Watoto Rau

According to an email I received a few days before I left the states I would be working at a nursery school called “Watoto Rau” which translates into “Rau Kids”. Rau is a village right beside Moshi.

Yesterday we had a meeting with our “mentors” or the staff we will be working with at our placements. My meeting was with Kileo and Living. Kileo is a 23 year old Rau native who now goes to school in Leeds during the year and comes back to Tanzania in the summer. Living is also a Rau Native and wants to attend a college for computer technology within Moshi. Although they are so young, Kileo and Living are the founders of Rau Kids. Since Kileo is leaving for Leeds on Thursday, it will just be Living, Julia (an 18 year old volunteer from Kansas), and I for the rest of placement. Living is the only teacher at the school even though he is only 21 and isn’t a professional. It is very much a grass-roots kind of organization. I was informed that the kids were ages 3 to 6 mostly and that they wear uniforms. 32 kids are enrolled in the nursery school although attendance is variable. The building they use was someone’s house, but he lets them use it because he doesn’t live there anymore.

Today was the first day we actually went to Watoto Rau. The Cross-Cultural Solutions (CCS) van pulled up in front of a cement rectangle with a tin roof that was about equivalent in size to my bedroom back home. Julia turned to me and whispered “Where is it?” I pointed in the direction of the gray brick in front of us. There were a few kids in the front playing soccer in the dirt along side of a smoldering fire burning debris and leaves just a few yards away.

Living was outside so we went to greet him and see our new classroom. There is no bathroom, electricity, or running water. I’m definitely prepared to hold it until I’m back at the home base. Our light source is the sun, which has a hard time shining through the one small window garnished with metal bars that was carved out of the cement. I guess I’m just glad it’s not the rainy season. The letters of the alphabet have been drawn on individual sheets of paper and hung up around the room. The A is falling off the wall and the D and Z are missing. There is some form of chalkboard in the front of the room that just looks like black paint on the wall, but it works. To put it simply (if you haven’t got the picture already) it’s a bleak classroom for anyone, especially 3 to 6 year olds

Class is supposed to start at 9, but very few kids have arrived so we just let the ones who have play outside. Its 9:30 and we finally decide to start with about 12 kids. The lesson today is numbers. We count from 1 to 10 in English and Swahili using a picture book. While the kids are learning in English, I am right along side them trying to pick up Swahili. The language barrier makes things much tougher than I had anticipated. The kids obviously don’t care because they are just excited to receive attention, but I can’t stand not being able to talk to them.

I think Watoto Rau is going to be a challenge. We’ll see how the rest of the week goes!