Impact of the Coronavirus precautions

I am very sorry to see on the news how badly Europe is affected by the Coronavirus.  Coronavirus has not reached us, so everything seems very unreal.  However, the Coronavirus precautions are impacting us very severely. 

On Wednesday last week, I heard that all schools in Uganda were being closed as from Friday.  I needed to go to Uganda to fetch the deaf children from Mbale.  However, my passport was not with me as I keep it securely locked in the desk of a friendly pastor.  When I called him asking for my passport, he told me he was in Kampala until Friday.  I was therefore unable to leave immediately as intended.  I had to call the children’s school and explain that I could not fetch them until later.  Fortunately they were very understanding and helpful. 

In fact, this delay proved to be a Godsend, as I had a severe cold, cough and temperature at the time.  If I had left that Wednesday I would almost certainly have been detained in quarantine for two weeks (as has happened to some other people).  The pastor returned on Friday as promised and I left Nimule in a good state of health.  The journey takes two days, so I and the children only started the return journey on Sunday.  When we reached the border on Monday morning, I found the Ugandan Immigration Department closed and crowds of desperate people waiting outside.  I did not know if we would be able to cross at all. 

I called the father of one of the children to tell him our situation.  He said that as well as his home in Nimule, he also has a home in Elegu.  Nimule is a divided town, with part of the town (called Elegu) on the Ugandan side of the border.  He called his older son to find us and take us to his home for lunch.  If we were unable to cross to Nimule-proper, he offered for the children to sleep there overnight while I stayed in a hotel. 

In the event, we heard an announcement that the border would reopen at 2pm, so we came back ready to cross.  We waited for two hours, some of it in the pouring rain.  At nearly 4pm there was a sudden announcement that all South Sudanese nationals could pass.  I asked for advice, as I am not South Sudanese but needed to accompany our South Sudanese children.  The border officials kindly allowed me to go with the rest of the crowd.  There was no stamping of passports, which was a bit of a worry, but we all had our temperatures taken as we were hurried across the border.  Once in South Sudan, we piled onto motorbike taxis and headed for home. 

Since that day, the border has been entirely closed to all apart from long distance lorries, so we arrived home in the nick of time.  I tried to return to the border the next day to get my passport stamped, but was turned back, with the advice just to take things easy and come back when I heard that the border had reopened.  I have heard that many people are stranded on both sides of the border, desperately pleading to be let through.  Security officials have responded by beating people.  Some have swum across the river to get home, braving the crocodiles.

I arrived back to find that in my absence the South Sudanese government had closed all schools for at least one month.  They have also closed the churches and banned all public gatherings including funeral ceremonies.  So Cece Primary School is not open right now.  

We are not wasting time though we can't teach right now.  As it is coming towards the end of term exams, so I have asked our teachers to work on exam papers, in case we are able to reopen before the end of term.  I am also taking advantage of the non-teaching time to do a thorough clean-up of our school storeroom.  Uniforms are being made for the new children, which will be a good welcome back for those currently without uniform.

The presidential decree initiating the school closures expects that if the crisis has passed, schools will reopen after one month.  Let us hope that this is correct.