It’s been nearly two weeks now since I got home. I’ve been back to school shopping with my niece, the Olympics are done, Fay has drowned my car after dumping feet of rain outside my windows and the presidential conventions are getting underway. I’m back here, and yet so much of me is still there. During this in-between time, I find words hard to come by. Friends and family ask “how was it?”, and I don’t really even know where to begin. To be honest, I’ve waited to write here until the right words came. They haven’t yet, but I trust they will as I continue to wade through thousands of beautiful photographs and literally days of videotape.
But I did get an email from Mama Lucy – and perhaps it’s the best place to begin, as her note provides a summary of all that we accomplished together during the trip:
I’m not sure if I’ll have good words to express what is in my heart about that team who came to work with us the whole of July.
Before their arrival, I thought the main thing for them to come was to see the fruits of their efforts to rebuild a new Shepherds Junior School in Arusha – Tanzania; but after they arrived, I came to realize that, that was just a peanut within their plans! They came to work; and they mean and made it!
They had prepared a very good plan before they arrived, the major thing being fundraising issues. We did a lot within such short period of time of not more than a month. I feel so proud to mention the names of that amazing team to you! Sanjay, Stacey, Amanda, Zoe, Tim and Nelle. Let me just give hints of few things among many we partnered to accomplish during their trip:
- POST CARDS SALES: We were able to arrange, find places, and sell some post cards to some reputable tourist shops. Already, we’ve raised over $200 USD from selling these. The post cards feature photos of a giraffe in Tarangire National Park by Leah, a very good student in our Class IV. We were also able to visit national parks on a field trip; our plan was also to snap beautiful photos by Mr. Tim and some of the children as well for making post cards that we can sell in the future.
- PHOTO SHOOTING: We were very lucky to have within that team a very good professional photographer Mr. Tim, who did a fabulous job! We do believe, those photos will help in fundraising and spread the word about us. Some photos were sold to parents being as one way of fund raising too!
- INTERVIEWS: As what Epic Change believes (which is very true), “TRUE STORIES MATTER!” They interviewed some parents, teachers, students and some school committee members, so as to get real stories from our school.
- AUCTION: We held a fundraising auction of khangas and vitenges (traditional local garments) brought by pupils and parents, which took place on 26th July 2008. The auction was very successful and we were able to raise not less than $700 USD.
- LAPTOP COMPUTERS: Epic Change was able to come with 5 laptops with them for our school uses. They spent a lot of time too on teaching us on how to work with them; so as to make the work much easier. Special thanks to Mr. Sanjay who was there always to show my son, William, lots of things on using laptop and now William has been of great help to our school on that. All the work of typing; and even he is there to show teachers how to work with computers.
- PERFORMANCE: We held our closing day performance which was also aimed on fundraising. While our teachers prepared their students to share songs and poems, Epic Change assisted us with planning and preparation. We sold entrance tickets for Tshs 3000 equivalent to $3 USD, and even held a raffle as that was another way of fundraising. We approached the Manager of Impala Hotel (A Tourist Hotel) in Arusha and being offered a top prize for the raffle – dinner or lunch at of 2 people at Impala Hotel. The performance was wonderful! Pupils did very well, and turn up was good. We were able to raise about $800 USD!
Epic Change also helped us by teaching art and music classes, sharing interesting videos and penpal letters from across the world with our students, creating ID cards for our teachers as the government requires, helping me to learn a new internet tool called Twitter (which I’m still not very used to!) and creating brochures and posters that we can use to spread the word about our school.
These are just few things to mention; but they did a lot! Their trip was meant to work. And for sure, they made it! The work done within such short period of time really was beyond my expectation. No time to rest, no time to relax, no time to visit places like Maasai Bomas, Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro or Serengeti National Park!
Your trip was a very big lesson to me. I learnt a lot! With determination, dedicating time and efforts, someone can reach the goals! I promise to continue working hard.
I do hope we’ll continue working together for the brighter future of the pupils of Shepherds Junior School and our community as a whole.
Much love,
Mama Lucy.
We worked nonstop.When I say I’m headed to Africa, I think people often have the misconception that I’ll be on vacation. Er, no. I can honestly say that we worked harder in those few weeks than I have in any job I’ve ever had. I think Zoe, Sanjay, Amanda, Tim & Nelle would agree. As I mentioned in my last post, everything that we take for granted here – quick internet, easy transportation, accessible supplies – are far from givens there, so even the smallest task, like writing an email, becomes a time-consuming project. I’m so grateful for the volunteers who joined us to share the load – and, of course, to Mama Lucy, her family, staff, friends, students and their parents whose partnership made our trip so successful, so memorable and so much fun.
As you may have noticed, Mama Lucy writes on the blog at least once per month to share stories from the school you’re helping to build – what would you like her to write about next?
Posted: August 25th, 2008 under The Foundry.
Comments: 1
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