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Published: April 22nd 2007
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Ok we know it’s been 6 weeks since out last entry and people want to know what has been happening since our half term break in Zanzibar, but we never seem to have much time to sit down and write, so sorry it has been a while. We are both well, and we are now on 2 weeks school holidays as the first term has finished. Rachel is a bit drained from a very full on term; she has been sick again, this time with an ‘amoeba’ (severe stomach cramps and diarrhoea) so has now totally sworn off meat. Report writing is quite arduous (as I guess it is for every teacher) but the reports then have to be translated into Kiswahili for the parents (English copies are for the school files and sponsors). The western teachers do this with the help of a translation sheet with a variety of comments listed. Two of Rachel’s fellow western teachers have also just left - Lauren and Louise, have been great support and great friends in the past 4 months. Louise, always providing much needed entertainment, especially when recounting her ‘night out’ adventures and Lauren (who can be even more fiery than
Rachel on occasions) helped Rachel a lot with her experience of teaching ESL kids and has been a wonderful friend in the low times here. Anyway, now it is time to relax a bit, Rachel’s mum and sister Vanessa have arrived and we are all excited about heading off on safari tomorrow. Although we have had a very busy 6 weeks we did manage to get out and about a little bit and hopefully keep all our readers interested enough to come back again.
Early in this half term we started to visit a local orphanage one afternoon a week with one of the teaching sisters who goes a few afternoons a week to help out the kids. We actually have about 6 kids from that orphanage that come to our school, but the rest of the kids get schooled on the site. The orphanage is called ‘Living Water’ and as orphanages go it’s actually quite a nice place for the kids to live and go to school at. Rachel has a group of 8 kids which she does English tuition with, but many more of the kids want to join in so she reads everyone a story first
Maria
The lovely little girl at the baby orphanage. This photo was from their website and its a little out of date as she is now older. and then starts class with the 8. Some of the kids have no English at all so they really struggle, but you can see them improving every week, which is very rewarding. The kids range in age from about 5-10, and one of the little boys from St Jude’s Prep class (about 5 years old, who lives at the orphanage), also comes along and that’s when we can see how much more advanced our own St Jude’s kids are compared to others. It is a good break from school and is great to be contributing something back to a different part of the community. We get the school bus out with the kids that live there and then it is a nice 40 minute walk back to school through fields and local villages, where some of the local kids are starting to know us and say hello as we walk past.
We also visited one of the baby orphanages ‘Cradle of Love’, with one of the school volunteers who used to work there, which is for kids new born up to 2 years old. Many of the babies have lost their parents to HIV/Aids and some are there for
a short time because there parents have HIV/Aids or cannot look after them in the early months due to risk of infection from breast milk, etc. The babies that have no family they hope to adopt out to people before they reach the age of 2 and so far they have done quite well. Some of the babies / toddlers that have full blown HIV/Aids (they have had many in the past that have died), may have little chance of being adopted, so will go to specialist Aids orphanages when they are 2. Although the orphanage is new, clean and well run, it is still a sad place to be. We were there one afternoon after school and the older toddlers just run up to you wanting to be picked up, and they encourage you to also hold the babies to give the kids the attention they desire. One particular little girl called Maria who is almost 2, took an immediate liking to me as we walked in the door and jumped into my arms and wouldn’t let me put her down. I found out she has full blown Aids and was found by a priest abandoned in a banana
Class Captains 1C
Elisha & Tausine the class captains of Rachel's class plantation near a church. She is a beautiful little girl but has such a sad little face and eyes and just wanted someone to carry her around and give her a little attention, so I ended up carrying her around for the rest of the afternoon, and she seemed really happy until we left when the tears started. It was enough to make you cry. Maria is unlikely to ever be adopted and will spend the rest of her relatively short life living in an Aids orphanage trying to avoid some opportunistic virus that could end her life. She is receiving medication, but unfortunately it’s only a matter of time.
We stayed for meal time which was quite comical - the babies are bottle fed of course. Then the next group sit in high chair seats cut or inserted into a kitchen bench type of thing, and we helped feed those, basically six at a time, then the third group sit in normal high chairs, with some feeding themselves. The changing of kids for bed and poohey nappies came next - which was time for us to leave!! but not before I picked up a crying baby from the
Time for lunch
Wash your hands please floor who immediately on being vertical proceeded to projectile vomit straight down the front of my t-shirt - nice !!!. We hope to go back there in these holidays. If you want to check out the babies see
Cradle of Love Baby Orphanage There is one particularly unpleasant orphanage we hope to visit next term, although many people go and don’t return, as it is apparently quite terrible, several of our school kids live there, however when the St Jude’s boarding house opens next year I believe they might be boarding instead. One of the teachers has decided to organise a working bee (if the orphanage agrees), so we will help out with that. Sadly, giving money directly is a complete waste, as it does not reach the kids in any shape or form, but hopefully we can help improve the place in other ways. There are two other orphanages close by with kids from our school, so we will also make an effort to get out to those as well.
Another events during the term was the arrival of the BIG container from Australia which was like Christmas for the school. The main thing on it were 160 computers that had
Sister Wanyaga and Class
Sister Wanyaga is who we go to the orphanage with. Think Whoopie Goldberg in Sister Act. She's soo cool!! been donated by an American couple, The Wagners who we met in the first few weeks, but the rest of the container was a mystery for everyone with boxes full of unknown but stuff, which would help equip the new school campus and boarding houses that are currently under construction for next year. Needless to say it was a bit of excitement on a Saturday morning and we got it unloaded with the help of all the school staff in just over an hour. I got to practice carrying stuff on my head - African style, which the local cleaning girls thought was hilarious, and was then severely shown up in my attempt when one of them carried a computer monitor balanced on her head with no hands up a flight of stairs. I wish I had the camera for that, as even some of the locals were cheering.
Over the Easter weekend we enjoyed a little excursion with Louise and Lauren to The Usumburra Mountains, but I’ll write about that in the next blog entry. Bye for now!
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DAISY1
BMIVES
Zanzibar & teaching
Hi Rachel and Simon: Just signed on to travelblog as we are travelling from Canada to Kenya and Zanzibar in July (can hardly wait!) Three of us are teachers, so I am intrigued where you are teaching and how you got there. We intend to connect with the Medical Clinic in Jambiani and understand there is a school attached to the organization (people from Canada began the clinic) Can you tell us if you know anything of Saadani (Tent with a View) as we are considering doing a 3-4 day safari there and it is not cheap. Take care - have fun - hope the bug has left Rachel. B