Things are happening at Ngoana Jesu High School, and the best part about it is that I have had little to do with the changes. The teachers and students are building this place themselves.
Last week we had our second debate of the year, and the students are improving their skills. For the first time ever at our school the students elected a body of student representatives. By next week they will also have elected committees to organize entertainment and sporting activities, to make sure students are wearing their uniforms properly. They have even proposed to choose a group of students to help manage discipline at the school. Also, the students have already begun giving me poems and articles for the first ever school newspaper, which we hope to produce by Easter. Hats with the school's name and new motto, "Knowledge Is Power", have been made and purchased by the kids, and within a few weeks shirts of the same ilk will be available. A new fence has been raised to protect the gardens and classrooms and people on the school campus. A building has just been raised to house the growing number of boarding students. It's a tin shack, but at least they won't have to sleep in the school kitchen like last year. Beyond that, a handful of the new students this year are very bright and enthusiastic about spicing up the school's life in a positive way. They're talking about school dances, Mr and Miss Child Jesus contests, and clubs. They've come from schools near Maseru, the capital, and are putting fun ideas in the rest of the student body's minds.
So, all's not well here at my little school (the teachers are overloaded, many students still fight the demand made on them to practice English), but the pistons are firing. The engine's getting started. Soon I should have a room for my books and magazines, that is, the school will have a real, though small, library. This winter we hope to take a school trip to the ocean as well. Bang.