Day 47 Duncan & The Mwendo Needy Children and Orphan Project

Saturday January 28^th. Last night at dinner we were introduced to a remarkable young man. His name is Duncan and he is twenty-three. At the age of fourteen he was the beneficiary of a tourist sponsor, who sponsored him and paid for his secondary school education. He has met his sponsor who helped to change his life. In order to pay back the support he received, about five years ago he and a friend started up a project called The Mwendo Needy Children and Orphan Project to benefit needy orphans of AIDS victims. At present they have about 250 children attending their school. They have a staff of 10 teachers ad a head teacher named Bosco.

Duncan told us about his project and invited us to come and see the school. A group of us went this morning. After a brief orientation meeting where he explained what the project is about and what they hope to accomplish, we were invited into the classrooms to watch the teachers and the children. The teachers teach the children the alphabet, numbers, colours and shapes with song.

At this time, the school is a couple of wooden barn type buildings. Duncan showed us the foundation of the new brick school they hope to build. The land has been donated to Duncan and his project by a chief of the area. The office is in one of the rooms of the chief's house.

We were encouraged to “teach” them. Since they were learning about the parts of the body from a poster, I tried to teach them the Head and Shoulders song, with some success. Then all the classes and us went out for a large circle physical education class. A teacher or a student or one of us, stood in the middle and lead a copy me, call and response type activity. Then we just mingled with everyone, took lots of photos and showed them to the kids.The kids were delighted to see themselves on the cameras. They also loved the bracelets and bangles some of us have bought on this trip, and our sunglasses. I was 'adopted' by a little boy, who I found out was deaf. John was adopted by a sweet little girl.

After that we left the school and returned to the office where Duncan asked if we wanted to sponsor a child or donate money to the school to help them build the new brick school. It was not a high pressure sell, or a guilt type delivery. He was matter of fact and straight forward. I decided to sponsor a child and asked if my little deaf friend was unsponsored. He already was, so I told them to give me one who they deemed the neediest. They brought me a very shy little girl named Susan. John sponsored his little friend, Anita (who has a twin brother that he is going to get his sister to sponsor). We both feel confident that the money we donate will directly benefit the children and not line someone's pocket. You have to trust someone and Duncan certainly seems trustworthy. He is a highly motivated young man.

After that we left the school and Duncan led us back down a long, steep hill to our camp. It is very poignant to see women and children working by hand in the fields, or carrying water bottles on their heads back up this steep hill to their basic shack homes, while we and other tourists get to camp or stay in nice resorts on this beautiful lake. Really makes you think and reflect on things.

Just found out that there is some sort of fighting or revolutionary thing going on in Egypt.... yikes... now what?

We relaxed the rest of the day. Went for a swim, talked with people, had a beer and dinner. Then we had a briefing about tomorrow adventure. Another early night, we were in bed about 8:30.