Hostel Life

Recently I've been thinking a lot about what it must be like to actually live here, at St. Therese Junior Secondary School, for the learners.

The boys' block

In the US, everyone who goes off to college or boarding school expects to have a small, crappy room their first year. Those are the “bad” rooms.

Here, it’s usually the lucky learners who get to stay in the hostel. They get 3 meals a day and a guaranteed bed (to themselves, no less!) every night. The thing is, by our standards, these are pretty dire conditions. The kids stay up to 12 in a room, and the rooms are NOT big.

one of the girls' rooms

In the girls' bathroom - no idea why, but they really wanted me to take a picture... so here it is!

At our junior secondary school (grades 8-10), we have room for 72 girls and 72 boys to stay in the hostel – they have separate buildings for girls and boys and they are locked in whenever they have “block time” so they can’t escape and have sex. I think that’s the logic, anyway.

The eating hall at the hostel doubles as a study facility and place for holding big events (similar to a cafeteria/gymnasium you would expect at an elementary school, but much smaller). The learners are there for 3 meals a day (which are oddly silent since they file in, pray, eat quickly, and leave in about 15 minutes), plus an hour of mandatory study time at night.

We had a big school event at the hostel hall last week – basically a drag beauty pageant. “Miss Funny” was a school fundraiser where 20 of our boys dressed up in casual, school, traditional, and formal –wear and paraded up and down a makeshift runway (a bunch of tables lined up). It was HILARIOUS and we made lots of money for the school!

All of the boys dressed in formalwear, in the corner of their "dressing room" (aka the kitchen that is attached to the eating hall)

I found the emptying-out of the hall to be really interesting, though. First, the kids from outside the hostel were let out and we watched them al leave the hostel gates. Then the hostel gates were locked and the hostel girls were escorted to their block, where they were immediately locked in. The hostel boys stayed and helped set the hall to rights, then were escorted to their block by 4 different teachers – apparently we are very worried that they’ll get out and cause problems (which to be honest, a few of them probably would). It’s a very long process, though.

On top of this, we’ve recently started locking the hostel gates ALL THE TIME. This means the hostel kids basically are locked in the hostel and the school 24/7. They’re not even allowed out to play for community sports teams (some kids just got in trouble for that) because the school is liable if they get hurt. It totally makes sense and I obviously understand why we’re worried, but it seems crazy to lock energetic teenagers in such a small area all the time!!!

 Just a note - not trying to be sexist or anything by only having pictures of the girls. But let's be honest, I'm pretty terrified to go into the boys' block and I try to avoid it when I can.