I know it’s hard to believe after last month’s newsletter but this month it’s greetings from muddy, mossy, mildewy, mosquito ridden Moshono!
When I left for Australia in the middle of March we were surrounded by dust and dying plants, trying to live on a cup of water a day, neighbours had cattle dying from starvation and we were suffering severe power rationing as there was no water in the dams .... and then one night the rains came.
And they continue to come. We are ankle deep in mud; all the surrounding farmers’ maize fields are sprouting as you watch; many roads are regularly unpassable; school buses frequently get bogged; sports lessons are now indoors; clothes never dry; everyone seems to have a chest infection, malaria or bug of some sort; I have to turn the lawn sprinklers on during thunder storms to empty the overflowing tanks; and the universal physics phenomenon “one large water puddle has magnetic properties for tiny feet”, is being repeatedly proven around our school grounds!
But despite all that it is fabulous to see the gardens flourishing, lawns lush and green, fruit and vegetables back in the markets, dust washed from the vegetation by the side of the roads, sleeping to the sound of thunderous applause and the most magnificent rain cloud formations in the afternoon sky – quite spectacular.
This, however, doesn't mean the drought has ended. We are going to need years of regular wet seasons to replenish the water in the dams and repair the damage to the countries farming economy. And, of course, there are still areas that are not receiving the rain so we are a long way from saying Tanzania (or East Africa) is out of trouble - this is just the equivalent of the first bowl of ugali for a starving child.
I’m sorry this is going to be a combined March/April newsletter but, as previous subscribers know, I was in Aus from mid March to mid April as a guest or many of our supporting Rotary Clubs and Districts across the country (more on that later).
After a ghastly return flight, which was diverted to Muscat, Oman, for three and a half hours on the tarmac (luckily I kept my earphones and continued to watch movies!), Richard and my two beautiful boys (all trying to hug me and tell me at once what adventures they’d had in my absence) greeted me at Nairobi airport. I couldn’t believe how much Nathan’s and Jacob’s vocabulary had developed in four weeks!
It was great to get back and see the school still standing and still expanding - the office team had kept the school running smoothly and, with the drought broken, the grounds were looking so luxuriant, the borehole was up and running, tanks were on the top of the water tower, the long-term volunteer units were well under way, new volunteers had arrived and settled in to their jobs, School Deputies Nestory and Ben had the academic staff working hard and the kids were studying hard for impending end of term exams. Might go off for a holiday, now…!
The Trip to Australia
Although the trip was courtesy of our wonderful Rotary supporters ostensibly to attend Rotary District conferences and meetings, I managed to fit in a few days with family and friends.
It was great to catch up with Mum and some home cooking, my seven wonderful brothers, sisters-in-law and tribes of nieces and nephews who all seem to grow a foot each time I see them! Nothing ever changes with family and even though I don’t see them as much as I would like, after a couple of minutes it’s as if we’ve never been apart. However, we all still really miss Dad. I am sure he is still looking after all of us – poor man will be exhausted with all the work we give him … and having to troop backwards and forwards from Tanzania to Australia!
The first Rotary District conference was in Toowoomba (District number 9630), Queensland, and the organiser, the indomitable Ailsa Hay, gathered a record number of over 800 representatives for the occasion. It doesn’t matter how many Rotary conferences I go to I am still amazed at the incredible job that this international organisation does in so many ways and in so many places around the world.
I listen to the remarkable stories of people organising millions of dollars to go towards the eradication of polio and malaria. Thousands of Rotary exchange students, peace scholars and group study exchange groups are promoted to enhance greater international tolerance and understanding of our neighbours. Millions of previously immobilised people around the world now have wheelchairs. So many people with hideous disfigurements are now operated on in many countries around the world. Many cancers are being detected early by the scanning machines now available in small country towns, saving hundreds of lives. These are just a few of the astonishing projects organised by the dedicated people who come together with a central vision - Service above Self.
I have been so blessed with the help of Rotary Clubs and Rotary Districts from Australia, New Zealand, USA and now Europe and the fast growth of this school is another positive achievement of many Rotary clubs and individual Rotarians from around the world.
Below I am pictured with Don and Ailsa Hay who have been supporting this school since its inception and official opening in 2002. Ailsa helped me to co-ordinate my whole three weeks in Australia with over 40 speaking engagements and not one thing went wrong – a true testament to this remarkable woman’s capacity for organisation and dedication. No wonder she heads such a fantastic Rotary district!
In between Rotary Conferences on the four weekends I was in Australia, I was able to fit in many talks to schools, other service clubs, churches and various companies. Most of the groups I spoke to were already supporting the school in some way or another so it was a great opportunity to personally thank each group and to report on our progress so far.
The other great thrill at all the conferences and talks was the chance to chat with individual people in the audience who were current sponsors of St Jude’s students, buses, teachers or classrooms and give some first hand feedback on how we are putting their contributions to work.
One of the speaking engagements I really enjoyed was at Tangara, a private girls' school in Hornsby, Sydney. This school, like ours, is not very old and is also extremely successful. They now have hundreds of girls from Kinder through to the end of Secondary so I really enjoyed meeting with the staff and discussing our similar challenges.
