Do not stay in a place
for donkey years and then when you leave, there is no story to tell. This week I served myself with the opportunity to tour
around. I want to know Moroto better. The places visited this time are two schools; Apostles of Jesus and St. Mary Nadiket minor
Seminaries. They are two big secondary schools Moroto district is obviously proud
of.
Apart from the latter which is visible from the Moroto-Kitale highway, Apostles of Jesus is somewhat hidden at the corner of the mountain –and I had not known the school before. My two wheel ride machine did me the service on this one bright Thursday morning and I made it up to Apostles of Jesus.
On my way to this priests’
training school, I met Peter Lokoru a peasant who lives in the neighbourhood.
Peter was from across the highway pulling thorns for fencing his orchard. Peter
is a very loquacious and jolly old man in his sixties. He told me the little he
knew about the school. That the missionaries built it when he was already a big
boy and added that there were great benefits the community enjoyed during the
old good days when the white man was still in charge...
Indeed, the school must have been
good in its ‘childhood’ days. The structures are really ambitious, but it seems
there are no more go-getting forces to help in realising the white man’s
initial dreams for the institution. The conditions of living for both teachers
and students at Apostles, I suspect must be really sad although the people
living the life here might not be realising it!
I saw five old -well planed
teachers’ houses abandoned. These structures now stand alone outside the wall
fence housing the schools’ current blocks. The teachers’ quarters would not
really need much money to put it right again, but teachers of Apostles live in
the ghettos inside the wall fence. Even students have better accommodation than
these teachers. I sympathise with those teachers who live near the church
house. They look like visitors. They look like new servants of God freshly
tempted from the kingdom of Satan. As if they have to stay closer to the giant
church for better indoctrination so they cannot fall back to their former master.
Even classroom blocks are really
doing badly at Apostles. They resemble old rocks. They can roll down any time
and cause havoc like the Bududa devastation. We just count on good soil and the
fair terrain we live in, in Karamoja. I
walked in some walk ways inside the school and the environment in general suits
reading. The trees, the mountain breeze and the constant flowing water from St.
Lawrence River atop mount Moroto makes this place a perfect milieu for brain
grooming.
Another impression I got about
this seminary is the fact that it is a cosmopolitan school. Unlike most schools
in our Country, Apostles has students from Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and... I
could have asked the director. He wasn’t there. I spoke to a young S.2 boy from
Tanzania. Alfonse is much disciplined, he welcomed me and I told him what I am;
a plane visitor who wants to know about the school. Little Alfonse was the only
soul I could speak to inside the school. Even teachers were not seen although
shirts were hanged to dry near their ghettos- near the church. But I got to
know that the school’s enrolment is just 147, a figure that would be for a
single stream at my Kabalega S.S.
Students of Apostles also practice
fair politics. I looked at their report for electororal commission and there
was evidence of balance of power without any practice of tribalism and or any
form of segregation although the world understands well that religious
institutions are so good at drawing lines and are so involved in bad politics. At
apostles this is negative! The school’s head prefect for 2012 -2013 is
Wegalinda Patrick –he should be a Bantu, his vice is Manang Daniel Comboni, a
boy from Karamoja. Prefect of time is Oolio Michael – this name is not Ugandan,
his assistant is Logwe Gax Denis, a son of a nomad. Prefect of manual work is
Sagal Michael, another son of the soil; Rutiwna Julian is the assistant prefect
of manual work.
The other thing that both Apostles
and Nadiket are failing in is to really make children humble themselves up to
the last moment of their dreams- to become priests. Most of the boys who go to these
seminaries today merely go to get knowledge to pass exams and to be taken seriously
by the women of this world. Most of them are known drunkards and womanisers
immediately they leave the seminary. Things are not true in the seminary
schools today...Yes? No?
