August Update

This blog entry will try to update you from August 12 ish- August 29. We apologize to our avid followers as over the past ten days our minds, hearts and bodies were not yet ready to address you. However, it is important to the memory of Bibi, to the livelihood of this family and to the children of our schools that our efforts continue here; so I will do my best to fill you all in.

ELA is going great. On August 17^th we finished ELA’s library which brought over 1,000 children’s books into the hands of Bunju A’s children. With ELAAP (ELA’s Advertising Project) brining in 4 new and continuing to gain interest among local parents the library was the final touch to make ELA one of the most unique Nursery School in the area. The parents and local villagers are going nuts over the books and word is spreading quickly. Teacher Frida has received 10 calls concerning openings and inquiring about school fees. Plus the students are in love with the books. They beg Frida for reading time and she laughs about them being well behaved and quiet when they are able to see the books. She said she showed them the few books that made noise and the children jumped around and sang a song to thank god for the books. It is clear with the complete success of ELAAP and ELA’s library project that the demand for ELA is established. Many parents are inquiring about ELA offering Primary School Standard one and two as their desire is to keep their children in the same facility for those first few years. TEP is looking into how to accommodate that demand and assess the importance to the future of ELA.

On August 18^th TEP had to say goodbye to our volunteer Eileen. Unfortunately, she left just a few short hours before we received the news that we lost Bibi. Please keep your thoughts and prayers with her as she is alone in the mourning of our grandmother. Over the past three months Eileen has been a great contribution to our work and we are sad to see her go. She has expressed her dedication for TEP and our schools and is currently at home fundraising. As director of TEP I am proud to have Eileen on our team as I know she will continue to be a great asset to our goal of self sustaining educational project.

With the loss of Bibi the future of FANAKA and ELA are being decided. Teresa and I had a chance to meet with the assistant directors and other important players to discuss TEP’s involvement in the future. We decided on future projects and re-established TEP support and focus of self sustainability.

We have been moving forward on the stationary shop. We bought all the stationary supplies and the shop keeper will start the first week in September. This week we will also finalize the soccer field budget, volleyball court and establish the cost for the last few touches on the library. We are also interviewing two librarians in early September.

As my time here is closing the feelings are bitter sweet. Tanzania is a second home to me, the Kahatanos are my second family and everyday I’m with the children it revives my soul. However, I look forward to going back to the TEP donors and sharing this experience with them. It is important for the donors to know their impact on these people. Over the past four months our accomplishments have been great and the outreach of TEP has stretched farther than I could have ever imagined. I will work hard to set up long-term relationships with current and new donors. TEP is excited to establish Beaver Dam as the home fundraising base but is looking forward to bringing in Eileen and Teresa’s home community as supporters.

As always our appreciation and gratitude goes out to our readers, supporters and donors. Without you there would be a TEP or a bright future for these kids. I can’t thank you enough for your continued efforts in helping us make a difference.

We Love You

Today we had to say goodbye to the biggest TEP inspiration-Rhoda (Bibi) Kahatano. She passed in the early morning of August 18^th. She was a strong, independent, passionate, caring individual who always had love to share. In 2009 she welcomed me in her home with open arms and within days she was truly my grandmother. Of course she did not end there as she shared her love and opened her home to the volunteers that followed. I would be honored to be and do just a tenth of what Bibi has done in her life. She has modestly shared many stories of her life including educating men and women about equality, aids, nutrition, domestic abuse, etc., digging 50 wells after the water source in west Tanzania was poisoned with the dead bodies of the Rwandan genocide and being one of the founding women to revolutionize the Tanzanian’s Women’s Movement. She fought against corruption while in parliament and continuously kept to her morals even with daily temping bribes. But most of all she was a loving mother and grandmother to all even in the face of great tragedy…

In less than a three year span, three out of her five children were murdered due to negligence or ignorance. Instead of giving up on life she dedicated everything to the children of Tanzania. She dreamed that if she could contribute to educating a generation that no one would have to suffer as their family had. She proceeded to sell off her parliamentary wealth and build FANAKA Memorial Secondary School brick by brick. But she and Babu did not end there, they also opened ELA Nursery School .Out of complete heartache and calamity she made a dream for hundreds of students come alive. The children receive a solid education in a safe, neutering environment whether they are Christians, Muslims, boys or girls. Bibi never stopped fighting, she never lost her passion and she never gave up on her dream- so neither will we. TEP will do everything it can to keep her dream alive. FANAKA Memorial and ELA Nursery School cannot pass with its founder; instead it must rise up to be the schools she always knew they could be.

The world suffers when we lose people like Bibi so it is our duty to follow in their footsteps. We must share the love we have and give back to all people. We must not settle for “it will change” but every one of us must take the imitative to make the change. Please keep the family, especially Babu in your prayers. We miss you mama and will love you forever.

-Cassie, your drop of rain

Education Working Smoothly

Hello again all TEP followers. As Eileen noted last time the libraryis finally finished. We sealed the deal this week by dedicating the new library to the memory of Cassie’s late number two, Benny, whopassed away last year. He was very passionate about the education of these children so it was only fitting.

