Sunday 7 June 2009

Day 3: Cloudy Sunday?

Our First REAL Day in Africa:

We had a very relaxing start (likely to be the only one for the next two weeks i imagine) and a nice breakfast of fruit and toast. Amy & Keilah headed off to experience church in Tanzania......

(We managed to catch the last 30min of the church service in Swahili. It was lovely...the dancing and singing, the auctioning off of a chicken to help a man in need, the lovely Sunday suits and dresses...Enjoyable! This was followed by the service in English...slightly dry, but we made new friends before we left, even met a young medical student from Oxford.) Whilst Naomi, Ruth and Peter stayed behind to discuss plans for the next few days.

Once all back together we headed off to see the schools that we are go ing to be working at. First we visited the school (Nkwasangare) where Naomi and Ruth are building a new kitchen. It is in a beautiful spot with Kilimanjaro as the back drop. Not that we have been able to see it today as it has been too cloudy. The school was very basic and in the process of expansion, although they have run out of money so the new classrooms have been waiting to be finished for over a year.


Apparently the school has been in existence since 1873, but was originally located in the church across the way and was only moved to its current spot in the 1970's. There are pictures painted on the outside walls to teach the children geography, anatomy, maths and various other subjects.
We met Mr Meena who is a science teacher at another school (lambo extended primary), and previous head Mr Ranol and the current headmistress Ms Lema.
They gave us a tour and told us about all the plans for the kitchen. The foundations have been laid and the walls are starting to go up, we look forward to finishing the project in the next 2 weeks.





As we were about to leave two of the school guardians came to greet us (Mr & Mrs Kwayli). They invited us for a walk and took us to their home where they somehow managed to produce an incredible meal out of no where. It was completely unexpected and quite overwhelming. How many people could provide a meal for 10 without any prior notice, amazing.We now have an open invite and have been told to go down while we are working at the school.


After, leaving we took a trip to Mr. Meena's school, Lambo. He showed us around the grounds and gave us an exclusive tour of his "Science Corner". The man is absolutely brilliant. A published author of 9 government approved science books, with 6 pending... He believes in practical, hands on leaning that involves all of a pupils 5 senses. The room is filled with papers, experiments, models, and quotes on learning and life.

These included:
"To build a child is to build a nation, so when we are educating him, we should not split him into 3. Let us give him courage, sense of belonging, confidence and love in learning".

The man loves to teach and although he is returning next year, desires to continue teaching in his local village...including writing a self help book titled "Thorns of the World". He was a real inspiration!

Unfortunately because of the wonderful suprise lunch (not complaining) we didn't make it to Keilah and Amy's school, so they will be heading there tomorrow, while Naomi and Ruth go back to Nkwasangare. Hopefully N&R will get to visit the other school at a later date.


The Team

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