Lumumba

Today we went to Lumumba, the best overall public school in Zanzibar, where we sponsor 3 girls. On our 30 minute walk we had to walk through a dirt field that had a bunch of chickens. The neighborhoods from Stonetown to Lumumba changed from the alleyway shops with flats above to standalone 1 room stone or brick houses that may have housed a family or two. There were still shops along the way, but they were intermingled with these standalone structures. These were definitely worse sections of town. In the shops, rather than selling tourist souvenirs, sold necessities such as soap, clothing, cell phones, etc.

There was a stark difference between Ben Bella and Lumumba. You can definitely tell that Lumumba is an excellent school. Everything was very organized and the headmaster seemed much more involved with the students and in touch with the school. He told me right away what the costs were. A lot of government officials graduate from Lumumba and it was named after Patrick Lumumba, a freedom fighter in the Congo in 1960. The school even has a sister school, Harbor University, in Los Angeles. Pretty cool!

One of the teachers, an English teacher, was an unofficial S4Si advisor for the three girls and helps them check their email regularly. She was incredibly helpful and she helped us with any communication barrier we had with the girls. We met with our three scholars, who were excited to see us. I realized that it’s hard to tell whether all of our scholars are Muslim because they wear uniforms that cover their heads. Every school has their own uniform, usually consisting of a black or blue dress and a white or yellow head covering. Boys wear black or blue pants with usually a polo type shirt with the school logo on it.

I almost got pick-pursed today. I felt a guy putting his hand in the front pocket of my purse and looked over and shoved him away. Our local friends were very mad because Stonetown prides itself on being friendly and not having thieves around. It’s sad because the pick pockets here aren’t doing it for fun, they are doing it because they are very poor and hope that whatever they can get will be better than what they currently have. All the poor guy would have gotten from my front pocket was chapstick and hand sanitizer.

We found that if we sit in a certain spot on our bed, we can pick up one bar of wireless, so some of you may get a skype call someday!

Word of the day:
skuli - school