Ummy Mwalimu Primary School

 Today we are visiting Ummy Mwalimu Primary School in the region of Nzera. We have chosen this school to start supporting this year. Aaron picks us up from our hotel after breakfast and we then meet up with Robert, Hamisi and Johanna (who is Hamisi’s ICT trainer and who ran the teacher’s ICT training course at this school).

Traffic in Geita is busy this morning but we soon turn off the main road in the direction of Nzera. This is another dirt road but is generally in much better condition than the one we used yesterday.

We pass through a village where I spot the local Pharmacy (always of interest to me given my career as a pharmacist) among many other small shops.

After about an hour or so we enter an area that produces a large number of pineapples…..we see pineapples everywhere.

Our journey takes about 1 and a half hours to reach the school and really only the last 15 minutes are on bad roads.

On arrival we are met by the Headteacher and taken to his office where we are introduced to some more teachers and some parents who are members of the School Committee. This is a fairly new school, having been built in 2022 when a nearby school could not cope with the expanding number of children. There are currently 1905 children and 16 teachers and they have 9 classrooms.

Robert gives everyone a brief background to our project and how it currently works. We then go through the Loan Contract and get that signed. Today we will be giving the school 3 computers and a printer which is our standard “Starter” package.

A group of students then help unload the equipment from the car. They all seem very excited.

The equipment is all set up in the Staff Room where a large number of teachers are now gathered along with the parents from the School Committee, the Headteacher from the local Secondary School and a young man called Jackson who was a teacher at another primary school that we supported some years ago. He is currently working in an advisory role to primary schools and has been invited here today. It was really good to see him again. There are also 2 students from Stndard 6 representing all the children.

There then follows a large number of speeches, starting with the Headteacher and then the Academic Teacher. These are basically thanking us for the equipment and explaining how it will benefit the teachers, students and local community.

Jackson then gives a really inspirational speech, encouraging the school to make the most of this opportunity that they have been given, it was quite moving. Robert, Peter and I also get a chance to say a few words. Then finally the 2 students, Ebenezer and Dorcas, speaking in English, thank us for the computers.

This is all followed by the usual request for group photos with everyone wanting to be involved.

While all of this has been going on some local ladies who I guess were parents and probably members of the School Committee have been preparing lunch for everyone. This included making their own fresh fruit juice ( which we forget to take a photo of) but included avocado, pineapple and ginger and was lovely. However you can see them making it in the picture below. Lunch included rice, beef stew, beans, greens and fish as well if you wanted it.

After lunch the Headteacher took us round a few of the classrooms. The first room we visited was pre-primary. These children are the youngest so only attend in the morning so had now gone home. This was a really lovely room and the teachers had certainly used their own initiative and imagination to make lots of models and educational toys as well as loads of posters and drawings.

The next class was Standard 3. There are around 300 children in this class so they attend in 2 separate sessions each day. As you can see even then there are not enough desks for everyone. When asked, none of them has ever used a computer.

And finally we say Hi to Standard 7 (the top class in the school).

After seeing the classrooms and then some more thanks and promises to keep in contact and make good use of the computers, we leave. It has been a very enjoyable visit and I am optimistic that they will make good use of the computers and so when we visit again next year we will be giving them some more equipment.

On our way back to Geita Hamisi wants to stop and buy some pineapples. We stop at a place where a couple of guys are harvesting them. They are very keen for us to try the pineapples, giving us huge chunks to eat  and they are lovely. Hamisi buys 5 and we are on our way again.

A little further down the road we stop at a field where we can see the pineapples growing.

We continue our journey back to Geita spotting a bit of wildlife on the way.

Our final stop of the day is to call in on the Headteacher of Ziwani Primary School, which we visited yesterday. You may remember from my blog entry that he had a motorbike accident about 4 months ago and broke his leg and is still not recovered. We met up with him for a drink and a quick catch up. On meeting him we could quickly see that he still really can’t put a lot of weight on the leg though he does say he can walk on it but I think that can only be a few paces. He said it is improving and he is in less pain now and has exercises to do. He is a nice guy and remarkably cheerful given the situation.

It is now about 5.30 when Aaron drops us back at the hotel. We then meet Robert about an hour later and decide to go for dinner at a place called Big Mikes that we have been to before. We order a “Sizzler” with potato wedges and bananas. It is all very good and we have a nice relaxed evening with some wine and beer. It has been a good day.