Now we are really in the swing of things. The kids come to use the library during study hall and teachers bring them in for class to use the books. For now the only system in place is allowing the students to use the books while they remain in the library because we have not hired a trained librarian yet. The kids love the books, and they are learning to replace them exactly where they found them or place them in a drop-box for the current librarian to place back on the shelves
properly.

For me specifically, everything in the sea container has made teaching go a whole lot smoother. The students love the blank white paper that we have stacks and stacks of so I decided that on Tuesday my form II biology class could make their own nutrient cycle diagrams. We went
into the library and pulled out all the biology books, looked for pictures of the cycles and recreated them for later study use. It was great because they all have the same information but the pictures and shapes are different. I remembered how much I liked doing this in high school so it was great that I had the resources to allow them to do the same. The only problem was that if you let the kids at Fanaka draw anything you have to give them enough time because they do not understand the concept of not making the drawings perfect. Every single one of them needs a ruler, a pencil, a pen, an eraser. If a line is not perfectly straight they want to start over, they won’t finish until the shading is just right, and they certainly wouldn’t dream of crossing something out. Haha, I don’t know where they get it from but they do make some pretty good drawings because of it. Last week Eileen gave a sexual education course to all the boys and girls at the school including topics such as AIDs, other diseases, rape, violence, abstinence, and family planning. As far as I could tell the talk was much needed and very successful. They students asked some pertinent questions and they got a lot of helpful and important information. The shop is almost ready to go, we are just waiting to hire a

shopkeeper. It looks great inside and it will be well protected because Oswin, the second headmaster at Fanaka, lives right next door. This week we worked hard on the documentary and also creating a newsletter for Fanaka. They usually pay someone every year to complete this for them so we are wiping that cost out thanks to good old Microsoft publisher. The program is just as good as anything they can create here and the newsletter will really mean something to these kids as we are making sure to include some of their own writing and various pictures of exciting things at the school are included like the futbol team with new jerseys, the library, the music program, the
study tour, volunteers, and so many of the other things that makes Fanaka special.

The really good news is that we can leave the template and we are already giving them Microsoft Works so the school will have the tools to make the newsletter themselves for years to come. It is in our own self-interest to help with the newsletter because the better we make it, the better it advertises the school to potential students in the community. In showing how unique and great the school really is, we are ensuring Fanaka’s future all in one fell swoop. We are also helping the school plan the form four graduation ceremony. The school usually goes over budget on this event due to the staff being so overworked, causing them to sometimes go for the easier and not cheaper route on things. Now we are working hard to cut costs at every corner and we will be saving them a lot of money as well as freeing up time for our administration to focus on their primary roles in the school.

The library at ELA nursery is under construction as we speak which is great news. Soon we can load up the books in there and we will be 2/3 done with the library project. The other 1/3 will be complete when we get all the books to Olof which we are starting to do with our trip there tomorrow. We will be giving them the bags that Lois Knaack donated to decorate and use. The reason these bags were donated is because the orphanage is situated on a hill and most of the girls don’t have any bags to carry their books in and will beg other to bring them back even cheap plastic bags to use. Now they will have a nice canvas bag and since the girls don’t really have their own
possessions either it will be wonderful for them to have a personalized nice bag to carry their things in. Along with the bags we will be bringing about half of the library (We cannot fit all the books we are giving them in one trip) and doing some work with the African Children Haven scholarship program girls. Tomorrow Cassie is planning on meeting with Aichi, the mentor for Olof, to discuss how TEP can further work alongside and help the scholarship program. We are very excited to give these books to another school, the amount of good they will do is infinite.

On a personal note, Bibi is really improving so thanks for all the good wishes. She is able to walk under her own power and is almost back to her old self. We plan on having a family meeting this Saturday to discuss the future of Fanaka and how the TEP can form a long-time partnership to help the school.

The three of us are still a little under the weather but no worries we went to a hospital to get fully checked out just in case. They say we have bacterial infections so they loaded us up on antibiotics. Cassie and I are feeling it the worst so we have been trying to take it easy, even though if we had a choice we would be working hard, but we are sure we will get better soon!
As always, thanks for reading and thanks for your support!

Three In The Infirmary

Greetings once more, faithful friends, followers, foes and families!

Eileen here, again, to tell you our tales of joy and woe from Bunju A, Tanzania. We have had another eventful week, and still the days are flying by. However, we have some excellent news:

THE LIBRARY AT FANAKA IS FINISHED!!

We have finally sorted, alphabetized, and properly placed all of the books in the new Fanaka library! Both students and teachers alike are excited to have all of these excellent resources now at their fingertips. Since we began loading the books into the library, there are constantly students in the room, eagerly paging through encyclopedias, dictionaries, science and literature books. Even those students who have difficulty with English do not let their language barriers cool their interest in the new books. It fills me with such joy to see students, at whom I would otherwise be shouting, murmuring with admiration at the photography inside of an issue of National Geographic. Not only do they now have a good reason to want to improve their English and writing skills, but they will have the ability to rub away the fog blurring the window to the outside world.

