MAJI SAFI PROJECTS JULY/AUGUST VISIT 2004

Linda Greenland & Mike Radford, 102 Whitecross Avenue – Whitchurch BRISTOL BS14 9JE
Tel:- 01275 834883

A short introduction from me to say what a WONDERFUL trip, lots of planning to ensure the students, teachers and "geriatric gang" had somewhere to stay; transport to get around and food in their stomachs everyday. Also, that the playground equipment, farm materials for the goat pens & fencing etc was bought ready to be put in place, our Kenyan "gang" didn’t let us down, it was all there waiting. So worries went out the window!! Linda, students & teachers from Ashton Park school stood in front the completed playground.

I am handing over this newsletter to the people that came with us and made such a difference to the lives of the children there. SO HERE WE GO!

RAMBLINGS - from Bobbie and Ken

Introduced to you in the last newsletter as the "goat and chicken" friends of Linda’s It should have come as no surprise to be re-named the "geriatrics" on the local radio interview. The title was suggested to show the contrast between us and the vibrant first flush of youth offered by the 6^th formers from Ashton Park School. At least, that was the excuse offered by Linda somewhere between her arm up behind her back and her ankle turning blue!!
We quickly moved beyond "increased years" to drift gracefully into the realms of "increased experience" What an experience it was. We left with high anticipation, and a big element of not wanting to intrude upon the lives of the African families. (At that time only known to us by name)
Friends of ours Janette and Vernon, Ken and I joined Mike, Linda and Linda’s son Jeff on our journey. It was one to savour and remember for all time.
We were welcomed literally with open arms by the "gang" Miriam, Becker and Fidy. Made to feel so welcome, not only by them, but by all we met.
"KARIBU, KARIBU" (welcome, welcome) The children sang to us, wanted to hold our hands whenever and wherever possible. It was a very moving experience.

SHIKA ADABU

It is very rural, tucked away in the bush. You would never know from the main road running between two sides of the village, that it exists. Mud huts in various stages of repair, ramble between palm trees, banana plants and general scrub land. Washing hangs from bushes and people sit, shaded from the sun, with children, chickens, and goats beside their house. Amazing then that amidst all this a thriving wonderful little school that was to capture our hearts.

INSPIRATIONS SCHOOL

The children are so intent on learning. They are well behaved and SO polite. "Please teachers may I come in " "good morning teacher, how are you" The words we came to hear and enjoy each day. We were there to introduce both teachers and pupils to crafts. All were keen to learn and try the varied things taken. Glue, shaping sticking, paper mache etc all soaked up like blotting paper, such was their enthusiasm. So many big smiles; so many large dark and sparkling eyes, how could we be anything other than captivated by them?
REMEMBER in the last newsletter we said "WATCH THIS SPACE" well, here we are with the fantastic wall mural painted by EVERYONE! The children’s eyes were wide with amazement when we unveiled the wall after a hard weeks work.

LINK WITH PENSFORD SCHOOL – BRISTOL

We live in the small village of Pensford and have two grandsons attending the village school. Through that connection the opportunity came to discuss with Headmistress Avril Connelly the forth-coming trip we were making. Her enthusiasm soon spread to staff and pupils and their fundraising achieved a wonderful £282. The children decided they wanted to buy more goats. They also wanted to buy and fill pencil cases for us to take in our luggage (out went more of our clothes) they included a short note and a photo of themselves. It was wonderful to be part of both sides of this venture, we were able to bring back the thanks of the African children, together with drawings they had each done for the children, at Pensford.

BOREHOLE (now called Bobbie’s borehole!!)

