We near our journey's end and Mary Ann and I separated yesterday - well not in the sense of divorce! She is visiting the women's projects in Moshe and I am here in Arusha visiting schools and see in the projects I have been connected and staying with our friends - Donna, Nas and little Rami - age 4 years. HE speaks fluent English and Swahili. He sparkles and shines.
Today I drove for two hours into a village called Ilkurot - which means dusty land. Wind sweps the dust all about into your eyes, ears and nose and any other orifice it can find. My driver and I visited the school, largely supported by Maasai Wanderings. Classrooms are open windowed rooms with ceilings in disrepair. desks are simply. benches with 4 students to a bench and, I kid you not about 180 students in a classroom because of lack of space and teachers - often a teacher goes from room to room while one group does a written assignment and the students behave! The teacher's salary is 4 hundred dollars a month. An irony about all of this is that the country of Tanzania is building more schools without enough teachers to staff them. Can you imagine a classroom of 5 -10 year olds of 150 children with one teacher and a helper. I had a good conversation with the preschool teacher and she loves what she does! That's nice.
And out side of Donna's house my brother sits and somehow chats with the guys coming and going from Safaris as a Singer sewing machine whirs behind while a beautiful man with one leg makes nets for babies. This is a different life and I am touched by the human kindness of it all.
Tomorrow I will visit an orphanage and paint with the children. I Hope to catch you all tomorrow. And If Mary Ann does not find a computer, I send love for her too.
Dada Mary and Mary Ann
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