This task was completed just today, and as I loaded the last of the fiction books (authored by “Z” writers) onto the last shelf, the air almost felt magical. In a picturesque version of what education really should be, the library of Fanaka was arranged. I slumped into a chair in the corner of the room; all about me, lining the tables along the walls and standing in between the shelves were students (some looking disheveled, despite all the lectures they have gotten recently about wearing their uniforms properly) exclaiming over one marvel or another, furrowing their brows over a physics book, or simply flipping through the pages of a novel, debating whether or not it looked interesting. I could not help but grin.

So there’s that.

In other news, I finally got malaria. I know, I know. I thought I would escape scot-free too, but it seems that we volunteers, or the “TZ3”, as some have christened us, do nothing half-way. Not only that, but we like to go above and beyond what is normally required of us as far as work, so we decided not to stop there. So Teresa got malaria a second time. You’re welcome, Africa.

Other than that, our week has been relatively uneventful in that our work has been consistent. We have been incredibly busy, but it has all been work and teaching at Fanaka and finishing up the library. We have two new teachers, and one is the English teacher who will be taking over my classes once I depart. Introducing the new teacher to my classes was both relieving and nerve-wracking, not to mention a good way to make me feel incredibly guilty. All of my students, in every form, seemed to be pretty upset that I will be leaving in a week. Also, I feel that it is very unfair to introduce me as a new teacher, and then for me to have to leave after only a few short months and disrupt their already tenuous grip on the learning process. However, now that I am not teaching, I have more time during and after school to talk with the students, help them with their work, and further organize the library.

Also this week, Cassie and Teresa had a chance to return to ELA and finish up the painting process, which meant writing “ELA Nursery” on the side of the building and the contact information for the school. Already, the painting at ELA has successfully brought in three new students, which is excellent news for the school.

As far as our bouts of malaria go, I am pretty sure mine is almost gone, as I have felt top-notch once more for the past two days, and Teresa is feeling better as well. Cassie is still a bit under the weather, but most of the time, I can’t tell, as she still functions a full speed. (I’m pretty sure she is a robot, but please don’t let that deter anyone from donating to her organization. Robots can be very nice. I think...)

This coming week will be my last full week in Tanzania, and I am absolutely heartbroken about it. This will be my last blog update, and I am sorry to bid our internet friends farewell, though not as sorry as I am to bid farewell to my friends here in Tanzania (sorry, but I must be honest). I had no idea when I came to Tanzania how much my life would be change by the people and environment here. I have found another family, another home, and I cannot begin to express in words how much my students mean to me. Even those who initially aggravated me, as noisemakers and lazy students, have found a special place in my heart, and are now some of my most treasured friends. Each student has his or her own unique story to tell, of working against hunger to stay awake in class, or walking miles every day in the bleak morning light just to set foot in this compound. Some are orphans, faces in grim determination as they pore over their notes daily, heavy with the knowledge that their time here may be their only chance to escape poverty and starvation.

Yet what a miracle to see those same children, who, in one year, experience more hardship than most of us (in the US) will know in our entire lifetimes, run shrieking and giggling away from me as I chase them out of the canteen after break, or sprint to the football field to shout and play for hours, heedless of the brutal sun or their lack of shoes. In a country sometimes rent with religious tensions, Muslim and Christian students work peacefully side by side, boys and girls are treated as equals academically in a culture that still sometimes undervalues women. Those kids, who may put up a punkish front to their teachers when asked to speak English, care for each other and speak in deep, serious tones when they believe no one is watching. They play, write, create, draw, laugh, scream, discuss, eat, run and learn in a more ferocious and vivacious way than I could have ever expected, and in a way that makes me feel, with every fiber of my being, that this is home. This is a wonderful place.

As for my adoptive family, well, there is no good way of describing them unless you have the opportunity to meet them. And what lucky person I am to have had such an opportunity. I am so grateful to Cassie and the Tanzanian Education Project for allowing me to come to this wonderful country to live and work with so many amazing people. For Bibi and Babu, to open a school, which the pay for out of their own pockets, in the remembrance of three deceased children shows an incredible amount of strength and fortitude. Yet somehow, despite health or money or family troubles, they are still welcoming and hospitable. Bibi and Babu do everything they can to accommodate us and make us comfortable. This goes for the rest of the family as well... and this is no small feat; their family is huge. Even my mother, who worried daily when I was four hours away in Minnesota, worries little about the fact that I am in Africa because I have not one adoptive mama here, but about six or seven. And every person in this household, from little Maria, to her Mama, to the other house girls, the mechanic, shepherd, to Jamesi, the somewhat hapless and entirely carefree goon brother I never had, to the countless in-laws, cousins and friends of the family, to Bibi and Babu themselves, have found an unique and special place in my heart.

While I am excited to come home and see my own friends and family again, I will leave here with no little reluctance. And of course it will be weird to see so many white people again.

Well, with that, it is time to stop writing about how much I am going to miss these people and instead go spend some real time with them before I depart. Thanks again to the donors who have made this organization possible, my family, Cassie and the Tanzanian Education Project for getting me here to Bunju A, Tanzania for an amazing experience. See you on the other side!