Please read this post!

The people who live in Suji are lifestyle rich but cash poor.  As we have said in previous posts on the blog, Suji is one of the most beautiful places one would ever wish to visit.   The people have small houses on small plots on which they grow vegetables, have a banana tree and if they are lucky may have a cow but only a few families have cows.     Family members who have been lucky enough to receive an education and get a job support their extended family back in Suji.

Suji is strictly a rural community and there is no industry.   Some of the men find work in the tourism industry in the nearest town; Moshi which is over two hours away by mini bus.   Those who work in Moshi stay there or otherwise they would leave Suji at 6a.m. and the mini bus ( the only transport out for the day) takes them on a one hour journey down the mountain on a very steep, un-surfaced road to Sammé where it is then necessary to take another bus to Moshi.  Nobody owns a car in Suji and a couple of people have motor bikes.

The children in Suji Malindi Secondary School leave early on Fridays and climb further up the mountain to the forest where they cut timber, carry it back to the village and that in turn is used for cooking.  We in the west frown on such a practice as we know the damage this is doing to the environment.   While there is electricity in the village it can be off for days and just last week there was no electricity for five days.   For those families who have electricity it is just for lighting purposes and cooking by electricity is almost non existent.

The five Irish teachers are teaching English to adults and small children from the community, teaching a variety of subjects in the school and are endeavouring to set up a library, find computers so that they can teach the use of same to the children.  Due to the fact that the five Irish teachers are so committed to the community many pupils who had left the school have returned, vastly increased numbers of first years have enrolled  and for the first time there is now a fourth form in the school as prior to this pupils just left education.  

So we are endeavouring to do the following:

• Pay partial school fees for those pupils who can not afford same.

• Pay for 90% of school uniforms for those who can not afford same.

• Set up a loan scheme for the curriculum books in the school.  We hope to purchase a complete set of books for each subject, for each form, rent them out to the pupils at a nominal fee for the year, they would return them at the end of the year and the process would be repeated.

• Set up a library with a variety of school books and novels which can be used by both the children and the community.  All unused school books except Irish language, the classics and other suitable novels.

• Set up computer literacy classes.

Would you like to Help?

If you have old school books that are no longer in use we would take them and send them to Suji.   We already have many books which were collected by the teachers prior to leaving for Tanzania but we would take more.  If you have any books please contact me at mpmescall@gmail.com and I will arrange collection or a suitable drop off venue.   We intend to send these items as well as computers at the end of February.

The transport of such items is very expensive.

Would you like to sponsor, a pupils school fees, or a uniform?

Would you like to sponsor the book lending scheme within the school?

If you would like to help in this area by either a once off contribution or a Direct Debit you can lodge to our registered charity account:

Tanzanian Village Renewal   CHY 17968

Ulster Bank,

Newcastle Road,

Galway.

A/C No  10095595

Sort Code  98 57 53

3 months in !

3 months in….. and we are still alive !

 

What have I signed up for?   These were the thoughts that were running through my head when we turned up the road/ dirt track for Suji Village ! I had never seen anything or such isolation in my life, I thought that my home place (Tourmakeady) was isolated but it was nothing compared to what we were going to experience for the year.

 

The welcome we received was one that will live with me forever, I was so overwhelmed with what I was hearing and seeing ( I know now how Beyonce feels when her fans are going crazy for her ) The bus was surrounded by my  students who were screaming and shouting for us ! My eyes were welling up and I didn’t know where to look to be honest ! I think a lot of us were almost afraid to get off the bus when we arrived ! We watched the students dance and sing for quite some time, there cultural dances and songs were incredible. The show they put on for us was just amazing.

 

After the meal ( I had no idea what I was eating for most of it, I didn’t want to ask ) we went to see what would be our home for the year. It was here I got the reality check which was coming my way ! I would be lying if I said I didn’t cry when I saw the kitchen and bathroom, because I did. The house was bare and basic . The kitchen consisted of a sink and that was it ! The house had some beds and some chairs and that was it ! The toilet facilities are not what you get at home that’s for sure ! In the background all I could hear when I was having this minor breakdown was Jim saying “ Jez I thought it was going to be a lot worse lads”. The building started the next day and we got down to work, in-between building we would give some classes to the form 2 students as they were sitting exams the following week and who were in desperate need of some help.

 

The building was tremendous fun and I think we all enjoyed it immensely. The skills and jokes learnt from all the boys on the team will stay with us for quite some time some jokes which caught us out were “the long stand” and “glass hammer” none of us fell for them though of course ( I wish… ).

