Max Griffiths

Saturday was our most recent graduation day. As always, students gathered in to the classroom to receive their certificates. Nearly 200 students took the exams and over 100 more had had to postpone their studies so they could work on their farms when the rains came.

It’s always an excellent day filled with celebration and this time was particularly exciting as we offered students the opportunity to apply for one of 5 work experience placements (see the last blog).

But the thing that really stuck in my head from the day was what an excellent team of local staff we have running the Education Centre. The past three months have been hard work for them with hours of training to go with their daily teaching and management responsibilities. Yet they have excelled and shown very promising signs in their own development… Here’s a bit more about each of them:

Top row (left to right): Eva, Neema, Nai, Loishiye, Babu, Alex, Nyangusi. Bottom row (left to right): Sakaya, Naomi, Sophia, Daniel

Eva has been with us since she came to volunteer when we were building the Centre. Now our cleaner and soon-to-be cook for the kindergarten, Eva is a typical Maasai mother. She has 11 month old twins and her older children are dedicated users of the Centre. Eva embodies the family atmosphere that is such a strength of the Centre.

Neema is our highly talented kids teacher. She joined us as a student when the Centre opened in 2005, after her Mum, from whom we had bought all the timber for the Centre, had sent her to study and to help out. She soon started volunteering with kids, running impromptu lessons outside and in January 2006 we were able to offer her a role as administrator and kids teacher. Neema has never looked back and is now one of the best kids teachers in Northern Tanzania with a great future ahead of her.

Nai is our heavily pregnant manageress. Always smiling and joking, Nai has won the respect of all her staff, students and members of the community – no mean feat in a male-dominated society. She is incredibly intelligent with a thirst for learning and has developed at such a pace over the last three months that we have been able to implement more changes than we’d hope, safe in the knowledge that they will be managed effectively.

Loishiye, the Maasai in the suit, is our computer and French teacher. His teaching style is unorthodox and trying to train him to use syllabuses and better lesson plans has been difficult, but there is no arguing with his dedication, results and popularity amongst the student body. He’s very much the unpolished diamond and if we can improve his teaching techniques then we will have an excellent and much loved teacher.

Babu has been volunteering at the Centre for the past 6 months as an assistant in the English classes and when the kindergarten is expanded later this year, Babu is going to become our literacy teacher as Naomi moves over to the kids. Babu is a traditional Maasai, although quiet and unassuming and his continued commitment to gaining more experience and helping other students learn has made him an integral part of the Centre.

Alex is the shining example of the Centre. When he joined us he could not read and write. Now, having gone through our courses and been an assistant English teacher for 3 months along with Babu he is our Outreach Officer, going out teaching members of his community who cannot make it to the Centre. The more experience and confidence he gets, the more he learns and blossoms. His community have seen how education has helped Alex grow into this man and, in his outreach role, he has become a new and very influential leader of his community.

Nyangusi is our much-loved day security guard. He too has been with us since we built the Centre and he is perhaps the cleverest man I know who can’t read and write. I have a lot of respect for Nyangusi – he feels a real sense of ownership of the Centre and loves what it does, but he himself doesn’t want to learn the academic pursuits – he’s quite happy doing what he’s doing. His expertise is in the natural environment and his care of the trees has transformed the Centre from a barren and dusty patch of land into a haven for wildlife ranging from love birds to chameleons to frogs to snakes.

Sakaya also helped us with building the Centre and he has been our receptionist and handyman ever since. He’s a very smiley man with a penchant for tea which has earned him the nickname Mr Chai (tea in Swahili). He’ll do anything for anyone and puts in a lot of effort. In the past three months it has been really great to see him starting to show his true potential we hope that one day, with his energy and enthusiasm he’ll be able to take some of the kids lessons and become an excellent teacher.

Naomi, like Sakaya, Nyangusi and Eva, has been with us since the construction. Having been a cleaner and cook at the Centre, Naomi became our literacy teacher at the turn of the year and when the kindergarten expansion is complete, she will become the early years teacher there. A very intelligent, generous and kind-hearted lady, with three very clever children, Naomi is at the heart of the Centre and we look forward to seeing her flourish in her new role.

Sophia has been the kindergarten assistant for over a year now but it was only in the recent kindergarten training that she has really started to come of her shell. As a Maasai lady she knows the upbringing of most of the kids and can speak to them in their tribal language. We’re very excited about her potential and can see her playing a key role in the development of LivLife’s work in future years.

Daniel is a day security guard / cleaner. He’s a relatively new addition to the Centre family but as we start to give more responsibilities to Sakaya and Naomi, he is starting to fill some of the gaps left and, whilst he’s still learning, he is showing his worth.

I couldn’t be more proud of a team of 11, even if England were to win the World Cup. They’ve taken full ownership of the Centre, have seized the opportunity to help their community, have challenged and developed themselves and have done so all in the family atmosphere of the Centre. They are the epitome of the Centre and one of the reasons that this job is so enjoyable (and this blog post so long…).