Kolila
It was market day when we first visited Kolila Primary School, even so I was surprised that there were only a few kids milling about and no teachers. The kids told us that all the teachers had gone to the market and most of the kids had just gone home. We never figured out why the ones who remained were still there because for sure they weren’t doing any school work. My co-worker, Loti wasn’t keen to bother with the school at all because he used the term, ‘lousy’ regarding the teachers. Lazy or disinterested in teaching was more like it, but I was used to Loti and his telling it how it was.
Walking around the school with the kids following us, it was easy to see that the school wasn’t very well run, and I’d learned quickly the if the teachers weren’t motivated, an environmental project with them could be like pushing muck uphill with a rake. But I always thought of Josiah’s missus, who was brought up not far from the school, she is intelligent, entrepreneurial and forward thinking. My attitude was, if we can inspire just one child out of a couple of hundred, there was value to be had. We left a verbal message with a tall, bright-looking boy that we would return on a certain day… not a market day though.
It might be worth discussing why the teachers lacked motivation. For a start, the government didn’t have much money, so the school teachers might go two or three months without pay. There were two accommodation blocks, each with two rooms, one room per teacher. So, there were four single teachers, the rest lived some distance away. There was no water on site. Other than during the two rain seasons, it was dry and dusty. Especially single teachers were plonked in areas without any tribal affiliation, which can be daunting. There were no teaching resources, not even chalk… and anyway the blackboard paint had worn off.
When we returned, it’s fair to say that the students were more enthusiastic than the teachers, but the teachers did cooperate. The head teacher suggested that it wasn’t worth planting any trees because there was no water to keep them growing during the dry times, and there was no cow manure to add to the soil in preparation for planting. It didn’t look hopeful, but when the long rains begun, we delivered a tree seedling for each of the senior students, and supervised the planting. The soil was stony and had nothing organic in it, but still we helped build tree shelters out of sticks that would hopefully keep hens off the trees, but not other hungry browsers… but there didn’t seem to be any goats around. We returned a month later and there were only two trees left. There was no sign of the other trees, so they had probably been sold. The head teacher told us the failure was because of thieves and again mentioned the lack of water.
Well, at least someone had seen the value of the trees, so that was a glimmer of positivity but I knew the head teacher was angling at me to supply materials for a water line. We had checked out where a water line was located and had sought permission from the village office to connect a line… if I managed to source funds for the materials. I did have the wherewithal but kept that to myself. Loti wasn’t keen on helping them any further, but I told him if the students dug the trench, it would be enough to encourage me to supply the materials.
The trench was dug in no time so I laid the pipe and told the teachers that I would connect the water when the pipe was covered and a post was installed to attach the standpipe to. We had the water running at the same time the long rains began, so a new bunch of seniors planted the trees. We added another verse to our environmental song, ‘Kama mwizi atakuja mwfukuzi, kama mwizi atakuja mwfukuzi, kama atakuja mwfukuzi… shoo, shoo!’ If a thief comes along, chase him away, shoo, shoo. And the kids sung it with gusto!
Half of the trees survived, but with little care. Maybe there is a tree planter among the students who took note of our seminar, and at least heath outcomes will improve because with clean water at the school. I’m happy enough with that.
