The school day

Today, I thought I would describe the school day, especially for all the pupils at Mark.

The school has three floors made up of a large open room. The boarders sleep in these rooms on or under the tables and get up about 6 o clock. The food is all made in a tin hut outside the school so they have food made up in big metal dishes which they mix up and make into cakes in their hands. There are 4 or 5 pupils to each dish. The meals are rice and beans or cassava (like semolina) and beans. Not as bad as it sounds, the beans are cooked in palm oil and spicy.

Lessons start at 8.40 and the first one lasts 2 hours. There are four classes in each room which makes over 120 in each room and they are very crowded together, 3 to each side of a bench. Then they move to the second lesson which takes quite a time, moving so many people around between floors. The next lesson is another 2 hours and then half an hour lunch which comes in the big dishes for those who want it. The afternoon is another two hour lesson and then the day pupils go home and the 'home' students get a bit of time off.

The home students do prep for three and a half hours, yes, I did say that then make their beds back up again for another night.

They work so hard to succeed, and I have been taking some of the younger girls to interest them in taking science for the equivalent of A levels and invigilating exams, one of them 4 hours long. I will keep in touch, so log on every few days.