Elalini. Dec 2018 - Jan 2019
Dear friends of REACH! for SA,
With a plan and model mapped out for a rural South African pre-school, our challenge was to find an exact starting point; that one person to call, that one place to put a stake in the ground. It happened on the island of Mauritius, of all places, where my brother had lived for some time when he flew for Air Mauritius, and he and his family invited us to visit last December (2017) My wife had a serendipitous conversation with a man in the swimming pool, and after telling him of our plan, he promised to send us the number of a person he knew who worked in the Department of Education. I contacted her immediately on returning to Seattle and found her to be most helpful, however, since early childhood education doesn’t fall under the department of education, she referred me to an associate who was working on a rural education development project with a local chief to upgrade the standards of education within his district. He too was very helpful, but acknowledged that he wasn’t the person to speak to and put me in touch with a lady in East London who runs a non-profit training teachers from rural areas. Bingo!
Caroll Warmberg is the director of ITEC, (Institute of Training and Education for Capacity Building) an organization that already had nine teachers in the field, plus a liason who visited the classrooms once a month to monitor, per a contract with the local chief (Chief Dumalisile) but who were holding classes in mud huts and tin shacks without dirt floors. They would be delighted to have us involved. It was exactly what we were looking for.
We met in July, and travelled out to Amajingqi where we were introduced to the chief, (who gave us his enthusiastic blessing) the teacher, the children and the community, and shown the site where the school would go. Instruction is basic, mostly in their mother tongue, Xhosa, though some English is being introduced. The teachers are not bi-lingual, and trained to a rudimentary level, but are devoted and caring. The children were delightful, singing us songs, showing us their goats, and thrilled with the shoes we brought them. We left them with the promise that we would be back in December with a new school.
I found a supplier of containers in Durban, who would also convert, to my specifications, into a classroom, with six windows and a door, as well as deliver to East London where we could work on the painting and interior before delivering to site.
After keeping me updated on the progress, he loaded up and delivered on time. We had found a local contractor in Gonubie, (a suburb of East London, and the last stop before heading out towards Willowvale where the school would go) who was also a contractor, and was willing to rent us his house, his yard where we could work on the container, his workshop and all his tools, his pickup and his trailer.
We hired our youngest son, Sean, a graphic designer and artist, to do the exterior mural for the school, and with our daughter to film and photograph, we flew out in December to start work.
Two weeks later, it was ready! After one false start due to a broken down truck, we finally delivered the new school the four hours to the site, there welcomed by a joyous, ululating community who came running from their huts and their fields singing, banging on drums, waving and dancing. (See video) With the help of some locals we assembled the roof and water catchment system on site, set up the inside, and handed over the keys to the ecstatic teacher.
And all in the space of one year!
Before leaving, I ordered the second container from a local supplier who also agreed to convert as per the first container. We are all set to get going on the second school.
