My last day at Ntabayengwe should have been a time of sadness. And it was. I will greatly miss the teachers and the grade 7 students. I know many of those that I taught this year will go next year to the nearest high school. There, the most able will rot. Many of the girls will become pregnant. Many of the boys will drop out. Much talent will never be fulfilled.
However, I have faith that at least one or two will overcome the obstacles. They will pass their matriculation (equivalent of A-level) and will get better paid jobs in the local community – as a nurse, teacher or policeman.
This helped me to overcome any feelings of despair.
Further cheer was provided by my parting gift to the school. As you know I have been in correspondence with a regional newspaper about the school’s water shortage. Thanks to pressure exerted by the Zululand Fever, a team arrived earlier in the week to investigate the problem. They identified the cause as being a broken pipe running under the playing field. Yesterday, they returned to fix the problem.
Today, I arrived to find children drinking from the tap and filling buckets for the classroom. So the school now has functioning electricity and tap water. And it only took one year!
No comments:
Post a Comment