Gilala Primary School

Friday June 4, 2010
Another later start to the day as we don’t have to be at Gilala school until 10:00. Peter and I gather up empty 1.5L water bottles to take to the CPAR office to fill to use for drip irrigation for the trees we are to plant. Water from the Karatu pipeline is a muddy brownish colour. People must boil it before they can drink it.
Into the jeeps and on the way in the heavy mist – very close to rain. Gilala Primary School is located in the picturesque highland village of Kili Matembo (Elephant Hill). There is mud everywhere! We get out of the jeeps and take about 10 steps before we are carrying an extra 10 pounds on each shoe. We are welcomed by the head teacher and the assistant head teacher, who acts as the translator and MC and seems to be in charge of the agenda. First, into the office to sign the guest book. Next, ceremonial welcoming speeches. The Tanzania students sang us a Tanzania song (not the national anthem but a very pretty song about Tanzanian pride) and the Canadian contingent introduced each individual. Again, I find it hard to explain that I teach Computer Science to children that don’t have electricity. I just say I’m a teacher. We toured the tanks, girls latrines, and drinking/handwashing stations. They demonstrated how everything worked and explained the job of the school water committee, stressing that it consisted of 2 boys and 2 girls so there would be gender equality. The teacher looked at the CPAR reps as he made this last point, but I’m not sure everyone really bought in to the gender equality concept – there’s a ways to go. We then planted trees with the students. It was a lot of fun – we were already completely covered with mud. Those children, obviously farmers, were no strangers to working a hand hoe! We planted about 50 trees in the fertile volcanic soil and settled in the pop bottles for drip irrigation. Cleaned up for lunch – we ate in a separate classroom since we had box lunches and the African students were eating a maize and beans mixture. Their food was actually very good – Janice traded parts of her lunch for a sample of their lunch and we all had a taste. Following lunch was more ceremony – singing and dancing. The village chairperson made a speech about how pleased they were with the collaboration and hoping it would continue. We were presented with gifts of Masai shukas (blankets). Janice was drawn into a dance and wrapped in a kanga – she was so excited she nearly ripped a hamstring jumping around. Peter finally danced! Susan was presented with 2 shukas (one's for you, Daria!). The parents were honoured with 4 and the students presented with 4, which we will divide up randomly.
We then brought out the bag of sports equipment for the school and a soccer game ensued. 3 - 2, thanks to Devin for both goals. Everyone was playing some kind of game or making some sort of connection. Even the tour bus drivers were playing soccer with the kids.
The people in this village seemed to be a little more worldly, perhaps because they are a bit closer to Karatu town. They had much better English, and were very curious about life in Canada. I brought out some pictures of my family and some winter pictures and was immediately mobbed by people young and old who were absolutely fascinated with the photographs. As usual, everyone is very curious about Mary – they do not understand the concept of a black Canadian and assume she is the only one. Some other ideas are also difficult to explain. What is the importance of forests in Canada? Do we use them for firewood? How do our houses withstand the cold (many people here live in houses with walls of mud and a roof of thatched grass)? Why am I not a grandmother at my age? (tried not to let that last one get to me). Finally left at about 3:30 and drove back home. Many students went into town but I sat out with a book in my hands – which immediately attracted people to sit around and talk. Everyone got spiffed up a bit and we went to Happy Days for a change of pace for dinner. Some students wanted to go home immediately after dinner (having a bit of a hard time adjusting to new experiences) but we told them to stick it out for a bit. Started playing the kids’ music (shudder) and they all started dancing and even had some of our drivers up and dancing with them, so everyone had a good time. Went home at about 10:00 and had a minor mishap when one student had her hand caught in a jeep door. Peter cleaned and carefully bandaged it while someone held a flashlight. After he was finished, the student with the injured hand pointed out that he had missed the actual wound, so we had to take it off and do it again.