'To get to Losetiti, you go to Samaria then go down!' We were asked to go there when I was carrying out a survey of hunger in the region and actually Losetiti [or Lostiti] is quite remote.
For once there was just one track which passes through dry savannah/grassland and where there is not much population, but this is Maasai country.
There are two large Baobab trees that almost acts as a gateway into the school and from first impression, it was difficult to see where the catchment area was for the school.
The school is made from mud bricks and not built to a high standard. There is a shortfall of teaching staff which is a reflection of the remoteness of the area. But even if there were no teachers around, the kids were well behaved.
The thing that sticks in my mind about this school is when I interviewed a certain small boy, he cried saying his father had sold their last goat, and he wondered what was to become of them [his family].
Our assistance with food came at a time when the other villages had not yet crops to harvest, but they were coming on, but here in Losetiti, it was much worse for a prolonged time but I was not able to continue the assistance any longer for them. However they were grateful for what they recieved.
With a 'foot in the door' at the school, I could not leave without carrying out an environmental seminar and tree planting programme. The kids enjoyed themselves when we went there because seldom did they have anything to do outside school work or sitting around - because that is what they did often because of the lack of teaching staff.
The outcomes were not spectacular because water was a problem throughout the area, but some kids excelled and there were some well grown trees by the time we left there.
Sometimes the poorest and most unprivileged kids seem to be the happiest - it is difficult to fathom.
I wasn't quite hard enough to judge the trees abjectly because of the hardship in the area and because like the Melia we were sitting around, some species perform better than others in these extreme conditions. I ended up asking the teaches to choose the twenty kids that showed the most interest in environmental matters and gave them each a tennis ball.
I was happy with the outcome from this school and pleased we took the trouble to go there.
There are two large Baobab trees that almost acts as a gateway into the school and from first impression, it was difficult to see where the catchment area was for the school.
The school is made from mud bricks and not built to a high standard. There is a shortfall of teaching staff which is a reflection of the remoteness of the area. But even if there were no teachers around, the kids were well behaved.
The thing that sticks in my mind about this school is when I interviewed a certain small boy, he cried saying his father had sold their last goat, and he wondered what was to become of them [his family].
Our assistance with food came at a time when the other villages had not yet crops to harvest, but they were coming on, but here in Losetiti, it was much worse for a prolonged time but I was not able to continue the assistance any longer for them. However they were grateful for what they recieved.
With a 'foot in the door' at the school, I could not leave without carrying out an environmental seminar and tree planting programme. The kids enjoyed themselves when we went there because seldom did they have anything to do outside school work or sitting around - because that is what they did often because of the lack of teaching staff.
The outcomes were not spectacular because water was a problem throughout the area, but some kids excelled and there were some well grown trees by the time we left there.
Sometimes the poorest and most unprivileged kids seem to be the happiest - it is difficult to fathom.
I wasn't quite hard enough to judge the trees abjectly because of the hardship in the area and because like the Melia we were sitting around, some species perform better than others in these extreme conditions. I ended up asking the teaches to choose the twenty kids that showed the most interest in environmental matters and gave them each a tennis ball.I was happy with the outcome from this school and pleased we took the trouble to go there.
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