Carrying Bricks

Since Bry'Chell doesn't really write in her blog, I wanted to share her "sports" activity from school yesterday.

The last hour of school--4:40 to 5:40 PM is for sports--the Ugandan version of gym class. The girls play netball, which Bry'Chell doesn't play. It's sort of like basketball but not really. Bry'Chell doesn't play because she doesn't want to confuse the few basketball skills she has. She would like to play soccer, but the boys play soccer, not the girls. She's played a few times, but gets tired of being teased by the boys for playing.

Yesterday, Bry'Chell came home with her blouse really dirty. I inquired as to the cause of the dirt. Since Bry'Chell tends to be a neat and clean type of kid, it was a change from her usual appearance. It turns out there was a different activity for sports yesterday. The students carried bricks from the pile near the girls' dorm to the kitchen area--no small distance.

It might help to understand that people make bricks here. The soil has a high clay content, so it's possible. The clay is put in a wooden mold, formed and then sun dried. After they are dried, they are stacked into a kiln--not inside some pre-made kiln, the bricks themselves are made into a kiln which is covered with mud and a fire lit inside the opening that is left at the bottom middle. Additional grass is piled on top and burns. Once the process is complete, you have bricks. Now, I've probably oversimplified the process, but basically that's it.

I've noticed the process of making bricks at St. Mary's over the past couple of months. I'm not sure what these are for--the new library or another project, but yesterday students were moving bricks.

The school motto is "Live, Toil, Learn." Sister Sanyu believes in taking the motto literally. The kids indeed toil--as well as live and learn--whether it's cleaning the compound and classrooms every morning or carrying bricks for gym class, the kids work. Sr. Sanyu reminds me of Dad in that way. Part of the point of having kids around is to have them work. They've got to be good for something.