Discipline

Discipline

There are several things that I have been noting in my notebook (no pun intended) that I need to update on. First, the mode of discipling the students here in Uganda. It is called caning. Basically the student is brought to the staff room or out in the common area before the students. They are humiliated verbally, then commanded to get down into plank position and then they are whipped three times with a reed. I am not sure really how to process the whole thing yet. When it is done in the staff room, especially right in front of where I am sitting, I cringed with every stroke. What hurts me the most is the watching the face of the student being caned. There is no fear and no sadness and that is what scares me the most. Their sternness reflects the mentality that has developed in this country through the effects of the conflict. It is as if they do not feel pain nor do they acknowledge what is happening to them, but you can see the anger just fueling when you look in their dark eyes during the experience. One day that anger we explode and in no doubt it will be in form of opposition to authority. I think this is evident in the LRA and the past twenty years o conflict. I fear most for these boys future families. Will they express this anger against their spouses? Their kids? I don’t know. It’s scary. Morgan and I made friends with a boy in the street the other night and I asked why he was not at home with his family and he responded that his was scared to go home. His uncle was there and he had been drinking. Seriously the most distressful thing I have heard yet in Uganda. This boys home was not a refuge for him but a place of terror and fear. Again, I count my many blessings for the safe home, church and community in which I was raised. There is limited help here. Students and people in general have not place to go where they can have help understanding-expressing their anger. Counseling is not available in schools nor in public settings. It is sad. The large majority of the public is practicing Christian and I hope they are receiving the adequate relief and hope in their places of worship.