We decided to make fresh water in Shika Adabu our project for the visit. Three hole diggers were quickly found by Linda and Mike. On our first day we were honoured with cutting the first turf. Armed with a blunt cobble edged spade, a knackered crowbar and a chisel that had seen many years of hard labour, they began their task. New tools were purchased and progress raced ahead. About 6 feet in 10days. However, the coral becomes harder and harder as the depth increases, pace slows accordingly. Our last update was a wonderful 35 feet. The final depth will be 60-70 feet. The three men have a long way to go. Long enough for us to raise the money for pump, generator, tanks and building to house it all.
So what was it really like out there?
Linda and Mike had shown us hundreds of photographs. We had also shared many hours of conversation about all the building work and progress of the schools. However, it is not until you see it and feel it happening around you, that you know what a truly wonderful and inspiring gift the schools are to these children. A chance to make a start in life, in surroundings that are to say the very least, difficult. So many parents not working, either because they are sick, or because they can’t find work. They live from hand to mouth each day, existing in conditions you cannot even begin to imagine. To say it is someone handing you a big thick rope as you are drowning, would not be an exaggeration. The gift of education and a way to improve not only themselves, but also hopefully, to work together for improvement to the systems and area surrounding them. Every element, every infrastructure needs attention in some way.
Corruption is rife….. it is so, because even those, so say in work, often don’t get paid for months on end. They are then driven to be less than honest out of necessity and need, not by greed. We were even stopped by the Police, so say at a security check. Our driver was asked to hand over his paperwork together with 300 Kenyan shillings (£2) in order for the policeman to find nothing wrong with the vehicle. The policeman should have known better you might say - but probably he hadn’t been paid for a month or two. Maybe his mud hut was falling down or his children hungry. Opportunity presented itself…..white, so called wealthy tourists, just too good a chance to pass up. If your children were hungry what antics would you get up to in order to put a bowl of rice in their hands???

NAKED CHEF EAT YOUR HEART OUT!

What did we eat whilst we were there? Well, thanks to some of the mothers of the children at the school, we enjoyed some splendid lunches. Rice, coated potatoes, tomatoes, beans, onions and samosa’s. They were real troopers. They cooked on the floor (often with a baby tied to their back) enjoyed being together and having the opportunity to earn a wage. We shared our daily meal with them, all the teachers, borehole diggers, our bus driver, builders the lot. It was great…. a great time of togetherness. Cooked on the floor, chopped bashed, mixed and tossed with love and care. Many of them didn’t speak a word of English but our look of thanks and Mmmm was enough!
Here are: Janette, Bobby with the ladies that cooked

Before leaving the UK I contacted Dave Manning of Whitehall Garden Centre, Whitchurch asking for sponsorship of seeds for Africa. He was wonderful... He contacted Sutton Seeds who came up trumps with a large selection of vegetable seeds. Once in Africa we arranged for Guiness (Bekkers brother) to run a trial ground for us. He has land and is willing to invest time to see if our seed will survive the heat. We bought him new tools, as the old ones were fragile. He is keeping records of progress and we in turn, feed back to Suttons. If it works Suttons are on a promise…. The Africans just can’t afford to invest money in seeds themselves. They need to spend what they earn on day-to-day eating. Money for seeds, which may, or may not yield a harvest in 4 months time, is often out of the question.
HOW WOULD I SUM UP OUR TRIP?
It was a FANTASTIC experience. Very tiring, but it was great. We felt humbled by the welcome we received. Admiration at the work Mike and Linda have put into the villages. The way the parents and children alike respond to them reflects the respect and love they deservedly have earned; by the people they have helped so much. THEY SING:….

AMEN to that…..Thank you for inviting us and yes we accept yours and their invitation to return. As Mwanajoma (teacher) said to us as she hugged us as her family. God sent you to us, If He is willing you will return soon. Well, God willing
WE WILL.
By Bobbie & Ken.

Hope you enjoyed Bobby’s account of their trip and Ashton Park teachers and students will write an account of their visit in the next newsletter.

I must say at first I was a bit wary about taking 13 teenagers and 2 teachers to the projects – along with our 4 geriatric friends (I am going to be hung, drawn and quartered for that name!!) & my eldest son Jeff, but what a brilliant team they were. Everyone helped each other, got stuck in to the job at hand with very few moans and groans! The geriatrics helped the students and vice versa.

