In a Flash Everything’s Gone

Today, Saturday August 4, I (Cassie) was busying working on some FANAKA advertising at our stationary shop when Mwenda busted in the door. He said his classmate and one of my students who graduated in 2009 from FANAKA just called him to notify him of a family tragedy. I could tell Mwenda was upset because his English became extremely broken and he was moving the fastest I've nearly ever have seen from a Tanzanian. I finally got it out of him that the student was Kelvin and his family’s house burnt down just hours ago. We dropped everything and rushed to town to do our part to help.

We ended up meeting Kelvin outside his technical college where he is learning Tax and auditing. He explained that a week ago he paid all his school fees that allowed him to sit for his examinations that started in just two days but the University called him shortly before the fire to say he needed to bring his receipts to prove he paid, or he couldn’t sit for his exams. Although situations like this are stressful, he thought he could just go home, grab the receipts and everything would be straightened out. As he sat in his final lecture for the day, his friend sent him an SOS message. He stepped out not expecting to hear some of the worst news he could imagine; his family’s house burnt down with everything they owned inside.  He rushed home to find his house black as night with all his possession gone.

When we arrived it was absolutely heartbreaking to see what little possession they had to start, sitting in the yard ruined. With crying and prayers in the background, Kelvin walked us around his small house where his brother, two sisters and his mother stayed. Although the cement structure of the house remained, every couch, picture and bed was gone. Luckily, no one was hurt. But, in Tanzania there is no such thing as insurance. When you lose something, it’s gone for good. There is no government support, no insurance check coming in the mail and no means to recover important documents. Kelvin sat holding a folder of charred papers that included barely readable documents that proved his life accomplishments, including those essential receipts. He held it up with tears in his eyes and said, ‘madam, this is my life. This is all I have left.’

All too often I have seen how detrimental family tragedies have on students. They can shake a student so bad that they ruin their only opportunity for a future. In Tanzania everything comes down to an exam. In secondary school they have one shot, if they blow it, they can kiss their future goodbye. For Kelvin, these life changing exams started in just two days. Everything he needed to study from was gone. Not a single pencil remained. This is the most agonizing detail of Kelvin’s story and one that continues to keep me up at night.

I had given him as much money as I could so he could start to rebuild his family’s life but it hardly put a dent in the loss.

I am asking for your support. Anything you can give will allow Kelvin to at least replace his school materials. For additional questions please email me at cassie.parkhurst@yahoo.com. All donations can be made directly to National Exchange Bank or sent to N5205 CTY S Beaver Dam WI 53916. Thank you in advance for your warm thoughts, prayers and contributions.
-Cassie

Through the Dust

The three of us have been busy tearing apart the Academic office at FANAKA. This office should be the backbone of the school, used to develop teachers as well as students’ academic performance. Unfortunately, for the past two years it has served as only storage pit.

It has always been on my ‘to do’ list for this trip as the condition of the room when I left was less than functional. As we jostled the keys to get inside, I knew we had a project on our hands. The first creak of the door let in blurry light and a spider web hung from the ceiling. Stacks and stacks of dusty, dirty copies of past exams piled from every inch in site.  The room smelled of musty paper, it pierced your nose with every breath.  Creatures of all kinds starred up at us but we pushed on. It didn't take long to develop our own filthy assembly line of organization. Biology papers went here, geography there and the ‘I have no idea what this is’ went to the far right-we’ll get to those later.
 

As grubby as this project was, it was nice to break from the mental work we have been doing day and night for the last two months. It brought me back to the ‘TZ3’ when Eileen, Teresa and I spent months trudging through piles of dusty books and soggy boxes to build those libraries.

Physical projects give your mind instant gratification. You can see the before and after. See where your sweat was left to make some sense of the mess. The message was clear, work hard and you can SEE the results. A struggle of mine as the president of TEP (and most people in the field) is that most donors push for these physical projects. They want to see the results of our time and money spent. Unfortunately, most projects that make the greatest impact are those that the results take months or even years to see. They don’t present themselves in perfect before and after pictures.

I hope that our donors will understand how much mental work has been poured into FANAKA to try and save the school. I am confident the physical results will show one day through higher enrollment rates, higher examination rates and a stronger institution being able to speak to it all.  

-Cassie

Trip to Zanzibar

My name is Sean Leyva and I am interning with the Tanzanian Education Project. I arrived here in Tanzania on the 26th of July and will be in Bujnu taking pictures and documenting life here at Fanaka memorial school for the next couple of weeks.

I’ve been in Tanzania for almost a week and I have to say that it has been quite the eye opening experience. The country is a far cry from my home in Colorado, the air is thick and filled with pollution and there are people all over the place. The streets are filled with every type of vehicle you can imagine and they are all moving in different directions, passing each other by mere inches.

Cassie, Katie and me spent the first couple of days on vacation in Zanzibar Island off the coast of Tanzania. You have to take a short ferry ride to the island and once you disembark you find yourself under a barrage of shouting from taxi drivers wanting to take you to your destination. Fortunately for us we had arranged a private taxi to take us to the other side of the island to a resort town called Nungwi.

The ride to the other side of the island was quick and the landscape was straight out of National Geographic, the forest was thick with lush palm tree and burst to life with an array of green plant life. The road to Nungwi was lined with street merchants and farmers selling their goods and when we pulled in to Nungwi I was shocked at how dead the place seemed. We had forgotten that we arrived during the height of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Since much of Zanzibar is Muslim most of the shops and restaurants closed their doors for the holiday. Despite the holiday the resort town was still pretty busy, we stayed at the Nungwi Guest House, where we were welcomed with open arms.

The innkeeper was a very nice man who kept us entertained and thankfully spoke English very well. Most of time in Nungwi was spent on the white sandy beaches enjoying the sun and the crystal clear water. To keep costs down we ate our meals in the in only shop in town that kept its doors open during Ramadan. To avoid offending the locals we ate our food in our hotel, where our innkeeper didn’t mind that we ate in front of him. Since Nungwi and Stone town are filled with tourists the locals take every opportunity to sell you just about anything. I learned really quick how to say no thank you in Swahili. Aside from the constant pestering from the local merchants we walked the beaches barefoot and enjoyed the beautiful landscape that Zanzibar has provided us.

 After a couple of days in beautiful Nungwi we made our way back to the main port city of Stone Town, stopping to enjoy a spice tour on the way. IT was amazing to see just where the everyday spices I eat everyday originate. Once in Stone Town we checked into our hotel, Cassie Katie and I began to walk around town and discover what Stone Town had to offer. Much like Nungwi, Stone Town was pretty much closed down for the Muslim Holy month. The narrow streets of Stone Town are filled with people and cars whizzing by and any shops that where open were filled with tourists. The town has a very old feeling to it and the Arabic architecture adds to that aura. We splurged a bit in Stone Town and had a few nice meals and a hot shower or two. The following day we hopped on the Ferry, which was a nightmare, the ocean was rather rough and made the boat and our stomachs jostle in every direction. Once back in Dar Es Salaam we got our sea legs back and began the journey to Bunju.

Sean Leyva

8/1/12