We set of early this morning with Joseph to visit more of our children. It was another hot sunny day so we had to be well prepared. The dust on the road here is so fine that when you take a step a cloud of it puffs up from your shoes. So we hiked until we arrived at the home of Scola. We were happy to see that she is looking well and still studying to be a tailor at Samanga Vocational Training Centre. Her last year is starting and we is are funding her fully. Perhaps in a year we will be able to buy her a sewing machine so that she can set up a business.
Two of our children, Scola and Magreth, are in training to be tailors so the idea was hatched that one day they will be able to take the contract for sewing the school uniforms for the rest of the our children! This year we are paying a fundi (contractor) to sew new school uniforms for the children.
Continuing our journey we visited the homes of David, Delivina, and Gabriel. It has become pretty common for us to be asked to sponsor other siblings or cousins as they appear when we are talking to our children. It’s difficult to say no and in some cases we have added new children. This happened at the home of Gabriel. He has two cousins who are just finishing primary school and have no parents. They are being cared for by Gabriel’s family and both have HIV/AIDS. They are now part of the project.
We were invited for lunch by Joseph’s computer teacher, John de Ronde, a VSO volunteer who lives in Marangu and teaches at Marangu Teacher Training Centre. The plan was to pay the tailor fundi his advance at the same time in Marangu but the fundi was not available however the lunch with John was a welcome break from the road and the conversation with he and one of his colleagues from school was informative and fun.