The goat pen & fence around completed, the pen was better than some of the local houses!

A fence around the playground was erected. Swings & slides, seesaws and monkey bars were cemented into the ground and a few adaptations were made, a hopscotch area was suggested and also another snake game was painted on concrete.

The mural on the wall quickly took shape, Verity had her plan with her and everyone got started, after a few days the masterpiece was completed.
A typical safari park scene complete with the animals etc etc and then we realised we had paint left over so we started again in another classroom.. This time it was the sea-shore and ocean, all the sealift underneath was painted, plus many other things including a jet overhead with "Linda & Mike" painted on the side (whose idea was that?). I wish you all could see the children’s faces to have this brought into their classrooms.
The children had the opportunity to do craft work, which isn’t normally possible. The teachers quickly caught on and we left them with materials to carry on with. Bobby, Ken, Janette and Vernon have already started planning next years trip and all the wonderful things they can do with the children.

Mike and I want to say a "special THANK YOU" to them for being such wonderful friends and for all the help and support they gave. Every day, every evening without fail they were there to help us with what needed to be done for these children. I packed a couple of boxes of tissues and BOY did we need them, tears of joy, laughter and sadness.

And another special "THANK YOU" to the students and teachers, you were amazing company and I hope that we will have more students from Ashton Park school coming to visit the project in the future. You were a credit to the school.

The Charity Registration is in progress, the trustees have formally been appointed, the forms are almost complete, we hope in a few weeks that they will be stamped and sent to the Charities Commission. This has involved a lot of work; I am really concerned that in the future my time will be taken up by administration and not the "personal" side of things, I really like to make sure that all sponsors and donors feel they are part of the projects.

ONCE AGAIN we would like to thank everyone that has donated money to the projects, for example: - borehole; porridge; storybooks; goats; sports equipment; mosquito nets; uniform/shoes (the list is endless) but all these things are so much needed and appreciated

PLEASE can you make sure that you inform me of ANY CHANGE of address, phone number or email address, it is VERY IMPORTANT for my records and to make sure you continue to get information.

PROJECTS

The main project for the end of 2004 and 2005 is to make sure the borehole is dug, the building around is built and the pump and generator is set up and working. This is a major project.

Also, we need to get the 4^th classroom rendered inside & floor finished plus tables and benches. Then render the outside of the 3^rd. & 4^th they can both be used at the start of 2005.

FUTURE PLANS

The trustees and committee decided it was necessary to set up a "bursary fund" to help our older children go to Secondary school after the have completed Standard 8 at Primary. Secondary education costs between £20 - £25 a month; pupils will have to travel by bus to Secondary school and also have to find money for lunch, instead of going home as most of them do at the moment. We know that the increase in fees will be too much for most sponsors to cover, we have already got some children being "shared" by 2 sponsors, so this Bursary fund will make up the shortfall that sponsors can’t pay (we hope)

We decided that 10% of sponsorship money would go in the fund and ALL CHILDREN WILL BENEFIT when their turn comes to go to Secondary school. At the moment our older children are starting Standard 7 next year, so we have 2 years to accumulate money to help them.

We are still looking for mobile phones, we did take some in the summer but we always need more, Miriam had an accident and dropped hers down the loo, it is a 40ft "long drop" African toilet so no way of retrieving it!!

If anyone wishes to send a letter, Xmas card or money to their child/family for Xmas gift or food, please send to me before 14^th December. We are not travelling until Boxing Day, but our workers can go ahead and buy food or give out the money to the families for Xmas Day. They will get the cards/letters etc as soon as we get there.

We hope to have another Ceilidh Night early next year also an evening with a "Close Encounters" magician. This follows the "HMS HERON NAVY BAND" evening on October 9^th, which we hope will be a great success.

MANY, MANY THANKS to ANDY KYBERT M.D. Woodside Press BRISTOL for printing this newsletter.