Day in the Life - Christine

Meet Christine, a 15-year old S2 (approx. 8th grade) student at TASAAGA’s Secondary and Vocational School. Christine, like many of her classmates, is from Kimi Island in Uganda’s Lake Victoria. Where she’s from, schooling is only available through P5 (the American equivalent of 5th grade) so without TASAAGA, her educational opportunities would have ended 4 years ago. Since she has to travel 2 hours by boat, 1 hour by public taxi, and .5 hours

by boda to get to the TASAAGA Secondary school, her family has decided to board her. Thankfully, due to the generous donations of its supporters, TASAAGA’s boarding fees are lower than any other nearby school and are half price for girls. Christine loves studying biology and geography and is fascinated by how medicine is made. She is determined to become a doctor or a spy once she’s completed her education.

Day in the life of a East Africa Secondary & Vocational Student:

4:30am: Christine wakes up to finish her homework and prepare for the day’s lessons.

6:30am: Christine goes to her room to rest, shower, and get dressed for school.

7:00am: Christine leaves her dormitory with the other boarding students and walks the .5 miles to the TASAAGA Secondary and Vocational School.  

7:30am: Classes begin. Christine studies English, biology, agriculture, math, chemistry, Luganda, literature, geography, physics and religious studies.

10:30am: After their first 2 classes, Christine and her classmates collect water from a bore hole .5 miles away to make porridge for breakfast.     

11:00am: Christine sits for two other lessons before lunch.

1:00pm: Christine and a few of her classmates retrieve lunch for their teachers and other classmates. They walk .5 miles back to the TASAAGA Primary School to fetch their food from the kitchen and bring it back to the secondary school. Christine and the others preparing lunch that day serve their teachers and then their classmates. After lunch, they return their dishes to the kitchen at the primary school.

2:00pm: Afternoon classes begin.  

4:00pm: Classes end for the day and Christine walks to the bore hole to gather water for her shower and laundry. She chats with friends, many of whom are from Kimi Island, just like her.     

6:00pm: Christine and the other boarding students -- both primary and secondary -- come together for dinner. A typical meal consists of rice, beans, and matoke (a pureed starchy, non-sweet banana). If she’s lucky, Christine’s teachers will bring in avocados from their own gardens to add to the meal.

7:00pm: Christine attends the evening prep session, where she starts her homework.  

10:00pm: Christine heads back to her room to prepare for bed and rest up for another day.