Dormitories turned to dust
Tom Baird visits two Ugandan schools affected by fires
On the night before an exam at university I was frantically turning my room upside down, looking for some revision notes I had lost. At the time I couldn’t help thinking that fate was playing a cruel trick on me, punishing my last minute cramming.
Even after the notes turned up a couple of hours later – where I had already looked dozens of times – I still felt aggrieved at the lost time and disruption caused in those crucial final hours before walking into the exam hall.
I was reminded of that evening during a visit to Homisdallen day and boarding school in Kyebando, Kampala, where students recently suffered a far worse and incomparable fate.
A couple of days ago, on the evening before some of them were due to sit exams, their dormitory caught fire. Thankfully the children were outside playing so they escaped the flames, which devoured all their belongings, including clothes, pens, rulers and revision notes.
Despite being inevitably shaken up, they mustered up the strength to walk into the exam room the following morning, wearing borrowed clothes, having slept in unfamiliar surroundings and painfully aware that all their most treasured possessions had been eaten up by the fire.
Perhaps even more brave was just two days after the fire, when I visited the school, and found the students walking around laughing, skipping and chatting with each other, clearly conscious of the traumatic event, but happy to be alive.
Over a year ago, 20 children from Budo Junior school in the district of Wakiso, which neighbours Kampala, weren’t so fortunate. They died in their sleep as the flames enveloped their dormitory.
The charred remains of that building have yet to be cleared away while police continue investigations – a constant reminder of the tragedy which took hold of the hearts of every student and teacher.
The headmaster spoke candidly and emotionally with me as he looked back at how everyone has coped with this disaster. He was also frank about the need for improvement in both preventing some disasters as well as dealing effectively with the aftermath of inevitable natural and man-made ones, when they do occur.
And this is why I am here in Kampala, where the Secretariat has teamed up with the Ugandan government to organise a conference which brings together over 70 experts from 12 Commonwealth countries to discuss methods of coping with disasters from fires to floods.
Sitting in my room tonight I have tried to write how I felt visiting those two schools, but only seem capable of incredibly patronising comments. So instead I ask myself how I would have felt on the night before my exam if a fire had swallowed all my belongings, or worse, my friends. Would I be able to conjure up the courage and bravery I witnessed at these schools?
I doubt it.