 

The builders left and returned home to Ireland on the 17th November . It was a great 3 weeks with them and we were left very lonely at the airport watching them leave ( some with no shoes on and covered in muck from our eventful day at a safari park ) and wondering how we would spend our evenings, without debates, sing songs, jokes and magic tricks.

 

The teaching began……….

 

We had meetings with the headmaster and discussed what teachers would teach what subjects. At the moment I am teaching Biology, Chemistry and Geography. Belinda is also teaching the same subjects as I am. Aisling is teaching History and English and Aaron is teaching Maths and English along with managing the soccer team ( the jerseys they wear are Man Utd ones and not the school colours). The students are very keen to learn which makes it quite easy for us to teach. There is a serious lack of school books, and really anything that resembles a school classroom. The classrooms are dark, the desks are old, blackboards are in terrible condition and very difficult for the students to read off, some classrooms have windows others have broken bits of glass in them and all have steel bars. One day I was teaching a class and it started to rain really heavily, I couldn’t even hear myself because the rain was belting ferociously on the tin roof, all of a sudden all the students started to move into the middle of the class room because the rain was pouring in through the windows, all I could do was laugh .. I had about 60 students crammed into the middle of one class room trying to keep dry from the rain , something which would never happen in a school at home, thankfully it was lunchtime and the class was over. One thing which disturbed me greatly was corporal punishment and how it was still alive and kicking in Malinda Secondary school. The students get brought to the “chamber” or “chaku” if they miss behave or have done something wrong to get hit with sticks. Girls get hit across their palms and boys across their behinds. They get a hit if they don’t have the correct uniform on ( a majority don’t even have the same uniform) and also one day we had a social class were the girls in the school were performing an African dance where they have to “shake their ass” one of the male teachers hit some of the girls because they were not shaking them good enough.

 

School was over for the year and Christmas came, we planned to go to Zanzibar for the holidays. We had a great time, snorkling and sunbathing and to be honest it was great to live in a place with constant running water, hot showers, electricity that did not cut off in the evenings and to talk to other volunteers like ourselves. We even had a trip to an African accident and emergency to top it all off ! Belinda fell ill Christmas day and we spent the day in hospital, the doctors were very kind and nice but we should have just got to an internet café and used Google. Which was exactly what we were doing in the waiting room on Aarons iphone. They diagnosed Malaria and poor Belinda didn’t get any turkey on Christmas day , just drips and medication, we didn’t even get any turkey, the people in Zanzibar had never heard of the animal.

 

School has now started back and we are faced with more problems and struggles, a word which our head master like to use frequently. “ we must struggle to pay our fees, struggle to pay for uniforms and struggle to learn throughout the year” were a few of his great words of wisdom at the official opening of the school this week. Many of the students are currently finding it difficult to afford uniforms and pay for school fees ( approx 10 Euro). Hopefully we will sort something out in the next few weeks and maybe pay for some uniforms for some of the students.

 

Memorable moments to date:

 

• Aaron and Peadar trying to kill the rats in our house ( it took approx 3 hours to get the baby one out )
• The sound of chickens being killed outside our bedroom windows,
• The great debates about religion and dairy farming with the builders,
• Coming home from Zanzibar to find my runners half eaten and Belinda’s daily contact lenses also ripped open and destroyed.
• Noel nearly falling off the roof .
• The sing songs ( roaring ) in the pub, ( the pubs over here are slightly different to what we are used to at
• home ).
• The hike that Gerry brought us on one Saturday up the mountains, ( nearly killed me).
• The welcome we received from the village when we arrived,
• Maureens face when she returned from the meetings with the school board in the evenings !
• The bus breaking down on Safari and Jims words of wisdom “ you are a tool…. T …O …O…L “ actually priceless.
• The boys rush to the aeroplane and them covered in dirt getting onto the plane.
• The long and painful journeys up and down this mountain on the bus, especially the day we had to endure the journey up the mountain on the truck, with a goat and water tanks beside us along with 50 people and the blistering heat.
• And last but not least POLE POLE, (slowly slowly),

We cannot and will not forget the African way ! Im sure in 10 months time we will have adapted to this way and will be in for a shock when we return to the crazy Irish lifestyles. NOTHING happens here quickly. It can be very frustrating at times but its just the way they roll !

 

All in all I think all of us are enjoying our time here and should be delighted to have such an opportunity. We are faced with many obstacles such as loneliness , showering in buckets of cold water, a diet of rice and beans, sitting in the dark in the evenings, rodents, ants, and lizards in the house, the isolation and lack of transport. However these have not put a damper on our adventure to-date and I expect they wont. We are looking forward to the coming year and what will unfold along the way.