Read for the Top

Read for the Top is in full swing in two schools. We ran the heats last Monday, the semi-finals on Wednesday. On Saturday we have the finals in Mwiyenga and on Monday the finals in Emmaloba. Wednesday's semi finals in Mwiyenga were an edge of the seat, nail biting contest with scores so close it was impossible to predict the outcome until the last minute.

In the pictures the children are wearing their colour coded T shirts. We take them in after every stage of the competition and they are handed to us in carefully folded and smoothed piles. These children so rarely receive anything new, that they are enchanted by their shirts. After the finals they will keep them. The winners will receive schools bags and books.

There is no power in the school, so we are using 'shop' bells where you press the top to ring. Scores are kept for the audience to see on a blackboard with a very rough surface. For the finals when the church will be full of students and parents, we will have a sound system running from a small generator or car battery.