November 12
We left for Singida from our stay at Ngorongoro after a nice
breakfast. Al and I were a bit leery of
the trip since it was a grueling 8 hour, back breaking drive over dirt and
rocks the last time we took the trip in 2007.
However, we were pleasantly surprised that all but 70 Kilometers (about
40 miles) is now paved between Arusha and Singida. They plan to complete the paving of the
entire road by next summer. This will be
very nice for future mission trips, but it will also significantly help the
Singida economy. We arrived at Singida
early afternoon, unpacked at our hotel, and drove the thirty miles (over rough
road) to Kijota.
Our hosts in Kijota were very gracious and had a full meal
waiting for us when we arrived to Kijota.
After the meal, we had a short meeting with Bishop Sima from the Central
Diocese of the ELCT (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania), and with his
wife, Pastor Grace Sima, headmaster of Vivian Gulleen
High School for girls.
Facts about Vivian Gulleen
- The first class of 17 have passed their national finals and were eligible to attend University
- There are currently 50 girls (18 – 20 years old) attending the school
- The high school is for Form 5 and 6 levels of education. Tanzania uses the British system of education, where Forms 5 and 6 are actually years 12 and 13 of their schooling (equal to our Senior year and first year of college)
- The girls stay in dorms at the school in Kijota, and the school is in session January thru June, and July thru December (5 months on and 1 month off)
- 2 dorms, a classroom and a library have been built or refurbished since 2007 (they thanked Mt Olive for our assistance in helping to make this happen)
- Only about 12% of the parents can afford to pay the $1600 it costs to house and educate a girl per year. The remainder comes from the church body and from the Dave Riesen Foundation (we plan to meet with Dave when he is in Rochester later this month)
- There are also 45 kids in a kindergarten run by the school
- Out of over 1300 schools in Tanzania, Vivian Gulleen ranks 80th (near the top 5%) in national testing, so that is quite amazing for these girls and the school!
The woman in red in this picture was in Vivian Guleen when we last visited in 2007. She has since graduated from university and is now teaching at Vivian Guleen. Bishop Sima is in the foreground talking to Pastor Laura.
We then had an opportunity to tour the school. There are new dorms and other buildings since
we visited in 2007. It is a very nice
school. Grace Sima mentioned that they
would like to expand registrations in the future by adding a large dormitory
building to hold sixty more girls. There
is a great need in this country for education.
The library was very sparse compared to US high schools, and they said
it was difficult to get books. Andrea,
from Globe, mentioned that with the new computers that Mt Olive is providing,
there are options for CD based learning that will alleviate some of their book
problems. Andrea will follow up by
providing CDs and other materials that can be brought to Vivian Gulleen when
the large group from SEMN comes in December.
Next we were able to meet with all fifty of the girls in the
high school along with their teachers.
Bishop Sima introduced us and gave us each a chance to say a few
words. Pastor Laura did a great job of
interacting with the girls and they loved her.
We then exchanged gifts, with each of us receiving a shirt and a
handmade plaque, and us giving them one of the computers (until we get the rest
for them) and two CDs of songs from Pastor Siri. The girls were very happy with the gifts and about
getting the computers since all of their computers are currently outdated and
broken. Bishop Sima asked one of the girls to close in
prayer. One of my favorite things about
the Tanzanian people is the passion they express in their prayers to God. I can not understand the Swahili spoken
prayer, but when they pray, it touches your spirit and brings tears to your
eyes.
We drove back to our hotel in Singida and crashed from a
long day of driving and meetings.
Mark