Below I am pictured with the Inagural Principal Mrs Suzanne Tywford (left), and current Principal of the school Dr Marie-Therese Gibson (right). Tangara started in the eighties with 17 students and now has 650 and so the three of us had lots to talk about! Actually Dr Marie-Therese Gibson also has family ties to my own family!
Below (on the left of the photo) is Monica Hart, our hard working Australian Co-ordinator for the school, with myself and Lesley Pinter from St Jude’s Medical company which operates out of Sydney and Melbourne. The staff of St Jude’s Medical supports our school through their staff donation program and it was great to meet them, thank them for their generous donations and learn all about their company. They are the organisation that makes hospital equipment such as pacemakers, catheters and ICD’s etc.
Arthur Manser is the District Governor of the Rotary District 9520 in South Australia and he and many other District Governors around Australia joined together to do a Matching Grant that will provide the school with two more school buses! These are vital at the moment as we are back to cramming children four to a seat and packing them in the aisles.
Below is a picture of Arthur and myself with a bus, which represents what Arthur and many other DG’s are going to supply the school. I told Arthur that we will only accept the buses if he comes over to the school some time to ride on them. That was all the incentive he needed to organise a group of around 20 Rotarians and their partners who will be coming over in a year’s time. I look forward to returning the great hospitality that he and Rotarians from his district showed me when I visited their conference in Broken Hill.
Another stop on the extensive itinerary took me to Melbourne where I had the opportunity to talk to a group of Rotary Clubs from Melbourne - Balwyn, Camberwell, Canterbury and North Balwyn Rotary Clubs. Last year I had the privilege of speaking at their District Rotary Conference in Tasmania where I met Rotarian Peter Blundell (who is pictured below with his wife Narelle). Over the past year Peter has been working hard with the presidents of the above-mentioned Rotary Clubs and the culmination of their efforts was a cheque to the School for $27,500 – a truly wonderful donation that will come in very handy with the massive building program that we intend to undertake in the next few years.
Peter also arranged for me to speak to the staff and pupils of Methodist Ladies College (MLC), Melbourne. Looking over the campus that caters for over 2,000 faces was quite daunting when I related that to St Jude's - I thought 700 children was a lot!
It was also a good opportunity to meet some of our great supporters in Australia like Mark Cubit and his wife, Amanda. Mark had organised the perfect spot to enjoy Melbourne - a picnic among the ducks on the banks of the Yarra River. With their friends Heather and Leigh, the Cubits and I had a relaxed lunch before I was off to the airport to continue the Around Australia in 28 Days itinerary!
Fr Max and Peter Chowne were the dynamic duo from Reservoir who organised for me to speak to their parish and primary school.
In Albury I had a wonderful surprise at the airport - I was picked up by my old school mate, Leasa Mays (now Brown) who boarded with me at St Vincent's College in Sydney. We were also each other's bridesmaids! Leasa (pictured with me below) got in contact with 9790 Rotary District Governor David Yap and arranged with him that she would pick me up from the plane! What a great reunion! I really enjoyed spending time with Leasa and her family and catching up over a tasty lamb roast.
The next morning I headed off to DG David Yaps 9790 Rotary District conference and again was overwhelmed by the hospitality for which Rotarians around the world are renowned. David (pictured below) and his wife Jan have also been great supporters of this school from the beginning. I did so enjoy seeing them again.
District Governor David Roberts (far left below) and his wife Joy (2nd from the right) organised a fantastic 9700 District Rotary Conference in the town of Orange. Below in the picture also are Marilyn and Ron Walter whose Rotary Club sponsor Nelson Boniface and who personally sponsor Ayubu Wilson.
Rotarians know that nothing is impossible. To be able to get to the three conferences on that one weekend, it was going to be really difficult making the third conference as there were no suitable connecting flights. No problem! After I spoke at David’s conference in Orange I was taken out to the tiny local airport and boarded a little four-seater plane with a lovely man called Laurie Chapman from Orange North Rotary Club and enjoyed the luxury of my own private plane skimming across beautiful inland Australia.
I can never come back to Australia and not visit my old school to give all the girls and staff an update on St Jude's. St Vincent’s College, Potts Point in Sydney will always be dear to my heart as they have been so supportive of my school project since day one. Angela who helped me to open and run St Jude’s is also an old girl of St Vincent’s College.
Pictured below are huge supporters, teacher Denise Moore and Deputy Suzanne Kavanagh, with myself and some of the students. More than 20 students at St Jude’s are sponsored thanks to people who are connected to St Vincent’s College and many resources that we use also originated from St Vincent’s.
My mum was able to join me on the Western Australia leg where we had the fun of driving for hours with District Governor Elect of Rotary District 9450 Ian Murray (below far left) up along the Western Australian coastline to where District Governor Ben Benbow held a marvellous conference in Geraldton.
Pictured below with Ian are the Governor of Western Australia, Dr Ken Michael, and his wife, Julie, my mother Sue, and myself.
I also had the chance to see again some of the sponsors of our children. Below I am pictured with Joe Angi who with his wife, sponsors one of our older students-Nengi Gerson.
