What is a good wife?

I was feeling pretty smug.  I’d just spent two hours doing household jobs I dislike including defrosting the freezer and cleaning the fridge.   My mind wondered back to our Ugandan trip the previous month and how different life was for those two weeks.  That brought me up short…  I remembered shopping at the local market every day (no online supermarket shopping in rural Uganda).  No luxuries like a fridge or freezer for most wives in Soroti.

This was my third trip to Uganda and once again I’d met amazing people who had both enriched my life and challenged some of my prejudices and ideas.

One particular lady came to mind as I pondered how different my life is in England.   Agnes stood out from the crowd. I met her at a Global Care Gift Day in Soroti.    Her lovely smiling face and relaxed attitude drew me to her.   She radiated warmth and serenity. Agnes is married – in a polygamous family with co wives. She has 4 children of her own and the family has a total of 8 children.    No-one in the family has a job except Agnes.  From her wages she supports 11 people.

Agnes is the sole teacher at a community nursery school.  The parents and guardians were concerned at the distance of pre-schools from their homes and decided to start their own facility.  Agnes was chosen because of her natural love and compassion for children and her experience of caring for little children. 

 

She would love to have some training, but neither she nor the community can afford any teacher training or qualification.  Agnes is paid about £10/month – but not every month.  When the community was struck by famine, families were stretched just to provide food and had nothing left to contribute for the children at the nursery.  Agnes continued to work even though she wasn’t paid for a whole term.

 

 

The nursery, Otatai Community Nursery School, started in 2010 and currently has 17 children attending aged 3-5 years.   There are many challenges facing parents and children, some prove insurmountable.  Often children can’t attend due to poor health.  The children start their day at 8am by sweeping their class.  They pray, recite the alphabet, draw and sing and go home again at 10.30am.  The day is short because they are so young and because there is no food to give them. The children cannot concentrate if they are hungry.

 

The children don’t have a classroom of their own; the school uses a grass thatched hall belonging to a Pentecostal church. The children share latrines and shelters with the church.   This is far from ideal.  There are no learning kits or teaching aids like blackboard or chalk.  I’d taken a book with me aimed at supporting parents in teaching young children to write (I spotted it when I was buying paper and pencils and put it in my shopping basket on a whim!). I gave it to Agnes.  She was delighted. I was humbled.

 

Global care has supported the nursery in several ways. The girls at the skills training school made uniforms from their practice materials.  The children received them at the gift day. 

 

Funds have come from the Global Care care shop. Supporters buy gifts such as school uniform, stationary and school packs. The Soroti office helps by typing and printing report cards and circular letters. 

 

 

 

Soroti childcare manager, Oumo David, told me that the community appreciates whatever support Global Care gives and they are willing to work to develop their enterprise.   He said there is no ray of hope that the government will provide anything for the education of these children.

 

Why does Agnes continue to run the nursery even when she knows she might not get paid? Because there is nowhere else that can help the children and provide early years education. Because she and the community see the value of bringing the children together in this way.

 

Next time I’m feeling smug, I’m going to think about Agnes and the children.  I think I need reminding that not every wife has the privilege of de-frosting a freezer and cleaning the fridge.  Now I’m going to look at The Care Shop  and PickTheBucket on the Global Care website.  I need reminding too that some people have very large extended families to support and that my job pays a lot more than £10/month.