Communion Day

Singing before the food
All very special... the little boy in red was conducting the singing when the Communion children sang their songs, he's in Kinder here and was very good!
The choir (in purple) and their accompanying dancers ( in yellow)
The church choir came too
Sister Crispan, the one who runs the orphanage
The procession back to the orphanage from the church
the choir was riding (and singing) in the back of the ute on the way to the orphanage afterwards
singing, singing, singing

St Joseph's Communion

41,42,43,44,47,48,49,50

Around

I was in heaven nursing little Freddy who used to be so scared of me
Freddy couldn't find his parents one evening after visiting us so he came back crying his head off and climbed into my lap. After 2 minutes he was fast asleep.
Godlisten, Me and Robinson
Simon dressed up like the characters in the Ohio variety show, he really wants to do an act someday
Godlisten, Simon and Robinson. Robinson is the apprentice painter at school and one of the sweetes teenage boys I've ever met
Vumi and Bertha, the 2 favourite cleaners at school
Vumi and Alicia (Alicia's new outfit try-on)

House Check Pictures

Cornel, the only boy who got through in our group. he is with his mother as all other family members were out (we suspect his father has HIV as he was diagnosed with TB and that's usually an indicator apparently)
Angelita, another smart girl but very young so she is going into the prep class, very cute too!

We even have to check all assets and take photos - this was Aneti's father's shop (a typical shop in Tanzania)
The family of Aneti, a very smart girl who was accepted for every stage so far (the twins are her brothers). I went with Suzanne for these house-checks and for many reasons she decided to sponsor Aneti when she got back to Australia.
Meyasi just went crazy because there were twins! He just wanted to hold them the whole time we were checking the house and family
Me, the puppy and a hopeful girl
Puppies at one of the house-checks
Mr Meyasi and Mr Ben (all dressed up for a wedding I think)

House Checks

To get into the School of St Jude you have to be smart!!! Then you have to be poor... in that order. So, at the moment we have testing each Friday and thousands (true) of children turn up to sit on the gravel to wait their turn.
The first test is a reading test: for Prep and Standard 1 it's in Kiswahili for Standard 2 it's in English. If they pass that they sit and wait again, then off they go to do a written test with reading and maths, if they get above 16 out of 20 they get to the next stage.
The next stage is to come back the following day, Saturday morning, with their birth certificate and school reports and exercise books. We go through the paperwork and mostly find it's fake, altered or the handwriting in their books is different etc. If they get through that stage with nothing fake that we can find, we go with the child and parent to their house to check how poor they really are. We check off a list about what's in their house, what it's made of (mud, wood, brick), who lives there, how much money they earn etc. many are rejected at this stage too.
If they get through that they sit another test and passing that they are on probation from now until February next year, coming to lessons in the afternoons until then.
I decided that I didn't really want to be a part of it all but then curiousity got the better of me and I joined a house check session last Saturday.

Sponsor Child

This is Hussein, the boy I chose for my Godparents, Anne and Colin to sponsor. He is the most lovely boy and recently got 1st in his year for science (out of 150) and this is a selective school... so he is very brainy. He is also good at music and art, which is why he really loved the gifts from my Godparents - pencils, drawing paper, textas etc.
Now I want to choose someone that I have taught all year to sponsor when I get back home and start earning money again.

Home Pictures

Freddy wanted all the pens to himself... a true 2 year old
I lent the children some coloured pens

Hadija the live-in housegirl of one of the neighbours, she spends all day everyday in this position, washing everything
too cute
Neighbours
He is soooo cute
Freddy in my house
Mama Freddy, Kelvin, little Freddy with Rose
All the noisy screaming kids that live in my complex, nice enough but they also through BIG rocks at any dogs or chase and beat them with sticks... but everyone does that here so I can't really hold it against them - I just hate it

Decapitated

Yesterday afternoon, as Simon and I were walking into town, we walked past a neighbour 2 buildings up. Simon wondered why so many people were visiting there and thought there must have been a death or something so he asked another neighbour. This is what he was told:

"Yes, someone was murdered there yesterday, his friends cut off his head in an argument so now everyone is visiting to pay their respects."

I didn't really know how to react, thinking that it happened less than 30m away from me. I asked if that sort of death was common and Simon said, "Yes it happens many times in Tanzania"

I was quiet for a while just asking the odd question here and there as we walked. I asked if Simon was going to visit the house too, and yes he planned to that evening.

It's traditional to take money and write your name in a book when you go to visit the bereaved family. It's also common to party the night away with them, playing cards etc and drinking.

We came back from town later that evening and off went Simon to visit, I didn't particularly want to go anywhere near the house, picturing blood stains etc, so I stayed home working and wondering what had happened.

Simon returned after 2 hours and had the real story:

"He owed someone money or something and he was stabbed in the neck while in town"

Phew... although it still freaked me out because it's apparently 'so common' here to have your head cut off in an argument!!!

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On Yahoo!7
Check out the new Great Outdoors site with video highlights and more

At Home

Simon on the couch
Kili on the left, Mawenzi in the middle and their mother, Kibo on the right
Our kitchen in the corner and the gas cooker with 2 BURNERS!!! You can see the green water bucket on top of the gas bottle and only just see the red bucket on the floor with another lot of water. There's only one tap in the complex and way too many times a week there's no water from it.
You can also see the unmade bed... so everything is quite close to everything else. When I was sick with amoeba the smell of the food cooking (meat) while in bed sick in the same room was awful.
The cupboard... always damp and mouldy but with lots of bicarb soda and cloves to help.
Kili, the little dog who has adopted us, probably because we feed him and don't kick him or throw rocks like everyone else in Tanzania.
A sunny afternoon - the view from the bed when I was sick
Kili on the left and his sister Mawenzi on the right

Back to Culture Day

The drums we bought before Culture Day... all those for just $350. I wish I could take some back with me, but not sure about customs!

There are more pictures in the latest newsletter, just click below

http://www.schoolofstjude.co.tz/News/NewsletterAugust2006/tabid/121/Default.aspx