We were suddenly interrupted by a low voice from behind. We both turned to see a tall, slim, lady with mahogany coloured skin and big black eyes that made me think of the devil, but I don’t know why. I guess I just saw evil in her.
‘I take it you are Melanie and Tony. I am Mana. This is my school and I work here, how can I help?’ she exclaimed.
Tony and I just looked at each other with blank faces. She was just so different to what you would expect a schoolteacher to look like and she had such a deep voice for a woman. She looked so uninviting and unfriendly, neither of us know what to say to her. Luckily for us she carried on to explain more about the school, the children who went there and the surrounding village.
We learnt that there were three teachers teaching everyday and that included Mana. That they learnt about local trades and they didn’t really have proper lessons and not just children from this village came here but from miles around. In some hope of education and most importantly to them, a future.
July 20th
We have been working here for three days now and I’ve noticed that some of the age gaps between the children are huge. There are a total of fifty-three students in the school, which is just one room. The youngest is seven and the eldest is fifteen. Back home they would be studying totally different subjects and at completely different levels, but here they all study the same.
Their days are awfully long for a child. Getting up early in the morning to complete household chores. Then walking to school were they face 8 hours of work and learning. Then they have to walk home, complete more household chores and then do homework.
To me this is a very long day, in dreadful conditions, for such little learning of anything useful for life.
July 22nd
The climate here is lovely compared to England it’s like being in a sauna all day. I’m appreciating my showers, which consist of me tipping a cold bucket of water over my head. They’re extremely refreshing and worth while.
The scenery is indescribable! The hills surrounding the village are as big as giants; their heads vanishing into the clouds. The ground is covered with dust as dry as sand. The sunrises and the sunsets are something I can’t get my head around. They’re far better than walking along a British beach watching the sun vanish into the sea. Over here it’s like it’s dropping over the edge of the world, never to be seen again.
The noises that the animals make are fantastic. You can listen to them while peacefully lying in bed. The crickets make this most lovely humming sound, almost like a lullaby. The smell of the fresh air when you wake every morning, couldn’t be any fresher. The animals and humans are as one. They are in harmony. There is a real sense of tranquillity here that I have never experienced before.
There are some things that I’m missing from home and I think Tony is too. Like everyday items which make life easy and the fact that everything is on your doorstep, not a miles walk away. Yet there are some things that I am definitely not missing.
For example: the noisy, polluting traffic or the buzzing, light polluted cities.
Being out here is like being in a different world altogether and I thank God for giving me the opportunity to come!
July 24th
Well I guess I could say that today has been the equivalent to our Sunday’s back home. We both lied in until 8, which is a long time out here, as everyone rises at 5.30 to carry out chores, before the day begins.
After completing our chores at 9.30 we headed off for the village market, about a 10-minute walk from our huts.
We found many a stall selling and trading products such as sisal, pyrethrum, sugar cane, groundnuts, wattle, hides and skins, small amounts of gold and silver, lime, bags and butter.
The market had a real buzz to it, but different to the buzz you get in the cities. Animals such as sheep and pig’s strolled about as they pleased, with no cares in the world. People rushing from corner to corner of the market, from stall to stall buying and trading what ever they could. We even came across several small children sat on the end of stalls selling what seemed to us as junk, but to them something of great sentimental value and they were selling them to stay alive.
We wandered around the dusty old market for quite awhile, taking in everything we saw. We brought food for the week and looked at crafts people had made. I brought this lovely colourful hand stitched rug, which is on the floor of my hut to brighten it up and make it feel more homely.
July 27th
School was different today. Tony and I had brought two balls with us from home that we took along. We took all the children outside. Tony taught the boys how to play football and I taught the girls netball.
There was one little girl that stood out from the rest. It was the first time I had seen her. She was a dainty thing, with beautiful brown hair like the autumn leaves and large blue eyes, just like the colour of the sea here.
Mana told me she wasn’t to participate in the games but to sit and watch from a near-by tree. So she sat in the cool of the shade under a tree, looking up at the clouds through the lacy leaves, watching the world fly by.
At the end of the day I dismissed all the children, that eagerly ran off to start their journey’s home. I slowly walked back into the school, reflecting on the day so far and collecting my belongings. Tony had gone home quickly to collect water and then to start our dinner. This took ages because we cooked over a fire in a saucepan, just outside our huts.
As I strolled back across the yard towards the gate, from the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of the little girl’s, small figure. I turned and to my surprise she was still sat under the tree in which Mana had ordered her to sit at the beginning of the day. I started to walk slowly closer to her, aiming not to startle her, as she looked extremely nervous. As I got closer I noticed she was crying and just under her ragged grey dress, below her right knee was a swollen, purple shin and a blood red scar that stared straight at me.
Ignoring what I had just seen, walking that little bit closer and taking a deep breath, I knelt down and stretched out my hand. She slowly and apprehensively lifted her head, which was just like her shin and put her hand in mine. She made slight eye contact with me, but realising she had done so she turned her head away and down as quickly as lightning. She then buried her head into her arm before quietly crying out for help.
My heart sank and my emotions began to flow like a river. I didn’t even really know her but she looked so alone and in the slight eye contact we had made I saw the real fear and loneliness inside her. I gripped onto her hand in which she had given me earlier but she pulled her hand away, got up and ran off with a limp into the distance. I watched her vanish before laying my head into my hands and crying out ‘Why God, just why?’
July 28th
I never went to teach the children today. Tony told them I was ill. While he was at the school, I had time on my own to reflect and think about what happened yesterday. I don’t really know what to say. I’d never met the child before, yet I really saw the fear and felt it for myself. Just in that short time period. I didn’t even know her name.
I couldn’t sleep last night. I was and still am so worried about her and I knew that I couldn’t face any of the children today without breaking down. I’m emotionally drained and so tired. My brain has been wondering and going off in different paths about the truth of the child.
‘Is she Mana’s? Has Mana beaten her? Why haven’t I seen her before? Why should it happen to someone so small and innocent?’
All these questions and more keep spinning around my head, like a constant merry-go-round.
This whole experience has changed the way I feel about living in this place. It really is like being in a different world, in every possible aspect.
