Day 8: Mosqito Nets and Shoe Boxes

Day 8 week 1 on Friday 12 June (although actually being written on Tuesday 16 June due to a power outage on Friday killing the computer. The task now is to try an remember the day lol)

We were meant to have an early start, but unfortunately some of the team were running late, this meant that the morning was somewhat rushed. We got to the school we visited on Thursday to finish giving out shoe boxes and mosquito nets to the younger children. For anyone who doesn't know about the Rotary Shoe Box scheme, it is where families (often through schools) fill a shoe box with gifts or toiletries

which are handed out to needy people across the world. The gift boxes are done for different sexes and age groups. We noticed there was an uneven spread, we had many boxes for older girls and younger boys, which meant that some of the boys had to have girly presents and vice versa. We wonder if it might be more appropriate to have boxes made up which are non gender specific as many gifts given already work for both boys and girls.

After that we dropped Keyila and Amy off at Msandaka before travelling up Killi's slopes to our school. Peter came with us as he is Babo (grandfather) of the projects, although he does prefer the term Technical Director. We (that's Naomi and Ruth if you hadn't already guessed) had arranged to give mosquito nets to the 35 orphans at our school. We were also fortunate to have left over shoe boxes which we handed to the youngest children. Unbeknown to us the school had arranged for an official photographer to come along. It was a very official day as we then planted trees so that the school could remember us and us them. The head girl received the top score in the school for her exam results and we decided to reward such diligence by presenting her with a dictionary to further assist her studies in English once she reaches secondary school. Annazeta is a remarkable girl who was brave enough to come and say hello to me on the first day and we understand that she wants to become a doctor. We have asked to be kept informed of her progress even when she has left the primary school. Naomi and I were slightly disappointed that she didn't want to become an engineer but no matter so long as she finishes university.

We took Peter on a tour of the new kitchen and the rest of the classrooms. The kitchen was going very well and they had started work on the new environmentally friendly stove. This will be so much better than the open fire in an enclosed building that the cook is currently using (and producing very fine meals I must say, no slimming here). We formally agreed to paint two of the classrooms which are not scheduled for demolition in the future. All the classrooms are in a very poor condition but these were the two that didn't need to be re plastered before they could be painted. There is a lot that is required to be done at the school and we hope to be able to continue supporting them for years to come. This was a very emotional day and we were both close to tears at some points during the day, we really are turning into girls.

Apologies again for the lateness of these posts, we are in a country where there are regular power cuts and it has made doing the blog rather more difficult than we thought. Apparently Friday a power cut is almost a certainty, but there has been talk of it becoming a regular thing between 6pm and 10pm. Just makes you realise how lucky we are back in the UK.

We had written more in this blog originally, but unfortunately on the day of writing we lost connection, and couldn't save the extra we had written. We are now on Thursday morning and I can't remember what is written. Oh well we have the gist of the day.

Ruth and Naomi

(Completely forgot to mention, Keilah did a very successful job of getting herself locked in our bathroom. The door sticks and we have to slam it, so neither me or Ruth locked it, and as it turned out it was the right decision. At one point we were thinking of kicking the door in, but Peter the star that he is had the correct tools with him).