And in the darkness, we read the most imperishable pages ...

AS students around the world drag home squashed sandwiches and roll their eyes at being nagged to do their homework, Mayiku Hamuzah turns on a kerosene lantern and squints at the pages of his books.

Straight away, you know, this is no ordinary teenager. And when you realise many of his friends are doing the same, you know this is no ordinary school.

Each day, Hamuzah tries to learn as much as he can before dark. Kerosene fuel is expensive, is as bad for his lungs as smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, is not good for his eyes and isn’t very bright anyway. But without electricity, it’s the best lighting source he has once the sun goes down.

In fact, in his tiny village of Kitoola, hidden amongst the butterflies of Uganda’s emerald green Mabira Forest, the only signs of a western education are the coloured paper posters on the walls, the English words written in chalk, and some vintage school desks donated by an American Rotary Club.

There’s no lights, no internet, no fridges, no computers, no play equipment, no library, no running water.

Despite this, the 35 final year primary school children at Hopeland have been ranked 13 out of 185 schools in the district. And the astonishing results don’t end there. Scoring distinctions and high distinctions in all of his subjects, Hamuzah was one of the best performing students in the country.

But Hamuzah is just so thankful he can go to school at all. It hasn’t always been the case for the children of Kitoola. In fact, he is so excited about learning he jogs 50 minutes to and from YOFAFO’s Hopeland Primary School just so he can arrive on time.

And it is now starting to pay off. Despite his challenges, Hamuzah recently scored some of the highest marks in the country in Uganda’s national exams, with distinctions and high distinctions in every subject.

“Hopeland Junior School has lovely and devoted teachers who have made it possible for me to make it and my life has been transformed from zero to hero,” Hamuzah said.

“I want to become an electrical engineer so that I can support my family and I will continue to work hard, even in high school, so that I can achieve my dream.”

But it wasn’t just YOFAFO, his teachers and his mother who he thanked. It was a young girl called Maddy Burns from Boone in North Carolina.

Hamuzah and Maddy met in 2012 when her university organised a volunteer trip to Uganda.

“We were sitting on the front steps of his primary school and he asked me about American foreign policy with Libya and my jaw dropped,” she said.

Their friendship grew over the next week as they played football together and Maddy sat in on his classes. She called her family at the end of the week and they agreed to sponsor him.

A year later, she paid him a surprise visit.

“I will never forget that day, as I walked around the corner with Innocent and we came upon Hamuzah’s house. He was outside studying,” she said.

“When he looked up from his books, he saw me and dropped them on the ground and we ran to each other and were both in tears.

“I am so proud of him and though I’m a bit older than him, I admire and look up to him for inspiration and hope.

“Sponsoring Hamuzah has been by far the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.

“I believe in him and know that he will do whatever he wants in life, especially because he has people like Valence, Innocent, and the teachers at Hopeland guiding him to success.”

To sponsor a child with YOFAFO or make a donation to the organisation, visit www.yofafo.org or email Valence Lutaisire at info@yofafo.org

Black Magic for Brunch

I can't do anything for you today. There's a nausea uprising.

I read these words this morning:

"I have friends who watched everyone they loved violently humiliated and then slaughtered right before their childhood eyes.

I've got friends who believe that when you are a positive person the universe will provide you with positivity and good.

One of my friends, the most kind and gentle person I've ever met who lost everything, is laying in a hospital bed right now with a potentially deadly disease that doesn't exist in the countries where my 'The Gift' friends float around smiling in the sun.

There is no gift, there is no positive force.

There is good luck or bad luck - decided for you at the moment of conception.

History is an unrelenting two faced cunt."

- Facebook.

Armed with a vivid imagination and a sharp mind, Matilda took a stand to change her destiny.

The tsunami wipes out the just and the unjust alike. And in the deepest parts of the ocean where they now lie, it is dark. Where your agony is, it is worse than black. It is memory, it is seeing in vivid colours, of your mother's dress, the mahogany blood, his wild brown eyes. It is excruciating pain that
should put the whole world under a dark grey cloud, but instead unfurls it under blazing blue skies and sucks you in while half the globe heads out to brunch.

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you...

There was once a little boy, whose head was found in one corner of the reserve, his clavicle another.

Two young girls, thought to be in a peaceful Autumn slumber under a giant Victorian gum tree, kept asleep by the ropes around their necks.

A woman so fierce she kept standing up. Crawled around for six hours, while she was ripped apart and beaten over and over and over with a pole, a chair. Over and over and over. Until her brain lost to a large rock.

"...because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places... 

In this western world, if you focus on a car park being there, it will be there for you. Across the artificial borders, under the same sky, sharing the same oceans, a child wills a cup to move. Matilda had a vivid imagination and a mind as sharp as the knife the child wills to be withdrawn with her eyes. She stares down time, begging it to stop. To reverse. But she can't. And you roll happily into your parallel park, barely negotiating any other traffic in your tree-lined school zone street.