Another wonderful person who was speaking at several Rotary Conferences like myself was a remarkable Indian Past District Governor by the name of Mr Puru (below far left), who is the guru of Matching Grants in India. Pictured also on either side of me are Past Director of World Rotary Mr Ken Collins and his wife Di.
Having the chance to speak to Rotary District 9640 again was like coming home to family! It was SO great to see so many friends and have the opportunity to report back to all who had been supporting us since the school began. Four attendees had been on the initial building team who came out to camp in a cornfield to build the very first classrooms! And there was another wonderful surprise.
As I finished my speech at District Governor John Tregurtha’s Rotary Conference, they presented me with the completed paperwork for a Matching Grant! I had no idea it was even being thought of!Several District Governors from Australia had organised the grant for two more buses, spare parts and a mechanic’s vocational training subsidy.
However, what was most impressive was that they arranged the grant in three days! Yes three days! From when they first thought about it to when the application went into Rotary International in the USA on the deadline for applications, it had been three days! I don’t know anyone who could have pulled that off except for Ian and Heather Yarker, Rotarians from District 9640 known as the Yarker Team. They are dynamos! No wonder Heather is known in the Rotary world as ‘Hurricane Heather’! Look out Arusha when the Yarkers visit us in the future! But we will be so thrilled to show them that, like so many others, they have really made such a difference to the lives of the little kids who live so far from the school and no longer have to trudge through the harsh climactic conditions that Northern Tanzania seems to throw at us. In the below picture I am with Ian Yarker, Jean Tregurtha, Heather Yarker and DG of 9640 Rotary District, John Tregurtha.
Most people arrive at speaking engagements, meetings, conferences, luncheons and dinners cool, calm and collected with all they need in a briefcase or handbag – I arrived everywhere like a mini travelling circus trailing an odd assortment of suitcases! The four weeks were so tightly scheduled that on some days I had four speaking engagements. And just when I thought I might have a few hours to myself the phone would ring and I would squeeze in another meeting – I loved it!
But luckily there were so many wonderful people who generously gave me so much assistance -getting me to and from airports, offering warm hospitality in their homes, treating me to sumptuous meals and whizzing me to and from meetings on all sides of Australia. I don’t know about the chaos I left in my wake but from my perspective the hectic schedule was a breeze! Thank you to all of you who played a part in that. I would love to mention you all by name but there were so many old friends and now new friends who helped that this would end up the May newsletter!
Angela Bailey, pictured below, is one of my dearest buddies and the person who helped me start the school back in 2002. We’ve been through a lot together so it was only natural that she would also be there when I needed to dash across Sydney with my ‘handbag’ to another engagement. It was wonderful to see her and her family who have contributed so much to St Jude’s over the years and have a good night’s sleep at chez Bailey before that loooooong flight home.
Meanwhile, up in Brisbane, Ashley Tucker and Lloyd Fleming from Rocklea Rotary Club had been sourcing and taking delivery of two massive generators for the school. Along with Lloyd, Ashley’s company, Containers International, has arranged the delivery of our containers of donated goods every year - an extraordinary feat of logistics and paperwork and dealing with port authorities and all those other difficult tasks. When he visited last year with his family it was a great opportunity to see the fruits of his labours – “Hey, I recognise those desks!” Other people only see the kids behind them! He also got to see and really understand the woes of trying to run a 700-student school on feeble and EXTERMELY irregular electricity. Since his visit, he has been working solidly trying to buy a couple of new generators for a fraction of the price of a similar but inferior generator from South Africa I had priced. As I write this email, the two containers which hold the generators and a whole stack of donated, desks, chairs, books, building tools and goodness knows what else, are only days away from docking at Dar es Salaam. And then the fun starts – a month of bargaining with, bribing and chatting up wharf officials and customs reps before we can finally get the containers to the school. Below is a picture of Rotarian Lloyd Fleming (who has helped to co-ordinate ALL the containers to the school in the past years), Aldwin King, Sales Manager for Wasp Diesel and Rocklea Rotary Club President, Geoff Bartholomew. We look forward to Lloyd and his family visiting the school next month so he too can see the fruits of his hard work.
As most of you know (after a torrent of emails from the school!) I eventually made a brief appearance on Channel 7’s Sunrise program. This had been organised after one of the presenters, David Koch, travelled to Arusha to climb Mt Kilimanjaro and also visited the school with his daughter (who is now joining the charity fund raiser, 3 peaks in 3 weeks, next year). I’d like to thank David (pictured below on the set of Sunrise) for the opportunity to tell a wider audience about our school and also thank all of you who wrote to me or signed up on the website to make a donation or become a sponsor. We received a great response and it is very exciting that our global team has greatly increased, ensuring we are well on our way to providing our students with furnished classrooms, good teachers, stationery, text books, uniforms, lunches and buses next year.
So, as we head into May the nights are getting colder, the days are wetter and I’m not taking as many photographs but I’ll dash about when the clouds clear and make sure we have a good selection of school photos for the next newsletter.
Many thanks to all our old friends and new friends for your continued support in so many ways. Come over and see for yourselves what you’ve helped us to achieve – you will be very proud of yourselves! Best wishes,
Gemma