Photo fun.

I’m in Saudi Arabia now for 2 weeks. We left TZ on Wednesday. It was really hard. I have met some wonderful people in Moshi and I love, love, love the town with a vengeance.

So I’ve been meaning to update this blog for ages. But in Moshi time was running away from me, now that I do have the time I’m going to do a bit of a backtrack and write all the posts that I was going to do in TZ.

Rewind a week and a half ago.

As I’ve said before the TEACH website is well underway. We desperately needed some good professional pictures for it. I put ads up all over the place but to no avail. I got a couple bogus phone calls and it really seemed that we were just gonna have to us our little digitals and do our best.

So the awesome foursome (Me, Hawwa, Lizzie and Mel) are in the café having lunch. We are talking about our predicament. Mel says that we need to literally just go up to people and ask them if they have a decent SLR and if they would be willing to help us. We really didn’t want to do this, but we were desperate. So we start looking around for potential candidates. Mel points out a guy sitting in the corner and there is a general consensus from the table that he looks like the good camera type. So it is agreed that Mel and I will go and ask him (Lizzie and Hawwa would have to do the next person if this fails.) Up to random person we go, we explain to him about TEACH and all the things we are doing at the school. We then ask him if he has a good camera and if he could possibly help us.

Doug: Sure, I actually have a really good camera.

Boom first time lucky. Lizzie and Hawwa were relieved that their turn wouldn’t come.

Our view. Lol at Hawwa's finger poking Madagascar!

To cut a few long and winding stories short (one is quite funny) it took us 3 days to get all the pictures we needed. Doug was great he came to the school and he did a wonderful job at getting some of the trickier shots done. It took longer than anticipated and we didn’t finish that day so Doug LENT us his camera for the next day, as he couldn’t make it. It was tiring it was long but everyone had fun doing it. In the end we got loads of pictures, I’m excited to see them up on the website.

You know that saying fortune favours the bold, it couldn’t be truer.

7ikmat el post:Go out on a limb that is where the fruit is - Jimmy Carter.

The Mungano School

We visited the Mungano School day before yesterday for the first time. The lovely Niru picked us up and took us there. Driving through the gates felt so surreal as I had heard so much about it from Krupa, seen the pictures and wanted to visit for such a long time. We were introduced to the headmaster Mr Munnisi. The world needs more headmasters like him, that’s for sure. To say that this man goes above and beyond his duties as a headmaster is an understatement. But the thing that really stood out to me was the way that he did all of this with grace, compassion and such goodwill.

So I think that I need to explain (very briefly) a few of our TEACH goals for this school:

11. Food programme: Our goal is to try and start up a system that allows the children to grow some of the food that they need for their school dinner on their school property. Currently their school dinner consists of maize and beans. What we are aiming for is to give them a balanced meal as well as teaching them skills that they can use in the future. The things that we are trying to plant are veg like: aubergines, tomatoes, string beans etc. They have amazing space to do this and right now, Hawwa and I are trying to get all the tools that are needed, as well as the sorting out a salary for a local lady who has some experience with this type of thing. The aim by the end of this is for the kids to be self-sufficient .

The Mungano school has 627 pupils, their school lunch costs 30,000 shillings per child for a year, this translates into 12 pounds exactly. The problem is some of these children are orphans and others parents are just too poor to be able to even afford this sum. This then results in Mr Munnisi having to go and borrow food from local business as all the children get fed regardless if they are able to pay or not. For some of these children this is the only meal that they get all day. The school is then not able to complete minor or major much-needed repairs. This includes basic painting, fixing furniture and repairing the roof.

2. Roof repair: Fixing the school roof is a major project. Some parts are worse than others with gaping holes. In the rainy season, which spans from roughly March to June, the children are getting rained on while they are in class and have to hold their feet up at a 90 degree angle, as the water reaches their ankles. Mr Munnisi got an estimate and was told that to fix the major leakes would cost 1.6 million shillings (640 pounds) and for a full repair would be 16 million shillings (6,400 pounds).

3. Carpentry programme: We have employed the services of a local carpenter (Poalo) who is going to teach the kids basic carpentry at first and then they can keep on advancing as they gain skills. We were sure from the start that we wanted both boys and girls to partake in this and Mr Munnisi agrees completely. We are currently getting some last minute tools and negotiations and we should be starting sometime next week.

These are the main projects that we are doing now that are very time consuming and need funds. We are also setting up HIV/ AIDS workshops, continuing with the learning landscapes teaching that Krupa set up already and finishing the much-needed painting of the scool. TEACHS main aim is and has always been to try and help people to be self-sufficient. All these programmes will hopefully be able to continue and thrive, with a bit of financial and admintrative help from us, we will hopefully give these children the skills that they need to lead independent and fulfilling lives. I know that this money that means sooo much to these children means less to us, and for some of us its literally nothing. This money means that these children will be dry during the rainy months and have full bellies when they leave school. So I am asking of you to donate anything you can, be it 1 pound, dollar or shilling. Nothing is too little and I know that these lovely, amazing kids will appreciate it soo much. Please help us by doing something amazing for 627 children today!

Thank you.

7ikmat el-post:
I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.
~Maya Angelou~