5 - Not so fun day

Friday, October 6

     Today we had mentally planned to help set up and decorate for the graduation at the school.  That is not what we did at all.  We had breakfast and got going by 8:30.  We stopped at the market again to buy some waste baskets for the school, hoping that they could learn to put their trash in the baskets instead of just chucking things out the window.  And we did buy baskets...from a tiny store that had about a million baskets stacked, piled, hanging everywhere.  We bought a few as souvenirs and gifts, too.  Michael, our driver, helped translate and negotiate prices.  We got a few other things and then headed off to the school.  We are getting to know the road and landmarks pretty well.  We always start (or end) our trip going down (or up) a great big hill in Iringa.  Lots of speed bumps whether you're going up or down on that hill.  One unusual thing we saw this morning was a coffin being carried by a motorcycle.  (Probably bought at one of the coffin stores we passed each day.)

Coffin store in Iringa

     When we got to the school, we were dismayed to see the classrooms were all a mess again.  They had held class and just moved everything around any way they wanted. As is turned out, all the desks were going to be moved off to the sides for graduation day anyway, but we didn't know that.  We had wanted everything to look like neat,clean classrooms.  Our American values just weren't the same as the African ones. We had put hand sanitizer and air fresheners in the bathrooms and those were missing.  They were eventually found, someone had put them away so they wouldn't get stolen.  We put them away again until tomorrow, graduation day.  We started straightening up things again when Erik, the second master, told us to stop.  He rang the bell to summon all the girls.  Deb1 first lectured the girls & then Edward scolded them.  They were sent to clean up their classrooms.  I'm proud to say that my Form 1 girls had already done their classroom before the lectures.

Girls being lectured by the administration

     Deb1, Edward, and Erik then had a long meeting with all of the teachers. We learned later that they were disappointed in the state of the school in general and thought the teachers should have more vested interest in how the school was cared for.  Each teacher supposedly had an area that they were in charge of and those things had not been taken care of for a long time.  The teachers were all sent to write up an individual "plan of action".  The rest of the afternoon they had to individually present their plan to the administration.  The rest of us felt like they probably resented us Americans coming in and stirring things up for them.
     While all that was going on, we were going through all the quilts that we had brought with.  There was one for each graduating girl and each teacher.  They had been vacuum packed to get them to fit in the cargo bags, so we unpacked them and fluffed them up a bit.  We separated them into piles for students and some for staff.  Then we re-rolled them and tied them with ribbon ready to give tomorrow.  We added some cards to the girls' gift bags.  Mary1 and Russ had been spending their time taking individual photos of each girl with their name written on a whiteboard to identify them.  That took most of the day for them.  Marlene went and helped them finish up and they discovered it went much faster with three people - one to write the name, one to tell them where to stand, and one to take the picture.

Getting quilts ready

     When they were done with pictures they were supposed to go into one of the classrooms and write thank you letters to their sponsors.  Mary1 came and got us to help them with the letters.  Form 2 girls were working on theirs when we started helping.  I started going around helping individual girls.  Deb2 came in and immediately went into "teacher mode".  She started writing examples on the board.  She had the help of Tula, a student, to translate.  We learned later that Tula's mother had been an English teacher and had died a few months ago. She did an excellent job helping to translate.  Form 2 girls got their letters done and went to lunch.  Form 3 girls were supposed to come and do theirs after lunch.  Only 3 of them came.  Erik had to summon them with the bell again.  They were just being silly and trying to copy other's letters.  They got chewed out by Deb2 and Erik.  Then they settled down and got them written, but they weren't near as good as Form 2's.

Helping girls write thank you letters

     After that we really didn't know what to do.  The tent and chairs weren't there yet so we couldn't do any setup or decoration of the graduation tent.  We were told not to pick up any trash on the grounds - that the girls would do that.  We were asked to go and inspect the dorms (by the girls) so we did.  I didn't think they were as clean as the first day we were there.  We didn't know what else to do and we were getting a little hungry, so we went and sat in our Rovers and ate some of our snacks for lunch.  Then Erik came and told us our meal was ready.  We were served spaghetti noodles and a vegetable sauce.  We noticed the drivers and staff had just rice and beans.  That is also probably what the girls would have.  The cooks prepared all their food in an outdoor "kitchen" over charcoal or wood fires. The girls had one dish each that they washed out when they were done and kept in the dorms.  They ate with their fingers, no silverware.  Staff used one spoon, maybe.
     After that we just sat around waiting for Deb1 to be done with her meetings.  The sun was going down and we were taking pictures of some of the neighbor kids when Deb1 told us all to go home in one of the vehicles and she and Edward would leave later.  Just then a bus pulled up and on top of it was the tent and many heavy metal pieces. The bus also brought some of the families of the graduates who had come from far off villages.  If they hadn't come today, they wouldn't have gotten here in time for the graduation.  We watched some happy reunions.  The girls carried all the tent parts to "Deb Hall" and then we left.

Bus with the tents and families for graduation

      It was a dark ride home.  We all tried to sleep but not much luck.  Too bumpy.  Back at the hotel it was very crowded and security guards were on duty because we had dignitaries there.  We weren't exactly sure who, but we thought they might be there for the graduation.  We had hoped that the Vice President might come.  She is a woman and would have been a good role model for the girls.  We wouldn't know until tomorrow exactly who was coming.  Secrecy and security were the word.
    We were hungry for supper and the only table left was outside on the patio.  It was pretty chilly by then, but we ordered.  Soon everyone in the dining room left so we could move inside. The waiters had so much trouble remembering who ordered what, that they started marking their slips with our room name.  Deb2 and I were in the hippo room so we were Hippo 1 and Hippo 2.  Mary and Marlene were in the cheetah (or "chewy" as they called it) room.  They were Chewy 1 and and 2.  We called ourselves that whenever we ordered at that hotel from then on.
      Deb1 and Edward finally got back and said we had  missed all the fun.  Big lights had been brought in and they had set up the tents.  Speakers and music were setup.  The girls were dancing and all dyed their hair shiny black.  Mothers and friends had brought fancy clothes for them to wear tomorrow.  Then the District Commissioner, Asia (pronounced A-see-yah) Juma Abdallah joined us at our table.  We were told she was a Muslim and Muslim's don't drink so we were hiding all our wine and beer bottles.  Then she ordered some wine for herself, so we felt a little more at ease.  She told us how important our support for the school was and how important the school is for the girls.  She is 100% in support of the school.  She was a very friendly and personable lady.  A nice ending to a long day.

Sunset at the school