A Note from the Suggestion Box

Yesterday I spent much of the day traveling around the village of Orori visiting the families of the students we are trying to sponsor, and meeting their parents where possible.  I have been to some of these homes before, so it wasn’t shocking, but it was still a sobering experience to see how these families live.  The houses are mostly made of sticks and mud, and usually consist of one or two rooms.  There are a few small windows, but no other light; in some cases at night they use a home-made kerosene lamp.  The parents greeted me warmly; most of them came to the house from the farm where they had been working.  These families mostly live by farming small plots of land, which they cultivate by hand.

The village itself consists of these small houses, separated by stands of bananas, so if you didn’t know the houses were there you might think you were alone in a forest; however, if you stop anywhere, people quickly, because in fact there are homes everywhere and people working these farms all the time.  The landscape is very beautiful, but the roads are confusing and to me they look pretty much indistinguishable.  Periodically they are crossed by irrigation ditches in which it is easy to get stuck (more on that later).

You wouldn't necessarily guess that this is a densely populated area. 

Walking through this countryside is an incredibly beautiful experience.

In the morning Lukumay drove me around, with six Form-2 students in the back of his mini-bus giving him directions to their respective houses.  But at mid-day he had to go to a meeting, so he gave me the keys to his car and I loaded up 8 Form-4’s and away we went, accompaniedby the Second Master, Mattei, who is very nice but doesn't drive.  It’s wasn't much a problem driving on the left side of the road, because there is only one lane and no traffic.  But I had a hard time adjusting to the steering wheel being on the right.  Every time I wanted to signal a turn (sheer habit; there was no reason) I accidentally turned on the windshield wipers.  I also had a hard time judging where the left side of the car was, and I brushed up against one structure (no damage).  I almost immediately got the car stuck in an irrigation ditch and the students had to get out and push.  Had I not had the students with me I would have been completely lost within minutes.  But with their help I found my way to all the houses, and got us back unharmed, along with the car.

Silvia Mallya and her parents at their house.

 Lusina lives in this two-room house with her parents and six brothers and sisters.

At each house I had to introduce myself and give a brief explanation of what we were doing – trying to find sponsors for their children’s school fees; then I would ask to take a picture of the family, which will appear on the Friends of Foot2Afrika web page when we get this project going.  I did reasonably well – my Swahili has come along admirably.  However, periodically I would come to a complete dead end, midway through a sentence that I had no idea how to finish or even to back out of.  However, the people were very gracious.  I think they have such limited experience with outsiders that it wasn’t even surprising to them that a mzungu spoke Swahili at all.

Rozmery Kiondo with her mother and little sister.

Vaileth Kweka and her grandmother.

I didn’t know Tumona had a suggestion box, but it does, and as were heading out Lukumay showed me this note that he found in the box that morning.  

As far as I can make out the Swahili, it reads approximately as follows:

“Teacher, we wish to tell you nicely that when you chose the students to help, you left out Rozmery  T. Kweka and she has serious problems.  Her father and mother are dead of AIDS, and her younger brother is HIV positive. She lives alone with her two younger siblings.  The name Rozmery B Kiondo was given by mistake, she doesn’t have problems like Rozmery.  If you have the chance, kindly consider her.”  

You can imagine how I felt; Lukumay also was very distressed.  He is really very fond of his students, and he said that although he knows most of their families well he had no idea about Rozmery’s problems.  We lost no time agreeing that the original goal of sponsoring 40 students was arbitrary and that we could easily put forth 41 names.  I hope that anyone reading this will consider helping out with our school sponsorship drive, which will take place in August or September, as soon as I get back to the States and am able to get the information online.  Of course you can begin donating now at friendsofafrika.org.

On another note, tomorrow we are taking Peter Chami to enroll in vocational training, to learn metal working and welding.  I’ve mentioned him before, and we’ve finally found a placement for him at what looks like a very good vocational center run by a Catholic convent in the middle of a gigantic sugar plantation just south of Moshi.  Today we had a bit of an adventure finding the things he’s supposed to take with him to school.  Do you know where to buy welder’s goggles in Moshi?  I do now.

Peter, showing off some of his new welding tools with his parents.