I'm back!

Baby Mark
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It's so weird being back. In so many ways it feels as though I've never been away, and yet so many things have changed.

I arrived on a Thursday, market day and they knew I was coming but it was eerily quiet. As I got out of the car children looked at me strangely, sizing me up as if they vaguely recognised me but couldnt work out if it was really me.  They do think all us white people look the same! I later found out that I look different apparently - I'm much white than I was and my hair is darker.  We signed in at the village office and soon received a very warm welcome from the village chairman, Charles, who took my hands and showed me the biggest smile.  He apologised for the lack of welcome. A 35 year old lady had died and most people had been attending the funeral.  I was lead to the Chairmans house - he didn't let go of my hands! As I came round the corner, Margaret, his wife spotted me and went mental! She was so excited she threw her arms around me and dragged me into the house to sit down. Coca colas were ordered and after a few sips I noticed lots of little faces peering through the window. Before long I heard the head teacher singing and as I looked out again, I realised he'd gathered half the school around the house, singing his own song 'karibu tena allison' - welcome back allison.  The song went on and on. It was weird being the only person at the centre of attention. I felt self conscious but I know what they like, so I joined in the clapping and danced with the crowd!  Later I was taken to my new home - Julius' has lent his house to Village Africa and it has been renovated so its really comfortable.  Lucky for me, he also left some nice comfy chairs - much better than the orange plastic ones in the other house! Edmundi is also staying there as he is working as site manager for Caroline while the school toilets are being built.

It's so weird being back. In so many ways it feels as though I've never been away, and yet so many things have changed.

The secondary school... two classrooms, toilets and a kitchen.
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Progress is going well. Yamba is doing particularly well and as Caroline says, now she's ready to tackle Milingano.  Its a very different village to Yamba due to its size and location, so the needs are completely different too.  The school now has its new desks and 6 new toilets are nearly complete.  We're hoping to buy wood to make picture rails this weekend so I can put up some of the posters and laminated resources I've brought over.  That should make a difference to the children who want to learn when they have no teacher.

The first class in the new secondary school.
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The Mwenge (Freedom Torch) arrived in Milingano a couple of weeks before I got here and had a big impact on the village. They were given money to prepare for important visitors so houses and the school were painted, many of them with messages about the Freedom Torch. The school also had two staff toilets built as there was no where in the village for the visitors to use the loo! Good news for volunteers.  The message brought by the Mwenge was to stop corruption and raise awareness of the AIDS virus.  Sadly corruption is everywhere in Africa!  They had a big party and people in the village are still very excited about it.  Hopefully the messages made a difference.

Building in progress... 6 Milingano school toilets.
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There were a few people I was very close to in the village when I was volunteering so I made an effort to visit them on Friday. When I went to see the Head Teacher Mtali, he told me his wife, Biana was going to have a baby in a few days. When I went to see her it was obvious she was pretty heavy and uncomfortable so it wouldnt be long. They told me, if it was a girl, they would name her after me.  I was honoured. However, on Monday morning I was surprised to find no teachers in the school.  Just after 8, Mtali came in looking flustered.  He'd come in to open up and set chores for the children, gone back home while his wife gave birth and was now here to greet me!  Congratulations I said - boy or girl?  'A boy', he said, 'a strong boy! Strong like Mark! Maybe we should call him Mark?'  I told him Mark would be honoured, and later when I went to visit, they decided his name would be Mark.  As a Muslim family, they have also given him a Muslim name, Abdul, which is not uncommon here.  A lot of the children seem to have two names.  Mama Margaret is also pregnant so I'm working on her to call it Alli if its a girl!

New Yamba school toilets.
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School has been very hard work with few rewards unfortunately.  Attendance is very bad despite the Head Teacher raving about how excellent our Behaviour Policy is.  He is so proud of it, he has shown it to all the schools in the district. He says he is famous because of me and the help I have given him to improve the school - he still has a long way to go though!  Hopefully there will be more volunteers to follow me because he really needs some support.  His teachers' attendance is so poor, there is no way pupil attendance is going to improve while there is no one to teach them.  This week most days there have been two teachers, the head and me.  Sometimes there have been three teachers.  Baring in mind there are 900 children enrolled and that they only teach for half the time at school (the other half is for marking!), that leaves a lot of kids sitting around bored. Its incredibly frustrating.  I taught a lesson to standard 6 on Thursday, not realising they have only had a handful of lessons from Leila back in March since I last taught them.  The poor kids all got all the answers wrong - very demotivating for all of us. But I have to remember that they are picking things up all the time. You don't see results straight away here, it all takes time.

New health post toilets.
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The kids were a bit wary of coming round to the house at first as Caroline had a barbed wire fence put up around it to make me feel safe.  After a bit of persuasion, repeating 'karibu sana' and showing them the colouring books I brought over they began to gather.  It would have been a shame for them to stay away as I brought some lovely things for them but there are too many children at school to use them there.  The most appreciated were the toy cars. The boys went mad for them! I'm going to try and do an after school club a few nights next week to give more kids a chance to do some drawing and colouring, read some books etc.

The secondary school is now up and running, which also means there are more English speaking teachers around - good for me! Unfortunately, although they have plenty of staff, they are also struggling for resources.  How do you teach chemistry with nothng but a blackboard and chalk?  However, one major bonus of the new school is it has given the standard 7 children a reason to try hard to pass their end of primary school exams.  Its tough though. They just don't know how to think for themselves.  I'm spending a lot of time with them to try and boost their English but I dont know how they'll do in the other subjects.

Well my time is just about up! I'm sure i'll update again when I get home.  I'm glad to be here. Its hard work and a bit lonely at times being on my own but its worth it.