Kenya and Tanzania, January 2019

There were six of us this time, a big group to arrange things for but mostly seasoned travelers. My brother Ted came for his first trip to Africa. He manages the Alphonse Gerwing Foundation, a family foundation that donates to Rainbow of Hope mainly for projects in Brazil that my uncle, Al Gerwing, worked with so tirelessly until he died in 2007. The others were on the board of Rainbow of Hope. Our main purpose was to monitor our projects in Kenya and Tanzania to make sure that the funds we send there are used correctly and things done well.

Our first stop is always Nairobi where we spent a day getting oriented. I met Simon, coordinator of our partner group in Kenya, several of his children who live in Nairobi now and who help with project work and Dr. Eglay Nyakoa who is a young doctor who I funded to go to high school some years ago.

The first night in Nairobi

We headed off to Kibwezi/Kinyambu area the next day. It’s always a busy time visiting several schools including a big opening ceremony for the new classrooms and offices we built at Nzavoni Primary School. This particular occasion was an interesting one. When we got to the school the children and parents and staff were all ready. They had taken the school desks outside to sit on and lined them up in the shade. There was a sound system – electricity is a new addition to the school in the last year or two. 

Waiting for the ceremonies to begin at Nzavoni Primary School

But the District Director of Education, the head honcho for the whole area, was late. Like most Kenyan professionals he does not own a vehicle and when he has to travel for work he uses public transit. This is rural Kenya so this means a bus and he was coming from about 100 km away. Someone also had to pick him up from the highway cause the school is about 5 km by bumpy dirt/sand roads too.

We waited. The kids started to look bored. One of the members of the Kinyambu Rural Education and Community Development group that we work with, Patrick Munguti, a retired music and drama teacher, got up and challenged one of the classes. “Grade 3, can we see how well you can dance.” One of the three songs on the sound system started up and the kids shuffled into the front. Soon they began to dance with some enthusiasm and the next classes tried to outdo them. Then it was the parents turn, then the men, and then the women. We all joined in and managed to dance, sing and laugh for the 2 hours we had to wait for the director.

Everyone danced!

That community is so thrilled with their new classrooms and the head teacher and staff with their new offices and staffroom. What an improvement from the old. And best of all, the local government decided to help the school out a bit and they built a couple of early childhood education classrooms and did a major renovation of some other classrooms. It’s all a huge improvement from the sad state the school was in several years ago.

Nzavoni classroom before and after

The next couple of days were spent visiting a few more schools who are always excited to have visitors from far away. We said goodbye to Kinyambu and Kenya on January 16 getting into Tanzania by late afternoon.

Our destination was Ussongo village in a remote part of the country but we made a stop at Katesh at a project funded by the Canadian Harambee Education Society that raises money in Canada to pay for secondary school education in both Kenya and Tanzania. Sara Williams, a Saskatchewan retired horticulturalist, raised money to build a hostel for the girls to stay in at Katesh when they came into the city to go to school. Good and safe accommodation is often a problem so this is a great help. We’ve stopped there before and had a great tour of their facilities with Naomi who manages the program there. We try to visit other projects if it’s possible as we travel in East Africa. There are always good ideas to share.

We reached Ussongo the second evening and were happy to be received by Fr. Chuwa and his staff who have several rooms that they rent to us. They also feed us and provide some transportation if we want to visit schools further away.

But the school we were there to visit is only a short walk from the compound and we were there on the first day for another opening ceremony for the two classrooms we had funded there. The children sang and danced for us and presented a short program of gymnastics and a demonstration of different types of African clothing. We clapped and shook lots of hands and chatted and saw all the improvements in the school since we were there last.

The opening ceremonies for the additions to Ussongo school
included a demonstration of different types of African clothing

Later that evening as Charlie, Ted and I walked through the village we were called over to a home where some of the teachers were enjoying some tea and chatting. We had some interesting casual conversation about the differences between Canada and Tanzania including about limiting family size – a concept not very familiar to them!

Our time there also included a visit to Ussongo Primary School where we saw some water tanks we had funded. 

Water tanks we funded for Ussongo Primary School

Just as we took a few photos the skies opened and the rain pounded down for almost an hour. We managed to make it into a classroom with a whole group of kids who kept us entertained. We also had a close look at their desks which had a metal frame quite solidly welded together. I took photos and sent them off to Simon back in Kinyambu because they had been having issues with the quality of desks there. He has since had a few made locally using those photos and will likely move to this new style; a good example of how we can help move good ideas from place to place.

Finally, on our last full day there we drove a couple of hours to Tabora, a smaller city south of Ussongo, where there is a School for the Deaf. This school started in the 1960’s and was the first in Tanzania. They had asked us for funds to build some new water tanks to replace some much older ones that were leaking. We had a tour and were entertained by dancing that the students did using much stomping and eye contact to keep together. They seem very happy there and are well taught but there are some very sad stories. Having a disability in Africa is still often seen as a black mark against the family, a sign that they did something wrong or have a curse on them. This is slowly fading but there are still some older children at the school who have lived there most of their lives because their families just left them. They have no idea where they come from or who their families are. 

We drove a few miles out of town to some workshops in which they teach carpentry and sewing to give the young adults some skills with which to earn a living. 

Older students learn sewing and carpentry skills.

They too need some new water tanks because there have been several diagnoses of typhoid fever in the students over the past few years.

We left Ussongo the next day with our new driver and safari guide, Bernard, to enjoy a week of safari in Tarangire National Park and the Serengheti. East Africa is full of warm and inspiring people trying to make a better life but also some amazing wildlife too.