My Trip to JPSS – by Shannon Carrier

My name is Shannon, and I’m Paul and Nancy’s oldest daughter. Obviously I’ve heard about the school since they first rolled the architectural plans out on our dining room table to show us what they envisioned. I was lucky enough to travel this summer with my parents to Uganda, and after a few days of driving through many cities and towns we passed many different schools and hundreds of children, of all ages, walking every morning and afternoon back and forth to school.

As we drove to JPSS, we headed down some very bumpy “roads”, watched families work in the rice fields, waved to children that came out of their straw roofed huts to see our safari van and crossed a very questionable bridge to get to Chelekura.

As we drove down the road with absolutely nothing around us, all of a sudden a massive building appeared out of nowhere and we realized we were at the school. As we entered the school, 700 students were waiting to greet us with smiles on their faces and screams of excitement. The students were so excited to come up to us and introduce themselves, show us around and thank us for visiting them.

We went on a tour of the school and saw not only the classrooms, dormitories, and showers/latrines, but also the new kitchen and multipurpose building. The girls took us to see where they lived and I was a little shocked at how crowded the dorm was, with beds out in the hallways. Having a teenage daughter of my own, I can only imagine what it’s like when all the girls are in there at one time!

When we walked into the new kitchen it was amazing at how much better it is than the one they were previously using. They have huge pots and pans to make enough food to feed all the students, sinks with running water and multiple places to store food and supplies.

But the highlight of the tour was the massive multipurpose room! It’s the building we saw when we were driving in and it is an amazing addition to the campus. The building has an enormous stage and is large enough to hold the entire student body, as well as people from town and kids that snuck away from the primary school that wanted to see what all the commotion was about. The building was packed as the students performed songs and cultural dances for us, which were unforgettable!

We spent time with the students as they walked with us and told us about how much they loved going to school at JPSS and how thankful they were for everything they had. They were very aware of how lucky they are to attend JPSS and they all told us about how they want to do well at their studies so they can continue on to University.

It was an overwhelming experience to see the school and students in person and to realize how far JPSS has advanced from the initial plans on the dining room table. I can only imagine the kids’ faces as the next phases of the campus come to fruition!