston.
The relationship between one of America's wealthiest communities and one of western Uganda's poorest has not just been that of donor and recipient -- it has became a bond of friendship and mutual exchange. It reflects ubuntu -- a sub-Saharan African concept of interdependence and humanity.
Field School principal Margaret McQuillan has been corresponding with Elizabeth Lydia Kasenene for a decade. Their letters led to exchanges of letters and artwork between Field School students and their Ugandan counterparts. Teachers integrated lessons about Ugandan geography, culture, and art into their classes.
But it wasn't until this month that McQuillan met her longtime pen pal. McQuillan said she saw "instant bonding" between the Ugandan teachers and the students they visited at Field School.
"As an educator, what it reminds us is that the essential and integral qualities of education and of teachers are universal," the principal said. "Whether you have 1,200 kids in a class or you're working one-on-one with a child, the qualities of sharing knowledge are universal."
The visiting teachers were on a tight schedule, shuttling among Weston's elementary, middle, and high schools; attending dinners in their honor; taking field trips to tourist attractions, including a Red Sox game; even squeezing in a weekend in New York.
In the little time they had to share their impressions in interviews, they spoke of the many and stark differences between their schools and Weston's.
Beatrice Kabahuma , who teaches English, reading, and writing at Kasiisi, admired the small classes at the Field School and its emphasis on one-on-one instruction.
"Even those that have individual differences, they have time to help," said Kabahuma, and expressed regret that she doe not have that kind of time. She and another teacher shepherd 422 first-graders between them.
Not surprisingly, the Ugandans commented about how Weston seems to have everything in abundance -- textbooks, cafeterias with an array of choices, well-equipped libraries, school buses, computers in almost every classroom.
Richard Ali Tumwine said there's only one computer at the secondary school for girls where he is deputy principal. It's six years old and available only to administrators. Elizabeth Kasenene said some teachers at her school have only seen computers in pictures.
But having more computers wouldn't necessarily make their lives easier, the teachers agreed. What's the use of having a computer -- even a first-rate one -- if there's no electricity? How practical is one computer shared among a class of 200? Besides, computers seem a far-off luxury in a community that still lacks reliable running water.
Still, the Ugandans can hope. And keep working.
"We have not reached there yet," John Kasenene said, "but we will."
Stephanie V. Siek can be reached at ssiek@globe.com. 