On Thursday, Lucas and I went to Kiganza village to scoop up Hindu and Saidi and head over to Mgaraganza for our first big day of labor. We figured we’d have them come along so we could catch up while on our walk and as we wait for the work to begin.
When I stepped off the dala dala in Kiganza, first I was almost bowled over by Hindu as she came running up the street as if she had known I was going to step off the dala dala. Our excitement to see each other was huge and yet, seeing her again – it was like I only left last week, not last year. Then before I knew it, another body was flying toward me – Mama Juma, one of my favorite mamas in the village. PW followers might remember the picture of baby Hawa, barely a month old smiling in my lap last year (surely gas, but a cute picture nonetheless). I’ve known this family from the first year I came here and I quite love their kids – Juma and Musa. She was whooping to see me and gave me a big hug, then kept laughing and saying my name between greetings and check in questions. Her smile – Love!!!
We went to Saidi’s house and he was squatting over a piece of paper with a magnifying glass held up so that the sun was beaming through – trying to start a fire. I crept into his ‘courtyard’ and then I jumped forward and said ‘BOO!’ and he didn’t even look up! … so I laughed. Then he jumped back and stood up to greet me, laughing with surprise. He’s grown at least a few inches since last year, which for him is just bringing him up to speed as he was always the shortest of his peers. We spent a quick minute greeting his babu and his sister Zainabu, but then we started making our way over to Mgaraganza.
The walk to Mgaraganza from Kiganza is about 40-50 minutes and it flew by as we caught up and Lucas chatted to them about folks they all knew and about school stuff. We went straight up to the school site and waited for Isaya to arrive with the first big delivery of bao or wood for the roof. Isaya is Lucas’ brother and our general contractor. We had just met with him that morning in town to hand over a stack of cash to get the first installment of roof materials delivered.
The roof will be completed on 4 classrooms and two offices while I’m here! But it will also tap the bank. The wood for the job fills two large dump trucks and the aluminum will make a third load. Each load costs just under $80 to deliver. The wood and aluminum cost a pretty penny and then the nails tack on another few lines of the budget. All told, the cost for the roofs on this row of rooms (6 in total) is 8.6 million shillings plus labor to pay the skilled workers that put the roof on – 8 million shillings … in USD, is about $7,000. So …. Thank you so much to everyone who came out for our Raise the Roof fundraiser in SLC this past August because without the $4,000 that came in from that event, we surely would not have been able to make this happen this summer! And huge thank you to everyone else who donated outside of this event in the past year. I guess I should really say that we are making it by the skin of our teeth. Which of course, means that I’ll have to hit the fundraising hard this coming year to keep the project rolling forward! Incidentally, I also met with the district director in the government here in Kigoma – he advised me on how to go about creating a request for support from the Tanzanian government with the village government, so we’ll be meeting the local leaders on Monday to write up that request … fingers crossed, the TZ government meets us half way to speed up this process!
The wood arrived in two trips separated by the time it took for Isaya to go back with the transport crew and reload in town (about 2 hours). After the first drop of the wood, Lucas, Hindu, Saidi, Kalekwa and I stacked the hundreds of 2x4s that they dropped off. I didn’t realize we’d be working so hard and I told Saidi and Hindu not to feel obligated to help – but of course those two would never just stand by watching. Our backs were about broken when we were done (well old dada Rai’s was anyway) and we were all exhausted and so hot. Lucas and Kalekwa ran to the Mgaraganza market and stocked up on bananas while I sat and chatted with Hindu and Saidi.
I talked to them about school and the situation here in the village schools. It was not the most uplifting conversation – they told me some grim statistics about the success rate of children passing secondary school final examinations. I shudder as I type this, but in one secondary school – where I have a few students in attendance, 7 of 200 students passed their final examinations last year. SEVEN! The biggest problem as the students see it is that the teachers don’t always come to class and only the teacher has a book for the subject he teaches. The students rely on the teachers to give good lectures, provide good notes and help them review for exams. But, I ask you – how can a teacher really make sure students understand what you’re teaching when you have 60-90 students in one class?
One bookseller in town said that for student success, it’s 80% the books and 20% the teachers. Of course, he’s a bookseller, but I think there’s a lot of truth to this statement. If students have money to buy books and study outside of school, they will fare well – if they don’t, then they stand little chance. Most students can barely pay the 20,000Tsh/year school fees let alone spend 10,000Tsh on a text book. Many of our scholarship program students are in Form 4 and will take their final examinations this year in October. Only two of our students are in Form 1, and one of them is Saidi. Saidi is truly one of the best and the brightest and I’m thinking strongly about putting him into a private school. … is that ok to do? Regardless, we’re planning to buy some books for the students.
More stories and updates to come as the new week unfolds! Happy Weekend.