Day 37: LOAMO

Our first week in LOAMO was very exciting. Our students were divided into the ten classes to assist and possibly teach. Some students spent the first few days taking notes and grading papers. Other students were asked to teach class immediately. It took some time to adjust to their duties. Although they had prepared and practiced their lesson plans, they struggled to apply them to their class. Our free time was spent fine-tuning lesson plans and reflecting on the methods of the teachers. We also split the group up for home visits of underprivileged children. I went to the home of Basil and Polycarp. The boys are in kindergarten and class one. They live with their grandmother because their father passed away and their mother is remarried and no longer wants them. Grandma works 13 hour days, seven days a week to support the boys and herself, as well as pay for school. They split the 5km trip to school between walking and taking a dalla dalla alone. Both are so small, when I watch them begin their trip hand in hand, I am not sure whether to cry or smile at the love they contain. We also visited Mr. Kimaro’s house. Mr. Kimaro is a very hard worker. He is a teacher at LOAMO six days a week and takes college classes four days a week. His work day totals at around 15 hours. His two oldest children, Declan and Deborah, attend LOAMO. Since he is a teacher, he receives a discount on tuition, however it is still more than he can afford. His wife does not currently work, she cares for their one year old child, Declan, at home. Mrs. Kimaro has two sewing machines at home but does not know how to work them. She is hoping to one day go to school to learn how to used them. Mr. Kimaro is going to college for IT work and hopes to get a higher paying job once he graduates school. His salary at LOAMO is not enough to support his family of five and he is not doing what he is passionate about. At the moment, he is in debt to his church and friends 70,000 Tanzanian Shillings, roughly $33. He can’t afford to pay rent, and has a verbal agreement with his landlord to pay him when he can. This is scary however, because he and his family could be kicked out at any time. His financial goal is to be able to pay his bills, repay his debts, send his wife to school and start savings accounts for his children’s schooling. Some days Mr. Kimaro does not have money to ride the bus and he walks 4km to school. He jokes about it being his exercise, but said it is harder to say he’s out exercising when his whole family is walking to church. One day we went to visit Joyce and Ebenezer’s home. Joyce helps in the office at LOAMO and Ebenezer is in kindergarten. Joyce’s home was two rooms that were put together very nicely. She has lived there for eight years. Her eldest sone is 20 and going to Form 6 in Kilimanjaro. He and Ebenezer have different fathers, both whom are not involved in their son’s lives. Joyce has spent the last twenty years as a hard working single mother. When she was 35 she suffered a stroke. She occasionally deals with residual leg pain. Joyce puts 10,000 Tanzanian Shillings ($5) of every paycheck in a bank account she has created for each of her sons to help pay for college. Her job at LOAMO helps her receive a discounted tuition for Ebenezer. It is inspiring how hard she works and how much she cares for her boys. Kindergarten is my favorite class by far. The first week I spent most of my time observing from the rear of the classroom. The back row of boys grew close to me, Polycarp from the home visit, Bright, Bravon, Adrian, Paul Godfrey and Joshua Emmanuel. Paul and Joshua struggled with staying on task, so I was able to have one on one time with them. I also spent a good amount of time in baby class, where I met Kisai. He is a sweet five year old boy who struggles greatly in class. Numbers are his biggest downfall, he can count but not write. A lot of times he will repeat a portion of a question you ask him, instead of answering it. He struggles to express his feelings and communicate. He is usually alone. My first time watching him try to do his classwork, I started to cry. He struggled so much to do what he was told to do. He needed some very unique help in class. I wrote some friends in the USA who are teachers to give me some ideas on how to help him and I received some valuable feedback. With this information, I was able to do some research and create notes for the teachers. They were so incredibly grateful for the suggestions and help, and have been putting it all in to action immediately. Today, Thursday the 23rd, was an exceptionally hard day. Our students have had a week and a half of teaching, and some of them have excelled, some have struggled. Yesterday was their last day of teaching, and today and tomorrow are exams. Their duties have shifted back to being assistants, grading tests and overseeing the examination process. When the classes were preparing to start testing, the headmaster of the school, Mr. Nicodemus, had started to collect students from each class. I soon learned that these children all had outstanding tuition fees and would not be allowed to test until they were paid. He had sent letters to their caregivers explaining the situation and had received no response. As much as I understood the reasoning behind not letting the students test, I was brokenhearted by the devastation on their faces and began to cry. The school cannot afford to allow so many students to not pay, and although they are very generous with late payments, at some point they have to draw the line. Mr. Nicodemus told us if he had received a letter or a small form of payment he would gladly have allowed the students to test, however no response at all was considered very rude. Polycarp, Basil and Good Luck were among the children sent home. I tried to hide my emotion, as it is not something to show freely. To avoid wiping tears from my face, I began to wipe the dust off Polycarp and Basil’s shoes. Fiona and I went to search for Lisa Marie, who was asking about the outstanding bills. As we were discussing who owed what amount, The boys passed by us, holding hands, headed to the dalla dalla or walking all the way home. I completely lost it, tears streaming and breathing short. My heart was breaking into a million pieces. These poor kids were casualties of poverty and struggle. They were the brightest and hardest working in their classes, yet since their guardian’s couldn’t, or didn’t, pay for their schooling, they were sent home. I wanted so badly to wipe away all their debt, as I did the dirt on their shoes, however where would that get them? One term would be paid for, but the next? Perhaps being sent home from school would be enough to urge their caregivers to work harder to give something, anything, to the school. It makes me sick to think that some families have to choose between food and education. It also makes me sick to think that some families abuse the care and cooperation from the school that allows the children to receive a wonderful education. I feel the most sick to think of how children in America, myself included, take for granted schooling, teachers and education in general. The rest of the day was spent handing out gift bags for the less privileged children. The donations collected and donated by people in the Vail Valley were divided and given to the students at LOAMO who struggle the most. Every child was beyond thrilled with their black garbage bag of second hand and new goods. Some of the staff also received gifts, and we were showered in tears of thanks and love. Tanzania is abundant with love, generosity and kindness. Everyone I have encountered here would give the shirt off their back and the food from their mouth without a moment’s hesitation. The genuine thank you’s, offered with blessings upon blessings, began to piece my broken heart together again. “Do you want to leave? Are you ready to go home?” I am repeatedly asked. “No”, I respond, “No, not at all.”