Tuesday 14th February 2012
Well, it hit me it was Valentine’s Day when on a tour of the school this morning and I saw the date. Lesley and I did get a red paper heart each from one of the female teachers here at dinner when she handed them out to all the volunteers and us. We were asked to join in a game of cards. I didn’t know the game and was really tired so kindly declined. Is lovely getting to know people who volunteer here – they each have so much to offer and Africa, Nepal, and several other poor countries have touched their hearts, so they give back to help. People are here from all ages, from early 20’s to late 60’s all helping mentor Tanzanians in different ways from ICT, to gardening, building, teacher mentoring, visitor’s centre, data input, marketing, you name it.
I had vegemite and avocado fresh from the tree outside on toast this morning.
Heaven!! Something so simple makes me feel so good. We met in the visitor’s centre with Agnes while she went through the history of St. Judes, how the screen children and parents and parents’ living standards and the process of elimination to get the poorest of the poor and the brightest of the poor into this school. The process starts in September each year and continues through to December to begin school the following January. To think the building we were sitting in was the first classroom with 3 children only is amazing. With 1500 students here now – nothing short of incredible!!!! 400+ staff without volunteers added in – including 150 teachers. Started by a teacher with a dream to help others from Armidale in New South Wales. So, so inspiring!! It has not been an easy road by any means and we found out more when we met with the Manager Kim who has been with Gemma since the beginning, also from New South Wales. It was truly amazing how their paths crossed. They were meant to do this. I had emailed weeks before requesting an interview with Gemma or Kim, so thankfully it happened.
We had the opportunity to ask heaps of questions before our tour. You are just gobsmacked how this place operates and it all evolved one step at a time, beginning with just the idea to help educate the poorest of the poor, but also the brightest of the poorest of the poor.
From the outside looking in this place runs like a smooth machine, but oh my goodness the work that is put in to make it so and the organisation is incredible. Every single thing at this school and the wages, are from sponsors and donations. Onsite is their own carpenters to make the furniture, seamstresses to make the uniforms, etc., to cut out the middle man and save money. There were 3 or 4 computer labs in the lower school and upper school 4 I think. I was just in overload. The lower school library was very well resourced and Lesley and I were in awe. We went back later in the arvo and looked through the African children’s books and wrote down heaps of titles to buy. One was titled “It takes a whole village to raise a child,” so I just have to buy that. The tour took a couple of hours including morning tea with the kids, and we watched them play afterwards. The children are supplied with morning tea (breakfast) and lunch here. There was one little girl with one leg and a prosthesis playing a ball game, which she was very good at. There are nurses on site in the health room for each upper and lower school. We went to the upper school and it too was amazing, and Lesley and I ended up in the library there covering books. It was great because a class of kids came in and helped us cover and one little guy was so knowledgeable about the history of Tanzania. He just regurgitated everything that was in the book I was covering virtually. I stopped and read a fair bit of it as it was very sad what the British and Germans had done to this country – like so many others (including ours) in history.
Not only the aboriginal people suffered from the white man. He told me about the fight for Independence and how Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined to become one and became Tanzania in 1964. Faith his teacher said he was very knowledgeable. We ate lunch at the upper school and they all said grace before starting. Our lunch was beans/lentils and salad which was really nice. Different taste to the beans/lentil dishes we have in Kenya, but I guess there are hundreds of different ways to cook. The kitchens were the cooking is done was good to see. A lot of the staff are the parents of the children. Gemma has tried to have parents involved from the beginning to help them also rise above their dire circumstances.
After lunch we had our meeting with Kim. What a lady!! She is a mixture of my sister Gaye and Jan, Lesley’s friend who went to Turkey with us last year. We both thought that immediately. Extremely attractive, and totally a realist. You have to be in these Africa. Almost everyone is out to make money off the white man/woman and see us as their way out of poverty and pretty close to god and who knows, if I lived like these people do, I would be thinking pretty much the same. May not sound nice saying it but it is a reality end of story. Talking to Kim was like talking to someone we had known for years, and so, so helpful. She was a casting agent in Sydney for film and television prior to joining with Gemma., but also in the travel industry prior and obviously her skills had developed to bring her on this journey.
She answered most of our questions without us even having to ask them. I left her with a big hug and feeling even more inspired, but also even more knowledgeable about African culture and even more how they think. Knowing more and more about the culture is a strong weapon for me to have. A great meeting!!
We then went on the one of the 14 school buses to take the children back home to their ‘houses.’ You couldn’t really call them that – shelters and that’s about it. What a chance they have been given to be educated here – just amazing. The roads were so dusty my allergic reaction began again. I am just about over it. It is like asthma. Lesley has a puffer which thankfully works. The coughing fits are awful. We had planned to go into Arusha and to a bookshop to buy some children’s books, but Agnes said it would be closed, so down to the ‘local’ where we socialised with some of the more friendly volunteers here. Dinner of salmon patties and salad cooked for us, and bed after more socialising. Some very interesting people doing amazing things around the world for no pay.
I am SO GLAD I came here to see the School of St. Jude, knowing what can be accomplished even more so. Makes it real to me because an Australian has done it with just a dream.
Education is part of the big picture of Umoja Orphanage Kenya project, but one step at a time. Education will go hand in hand with love, shelter, food and emotional support for orphaned children and children at risk.
Kim did tell us the beautiful road we travelled from the border to Arusha from yesterday was only recently finished and funded by the Chinese – and not all roads are like it – mainly potholes as well. That fixes that thought.. Interesting also to hear her say Kenyans are much more productive than Tanzanians as well.
As I sit here writing this on Wednesday 15th February an African lady is singing outside my room as she sweeps, such a beautiful song in Swahili but have no idea what she is singing about. Just warms my soul hearing it.
We are organised to go and see the Upenda orphanage on Saturday morning. The night manager of the hotel where we stayed in Diani’s sister is the manager there, so we are being picked up Saturday morning. It is owned by a western woman and run by Sauma’s sister. It is not far from the hotel.
Tomorrow to see the boarding school campus totally funded by an American sponsor then to the Kiliminjaro airport to Zanzibar. This visit has been truly amazing for me.
