Arusha, Tuesday & Wednesday, March 7 - 8, 2017

Tuesday began with a message from Moses Pulei, a Whitworth graduate from the 1980s, who has moved back to Tanzania and does a variety of entrepreneurial projects in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. He was first lured backed to Tanzania by WorldVision, but after several years of having to travel constantly to help raise money for them, he gave that up to spend more time with his family and—in my opinion—stop being used as a shill for big donations. What people at home often do not know is that WorldVision spends large amounts of money on their staff, programs, and facilities but often have very thin data to show any long-range benefits for what they do. In Africa, WorldVision is well-known for the lavish lifestyles of their ex-patriot staff.  The local workers, of course, are not paid on the same scale.

When Moses arrived, we had a good time catching up with him and what he and his family have been doing since we saw him last year.  He is still growing chia in Uganda and trying to market it though that is difficult because of a large Australia company which has been trying to flood the market and push everyone else out. That situation may improve soon, however, plus Moses and his partner have developed chia milk and skin care products for which there is a large market in China. last week, however, he was stuck at the Kenya-Tanzania border with a truckload of hay he had bought up in the Rift Valley for the 500 sheep he had bought to sell for Eid. No doubt wanting a big bribe, the border authorities decided they needed to inspect every hay bale for drugs, arms, or who knows what.  Meanwhile, Moses’ sheep were starving here in Tanzania. Finally, the border authority said Moses could take pickup loads of hay bales to his sheep once some bales had been inspected. So, Moses drove back and forth for several days until all the hay had been thoroughly searched, and the truck was completely unloaded. Life is never routine here.

We decided to have lunch with Moses at our favorite place, George’s, even though we had earlier planned to try Uzunguni City Park this day.  I guess that adventure will have to wait until next year. Being with Moses and having one last George’s salad and pizza was a double treat.

With Moses at George's

Mama Tesha came back to Kundayo in the late afternoon to match up the students with their host families.  After greeting her, we absented ourselves from the action as students met their families and moved out. By early evening, Kundayo was quiet and once again felt like ours.

We had to get up at 6:30 Wednesday morning because this was the day we were going out beyond Njiro to visit Step-by-Step Learning Center, the school my friend Margaret Kenyi founded for special needs students.  It is the only such school in Arusha, and perhaps in all of Tanzania. (http://viva-tanzania.com/step-by-step-learning-centre/) Because Margaret and her husband, Christopher, have a special needs daughter, Margaret became very concerned about the lack of opportunities for such children in Africa and spent two years while they were living in Botswana commuting to South Africa to take courses in special education. It was after they moved to Arusha, that Margaret began the school eleven years ago.

The school sits on 5 acres out in Masailand. There are two very neat buildings, plus some smaller out buildings. One building serves for group meetings, craft activities, and teatime and lunch. The other building contains the classrooms. The students come by bus each morning and return home in the afternoon. I was immediately impressed by how light, colorful and brightly decorated all the rooms were. This contrasts sharply with the usual gloomy, bare classrooms in most African schools. First thing, the students all meet in a large room for circle time, during which they sing lots of songs, some with special motions. It was amazing to me that all the students regardless of the severity of their disabilities all sat on their chairs and joined in the activities. There was no acting out, no disruption, just lots of smiles. Near the end of circle time, the staff went from students oiling their hands while singing the “This is the way…” song with each student’s name. This was obviously the students’ favorite activity, so they spin a bottle to decide with whom the oiling begins. Each and every student wiggled with joy and simply beamed. Then, we held hands, sang another song, and went for chia (tea). Once again, each children went to his or her designated place, sat, and ate and drank as well as they could. Staff sat with the students—something never done in other African schools—and wiped faces and spills as needed.  After tea, the students washed their hands and went to their classrooms. I heard not a single scream, cry, or disruptive noise during this whole time.

Circle time. The light made photography difficult for me.

Looking from eht eclassrooms to the activities building.

With Margaret at chai (tea) time.

Then, William, the bus driver and Margaret’s assistant, gave us a tour of the garden and other grounds. Each child has a tiny bit of garden to plant and water, but most of the garden is for growing corn and other vegetables for the school.  They also have some goats so they can have milk, and they have begun beekeeping. There are even chickens for eggs.  A full-time groundkeeper lives in a little house and takes care of the animals and garden. They keep good relations with their Masai neighbors by allowing them to come over and cut the extra grass in a certain area for their own animals. Unfortunately during our visit, the school’s goats got loose and ate some of the neighbors’ corn, so relations will need some restoring.

William explaining how they make briquettes from paper, wood chips and charcoal dust.

The groundskeeper's house with the sheds for the chickens and goats.

The beehives

Enjoying the trampoline and the tricycle.

Next we visited the two classrooms, and once again, the students were seated and paying good attention.  One new little girl was semi-crooning to herself, but that didn’t seem to distract anyone else. The students were going over the parts of the body, using both Swahili and English names for them. The teacher proudly showed us their tented off area that is set up as a “sensory room.” It was recess time when we got to the second, more advanced classroom, but the teacher there took us around and gave us explanations of each area.  Here some children can understand numbers and values and have a small pretend store at which they practice purchasing and paying. Some also advance on to basic arithmetic and reading. In the afternoons, the children have a wide variety of activities in which they participate, e.g., beadwork, weaving, making fire briquettes, sorting and counting seeds, as well as their garden plots.

One of the classrooms.

John and I with Margaret.

Margaret Kenyi, a true hero.

The child who caught my attention most strongly was a little boy with cerebral palsy, who is physically trapped in a very twisted body, which is only now getting any physical therapy, and he could be completely normal mentally. His dominate language is English, so I took his hand, asked him some simple yes or no questions. He would squeeze my hand and try hard to say yes or no. He was clear enough that I could tell he had understood me, and he seemed quite excited that I was talking with him. For all anyone knows, he could be another Stephen Hawking, but he lacks all the computerized technology Hawking has. The idea that this little boy may be permanently trapped and have no way of escaping his physical limits is difficult for me to think about.

Margaret works hard to keep building up her school and put in place best practices for the students special needs. Most African families will hide such children or leave them to die if their “defects” are apparent at birth. Margaret wants to give them a safe place to develop as best they can and most of all give them a sense of value. From what we observed, the children seem absolutely delighted to be at the school, where unlike other Tanzanian schools, there are no teachers with sticks who hit and yell at children. I am humbled by what one determined woman has been able to accomplish.

I often boast a little about how I never really get sick in Africa although long ago I had both malaria and hepatitis.  However, since Monday, I have been feeling unsettled in the lower GI region. I did okay at Step-by-Step, but by noon I was very ready to return to Kundayo, where I spent most of the rest of the day lying in bed lapsing in and out of sleep. This will not do, as our departure is very soon.