"...Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."

- Roald Dahl

I'm consumed and blinded by you right now, but I'll be back tomorrow.

SHARK SHOOTING

When I first started studying medicine, I was determined not to be caught up in the 'medicine bubble' and to focus on friends from outside of my university cohort. It's a demanding course and spending time with a whole bunch of 'Type As' surely couldn't be healthy.

But then I ran into some problems.

The people I study with are smart. They are funny. They are beautiful. They have lived. And worst of all, they have stories.

Yep, it turns out many of them are just curious misfits like me, trying to find their way in their world, asking endless questions, seeking copious amounts of adventure, and desperate to make some kind of positive contribution to the world around them.

So I thought I would kick off Easter with a small story about one of my favourites - the one James Paratore. 

James is a Fremantle boy. Cray fisherman first. Sicilian second. Gardener third. Collector, restorer, displayer of family heirlooms fourth (including framing his grandmother's recipes). Chief cocktail maker and basil pesto crusher fifth. Dedicated uncle sixth. Garden waterer seventh (I know I mentioned gardening, but he really does spend a lot of time out there). Salsa dancer / Spanish student / Traveller eighth. Medical student ninth. Pharmacist 10th. 

James loves the ocean. Even more than he loves his garden. Which is a lot. And for the past few months he has been doing what he does every Summer. Wrapped in ocean breeze, summer sunrise, and an air so fresh you could shower in it, James and his father Joe head out on their 48 foot cray vessel, the Vanessa James. Each day, they pull their traps out south of Rottnest Island.

This week, James had a particularly special moment when he captured some amazing footage of more than 30 sharks. 

This is his story.

 They can smell blood from kilometres away, circle their victims before they rip them to shreds, and are instinct driven machines. Right??

To cull or not to cull has been the question shaking every drum line in Western Australia in the past couple of years.

But a young Fremantle fisherman is saying it is time we completely rethink the conversation.

In some lively footage taken out at sea this week, medical student and second- generation cray fisherman James Paratore shows the inquisitive and playful nature of these mysterious creatures.

“Perhaps that dialogue needs to shift to a yearn for understanding, and for appreciation as to how these animals operate and how we interact with them,” James says.

“There is still so much we do not understand about the ocean, the animals it holds, and the broader ecosystem.

“They say space is the final frontier, but I’d suggest that perhaps the true final frontier is understanding the ocean.”

James, 31, heads out on the Vanessa James with his father Joe Paratore on weekends and between university classes. His family migrated to Fremantle from Italy and his father has been fishing here since the 1960s.

He says seeing bronze and whaler sharks in groups of more than 30 is now a daily occurrence at sea, whereas five years ago you would be lucky to see sharks once every fishing season.

He is posting his footage on YouTube in order to educate the community and all money raised from views of the footage will go towards research into shark behaviour.

Watch and share the shark video here

More recent studies have indicated sharks have powerful problem-solving skills, possess social complexity and curiosity and work together as teams.

They’ve also been known to engage in playful activities and contrary to popular belief, only a handful of the 360 species of shark have been known to be involved in human attacks.

Research has also found shark activity and feeding behaviour is heavily influenced by electrical signals, water temperatures, full moons and the activities of fisherman.

“The purpose of the footage I took a few days ago was not to shock and awe the public but more just to raise awareness about the natural environment - about how we are pretty lucky to be immersed basically in the arms of mother nature, especially as a fisherman,” James says.

Western Australia’s shark debate grabbed international attention last year when Australia’s Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt granted the state government a temporary exemption from national environment laws protecting Great White Sharks, to allow otherwise illegal acts of harming or killing the species.

The policy was in response to seven fatal shark attacks off the WA coast between 2010 and 2013.

It authorised and funded the deployment of drum lines near popular beaches with baited mid-water hooks designed to catch and kill. All sharks found hooked but still alive and measuring more than three metres in length were to be shot and disposed of at sea.

More than 70 drum lines were in place from January until April 30, 2014. During that time, 172 sharks were caught. Of those, 50 were Tiger sharks greater than three metres in length, which were then killed. According to the state government’s SharkSmart website, Tiger Sharks may only have been response for one non-fatal shark bite in WA since 1980.

None of the sharks caught were Great White Sharks. Eight other animals were also captured, including stingrays.

In September 2014 the Western Australian Environment Protection Authority recommended against the setting of drum lines in the following two summers. The government has retained the option to deploy lines under certain circumstances under its ‘imminent threat’ policy.

Drum lines have been deployed in Western Australia on at least three occasions since then, including at Esperance and Albany.

For James, a qualified pharmacist who made the switch to medicine in 2013 but who retains the ocean as his first love, this is a nagging source of sadness.

“These streamlined prehistoric creatures are absolutely fascinating. The way they move, the way they behave – they are a sight to behold,” he says.

“We are truly privileged to be able to interact with these awesome animals in their natural habitat. I’d hate to see that change.”