Welcome to the Goethe-Zentrum in Kampala

Benjamin is sixteen and has just been enrolled in boarding school. He has already made his way through four other schools; perhaps he can finally pass through the ninth grade here and maybe sit his higher school leaving exams. After a few initial problems, Benjamin soon becomes accustomed to life at boarding school - despite his physical disability. He is partly paralysed down one side, walks with a limp and can hardly use his left arm. Benjamin feels himself to be an outsider on account of his disability; he has never had any real friends and certainly no girl-friends. As he explains to his new schoolmates, he would like to be treated like any normal youngster - and they promptly drag him under the shower and into an icy bath. At first he tearfully claims to call his mother, but then realizes that he would not be doing himself a favour in the process.

Benjamin's roommate Janosch plays a large part in his nascent self-consciousness. Although he sometimes appears a little rough, the boy is probably Benjamin's first real friend and ensures that Benjamin is not always treated like a handicapped weakling, even if it is sometimes hard. Once he overcomes his homesickness, Benjamin begins to feel at home with a group of friends all of his own age and every one of whom evidently also has some kind of a problem.

The slightest and yet most tormenting problem was girls: to be precise, a few of the girls at the school and also the opposite sex in general. Benjamin and Janosch both fall in love with Malen and both believe they stand a good chance, but are thoroughly mistaken. Benjamin becomes aware in passing of the major crisis in his parents' marriage and is also unable to overcome his difficulties as regards learning: he will once again fail his maths. Yet he will have learnt a lot for his future life when he finally leaves the boarding school.