4 October 2018
Time: 7AM
Breakfast: none – to be eaten later on.
Temperature: Phew, what a scorcher
Up early again for a busy day visiting Kibaigwa Primary School and Kibaigwa Secondary School.
Mr Mollel is the Head Teacher of the Primary School and we have had the pleasure of his company a few times this week. He is there to meet us a little before 8AM as the pupils ranging from 5 to 13 years line up on the school’s parade ground to sing the Tanzanian National Anthem. Even at a young age, these children are seriously talented – their harmonies reaching out into the African countryside. We introduce ourselves to the hundreds strong cohort, and are greeted with the loudest “Good Morning!” I have ever heard. The children then march, yes, march off to their classrooms singing the school song.
We are welcomed into Mr Mollel’s office and we introduce ourselves to the members of staff. We are presented with our very own Masai robes, a nod to the fact that Mr Mollel is in fact Masai! How splendid we look – unfortunately no spears were available.
Mr Mollel then escorts us the first of a couple of classrooms we visit and, as ever, the welcome is warm and friendly, especially given the costume we are wearing. The chaps seem to have settled on a convention as this time Craig is allowed give the funniest introduction. Andy starts to give a geography lesson and we all admit he is actually OK at drawing maps of the world.
Eric visits the class for the visually impaired where the braille machine, kindly procured by a Bidborough couple, was being put to good use. Elice, who is the teacher explains that there are 4 visually impaired children in Kibaigwa schools and 13 children in other schools in the area. She explains the challenges of teaching blind children, and expresses concern that there are no “fictional” books in Swahili for blind children and that it is impossible to get hold of soft nylon drawing paper for use by blind people.
Meanwhile, Mat and Craig are setting up what will prove to one of the highlights of the day, and in fact the week. A video link between Kibaigwa and Bidborough Primary Schools. Craig connects with Julie (his wife and the Head Teacher of Bidborough), Julie primes all of the children in her school and the singing starts.
As the sounds of English singing fill the classroom, Mat holds the laptop aloft so the 100 or so children in the classroom at Kibaigwa can see their contemporaries thousands of miles away! Actually, there are a lot of clues to the link between Bidborough Primary and Kibaigwa Primary as several pictures adorn the walls of Mr Mollel’s office, as well as a tea towel.
We have also brought some more recent pictures of Bidborough Primary and its pupils and I am sure they will take pride of place around the school’s walls
We return to Mr Mollel’s office for a brief lunch and meet Emmanual who is in charge of the teacher training facility attached to Kibaigwa Primary School. He explained that he is currently in charge of the training of over 300 candidates from 32 schools. Unfortunately, he says, the funding he was receiving from the Swedish government has stopped and so as ever in Tanzania, money seems to be a little short.
We also meet one of the orginal Head teachers who unfortunately hasn’t been feeling very well of late.
After lunch, we have the absolute pleasure in handing out some more sports equipment, very kindly provided by Richard and Amanda Gray, including netballs, netball bibs and a kwik cricket set – more of that in a short while. Thanks to all the funds raised by the good people of Bidborough, we are also in a position to present Mr Mollel an all singing, all dancing laptop, which will help him with so many things, high level administration, lesson planning, helping the pupils with their IT skills. The picture below says more than any words can how much it means to him and the school.
Mr Mollel leads us outside so we can try out the sports equipment with the children. Mike has brought some football shirts to give to the children. Unfortunately for the children, they are mostly Darlington tops, but hey ho, a top is a top, and you never know – Darlington FC may well reach the heady heights of League 2 again in a few years.
Graham, Mat and Eric then give a demonstration of Kwik Cricket, but the children don’t need much instruction, as soon they are whacking the ball as for as Kongwa! That said, I don’t think the stewards at The Oval would have appreciated the pitch incursions by one or two of the spectators!
12.20PM
Smiles: Really Big
The time seems to have flown since we arrived at the Primary School over four hours ago. We start to say our goodbyes and head to our next appointment, a visit to Kibwaiga State Secondary school. On the way, we see the Primary school pupils leaving, crossing the road by the rather smart Lollipop Man.
Unfortunately, the Secondary School Head Teacher is away but we are greeted by his deputy. This is a relatively large school, and has a fairly even number of girls and boys. We all introduce ourselves again, but are really running out of new and/or novel ways to say hello. However, we are nothing but industrious and we persevere.
Following the introduction, Mike faced some probing questions from the Class 4 students (17-19 years old). These ranged from the importance of education, through the benefits of the BlinK with Bidborough, to “what gifts did you bring?” – eloquently dealt with by Mike. After which, Andy visits the tuck shop!
The Rafiki Report 