Hi..second post today! so if you want to make sense of this, read the one underneath this one..i was typing merrily along when a notice appeared that i had 37 seconds to go before that whole thing erased!! Yikes! and welcome to blogland Tanzania.....electrical blackouts, machines turning off for no reason at all, keys sticking..so here goes, where was I?
Masai girls education fund...that is where i was, trying to describe the complexities of the selection committe of Masai, Charles and me toward which kids will continue school...all the secondary schools are boarding.i wondered why, especially with this culture walking 10-20 kilometres a day easily..was told that unless they board, they won't continue school. They go home on a visit, are needed to collect water, look after cows, goats, fetch firewood, look after the little ones, and help their mothers create homes of cow dung. Once home, teachers, headmistresses have to come and fetch them back to school. So boarding is a necessity. The school i visited on Saturday was just built this year, made of concrete blocks with a grass and corregated tin roof, open windows. It had five classrooms- two being used for dormitories, boys, girls, the other three as classrooms/offices.
The kitchen which fed an astounding and astonishing 120 children was a small lean-to outside and next to the school complex, about 12 foot by 12 foot, a fire burning outside with a big pot broiling ugali atop. The toilet an enclosed outhouse behind the school, a hole in the ground. The govt of Tanz. is building hundreds of schools such as these in every ward, intent on furthering the education. The girls dorm was stacked to the ceiling with over thirty bunk beds, jammed in a foot away from each other - the girls curious, laughing, wanting their picture taken..outside a choir practicing their singing, with a large group of students hanging on to each note, singing along..it was lively, fun..and on a saturday when there is no school..

What else...so many things...it is all the same, familiar to me, the streets, the people, remembering Lindsey and I from last year, shouting CANADA!! across the road, these boys selling Masai beads, carvings, beseeching you to buy if you will, but i tell them over and over, I am not a tourist..I will buy things but not now, maybe later, but not if they won't leave me alone with this selling...and with a huge smile, they remember..oh yes, remember ME! they say, and how is your daughter, mtoto....Lindsey, everyone want to know...
SwaHili...what little i learned last year...i am remembering now...and adding new words as best i can..it is difficult as there is no connection between the words and phrases in Swahili, or for that matter, in Masai, another difficulty for me...to Canadian, French or Italian..it is like grabbing sounds put together out of the air and trying to remember them..a huge learning curve all of it, for me.
I remember the roosters in the morning, the Muslem call to prayer at four am mournfully beseeching their people to get up and leave the warmth of their beds, come to prayer, and to the wives over the loud speaker, to unleash their hold on their husbands and let them go....I remember the goats along the road playing with the children untethered, the children shouting JAMBO! to me, sometimes "where is my pen", or "where is my money!" out from cracked broken walls of homes made of mud, grass, sticks, whatever they can find.
I visited the Orphanage on Saturday, before the Masai villages...a quick visit while waiting for Charles to finish his work..i walked the mile down the road past the women selling bananas in a long row..i bought two bunches, heavy to give to the kids. Last year, there were 10 little ones there; this year 35..it is astonishing. on Saturday there were 22 there, running in age from 3 to one boy who is 12...some i recognized, alot were new....The orphanage is on the edge of town, with a big dusty yard out front, this year someone has put up a swing, but other than that, a few benches and little to do. There is a reception room with an office.The harvest table we had made last year was in that room, no benches, chairs. to the back there is a courtyard where a woman is washing clothes by hand, hundreds of pieces, hanging them up in a long line stretching from the reception area to the back fence of the 'complex'. Two other small rooms lead off from the courtyard. One for the boys, the other for the girls, with beds and matresses lined up inside, the kids sleeping side by side along the width of the beds, or on the floor on the matresses. It is impossible to describe. THere are no toys...the food is limited, big pots of vegetable stews, ugali, chunks of bread sometime. I will give more on that later...
They have purchased or have been given land to build a bigger orphanage...they have bought the materials they tell me, but have not financially been able to build. The site is a long way from Mto Wa Mbu, isolated, and not near the public schools...Charles does not think this is a good idea, and i tend to agree with him..but the director of the Orphanage was not there Saturday - more to learn in the days to come.

Seanna, my daughter and my wonderful grandaughter, Sierra are coming in March to work in the Orphange with the kids. It will be an incredible experience for both of them, especially dear Sierra who is 7. She has travelled to Mexico, visited schools in small villages with local kids...and has also played with kids from all over the world in Seanna's ArtHeart, the Art Centre in Regent Park she created 16 years ago. So this will not be entirely foreign to her, but i am sure it will be an incredible stretch!

Tonight three Rotarian women from the US will visit MtoWaMbu for a couple of days, to visit the Masai villages and the projects the ICA in Tanzania are doing, first hand: the hiv aids workshops, homecare, the respiration project where they have installed 150 chimneys into the Masai mud huts with proper firepaces for cooking, the micro financing especially for women in small business, the hiv aids positive groups in the community.

I've been down the last few days, headache, tired, aching all over, but Dr. John who hooked a ride with us from MtoWaMbu to Arusha, told me not to take to bed; to get up, walk, drink lots of water, exercise..it will go away soon enough. I've been holed up in my little room since Sunday under my mosquito netting, with a flashlight reading What is the What! an incredible book about the Lost Boys of Sudan... but had to drag myself up to go to Arusha today with Charles, he for a meeting and me to buy paint for my art workshop next week....They dropped me off at some internet cafe five hours ago...I had never been there, and quite wanted to spend the day in the Patisserie....I am losing my mind! Did i write this to you already, or maybe to someone on an email...sorry if i did..but after a mile or two of walking, trying to remember, i found this place....happily, and feel so much better...
Got to run...or stop this for awhile...

I hear there is a big snowstorm back home..but now it is warmer, melting, great...
Miss you all, it is a strange thing, being so far away, and yet feeling close with family, friends at home...and yet, here too, i am making a family as well far away from home...be well...take care! this blog doesn't accept emails..so if you'd like to write, please send to lynnconnell@sympatico.ca...I promise to write back!
have a great day..or night! whatever it is...and someone, please let me know about those elections! today, it s super Tuesday and here, it is just another day....
hugs..Lynn