Corpun file 17723

BBC News On Line, London, 2 June 2006

My Day in Africa

The 2006 BBC competition for Africa - My Day - is about a typical day in your life on the continent.

Here BBC readers and listeners share their routines from typing memos, hunting for passengers and school punishments.

[...]

Joshua Lubanda, Uganda

It is Monday morning and I have to go to the garden and dig before I leave for school.

Joshua Lubanda doesn't get a lift to school

It is drizzling but my dad insists I have to go with him to the garden. At 0730 I come back home and I have to prepare for school.

I wash my face and legs, then I put on my uniform and get on my bicycle. I have 15 minutes to ride - it's a distance of seven miles to school.

It is still drizzling: but l have to set up off, come rain or shine.

On my way I reach a dip with water flowing across the road. I take off my shoes, lift my bicycle and cross the stream.

I get back on my bicycle and start off for school, only to arrive 15 minutes late. The punishment for being late is five strokes of the cane. So I have to go down for the blows and then rush to class.

I am not the only one who has come late - many other students are still entering. The teacher has set a test which I have to do and hand in, together with the rest of the students.

Punishment

After 15 minutes the teacher collects the work and goes away. Another teacher enters the class and he wants his homework assignment... Oh!

I forgot to do the coursework, I spent the weekend fetching water to get money for school fees and I did not remember the homework.

The punishment for failing to do the class assignment is five strokes again. No option but to lie down for the five strokes.

In the afternoon, the other teacher brings back the test results and indeed I have failed it.

I have to be punished again and it is... five strokes.

[...]