Like most schools, the time for exams eventually comes around. So it is at St. Fidelis Seminary where the first round of exams for the Propaedeutic seminarians began last week.

I gave my first test in the “Call to Faith” religious education course this Tuesday morning, March 12th.  It was originally scheduled for last Thursday, but due to a power outage that lasted about 15 hours, I was unable to make copies of the test.

Such is life in a developing country.  The power outage not only plunged the school into darkness, but some sort of a surge also took out the large diesel generator that we use as a backup.  It is down for repairs which may take a month or more.  We all carry flashlights (I can’t call them torches) with us now during the dark hours.

The same power surge also seems to have destroyed the motherboard in the school’s DUPLO machine, which we use to make copies.  The DUPLO is a hybrid type copy machine, somewhere between a photocopier and one of those old fashioned duplicators that we used when I was in high school.  (I know some of you remember those and are fondly remembering sniffing the pages.)

So, even though the main power is back on, we are quite limited in our ability to make copies for the students.  I managed by using our old FAX machine, much to the dismay of the students who were hoping for another postponement of the test.

Here are some photos of the students laboring over their exam. I haven’t begun grading them yet, but I have high hopes that most will pass with 80% or higher scores.