Thursday night I bonded with my 19-year-old brother for the first time. He was grading his class’s homework while Chief (the six year old boy) worked on his. Eliza commented on how neat the handwriting was. He said this was very important. Teachers in Uganda used handwriting to distinguish intelligence. If someone had good handwriting it meant they were intelligent. If it was messy they did not. If a student had messy handwriting, but if the sentence they wrote was clear the teachers called the student Doctor. I guess some things are universal. I then ran to my room to get my journal and I pen. I then wrote down a question and handed it to him. He started laughing and said, “Yes this is fine. It’s good.” Eliza gave me a funny look and I showed her the book. I had written “Is my handwriting neat?” she started to laugh and copied the sentence so she could be graded. She passed too. The brother and I have been on better terms since then.
